Samsungs first big launch of 2025 is almost here. Galaxy Unpacked will take place on January 22 at 1PM ET in San Jose, CA, where Samsungs Next Big Thing (to borrow a 14-year-old marketing slogan) will be revealed. What exactly will be on tap? Well, apart from a few sure bets and some likely leaks, only those sworn to a blood oath under an NDA know for certain. But here are the most likely products and features well see. Spoilers: There will be phones.Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 UltraGalaxy S24 UltraSam Rutherford for EngadgetMuch like Apple reveals its latest iPhones at its first fall event, Samsung typically launches its mainline Galaxy S flagships at its first Unpacked shindig of the year. You can bet the farm that there will be Galaxy S25 phones at this event. And given Samsungs recent trend of launching three tiers of flagships standard, Plus and Ultra you can bet well see that again. (Samsung could technically change the brand names, but the three-layered lineup is practically guaranteed.) Theres even an FCC certification (first spotted by 91Mobiles) to dispel any doubts.The degree of certainty falls sharply once we dig into the phones features. A subtle redesign with rounded corners, flatter edges and thinner bezels appears likely based on a leaked video posted to Reddit and images from reputable tipster Ice Universe. But this isnt expected to be the generation where Samsungs hiring of a former Mercedes-Benz designer will lead to drastic aesthetic changes.Android Headlines also posted plenty of pictures of the purported Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra that confirm the relatively minor redesign. The site also claims the screen size for the Galaxy S25 and S25+ are unchanged from last year at 6.2 and 6.7 inches, respectively. The Ultra gets an ever-so-slightly bigger display at 6.9 inches.QualcommAt least in the US, the phone is practically guaranteed to use Qualcomms Snapdragon 8 Elite processor, which the chip-maker revealed in October. (Qualcomm even listed Samsung among the companies launching devices with that processor in the coming weeks.) Like just about every flagship processor these days, the Snapdragon 8 Elite is built for on-device generative AI, which aligns with Samsungs Galaxy AI blitz in recent models.We dont know whether the company will split its S25 processors between Snapdragon (US and other markets) and Exynos (everywhere else), but Ice Universe has claimed it will be all Snapdragon this generation. That would be a good thing, given whats often a glaring performance and battery life disparity favoring Qualcomm. There would be precedence, too: although the vast majority of Galaxy S generations have had different processors regionally, the S23 had the same "Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 2 for Galaxy" chip globally.Samsung is rumored to stick with last-generation OLED displays (made with M13 organic materials) instead of the brighter and more efficient M14 OLED panels used in the iPhone 16 Pro and Google Pixel 9. Logic suggests Samsung would want its best homemade screen in its best phones especially when its competitors are already using it. But it could stick with the cheaper panels to keep the bill of materials down. Perhaps it calculated that better displays dont make for better generative AI (the obsession of nearly every tech company right now), while the latest Qualcomm chip does.Speaking of AI, expect Samsung to devote a perhaps agonizingly long portion of the event to generative AI features. The hit-or-miss DigiTimes reported last month that the Galaxy S25 series will include an AI Agent that provides personalized clothing suggestions and transport information. What that would look like in practice is anyones guess, but Im not sure I want to know.SamsungThe phones will run Samsungs One UI 7 on top of Android 15. We know this because Samsung said in October that its user experience (based on Android 15) will launch on the next Galaxy S flagships. Its already available in beta for Galaxy S24 phones. Samsung has said that One UI 7 will be its "first integrated AI platform." It added