Author: Geek Planet

Apple’s long-rumored foldable iPhone is shaping up to be the most expensive device the company has ever put in someone’s pocket. A fresh leak from Weibo-based tipster Instant Digital reveals that the iPhone Fold may launch in three storage tiers — 256GB, 512GB, and 1TB — with Chinese yuan-converted prices landing at approximately $2,320, $2,610, and $2,900, respectively. A foldable phone that costs more than a MacBook Pro? That last figure is genuinely startling. Apple’s base M5 MacBook Pro starts at $1,699, while the M5 Pro model begins at $2,199 with a 1TB SSD. In other words, the top-tier iPhone…

The Monday after President Trump’s tariffs rattled global markets and raised the specter of a recession, global agency group Dept did what few in advertising are built to do: it pivoted to policy. The shop stood up a 10-person team of strategists — not to pitch an idea but to translate Trump’s policies on tariffs into something a marketer could act on.And not a moment too soon. Unlike past macroeconomic crises, this one put marketers at the center. The ripple effects hit every part of their remit: media budgets, pricing models, procurement timelines. The usual buffers between policy and marketing…

If you watched any Galaxy S26 coverage before launch, you heard about this. Three AI assistants, one phone — Bixby, Gemini, and Perplexity all coexisting, each ready to jump in on command. It was the feature Samsung kept leading with, and fair enough, it was a genuinely good one. Except “Hey Plex,” the shorthand wake word for Perplexity, has quietly stopped working for a growing number of users. And the explanation behind it is, somehow, even more chaotic than the bug itself. Wait, so what actually broke? Early S26 owners reported “Hey Plex” working fine out of the box, only…

Interpublic Group (IPG) may be navigating an uncertain future, but it’s still hiring top tech talent in a bid to remain competitive.The U.S.-based holding company has appointed tech entrepreneur Yaniv Sarig as its global head of AI commerce, with a brief to rapidly integrate agentic AI into its commerce and performance media offering. It’s the latest top AI position created by an agency group in recent months. Last week, IPG’s crosstown rival Stagwell appointed IBM and Microsoft veteran John Kahan as its chief AI officer (CAIO), while Monks (formerly Media.Monks) recently made founding exec Wesley ter Haar, already the challenger…

Creator funds are back en vogue thanks to platforms like Substack and the Billion Dollar Boy agency launching fresh versions this year. And what better way to pique creators’ interests than by offering them cash rewards? Or so they thought.TikTok introduced creator funds to the scene back in 2020, which led to its platform peers trying to outdo each other by offering bigger pots of cash. But over the years, social media apps including YouTube and Snapchat have wound down their funds in favor of the more sustainable revenue-share deals – an offering which required a hefty upfront investment, (far…

The likes of Dell, HP, and Lenovo have been offering sleek all-in-one (AIO) desktop PCs for years, but Apple usually takes the cake with the iMac. The mix of reliable performance, ecosystem perks, and peppy design often keeps it at the top of my recommendation list. At CES 2026, Lenovo is redrawing the lines with one of the most beautiful AIO machines I have ever seen.  An eye candy with practical perks Lenovo’s latest is the Yoga AIO i Aura Edition, a desktop with a floating glass design, similar to the LG Wallpaper TV that was announced a few days…

Generative AI tools keep finding their way deeper into the world of agencies in varying ways — but their main value seems to still be in saving time and money for creative output and execution. The latest example, Digiday has learned, comes from Brandtech Group’s Pencil unit, which is charged with offering AI-driven creative marketing solutions for a number of clients. Pencil is collaborating with Google to integrate the latter’s AI-based video generation model, Veo 2, into its offering.  The integration accesses Google’s AI models, such as Gemini for text generation, Imagen 3 for image creation and Google Cloud’s ABCD framework…

WhatsApp is rolling out parent-managed accounts for pre-teens, giving guardians full control over their child’s contacts and group chats, and how their privacy settings are configured, all managed from the parent’s own phone. The feature targets families with children under 13. It’s WhatsApp’s clearest move yet to position itself as a safe messaging environment for younger users, at a time when pressure on tech platforms over child online safety has never been higher. How parent-managed accounts actually work Setup requires both phones in the same room. Parents link their own device to their child’s to connect the two accounts, and…

The complaint that advertising isn’t focused on originality is a common one. Every few years, conversations about when the creative was wild and innovative resurges. What’s different now is that creatives have even more threats to their livelihoods — the rise of AI, the rush to follow trends on social, squeezed budgets and now tariffs.In the latest edition of our Confessions series, in which we trade anonymity for candor, we hear from a senior creative at a creative agency on originality. This interview has been lightly edited and condensed for clarity.  You said there’s no originality in advertising anymore. What…

NuPhy’s CES 2026 lineup includes a keyboard that is trying to solve a familiar desk problem. The Kick75 centers on the NuPhy Kick75 dual-profile switch, a mechanism meant to change the board’s feel depending on what you are doing. The simple promise is a quick shift between low-profile typing and standard-profile gaming. If it works as advertised, you can keep one keyboard on your desk all day and stop treating “work board” and “game board” as separate purchases. A profile swap on demand The Kick75’s defining move is that profile change. Low-profile layouts can feel faster and more comfortable for…