#iown — Public Fediverse posts

Weekly output: WiFi hotspots, Android 17 + Gemini Intelligence, earning trust in AI, staying IRL in an AI world, AI image generation, photonics + data centers, Bill Gross on AI

SAN JOSE, Calif.–I’m back on the West Coast only three days after returning from Web Summit Vancouver, and my excuse for yet another transcon flight involves two different events: TechEx North America at the convention center here, where I’m moderating two panels Monday, and then Google I/O a little up the peninsula in Mountain View Tuesday and Wednesday. This is my second year at the first event but will be my 12th in-person I/O.

5/11/2026: The Best Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wirecutter

This update to this guide was originally going to review the Franklin A70 hotspot that AT&T introduced last year, but as I was about to file my edits I learned that AT&T was discontinuing that model. So I took out all of the copy assessing the A70 and restored the discussion of older models, which still left plenty of new text covering, among other things, how most high-end smartphone plans now include more data than you get with hotspot-only plans.

5/12/2026: In Android 17, ‘Gemini Intelligence’ Can Automate Tasks Across Apps, PCMag

Google dumped an enormous amount of news one week before I/O, to the point that I needed almost 1,200 words to cover it without even getting into Googlebook laptops, since PCMag’s Michael Kan wrote up that part of Google’s news. I trust that Google left something else to announce onstage at I/O Tuesday.

5/12/2026: Data done right: Earning consumer trust in an AI-first world. Web Summit

This was the second year in a row I had a Web Summit Vancouver panel featuring Pamela Snively, chief data and trust officer with Telus Communications. Knowing my fellow speaker’s conversational style made this panel easy; the topic was also a good one to explore.

5/12/2026: The Analog Renaissance, Why Human Connection and IRL Is the Most Radical Innovation, Frontier Collective

I showed up 5 minutes late to this offsite panel hosted by a local tech group because my floatplane joyride ended almost 30 minutes later than scheduled, a timing failure that in retrospect seems like something I was asking for. I then had a fun discussion with my fellow speakers–Raven White, TED’s director of audience development and community; Heather Odendaal, WNORTH CEO and founder; and Johnny Rodgers, a founding principal engineer at Slack–but I feel bad about inflicting “where is Rob?” uncertainty on the organizers and forcing emcee Theodora Jean to field my position for the first few minutes.

5/13/2026: What it actually takes to train frontier models, Web Summit

This was a late addition to my schedule, leaving no time for a prep call beforehand with Black Forest Labs co-founder Tim Dockhorn. That, in turn, meant I only discovered on stage that he can answer questions exceedingly briefly–which required me to improv a bunch of new questions. This sort of thing has happened on panels before; this time, I didn’t feel like I was flailing around onstage quite so much.

5/14/2026: Can Photonics Make the AI Data Center Boom More Palatable?, PCMag

Since my research for this started at NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in mid April, I was happy I finally got this written–including quotes from my interview of the photonics firm Taara’s CEO at Web Summit Vancouver that helped this post be about more than just the expenses-comped NTT event. I was not so happy to discover that I left two errors into the copy, one about the distances that Taara’s silicon-photonics chipset can send data through the air and another about this firm’s spot in the extended Google corporate universe.

5/15/2026: Bill Gross thinks AI companies are running out of ways to avoid paying creators, Fast Company

This is the first time in a long time–maybe ever, actually–where I wrote a story from an interview as an edited transcript instead of writing a more-structured piece with selected quotes plugged in where I saw fit. I enjoyed the challenge of finding the most enlightening exchanges about the longtime Silicon Valley founder and investor’s new venture ProRata and the state of AI in general out of 6,000-plus words of AI-generated transcript from my phone’s Google Recorder app (which I then checked by playing back the original recording).

Weekly output: WiFi hotspots, Android 17 + Gemini Intelligence, earning trust in AI, staying IRL in an AI world, AI image generation, photonics + data centers, Bill Gross on AI

SAN JOSE, Calif.–I’m back on the West Coast only three days after returning from Web Summit Vancouver, and my excuse for yet another transcon flight involves two different events: TechEx North America at the convention center here, where I’m moderating two panels Monday, and then Google I/O a little up the peninsula in Mountain View Tuesday and Wednesday. This is my second year at the first event but will be my 12th in-person I/O.