that Galaxy phones "will become true AI companions" that are able to understand natural language derived from speech, images and text.On the camera front, Ice Universe claims (via Android Headlines) its confirmed that only the ultra-wide sensor will see an upgrade in the Galaxy S25 Ultra to 50MP from 12MP in last years model. The leaker says the S25 Ultra will stick with a 200MP main sensor, 10MP 3x zoom and 50MP 5x zoom.Galaxy S24 UltraSam Rutherford for EngadgetSamsung will add the Qi2 wireless charging standard to its new flagships and that comes straight from the horses (aka, the Wireless Power Consortiums) mouth. However, leaker chunvn8888 (aka yawn) says Samsungs phones wont have built-in magnets for Qi2s native MagSafe in everything but name charging. Given that's the main benefit of Qi2, this would be disappointing news. Instead, the leaker says Samsung will sell a first-party case with a Qi2 magnetic ring to enable that. (Gotta move those accessories, baby!) Is it really Qi2 if you need a case?Rumors have buzzed about an alleged Galaxy S25 Slim with a you guessed it slimmer design joining the trio at some point this year. Thats something Apple is also rumored to be working on. Leakers have posted numerous renders this past week comparing how the different size options may compare to each other. A post from Ice Universe puts the S25 Slim at 6.4mm. However, given the FCC certifications only appear to cover the familiar trio of flagships, that phone (if its in the pipeline at all) may not arrive until later in the year.Galaxy Ring 2, Samsung XR and AR glassesGalaxy RingSam Rutherford for EngadgetDigiTimes reported in December that Samsung would show off (or maybe just tease) the Galaxy Ring 2 and augmented reality (AR) glasses during its January Unpacked event.The Taiwanese publication says the Galaxy Ring 2 will add two more sizes to the nine from the original model, which only launched in July. The second-gen wearable health tracker is said to add new AI features (surprise!) and updated sensors for more accurate measurements. The Galaxy Ring 2 is also rumored to last longer than the current models maximum of seven days.GoogleDigiTimes also claims Samsungs AR glasses which the company has confirmed its working on will look like regular prescription glasses and weigh around 50g. It says the futuristic glasses would use Googles Gemini AI, which aligns with what we already know about Samsungs partnership with Google and Qualcomm on Android XR. But given the lack of supply chain rumors surrounding the glasses, its likely that any mention at the event would amount to little more than a teaser, a la its grand reveal of... a stinkin render for the first Galaxy Ring at Unpacked 2024.We also know Samsung is co-developing an Android XR (extended reality) headset codenamed Project Moohan alongside Google and Qualcomm. The lightweight and ergonomically designed headset will have a state-of-the-art display, passthrough video and natural multi-modal input. Googles renderings show a wearable reminiscent of Apples $3,500 Vision Pro.Project MoohanGoogle / SamsungSince Google only recently began offering a developer kit and API for the platform, any glimpse of it at Unpacked wouldnt likely include an imminent release or deep dive into its hardware.Engadget will have full coverage of Samsungs first Unpacked event of 2025. More to come on January 22!Update, January 13 2025, 12:58PM ET: This story has been updated with purported images and more details on the Galaxy S25, S25+ and S25 Ultra from Android Headlines.Update, January 14 2025, 3:20PM ET: This story has been updated with some more information about One UI 7.Update, January 17 2025, 12:45PM ET: This story has been updated with more details on the Galaxy S25's processor and the history of processors in the Galaxy S series.Update, January 19, 2025, 12:15PM ET: This story has been updated with more information about the rumored Galaxy S25 Slim.This article originally appeared on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/mobile/smartphones/samsung-galaxy-s25-unpacked-2025-event-what-to-expect-on-wednesday-202024600.html?src=rss

