Author: Geek Planet

At the start of the year, hopes for a return to the frothy days of mergers and acquisitions were high, but more recent deal activity has tempered expectations.It was the prospect of a more business-friendly U.S. administration that bankers and corporate dev teams were primed for a rebound from 2023–24’s M&A lull. Early signals seemed to validate the optimism: T-Mobile kicked off a telco-led mini-spree, agreeing to buy Vistar Media for approximately $600 million and later confirming a $175 million deal for Blis — an example of a telco leaning into ad-funded diversification, contrasting with its domestic peers.   By…

Your ChatGPT just turned into a mini editing studio. Adobe has made Photoshop Express and Acrobat tools free to use directly inside ChatGPT, allowing users to modify images or work on PDFs without opening a separate app. You can now use Photoshop Express features such as crop, background removal, retouch, filters, and adjustments to edit photos. You can also edit and organize PDFs through Acrobat, and features like merge, add comment, sign, redact sensitive details, or convert files. The best part is that now you get AI help from ChatGPT while working and ideas for design, content suggestions, or layout…

As sports marketing spend rises, demand among marketers for help managing and measuring the effects of that investment is also up.A clutch of specialist, sports-focused ad tech and mar tech firms have emerged in recent years to fill that gap. It’s a niche that’s expanding quickly in the wake of brands’ enthusiasm for sports spending. PwC estimates the sports sponsorship market will rise above $160 billion by 2030 – and it was the hottest content to sell in this year’s upfront marketplace. “It’s kind of a wild west,” said Gartner analyst Chris Ross. “The market is becoming much more sophisticated…

President Donald Trump’s so-called “big beautiful bill” ends a $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit at the end of this month, which could impact EV sales — not to mention economic headwinds and tariff effects on auto prices.Through it all, Volvo is trying to grow its market share in the U.S. from 1 to 2% and push EV sales, according to Rafael Ugo, head of marketing at Volvo Car Americas. To do so, the global automotive brand is taking an offline, hyperlocal approach to its marketing strategy. “We are seeing this transformation, this transition, being a little bit slower than what…

Most street-based delivery robots take the form of a compact, wheel-based vehicle with a secure compartment for the item that’s out for delivery. But one major issue affects such contraptions: They can’t handle things like stairs, rough ground, or other challenging terrain, a fact that prevents them from trundling right up to someone’s front door. Swiss startup Rivr saw a gap in the market and earlier this year unveiled Milo, best described as a highly versatile robot dog — similar to Boston Dynamics’ Spot robot — with a box on its back for for holding delivery items. Milo, too, is…

As the U.S. trudges through its high-profile case against Google’s monopoly over online advertising this week, Europe is pursuing the same target – just without the courtroom drama. Time for a look at how that’s unfolding. Let’s start with the basics: earlier this month, the European Commission – the European Union’s executive arm – hit Google with a €2.95 billion fine for abusing its control over how ads are bought and sold in a market it also happens to run. But that was just the start. It also gave Google 60 days to come back with a fix. If it can’t…

One of our puzzles in November was borrowed from somebody tagged Elon Musk (Parody) was posted as Monday Micro Softy 52: Elon Musk asks, Are You a Genius? It’s nothing unusual for social media posters to have parody accounts of iconic figures. Here’s a puzzle posted on April 11, 2025, by Elon Musk News. This problem, we are told, is “only for geniuses”: In the wheel of numbers shown, what is the missing number? No advanced math is needed. Only arithmetic and a sharp mind. Over to you, geniuses! Solution to Micro Softy 55: “It Happens Every Spring”     Image…

As artificial intelligence creeps into everything from our phones to our smart speakers, it’s becoming harder to see where the tech ends and our decisions begin. And according to a new study from researchers at the University of Queensland and UNSW, that’s exactly the problem. They warn that the “AI-ification” of daily life is quietly driving up global emissions – not just by burning electricity, but by training us to buy more stuff. What Happened – and the Hidden Environmental Impact of AI-Driven Consumption We already know AI is thirsty; data centers guzzle massive amounts of water and power. But…

Sports rights-holders have proven increasingly adept at attracting tastemakers and trendsetters to the viewing gallery. That gravitational pull has proven instrumental in bringing broadcaster money and commercial sponsorship cash to tournaments and competitions, with their increasingly rare access to mass, highly engaged and often affluent audiences taking on an outsized importance for consumer brands. Over the last decade, Australian Open CEO Craig Tiley has worked hard to take the first tennis grand slam event of the year from another stop on the tennis circuit to a “bucket list event,” by taking control of both media production and the cultural circus…

Snap is sweetening the deal for advertisers willing to buy space inside users’ chat feeds. It’s been nearly a year since the company rolled out the new ad placement – pitched by CEO Evan Spiegel as a way to make “the core functionality of Snapchat accessible to advertisers”. Since then, Snap has been working to make that promise stick, and is now offering incentives in an effort to drive adoption for the placement.   “I think Evan [Spiegel] realized that that’s [the chat tab] where the majority of the users spend most of their time,” said Shamsul Chowdhury, global evp paid social…