5/11/2026: The Best Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wirecutter

This update to this guide was originally going to review the Franklin A70 hotspot that AT&T introduced last year, but as I was about to file my edits I learned that AT&T was discontinuing that model. So I took out all of the copy assessing the A70 and restored the discussion of older models, which still left plenty of new text covering, among other things, how most high-end smartphone plans now include more data than you get with hotspot-only plans.

5/12/2026: In Android 17, ‘Gemini Intelligence’ Can Automate Tasks Across Apps, PCMag

Google dumped an enormous amount of news one week before I/O, to the point that I needed almost 1,200 words to cover it without even getting into Googlebook laptops, since PCMag’s Michael Kan wrote up that part of Google’s news. I trust that Google left something else to announce onstage at I/O Tuesday.

5/12/2026: Data done right: Earning consumer trust in an AI-first world. Web Summit

This was the second year in a row I had a Web Summit Vancouver panel featuring Pamela Snively, chief data and trust officer with Telus Communications. Knowing my fellow speaker’s conversational style made this panel easy; the topic was also a good one to explore.

5/12/2026: The Analog Renaissance, Why Human Connection and IRL Is the Most Radical Innovation, Frontier Collective

I showed up 5 minutes late to this offsite panel hosted by a local tech group because my floatplane joyride ended almost 30 minutes later than scheduled, a timing failure that in retrospect seems like something I was asking for. I then had a fun discussion with my fellow speakers–Raven White, TED’s director of audience development and community; Heather Odendaal, WNORTH CEO and founder; and Johnny Rodgers, a founding principal engineer at Slack–but I feel bad about inflicting “where is Rob?” uncertainty on the organizers and forcing emcee Theodora Jean to field my position for the first few minutes.

5/13/2026: What it actually takes to train frontier models, Web Summit

This was a late addition to my schedule, leaving no time for a prep call beforehand with Black Forest Labs co-founder Tim Dockhorn. That, in turn, meant I only discovered on stage that he can answer questions exceedingly briefly–which required me to improv a bunch of new questions. This sort of thing has happened on panels before; this time, I didn’t feel like I was flailing around onstage quite so much.

5/14/2026: Can Photonics Make the AI Data Center Boom More Palatable?, PCMag

Since my research for this started at NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in mid April, I was happy I finally got this written–including quotes from my interview of the photonics firm Taara’s CEO at Web Summit Vancouver that helped this post be about more than just the expenses-comped NTT event. I was not so happy to discover that I left two errors into the copy, one about the distances that Taara’s silicon-photonics chipset can send data through the air and another about this firm’s spot in the extended Google corporate universe.

5/15/2026: Bill Gross thinks AI companies are running out of ways to avoid paying creators, Fast Company

This is the first time in a long time–maybe ever, actually–where I wrote a story from an interview as an edited transcript instead of writing a more-structured piece with selected quotes plugged in where I saw fit. I enjoyed the challenge of finding the most enlightening exchanges about the longtime Silicon Valley founder and investor’s new venture ProRata and the state of AI in general out of 6,000-plus words of AI-generated transcript from my phone’s Google Recorder app (which I then checked by playing back the original recording).

Weekly output: WiFi hotspots, Android 17 + Gemini Intelligence, earning trust in AI, staying IRL in an AI world, AI image generation, photonics + data centers, Bill Gross on AI

SAN JOSE, Calif.–I’m back on the West Coast only three days after returning from Web Summit Vancouver, and my excuse for yet another transcon flight involves two different events: TechEx North America at the convention center here, where I’m moderating two panels Monday, and then Google I/O a little up the peninsula in Mountain View Tuesday and Wednesday. This is my second year at the first event but will be my 12th in-person I/O.