Kioxia's AiSAQ solution uses 100TB+ SSDs instead of DRAM for more cost-effective AI processing.

If youre starting to think about buying your first place but dont know the difference between home equity and Homer Simpson, dont worry. Youre not alone.The home-buying industry works differently from a lot of the rest of the economy, and comes with its own vocabulary, standards, and expectations. Many of us dont even realize we have a home-buying knowledge gap until were sitting across from a bank officer, wondering if the mortgage points they keep talking about have something to do with correct answers to trivia questions. (Sadly, points are a lot less fun than that.)Even well-meaning financial experts with teaching experience (ahem) can forget the importance of defining concepts. The term home equity is a prime example of the kind of important term that gets bandied about as if everyone knows exactly what it is. And that can make it intimidating to ask. But home equity is too significant a part of ownership for you to rely on a vague understanding and general vibes.Heres everything you need to know about what home equity is, how you can get someand why exactly it makes financial professionals flush with pleasure.Mortgage basicsTo understand home equity, you need to start with mortgage lending.Homes in the U.S. have a median sales price of $420,000-plus, which is an amount of money youre unlikely to have set aside in checking or hanging out in the pocket of the coat you havent worn since last winter.This is why pretty much every homebuyer has to take out a mortgage loan to purchase a house. With a mortgage loan, the buyer will make a down payment to the lender, and the lender finances the rest of the purchase. The buyer will then make monthly payments of principal (the original amount borrowed) plus interest to the lender until the mortgage is paid, which typically takes 30 years.As of 2024, first time homebuyers financed a median of 91% of their home purchase price, meaning they made a down payment of 8%. For a $420,000 home, that would mean a down payment of $33,600 and a mortgage loan for $386,400.Property valuesThe next component of equity is the value of the home, which is a more amorphous designation than most things you buy. Theres no price tag on a home, since a house is worth what a buyer is willing to pay.Homes are also unlike most other purchases because its an appreciating asset. In other words, homes are usually worth more money as time goes on, even though most things you can buy lose value.Since property values have traditionally had a consistent upward trajectory (with some very notable exceptions), most homeowners expect their homes value to increase significantly over the life of their mortgage.(This, by the way, is why your dad is obsessed with property values and gets so upset at the neighbor with the permanent pile of yard tires. Buyers are less likely to want to pay top dollar for a house next door to the Springfield Tire Yard.)A simple definitionHome equity is the difference between how much your property is worth and how much you owe on your mortgage. It is the portion of your home that you own free and clear.For example, if your house is worth $350,000 and you owe $300,000 on your mortgage, your home equity is $50,000, or approximately 14.3% equity. ($50,000 $350,000 = 0.14285).Generally, you are not considered to have equity in your home until you reach 20% equity. This is why 20% is the traditional down payment amount. Making a 20% down payment means you immediately have home equity.How to build equityThere are two ways to build home equity, and most people will do both at the same time:Mortgage payments: Each monthly mortgage payment includes a portion that goes toward paying off your principal. Every month, you build a little more equity in your house. You can build equity more quickly by sending additional principal payments when you can.Property appreciation: For most homebuyers, the property value will increase over time, meaning you have more equity simply by staying in your home for several years. While market downturns or other issues could lower your property value, you will typically benefit from appreciation over time.Why home equity mattersIf youre wondering why your uncle is always nattering about how youre not building any equity by renting, theres more to home equity than just owning more than you owe. Home equity offers real and tangible benefits to homeowners. Specifically, building up equity in your house does the following:Increases your net worth: A higher net worth offers more financial flexibility because its easier to borrow money at competitive interest rates.Nets you higher proceeds when you sell your home: If you sell your home before paying off your mortgage, your equity is the amount of money you can cash out of the sale.Opens up inexpensive loan options: If you have equity in your home, you can qualify for a home equity loan or home equity line of credit. These loan options are secured by your home and allow you to access your equity with favorable rates and terms. Home equity loans and lines of credit are among the cheapest borrowing options available.Allows you to access cash with a refinancing loan: A cash-out refinance lets you replace your existing mortgage with a larger loan and take the difference in cash. This is only possible if you have built equity in your home.The fine printHome equity means your humble abode can also be a potential source of money if you need it. But thinking of equity as a personal piggy bank can lead to trouble.Thats because accessing your equity is basically the same as turning your assets back into debt, which reduces your net worth. Part of the way lenders try to protect homeowners is by limiting the amount of equity you are allowed to access via home equity loans or cash-out refinancing. You will generally have to keep at least 15% to 20% equity in your residence.The other caveat about equity is that property values do not always go up. If the housing market takes a header, its possible to quickly lose equity in your home. Other than waiting for the market to recover, there is no other way to recoup lost equity after an event like that.America dreams of equityA cute suburban house with a white-picket fence wasnt just a place for our grandparents to wear pearls while vacuuming. It also allowed them to build wealth through the power of home equity.To calculate your equity, subtract your remaining mortgage balance from the current value of your house. Divide the number you come up with by the mortgage balance to get your equity, which represents the percentage of the home you own. Lenders generally dont consider you to have equity until you reach 20% equity.Equity in your home gives you more options for borrowing, but tapping the equity in your home trades your assets for debt. Also, even though home values traditionally go up, theres no guarantee that they always will. So tread carefully if you decide to access your home equity.Even if home ownership is not yet on your radar, understanding home equity can help you make better decisions about your current finances.

Less than 24 hours after the app went dark, TikTok says President-elect Donald Trump has given it the reassurance it needs to resume service in the US.

China-based social media site TikTok has returned from a one-day hiatus in the US, following assurances from the incoming Trump administration that it will face no penalties for restoring service to its US users now.The ban on TikTok in the US turned out to last only one day.Apple and other companies temporarily took the TikTok app off their respective App Store, which complied with a law passed by Congress banning the service in the US if the parent company failed to find a US buyer by January 19th.The short-lived ban affected numerous TikTok-related apps and services, including TikTok Studio, TikTok Shop Seller Center, CapCut, Lemon8, Hypic, Lark collaboration software, the AI study companion Gauth, and the game Marvel Snap. Continue Reading on AppleInsider | Discuss on our Forums

Whether you liked Nintendos reveal of the Switch 2 or found it wanting, theres no denying the buzz generated. In a little over three days, the debut trailer has 18,872,218 views at this time of writing, narrowly beating out the PS5s hardware reveal in the same window.The latter currently has over 44 million views since premiering on June 12th, 2020. Whether the Nintendo Switch 2 trailer can beat that in a shorter period, its already doing similar numbers on Twitter. Nintendo of Americas tweet garnered nearly 41 million views. Nintendo of Japans tweet of the same has 52.7 million views.The Nintendo Switch 2 is out later this year, with rumors indicating a launch sometime in June and analysts predicting a potential $400 price. Nintendo will reveal more on April 2nd during its upcoming Direct, though its seemingly confirmed that a new Mario Kart is in development for the platform. It also announced the Nintendo Switch 2 Experience, where various cities worldwide can go hands-on with the console.

