Author: Geek Planet

Pope Leo XIV signed his first encyclical on May 15, the 135th anniversary of Pope Leo XIII’s Rerum novarum. The document, Magnifica humanitas, was published on May 25 and addresses one of the defining challenges of our time: artificial intelligence and its impact on humanity. The core message isn’t anti-technology. The Pope is clear that technology is neither a threat nor inherently evil. However, he does say that technology is never neutral, because it takes on the values of those who build, fund, and control it. That’s where things get interesting. Is AI becoming a tool for the powerful? A…

If you have ever tried to book a hotel online and found yourself unsettled by the AI chatbot trying to help you, science has your back. New study from Texas A&M College of Agriculture and Life Sciences confirms that hotel booking chatbots are genuinely creeping people out, and it is actually hurting bookings. What is giving hotel chatbots their creep factor? Researchers surveyed 340 adults in the UK who had used chatbots to book hotels and found three main culprits behind the ick factor: inaccuracy, deceptive behavior, and intrusiveness. Inaccuracy was by far the biggest offender, triggering a negative response…

A slew of new reporting suggests a non-ideal image of American higher education in the year 2026. Hampshire College, the liberal arts institution in Massachusetts, recently announced its future closure due to financial problems. And it isn’t the only one. A number of colleges and universities across the country have shut their doors over the past few years, with others reporting real strain and lowering enrollment. Josh Moody writes in Inside Higher Education, Founded in 1965 and known for its progressive values and student-driven curriculum, Hampshire is the latest in a string of small colleges to announce closures this year,…

Apple’s upcoming M6 Pro and M6 Max MacBook Pros are quietly turning into the best laptops the company has ever made. We already knew about the new chipset, OLED panels, a brand-new design, and more. And now, Apple is reportedly borrowing one of Samsung’s coolest features for the next MacBook Pro, and it might arrive a lot sooner than previously thought. If you have been following the Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra, you already know about its Privacy Display feature. For those who missed it, the feature can instantly darkens the screen from anyone looking at it from the side. The…

There is good news for YouTube Premium subscribers who love podcasts, as the platform just announced three new features heading their way. This update shows how serious YouTube is about competing with audio-first apps like Spotify and Apple Podcasts, especially as Netflix is also ramping up its investment in video podcasts. What are the new podcast features for Youtube Premium subscribers? The first addition is On-the-go mode, which is the most useful feature of the three. When you are running, commuting, or just doing something else with your hands, it switches your podcast to an audio-friendly layout with a static…

A new leak out of China suggests Intel is planning a Nova Lake Edge processor, with an unusual core configuration that looks nothing like a typical chip, but once you understand what it’s actually designed for, the layout will start making sense. The information comes from the Golden Pig Upgrade Pack (via VideoCardz). The Chinese leaker claims that Intel’s Nova Lake Edge line includes a variant with eight efficiency cores and 12 Xe integrated graphics cores. What does the leak actually say? The most striking detail here is the absence of performance cores in this configuration. On a regular laptop…

We are immersed in the greatest technological experiment ever and that has created the biggest bubble ever. Last November, a former chief economist for the IMF estimated the size of the bubble to be $35 trillion. There have been some dips since then, but the bubble has persisted despite a war in the Middle East and studies by MIT, Atlassian software and others showing that businesses aren’t benefiting that much from AI. More recently, interviews reported by The Guardian report: AI researchers, economists and tech workers said that essentially, we’re all living through an experiment. Over the next few years,…

Xiaomi has launched the Xiaomi 17T Pro in Europe and the U.K., alongside the standard Xiaomi 17T. The Pro model is the more powerful of the two, with a larger display, Leica-branded cameras, a bigger battery, and MediaTek’s new flagship chip. A larger Leica-backed sensor leads the camera setup The camera system is the main focus on the 17T Pro. Its triple rear camera setup is led by a 50MP Light Fusion 950 main sensor. This is a large 1/1.31-inch sensor with optical image stabilization and an f/1.67 Leica Summilux lens, which should help with low-light shots and capturing more…

If you feel like every OS now feels too polished, flat, and boring, there’s a new museum that takes you down a rabbit hole of all the vintage computers. Virtual OS Museum, curated by Andrew Warkentin, is an interactive virtual museum of operating systems and standalone applications running under emulation. This is not just a gallery that shares still snapshots of the retro software. The museum is built as a Linux VM for QEMU, VirtualBox, or UTM, with a custom launcher and preconfigured installations that are meant to boot without forcing users to manually wrangle ancient setup files and emulator…

Apple is gearing up for a major iPhone software overhaul in years, and your camera app is right at the center of it. Bloomberg has gotten an early look at what iOS 27 will bring to the Camera app, and the changes are more significant than a visual refresh. This will be a full redesign of how you shoot, edit, and interact with your photos. Upcoming changes in your iPhone camera app The biggest change is that Siri is coming to the Camera app as a dedicated mode, sitting right alongside Photo and Video. That’s new, and it’s a meaningful…