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Today β€” 9 January 2025Tech News

All iPhone users in Los Angeles were accidentally sent an evacuation alert

9 January 2025 at 17:05

Throughout the ongoing wildfires, California officials have relied on emergency alerts to communicate with citizens. This system is an important way for officials to communicate with citizens instantly across iPhone and Android devices.

On Thursday evening, however, a wildfire evacuation alert went out to everyone in Los Angeles – even though it was only meant for a subset of residents.

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The Tide Could Finally Be Turning Against the LA Fires

By: Alec Luhn
9 January 2025 at 16:52
With wind speeds falling, firefighting reinforcements arriving from out of state, and more water sources online, authorities now have a critical window to take control of the situation.

KXAN Reporter Ryan Chandler to Join NBC News

By: Kevin Eck
9 January 2025 at 16:25
KXAN reporter Ryan Chandler is joining NBC News as a Texas-based correspondent. Chandler is the Austin Texas Capitol Correspondent for the Austin, Texas Nexstar owned NBC affiliate. "Follow your dreams, kids: this week I am so grateful to join @nbcnews as a correspondent - based in Texas and reporting nationwide @todayshow @nbcnightlynews @nbcnewsnow @msnbc," Chandler...

Apple’s β€˜Back to School’ campaign is back in some countries with free accessories

9 January 2025 at 16:32

Apple’s popular β€œBack to School” campaign is officially returning for customers in Brazil, Australia, New Zealand, and South Korea, offering free accessories for students and educators purchasing new Apple products in these countries.

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Hippocratic AI raises $141M for creating patient-facing AI agents

9 January 2025 at 16:49

Hippocratic AI, a startup building AI solutions that can handle non-diagnostic patient-facing tasks, secured a massive $141 million Series B at a valuation of $1.64 billion led by Kleiner Perkins, the company announced Thursday. The funding comes nine months after Hippocratic AI raised a $53 million round from General Catalyst and Andreessen Horowitz and five […]

Β© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Nvidia’s AI avatar sat on my computer screen and weirded me out

9 January 2025 at 16:31

Nvidia unveiled a prototype AI avatar at CES 2025 that lives on your PC’s desktop. The AI assistant, R2X, looks like a video game character, and it can help you navigate apps on your computer. The R2X avatar is rendered and animated using Nvidia’s AI models, and users can run the avatar on popular LLMs […]

Β© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

This wildfire evacuation alert accidentally went out to everyone in LA

9 January 2025 at 16:32
A wireless emergency alert received by people in LA County that was inadvertently sent to everyone instead of people in just one area.
This is the alert that inadvertently went out to everyone in LA County. | Image: The Verge

After two days of dealing with wildfires that have burned thousands of acres, residents across Los Angeles County received a wildfire evacuation alert on Thursday afternoon that was a mistake. Shortly after, officials sent a follow-up alert saying that the notice was intended only for people near the Kenneth Fire in Woodland Hills.

Los Angeles County shared a message on X explaining what happened: β€œAn evacuation order for residents near the Kenneth Fire currently burning in West Hills was mistakenly issued Countywide. This alert was only intended for residents of Calabasas and Agoura Hills.”

CBS News quotes a local official who said that the alert, which included a broken URL, was sent β€œdue to a technical error.”

A screenshot of the alert to disregard the previous evacuation warning. Image: The Verge
This is the alert to disregard the other evacuation warning.

Many wildfires are burning in the LA area, and officials have confirmed at least six deaths, CNN reports. LA County has a population of nearly 10 million people, which is the β€œlargest population of any county in the nation,” according to the county’s website.

An evacuation order for residents near the Kenneth Fire currently burning in West Hills was mistakenly issued Countywide. For updates on wildfires currently burning in LA County, including evacuation information please visit https://t.co/p46PbDz31o. pic.twitter.com/JRQhOCBx3j

β€” Los Angeles County (@CountyofLA) January 10, 2025

Disney+ will soon enable support for HDR10+ video

9 January 2025 at 16:01

Many streaming platforms such as Amazon Prime Video, YouTube, and even Apple TV+ already provide support for the HDR10+ standard. Soon, Disney+ will also join this list of platforms offering content in this high dynamic range format.

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The Nintendo Switch 2 Rumors and Leaks Won’t Change Anything

New information about the handheld seems to spring up every day, but it’s unclear when the Switch successor will make its appearance. It also doesn’t matter.

ICON, a builder of 3D-printed homes last valued around $2 billion, cuts about 25% of staff

9 January 2025 at 16:07

ICON Technologies Inc., which builds homes using 3D printing, is laying off 114 people, according to a WARN letter filed with the Texas Workforce Commission. A spokesperson for the company confirmed the news to TechCrunch, providing a statement that ICON had β€œrecently made a difficult decision to re-align” its team and team size β€œto focus […]

Β© 2024 TechCrunch. All rights reserved. For personal use only.

Apple’s weird iPhone alarm problems are still happening

9 January 2025 at 16:09
The Satechi Qi2 Trio Wireless Charging Pad on a marble table with an Apple Watch, AirPods, and iPhone charging.
Image: Satechi

Apple acknowledged issues with the reliability of the iPhone’s built-in alarm feature last April after a report by NBC’s Today morning show and said it was working on a fix, but some people are still having trouble. Android Authority points out this Reddit post by bryanlolwut in the r/iPhone subreddit from Wednesday with a picture of an iPhone with an Alarm set for 10:30, but the alarm goes off at 12:42 instead β€” the time displayed on an Apple Watch.

Late into Thursday, many Reddit users are still commenting on the thread, saying they’re having similar issues.

β€œMy morning alarm was displaying as going off while making no sound and no haptics for 40 minutes,” said Slawek_Zupa. Another post says their alarm went off at 5PM when it was supposed to go off at 7AM.

The reports in the thread today include people still using iOS 17 and others who have updated to iOS 18 with Apple Intelligence.

Some say they’ve tried turning off Apple’s Attention Awareness Features, which can reduce the alarm volume when it goes off if the iPhone detects your face. However, it hasn’t solved the problem for many, and you lose out on features like seeing full notifications on your lock screen.

We’ve asked Apple if they’re still looking into this problem, but we have not received a response yet. Personally, I’ve also noticed my iPhone sometimes doesn’t make sounds or vibrate in the morning, but it does drop down a lifeless notification as if it did. Luckily, I’ve got a Google Pixel 8 Pro as a backup that usually gets me going, and I’m trying the Nintendo Alarmo, too, but my wife has had enough of Zelda yelling at Link to wake up.

Real Authors Wreak Havoc for Chatbots in This Dystopian Short Story

9 January 2025 at 15:45
Lightspeed

B. Pladek's speculative tale about the dark future of education, 'Teach Them a Story to Teach Them Kindness,' appears on io9 courtesy of Lightspeed Magazine.
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