Instagram head Adam Mosseri just announced a video editing app called Edits. Mosseri said the app is meant to rival CapCut, a video editing app that went offline along with TikTok. Edits is available for preorder on the iOS App Store.Theres a lot going on right now, but no matter what happens, its our job to provide the best possible tools for creators, Mosseri said in a video posted to Instagram. He goes on to describe the app:Edits is more than a video editing app; its a full suite of creative tools. There will be a dedicated tab for inspiration, another for keeping track of early ideas, a much higher-quality camera (which I used to record this video), all the editing tools youd expect, the ability to share drafts with friends and other creators, and if you decide to share your videos on Instagram powerful insights into how those videos perform.The insights he mentions include a live insights dashboard, a breakdown of follower and non-follower engagement, and metrics for how often users skip specific ones. It will also include editing tools that let people use green screens and video overlays, both common features of TikTok videos, according to its App Store listing.Below is a collection of screenshots Meta provided to The Verge via email.While Mosseri doesnt say as much in his video, the announcement feels like a clear push to get the app into peoples minds as the future of TikTok and other ByteDance-owned apps like CapCut remains in question. Edits will be available starting March 13th, 2025.

LLMs have made significant strides in automated writing, particularly in tasks like open-domain long-form generation and topic-specific reports. Many approaches rely on Retrieval-Augmented Generation (RAG) to incorporate external information into the writing process. However, these methods often fall short due to fixed retrieval strategies, limiting the generated contents depth, diversity, and utilitythis lack of nuanced and comprehensive exploration results in repetitive, shallow, and unoriginal outputs. While newer methods like STORM and Co-STORM broaden information collection through role-playing and multi-perspective retrieval, they remain confined by static knowledge boundaries and fail to leverage the full potential of LLMs for dynamic and context-aware retrieval.Machine writing lacks such iterative processes, unlike humans, who naturally reorganize and refine their cognitive frameworks through reflective practices. Reflection-based frameworks like OmniThink aim to address these shortcomings by enabling models to adjust retrieval strategies and deepen topic understanding dynamically. Recent research has highlighted the importance of integrating diverse perspectives and reasoning across multiple sources in generating high-quality outputs. While prior methods, such as multi-turn retrieval and roundtable simulations, have progressed in diversifying information sources, they often fail to adapt flexibly as the models understanding evolves.Researchers from Zhejiang University, Tongyi Lab (Alibaba Group), and the Zhejiang Key Laboratory of Big Data Intelligent Computing introduced OmniThink. This machine-writing framework mimics human cognitive processes of iterative reflection and expansion. OmniThink dynamically adjusts retrieval strategies to gather diverse, relevant information by emulating how learners progressively deepen their understanding. This approach enhances knowledge density while maintaining coherence and depth. Evaluated on the WildSeek dataset using a new knowledge density metric, OmniThink demonstrated improved article quality. Human evaluations and expert feedback affirmed its potential for generating insightful, comprehensive, long-form content, addressing key challenges in automated writing.Open-domain long-form generation entails creating detailed articles by retrieving and synthesizing information from open sources. Traditional methods involve two steps: retrieving topic-related data via search engines and generating an outline before composing the article. However, issues like redundancy and low knowledge density persist. OmniThink addresses this by emulating human-like iterative expansion and reflection, building an information tree and conceptual pool to structure relevant, diverse data. Through a three-step processinformation acquisition, outline structuring and article compositionOmniThink ensures logical coherence and rich content. It integrates semantic similarity to retrieve relevant data and refines drafts to produce concise, high-density articles.OmniThink demonstrates outstanding performance in generating articles and outlines, excelling in metrics like relevance, breadth, depth, and novelty, particularly when using GPT-4o. Its dynamic expansion and reflection mechanisms enhance information diversity, knowledge density, and creativity, enabling deeper knowledge exploration. The models outline generation improves structural coherence and logical consistency, attributed to its unique Concept Pool design. Human evaluations confirm OmniThinks superior performance compared to baselines like Co-STORM, especially in breadth. However, subtle improvements in novelty are less evident to human evaluators, highlighting the need for more refined evaluation methods to assess advanced model capabilities accurately.In conclusion, OmniThink is a machine writing framework that mimics human-like iterative expansion and reflection to produce well-structured, high-quality long-form articles. Unlike traditional retrieval-augmented generation methods, which often result in shallow, redundant, and unoriginal content, OmniThink enhances knowledge density, coherence, and depth by progressively deepening topic understanding, similar to human cognitive learning. As automatic and human evaluations confirm, this model-agnostic approach can integrate with existing frameworks. Future work aims to incorporate advanced methods combining deeper reasoning, role-playing, and human-computer interaction, further addressing challenges in generating informative and diverse long-form content.Check out the Paper, GitHub Page, and Project. All credit for this research goes to the researchers of this project. Also,dont forget to follow us onTwitter and join ourTelegram Channel andLinkedIn Group. Dont Forget to join our65k+ ML SubReddit.(Promoted) Sana Hassan+ postsSana Hassan, a consulting intern at Marktechpost and dual-degree student at IIT Madras, is passionate about applying technology and AI to address real-world challenges. With a keen interest in solving practical problems, he brings a fresh perspective to the intersection of AI and real-life solutions. Meet 'Height':The only autonomous project management tool (Sponsored)