5/11/2026: The Best Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wirecutter

This update to this guide was originally going to review the Franklin A70 hotspot that AT&T introduced last year, but as I was about to file my edits I learned that AT&T was discontinuing that model. So I took out all of the copy assessing the A70 and restored the discussion of older models, which still left plenty of new text covering, among other things, how most high-end smartphone plans now include more data than you get with hotspot-only plans.

5/12/2026: In Android 17, ‘Gemini Intelligence’ Can Automate Tasks Across Apps, PCMag

Google dumped an enormous amount of news one week before I/O, to the point that I needed almost 1,200 words to cover it without even getting into Googlebook laptops, since PCMag’s Michael Kan wrote up that part of Google’s news. I trust that Google left something else to announce onstage at I/O Tuesday.

5/12/2026: Data done right: Earning consumer trust in an AI-first world. Web Summit

This was the second year in a row I had a Web Summit Vancouver panel featuring Pamela Snively, chief data and trust officer with Telus Communications. Knowing my fellow speaker’s conversational style made this panel easy; the topic was also a good one to explore.

5/12/2026: The Analog Renaissance, Why Human Connection and IRL Is the Most Radical Innovation, Frontier Collective

I showed up 5 minutes late to this offsite panel hosted by a local tech group because my floatplane joyride ended almost 30 minutes later than scheduled, a timing failure that in retrospect seems like something I was asking for. I then had a fun discussion with my fellow speakers–Raven White, TED’s director of audience development and community; Heather Odendaal, WNORTH CEO and founder; and Johnny Rodgers, a founding principal engineer at Slack–but I feel bad about inflicting “where is Rob?” uncertainty on the organizers and forcing emcee Theodora Jean to field my position for the first few minutes.

5/13/2026: What it actually takes to train frontier models, Web Summit

This was a late addition to my schedule, leaving no time for a prep call beforehand with Black Forest Labs co-founder Tim Dockhorn. That, in turn, meant I only discovered on stage that he can answer questions exceedingly briefly–which required me to improv a bunch of new questions. This sort of thing has happened on panels before; this time, I didn’t feel like I was flailing around onstage quite so much.

5/14/2026: Can Photonics Make the AI Data Center Boom More Palatable?, PCMag

Since my research for this started at NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in mid April, I was happy I finally got this written–including quotes from my interview of the photonics firm Taara’s CEO at Web Summit Vancouver that helped this post be about more than just the expenses-comped NTT event. I was not so happy to discover that I left two errors into the copy, one about the distances that Taara’s silicon-photonics chipset can send data through the air and another about this firm’s spot in the extended Google corporate universe.

5/15/2026: Bill Gross thinks AI companies are running out of ways to avoid paying creators, Fast Company

This is the first time in a long time–maybe ever, actually–where I wrote a story from an interview as an edited transcript instead of writing a more-structured piece with selected quotes plugged in where I saw fit. I enjoyed the challenge of finding the most enlightening exchanges about the longtime Silicon Valley founder and investor’s new venture ProRata and the state of AI in general out of 6,000-plus words of AI-generated transcript from my phone’s Google Recorder app (which I then checked by playing back the original recording).

Weekly output: WiFi hotspots, Android 17 + Gemini Intelligence, earning trust in AI, staying IRL in an AI world, AI image generation, photonics + data centers, Bill Gross on AI

SAN JOSE, Calif.–I’m back on the West Coast only three days after returning from Web Summit Vancouver, and my excuse for yet another transcon flight involves two different events: TechEx North America at the convention center here, where I’m moderating two panels Monday, and then Google I/O a little up the peninsula in Mountain View Tuesday and Wednesday. This is my second year at the first event but will be my 12th in-person I/O.

5/11/2026: The Best Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wirecutter

This update to this guide was originally going to review the Franklin A70 hotspot that AT&T introduced last year, but as I was about to file my edits I learned that AT&T was discontinuing that model. So I took out all of the copy assessing the A70 and restored the discussion of older models, which still left plenty of new text covering, among other things, how most high-end smartphone plans now include more data than you get with hotspot-only plans.

