Author: Geek Planet

If you often work with data that starts life as a text file or CSV, Microsoft Excel now has new built-in tools that simplify how that information gets pulled into a spreadsheet. The update introduces two new functions, IMPORTTEXT and IMPORTCSV, designed to bring external data directly into Excel cells using formulas. Instead of going through the traditional import wizard every time, users can now load files straight into a worksheet and keep that data connected to its source. How Excel’s new import functions work The IMPORTTEXT function allows users to import data from text-based files such as TXT, CSV,…

Creators might be playing cameo roles in this year’s TV and streaming upfront marketplace – but give it time. The spotlight’s inching closer. What started as a YouTube sideshow is creeping onto the main stage. From the talent in the room to the lingo in the air, creators cast a long shadow over this year’s weeklong industry parade. TelevisaUnivision rolled out vertical video mini telenovelas and a creator-artist festival at its upfront.  Fox brought creators Kelon Campbell, Grant Gibbs and Ashley Gill on stage to plug their projects for Tubi, its ad-supported streamer. Amazon, meanwhile, doubled down on creator clout, announcing…

The creator economy is growing rapidly, but the technology infrastructure required to manage and scale it has yet to catch up. It’s a problem that some creator platforms are now trying to solve.Major creator platforms CreatorIQ and Captiv8 expanded their measurement and AI functions last week for creator vetting and brand safety for brands and agency users working with creators. Other creator platforms are also expanding in their own focus areas, like Upfluence integrating with Shopify or Grin recently adding social listening and affiliate tools. Other platforms, like shopping app LTK or creator marketplace Aspire, are pitching themselves as specialists…

If you thought 2026 was going to be the year PC building finally got easy again, AMD has some bad news. The company is heading into the new year facing a perfect storm of supply chain headaches and skyrocketing prices. In a candid chat with Gizmodo during CES, AMD’s Ryzen lead David McAfee laid out the situation, and honestly, it sounds like they are trying to steer a ship through a hurricane without losing any cargo. The hardware they showed off at CES tells the story better than any press release could. They revealed the new Ryzen 7 9850X3D and…

AI is speeding up everything in advertising — except how advertisers pay agencies, which is still moving at a crawl. There are early signs — just look at Sir Martin Sorrell’s latest quarterly reflections — but, he, his peers and their clients are still in the foothills of this shift, not anywhere near the summit. “AI has not as of yet transformed the remuneration model,” said Forrester analyst Jay Pattissall. Eventually it will. But for now, most of the talk is just that: talk. And when it does lead to action, it’s confined to cautious small-scale pilots — experiments that hint at the…

The situation with mobile browsers on Apple’s platforms is not exactly rewarding for users. Safari gets the job done, but for every other browser landing on the iPhone or iPad, they are forced to use Apple’s WebKit engine. Simply put, most browsers are simply wrappers built atop the same foundation on iOS and iPadOS As a result, you won’t find Safari alternatives that can really stand out. On the desktop side for Mac, there’s no such rule. As a result, you can find terrific options such as Perplexity Comet, Dia, and ChatGPT Atlas, aside from the big names such as…

Google’s AI Overviews feature marked its first birthday this week.The feature shows users AI generated summaries at the top of their search queries, ahead of links to articles and websites. As the AI-generated summaries have become more common in search results, marketers have begun actively examining how their sites can appeal to both human users and AI crawlers, throwing established SEO strategies into question. They’re also keeping a close eye on the performance of their paid search investments. Overviews has been credited with cratering search traffic to publisher and brand sites since it was launched in the U.S. on May…

Pinterest is still a minor line item on most media plans, but agency execs say that could change fast if its ad platform keeps evolving.Five ad buyers told Digiday their clients’ PInterest budgets remain small. None offered exact figures but the direction of travel is clear. Even with modest spend, momentum among buyers is building. “For those where it [Pinterest] is part of the plan, we’ve seen investment levels range from 0.50% to 11% of their budgets over the past year or so,” said Andrew Richardson, senior vice president, advanced analytics and measurement at New Engen. It’s a similar story…

NVIDIA’s RTX 5070 Ti is getting harder to buy, and the squeeze is showing up at checkout. The RTX 5070 Ti end of life chatter is being driven by board partners pulling back though, with no clear public announcement from NVIDIA. ASUS has put its own RTX 5070 Ti models into end of life status and says it has no plans to produce more units because supply is too tight. That leaves shoppers fighting over whatever inventory is already out there. ASUS stops building its cards After Hardware Unboxed posted its report, it added a clarification that matters. ASUS didn’t…

After more than two decades in the holdco machine, Marcy Samet knew that striking out on her own likely meant a one-way ticket. For years, the industry ran on a reliable cycle: execs left bloated networks, built indie shops then cashed out by selling right back into the machine. But that cycle’s losing steam. The exits keep coming but the re-entries aren’t always part of the plan anymore.“There are more options open now for people like me,” said Samet, who left her role as a growth specialist at IPG last summer.  By “people like me”, she means the wave of…