Mastering Data Scaling: The Only Guide Youll Ever Need (Straight from My Journey) 0 like January 19, 2025Share this postAuthor(s): Suraj Jha Originally published on Towards AI. How I Finally Conquered Data Scaling: Learn from My Real-World ExperienceThis member-only story is on us. Upgrade to access all of Medium.Image By AuthorScaling is one of the fundamental steps in data preprocessing.It becomes a must when we are especially working with a dataset that is going to work as an input for machine learning models.Scaling transforms raw data into a suitable format that machine learning models can understand.From improving performance to ensuring meaningful comparisons between features, it manages all perfectly.Lets witness the magic of scaling in data cleaning and data preprocessing.It's better to understand it with a real-world example.Imagine you have a dataset where one of its features is age (ranging from 0 to 60) and another feature is their annual income (ranging from $10,000 to $5,000,000).ML algorithms like gradient descent struggle with this kind of feature because large-scale features often dominate the optimization process. It ultimately leads to skewed results.Scaling makes sure that all features are treated equally by ML models, because that way we can enhance the models accuracy and convergence speed.One scaling type doesnt solve all problems, so we have four types of scaling methods.It is useful when we know the bounds (min and max values) of the data and want to draw the relationship between Read the full blog for free on Medium.Join thousands of data leaders on the AI newsletter. Join over 80,000 subscribers and keep up to date with the latest developments in AI. From research to projects and ideas. If you are building an AI startup, an AI-related product, or a service, we invite you to consider becoming asponsor. Published via Towards AITowards AI - Medium Share this post

Today, Meta is announcing Edits: a new mobile video editing platform. This comes just hours after TikTok (and as a result, CapCut) were banned in the US though TikTok is currently being restored, at least temporarily. Meta has a history of sitting on new features until theyre forced to move, and this is yet another example of that. With a surprise mid-day Sunday announcement, the company announced Edits, a new mobile-first editing tool, meant to serve as an alternative to popular editing tool CapCut.Adam Moserri, head of Instagram, announced the new Edits app today on Threads, describing it as a tool for those of you who are passionate about making videos on your phone. He also stated that Theres a lot going on right now, but no matter what happens its our job to provide the best possible tools for creators, likely in reference to the TikTok and CapCut ban.In terms of features, Edits is going to offer the following, per Moserris post:A dedicated inspiration tabAnother tab to keep track of your ideasA much higher quality camera for shooting videosAll the editing tools youd expectAbility to share drafts with friends and other creatorsEasy export to Instagram, and powerful insights for Reels contentOther than these details, we dont have much to go off of. Hopefully, Meta will share more in the coming weeks. The company says its been testing this out with creators in recent past.Edits is available for pre-order on the App Store starting today, and will be available on iOS sometime in February, according to Meta. However, the App Store pre-order page has the launch listed as March.No timeline is specified for an Android launch, other than the fact that itll come soon.Follow Michael:X/Twitter,Bluesky,InstagramAdd 9to5Mac to your Google News feed. FTC: We use income earning auto affiliate links. More.Youre reading 9to5Mac experts who break news about Apple and its surrounding ecosystem, day after day. Be sure to check out our homepage for all the latest news, and follow 9to5Mac on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn to stay in the loop. Dont know where to start? Check out our exclusive stories, reviews, how-tos, and subscribe to our YouTube channel