5/12/2026: In Android 17, ‘Gemini Intelligence’ Can Automate Tasks Across Apps, PCMag

Google dumped an enormous amount of news one week before I/O, to the point that I needed almost 1,200 words to cover it without even getting into Googlebook laptops, since PCMag’s Michael Kan wrote up that part of Google’s news. I trust that Google left something else to announce onstage at I/O Tuesday.

5/12/2026: Data done right: Earning consumer trust in an AI-first world. Web Summit

This was the second year in a row I had a Web Summit Vancouver panel featuring Pamela Snively, chief data and trust officer with Telus Communications. Knowing my fellow speaker’s conversational style made this panel easy; the topic was also a good one to explore.

5/12/2026: The Analog Renaissance, Why Human Connection and IRL Is the Most Radical Innovation, Frontier Collective

I showed up 5 minutes late to this offsite panel hosted by a local tech group because my floatplane joyride ended almost 30 minutes later than scheduled, a timing failure that in retrospect seems like something I was asking for. I then had a fun discussion with my fellow speakers–Raven White, TED’s director of audience development and community; Heather Odendaal, WNORTH CEO and founder; and Johnny Rodgers, a founding principal engineer at Slack–but I feel bad about inflicting “where is Rob?” uncertainty on the organizers and forcing emcee Theodora Jean to field my position for the first few minutes.

5/13/2026: What it actually takes to train frontier models, Web Summit

This was a late addition to my schedule, leaving no time for a prep call beforehand with Black Forest Labs co-founder Tim Dockhorn. That, in turn, meant I only discovered on stage that he can answer questions exceedingly briefly–which required me to improv a bunch of new questions. This sort of thing has happened on panels before; this time, I didn’t feel like I was flailing around onstage quite so much.

5/14/2026: Can Photonics Make the AI Data Center Boom More Palatable?, PCMag

Since my research for this started at NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in mid April, I was happy I finally got this written–including quotes from my interview of the photonics firm Taara’s CEO at Web Summit Vancouver that helped this post be about more than just the expenses-comped NTT event. I was not so happy to discover that I left two errors into the copy, one about the distances that Taara’s silicon-photonics chipset can send data through the air and another about this firm’s spot in the extended Google corporate universe.

5/15/2026: Bill Gross thinks AI companies are running out of ways to avoid paying creators, Fast Company

This is the first time in a long time–maybe ever, actually–where I wrote a story from an interview as an edited transcript instead of writing a more-structured piece with selected quotes plugged in where I saw fit. I enjoyed the challenge of finding the most enlightening exchanges about the longtime Silicon Valley founder and investor’s new venture ProRata and the state of AI in general out of 6,000-plus words of AI-generated transcript from my phone’s Google Recorder app (which I then checked by playing back the original recording).

https://www.wacoca.com/media/656007/ データセンターが家の近くに？ 建設ラッシュ どう共存 「首都圏情報 ネタドリ!」 ##動画視聴 #AI #APN #IOWN #NHKONE #NTT #television #tv #TVPrograms #データ #データセンター #データセンター銀座 #デジタル #デジタル社会 #テレビ #テレビ番組 #トラブル #ネット #ファンド #住民 #印西 #反対運動 #外資 #廃熱 #投資 #日本データセンター協会 #東京タワー #東京電力 #東電 #水 #生活圏

https://www.wacoca.com/media/656007/ データセンターが家の近くに？ 建設ラッシュ どう共存 「首都圏情報 ネタドリ!」 ##動画視聴 #AI #APN #IOWN #NHKONE #NTT #television #tv #TVPrograms #データ #データセンター #データセンター銀座 #デジタル #デジタル社会 #テレビ #テレビ番組 #トラブル #ネット #ファンド #住民 #印西 #反対運動 #外資 #廃熱 #投資 #日本データセンター協会 #東京タワー #東京電力 #東電 #水 #生活圏

https://www.wacoca.com/media/656007/ データセンターが家の近くに？ 建設ラッシュ どう共存 「首都圏情報 ネタドリ!」 ##動画視聴 #AI #APN #IOWN #NHKONE #NTT #television #tv #TVPrograms #データ #データセンター #データセンター銀座 #デジタル #デジタル社会 #テレビ #テレビ番組 #トラブル #ネット #ファンド #住民 #印西 #反対運動 #外資 #廃熱 #投資 #日本データセンター協会 #東京タワー #東京電力 #東電 #水 #生活圏

