Author: Geek Planet

Wesley J. Smith April 16, 2026 2 Ethics The boy, aged between 16 and 18, had described his life as “joyless.” Wesley J. Smith April 16, 2026 2 Ethics This republished article first appeared in the National Review. Once killing becomes an acceptable answer to human suffering, the kinds of “suffering” that justifies killing continually expands. In the Netherlands, where mental illness can provide the pretext for being MAIDed and there are no age limits (including infanticide for disability), it was recently reported that a suicidal autistic teenager was lethally injected in 2023. From the National Post story: Four-and-a-half years after he was diagnosed…

Microsoft appears to be softening its aggressive AI push in Windows 11 by making it easier for users and organizations to completely remove the Copilot app from their PCs. The move comes after continued criticism from users who felt Microsoft integrated Copilot too deeply into Windows without offering enough control over the experience. According to findings from Windows Latest, Microsoft quietly introduced a new Group Policy option in the Windows 11 April 2026 Update that allows administrators to remove the Microsoft Copilot app system-wide. The policy, named “Remove Microsoft Copilot app,” can be found under User Configuration > Administrative Templates…

Luxury phone maker Vertu has unveiled its newest foldable smartphone, the Vertu Alphafold, and it may be one of the most extravagant phones released in years. Combining foldable smartphone hardware with exotic leather, gold accents, AI-powered business tools, and ultra-premium pricing, the device is clearly aimed at wealthy buyers who want exclusivity as much as specifications. The pricing alone is enough to turn heads. The standard calfskin leather version starts at $6,880, while the alligator leather model jumps to $8,800. For buyers wanting something even more extravagant, Vertu is offering customised variants with gold detailing and diamonds that can push…

Huawei has revealed what it sees as a new path forward for advanced chips. At the 2026 IEEE International Symposium on Circuits and Systems in Shanghai, Huawei’s He Tingbo introduced the company’s Tau Scaling Law, a new semiconductor principle that Huawei says can guide chip development as traditional Moore’s Law runs into physical and economic limits. The company says future high-end chips designed under this approach could reach transistor density equivalent to 14 angstroms, or 1.4nm, by 2031. How Huawei is changing the chip game 1.4nm sounds pretty impressive, but the keyword here is equivalent. Huawei is not saying it…

If you’ve ever switched from an iPhone to a Samsung, wondering why your WhatsApp or Google Meet calls aren’t showing up in the phone’s call log, One UI 9 is about to fix that.  Samsung’s Phone app on One UI 9 will display calls made through other apps alongside regular calls in a single, unified call log.  Why does this matter? Based on screenshots of the beta version of One UI 9 shared by SamMobile, the feature currently supports Google Meet and WhatsApp. Samsung is also expected to expand support to other apps over time.  In addition to the unified…

China has launched a national programme that will assign every humanoid robot manufactured in the country a unique digital identity code, effectively a citizen ID, but for bipedal machines (those that can balance and walk/run on two legs).  The initiative, called the Humanoid Full Lifecycle Management Service Platform, was announced on Friday. It is led by the Humanoid Robotics and Embodied Intelligence Standardization committee, which is under China’s Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (via South China Morning Post). What does a robot ID actually look like? The machine codes are structured in four parts. While a two-digit national code…

I hate the overly processed photos iPhones capture these days, and that’s why Halide has become my primary camera app. Its Process Zero capture mode breathes life into photos by removing all the extra processing Apple does, delivering pictures that feel straight out of a classic camera. I mean, the camera app is so goated that even Apple tried to acquire it. The Halide Mark II was already one of the best iPhone camera apps, and now, Lux Optics, the company behind Halide, has released Halide Mark III, a massive update that aims to make it the only camera app…

I wrote this entire article while seated on an airplane experiencing unusually high turbulence. The software I used to spell-check and grammatically sanitize the draft was built at an airport. The language engine is running entirely on my Mac, fully offline, fixing all my typos and removing the double spaces while I mash the keyboard and sip a sugar-bomb coffee.  Also, I don’t know how to code. I didn’t write a single line of code, and yet, the Mac software I am using right now looks classier and feels snappier than Grammarly ever did. Grammarly, if you don’t know, is…

OnePlus has a habit of building flagships that make us genuinely excited, both for the specifications and the price at which they’re offered, then finding ways to complicate things.  The OnePlus 16 is shaping up to be yet another example of the same pattern, and an extreme one no less. It’s a device with specifications that look deliberately unreasonable, with bizarre availability rumors suggesting most of the world won’t be able to buy one.  What does the latest leak actually say? The most recent batch of information comes from Chinese leaker Smart Pikachu (via Weibo), who now claims the OnePlus 16…

Spotify just rolled out a batch of updates that playlist obsessives have been waiting a long time for. The biggest one is playlist folders finally coming to mobile. This feature has existed on desktop for years, but mobile users never had it. Now you can group your playlists by mood, activity, or genre right from your phone, and you can even nest folders inside other folders if your organizational habits run deep. Playlist folders are available now for all users globally, no subscription required. These updates are a noticeable departure from Spotify’s recent wave of AI-heavy feature drops, which included…