Author: Geek Planet

Google has officially unveiled the Pixel 10a, its newest entry in the A-series lineup. On the surface, it looks like another compelling budget-friendly Pixel: minimalist design, fresh colours, a large battery, and Google’s well-known AI features. But dig a little deeper, and the excitement quickly fades. For many buyers, the Pixel 10a may feel like a déjà vu moment – a phone that looks new but behaves very much like last year’s Pixel 9a. In fact, the similarities run so deep that a growing number of users and reviewers are asking the same question: Why upgrade at all? Despite its…

While TikTok’s U.S. lifespan remains uncertain, the entertainment app is firmly focused on its future.“When I met with TikTok last week, they were talking me through their product roadmap for the rest of the year,” said one Cannes Lions attendee, who asked for anonymity to speak candidly about what they discussed during their meeting with TikTok at the festival.  A big part of that roadmap includes evolving their eight-month-old AI-campaign tool, Smart+, so marketers have more control over how it buys their ads. “They said they’re going to improve the Smart+ platform by providing advertisers with more control around bidding,…

It has been nearly two years since Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella predicted that generative AI would take over knowledge work, but if you look around a typical law firm or investment bank today, the human workforce is still very much in charge. Despite all the hype about “reasoning” and “planning,” a new study from training-data company Mercor explains exactly why the robot revolution is stalled: AI just can’t handle the messiness of real work. A reality check for the “replacement” theory Mercor released a new benchmark called APEX-Agents, and it is brutal. Unlike the usual tests that ask AI to…

Google is expanding the multimodal capabilities of Gemini, once again. Following the success of the viral Nano Banana image generator, the company is releasing Lyria 3, an AI model that can generate music. Google says you can get started with your words and describe what kind of music you want to generate, and the model will comply. Alternatively, you can feed it a picture or even a video, and Lyria 3 will generate a “high-fidelity track,” with custom lyrics in tow. “From funny jingles to lo-fi beats, you can create custom 30-second soundtracks for any moment,” says the company. Lyria…

This research is based on unique data collected from our proprietary audience of publisher, agency, brand and tech insiders. It’s available to Digiday+ members. More from the series → Interested in sharing your perspectives on the media and marketing industries? Join the Digiday research panel. TV and streaming are one and the same in the eyes of today’s consumers, and, therefore, marketers. As a result, the majority of marketers are directing ad spend toward TV, with a focus on ads that drive impressions and branding. This is based on a Digiday+ Research survey conducted in the second quarter of this…

If you’ve ever found yourself rewinding an audiobook because you got distracted mid-sentence, Audible has a new feature that can save you from the frustration. The platform calls it “Immersion Reading,” which is basically a fancy term for a Read & Listen mode. As the name suggests, the mode lets you read the text on the screen while the audiobook narration plays. It also highlights the text word-for-word, in sync with the playback. Think of it as a karaoke, but for books (of course, you don’t have to sing). Read and listen for a distraction-free experience Audible’s new feature requires…

Welcome to the era of the ad network arms race. Over the past year, retail media and other ad networks have been pulling out all the stops to convince media buyers that they’ve evolved from performance-driven tools into full-funnel media ecosystems. With more than 250 ad networks — and counting — all fighting for the same ad dollars, the competition is getting stiff, and the RMN space is becoming increasingly crowded. Amid the so-called retail media gold rush, Kristi Argyilan, the global head of Uber Advertising, turns to her own RMN playbook. Dubbed the “godmother” of retail media by AdExchanger,…

A Windows on ARM gaming laptop could finally be more than a curiosity, and Lenovo may be the one to bring it to the mainstream. A set of Lenovo laptop model entries tied to NVIDIA’s N1X label includes a Legion 7, a name Lenovo usually reserves for higher-performance hardware. The clue comes from how Lenovo’s naming appears to tag the platform inside each system. Qualcomm is marked with a Q, while NVIDIA shows up under two labels, N1 and N1X. A dataminer, Huang514613, surfaced a cluster of Lenovo models where those tags appear across multiple families, not just one device.…

Nothing is gearing up to unveil its latest budget-friendly phones, with CEO Carl Pei having recently teased a March 5 launch event. While the company hasn’t officially shared any details, leaks suggest the Nothing Phone 4a and Phone 4a Pro are on the way. The new models are expected to build on last year’s Phone 3a series with upgraded chipsets, improved durability, and faster wired charging. Now, a fresh leak has revealed key specifications and pricing for both models. The leaked information comes from tipster Billbil-kun, who shared details about Nothing’s upcoming Headphone (a) earlier this month. The leaker claims…

After teasing its next budget-friendly phone earlier this month, Google today officially lifted the covers off the newest member of its Pixel 10 lineup. The all-new Pixel 10a arrives largely as expected, offering a modest refresh over the Pixel 9a with only a couple of subtle design refinements and incremental spec upgrades rather than a sweeping overhaul. For the most part, the Pixel 10a sticks closely to its predecessor, so let’s start with what’s new. The phone drops the plastic ring around the rear camera module, allowing it to sit even more flush with the back panel for a cleaner,…