Author: Geek Planet

The first half of the year brought no shortage of bluster: Amazon gunning for DSP dominance, Google locked in an antirust staring contest, publishers scrambling to offset traffic losses to generative AI, and Publicis staking up wins like its trying to corner the market. But somewhere between the sizzle and spin, fault lines are forming. Now’s a good moment as any to take stock — and make a few bold calls about what’s coming next.  The U.S. Department of Justice is pursuing a potential breakup of Google’s advertising technology business, alleging it holds an unlawful monopoly over the digital advertising…

Displays have evolved steadily for years. Specs got sharper, refresh rates got higher, and bezels got thinner, but we’re now entering a new chapter where screen is no longer just a window into content. Displays are becoming intelligent, intuitive companions that adjust to how we work, play, and interact through the day. “If you look at the history of displays, they have always been passive surfaces that simply rendered whatever the device sent to them,” says George Toh, Vice President and General Manager of Lenovo’s Visual Business Unit. “What is changing now is that screens are becoming adaptive interfaces that…

TikTok is reportedly developing a separate version of its app for the U.S. — a contingency plan as pressure builds for ByteDance to divest. But for marketers, it raises more questions than answers.“I’d be curious to learn more about how the user data and ad stack and process will evolve, which certainly has the potential to be the bigger disruption (as compared to usage numbers),” said Chris Mele, managing partner at marketing agency Siberia.  To recap: the platform’s staff are currently beavering away on a new version of TikTok currently codenamed “M2”, apparently due to hit app stores Sept. 5.…

Now that we’ve reached halfway through 2025, retail media remains one of the industry’s biggest growth stories, pulling in more ad dollars and attention. But what started as a rush toward retail media’s on-site ads is evolving into media buyers chasing the channel’s full-funnel strategies across programmatic, CTV and social. If the first half of 2025 was about retail media networks’ growth spurt, advertisers say the second half will be make-or-break. Either RMNs deliver or advertisers pull back spend. “This year, you’re starting to see more streamlining, more material partnerships start to transpire because [RMNs] understand that having the data…

Microsoft has pushed out another emergency update for Windows 11 after its latest monthly patch caused unexpected app crashes and system issues for users. What was meant to be a routine January security update quickly turned into a problem, with reports piling up about apps freezing, Outlook breaking, and cloud-synced files refusing to behave. Some of the problems were serious enough that Microsoft even advised certain users to uninstall the update altogether. Now, Microsoft has stepped in again with a second out-of-band update, aiming to finally steady the ship. Why Microsoft had to step in again The trouble began with…

Google’s AI ambitions are moving fast, and the old architecture of search advertising is starting to show its age. As user behavior shifts toward more conversational, visual queries, the need for automation is growing. But automation comes at a cost: marketers still want control. Google’s latest update — with AI Max — is an attempt to square the circle.Rolling out this summer, this suite of ad tools is Google’s latest effort to thread the needle, letting automation do more without cutting marketers out of the process. Unlike Performance Max — Google’s full-throttle, AI-everywhere product — AI Max is being positioned as…

The first developer beta of iOS 26.4 is rolling out, and with it, Apple is flipping a major security switch for buyers. A security feature that was previously optional is now enabled by default for everyone, making it harder for thieves to change your iPhone’s critical settings. We’re talking about Stolen Device Protection (first released with iOS 17.3), the feature that is designed to protect your Apple ID, saved passwords, payment methods, and other sensitive information, even if someone knows your iPhone’s passcode. Changing critical security settings requires more than just a passcode The feature asks for more credentials than…

The AI hardware industry is moving fast, and it seems Apple wants in on the trend. As per a report by Bloomberg, the company is working on an AI pendant that will come equipped with a camera and might serve as the “eyes and ears” for a paired iPhone. In addition to the pendant, the company is also said to be working on AI-powered smart glasses and AirPods with an onboard camera. What’s the big shift? Apple’s upcoming AI wearable will reportedly miss out on a display, unlike the doomed Humane AI Pin, which was actually the brainchild of former…

Whenever ad dollars swell around new channels — search, social, email — the industry reaches for the same playbook: cut out the middle, get closer to the source, and stop paying for junk reach. The creator economy is no different.Marketers aren’t just experimenting with creators anymore, they’re institutionalizing them. As that happens, conversations about them have moved upstream, from community managers to CMOs. And so has the strategy. Affinity is no longer enough. What matters now is control, consistency and minimizing risk. “Last year we started to test doing more work with creators — that worked and we were able to…

Anthropic just turned its AI chatbot Claude into a real productivity hub by bringing interactive apps right into the chat. Users can now perform actions within apps like Slack, Figma, Asana, Canva, Box, Clay, and more without needing to switch windows. Instead of offering text-only responses, Claude can now act as a full-on workspace, letting you draft Slack messages, build project boards, design mockups, and more. Built on top of the Model Context Protocol (MCP), which Anthropic introduced in 2024 as a standard for how AI and apps talk to each other, the feature is designed to scale over time,…