https://www.wacoca.com/media/656007/ データセンターが家の近くに？ 建設ラッシュ どう共存 「首都圏情報 ネタドリ!」 ##動画視聴 #AI #APN #IOWN #NHKONE #NTT #television #tv #TVPrograms #データ #データセンター #データセンター銀座 #デジタル #デジタル社会 #テレビ #テレビ番組 #トラブル #ネット #ファンド #住民 #印西 #反対運動 #外資 #廃熱 #投資 #日本データセンター協会 #東京タワー #東京電力 #東電 #水 #生活圏

https://www.wacoca.com/media/656007/ データセンターが家の近くに？ 建設ラッシュ どう共存 「首都圏情報 ネタドリ!」 ##動画視聴 #AI #APN #IOWN #NHKONE #NTT #television #tv #TVPrograms #データ #データセンター #データセンター銀座 #デジタル #デジタル社会 #テレビ #テレビ番組 #トラブル #ネット #ファンド #住民 #印西 #反対運動 #外資 #廃熱 #投資 #日本データセンター協会 #東京タワー #東京電力 #東電 #水 #生活圏

VTuber×IOWNで、エンタメはどこまで進化するか？ 次世代技術による低遅延ライブや、ハイタッチ実現事例に迫る
https://www.moguravr.com/vtuber-iown-ntt-2026/

#moguravr #VTuber #APN_for_IOWN #IOWN #NTT #NTTドコモ #NTT東日本 #VTuber #NTTドコモ #IOWN #NTT #NTT東日本 #APN_for_IOWN

NTT系、自動運転バスの遠隔監視を横浜で実証--5G通信を最適化し「映像途切れ」を防ぐ
https://japan.cnet.com/article/35242927/
#japan_cnet #NTTドコモビジネス #自動運転バス #自動運転 #レベル4自動運転 #5G_SA #ローカル5G #IOWN #横浜市 #先進モビリティ

NTT、AI電力危機に光量子コンピューターで挑む　2030年に100万量子ビット目指す
https://japan.cnet.com/article/35240612/
#japan_cnet #NTT #光量子コンピューター #量子コンピューター #OptQC #IOWN

https://www.tkhunt.com/2141883/ 【NTT決算暴落】理論株価198円で超割安⁈IOWN商用化へ2026年の戦略 #investment #iown #NISA #国策 #日本株 #株価

https://www.tkhunt.com/2141883/ 【NTT決算暴落】理論株価198円で超割安⁈IOWN商用化へ2026年の戦略 #investment #iown #NISA #国策 #日本株 #株価

https://www.tkhunt.com/2141883/ 【NTT決算暴落】理論株価198円で超割安⁈IOWN商用化へ2026年の戦略 #investment #iown #NISA #国策 #日本株 #株価

https://www.tkhunt.com/2141883/ 【NTT決算暴落】理論株価198円で超割安⁈IOWN商用化へ2026年の戦略 #investment #iown #NISA #国策 #日本株 #株価

プロバスケ「神戸ストークス」の試合を万博会場にライブ発信　スマートバリュー子会社が次世代通信技術IOWNなどを活用
https://www.kyodo.co.jp/news/2025-10-15_3967780/

#kyodo #経済_ビジネス #b_dot #bdot #GLION_ARENA_KOBE #IOWN #NTTグループ #ovo #スマートバリュー #神戸ストークス

NTT社長、NVIDIAの光電融合に言及--「我々のコンセプトがようやく認められた証拠」
https://japan.cnet.com/article/35236414/
#japan_cnet #NTT #IOWN #データセンター #スイッチ

NTTパビリオンも良かった。Perfumeのライブからは未来のライブコンテンツの可能性を感じたな。「ライブ中継」はライブの劣化版に過ぎないが、これは全く新たな価値を付与して別ジャンルのコンテンツとして成立させた感がある。ライブストリーミング技術は日本のコンテンツ輸出との相乗効果も期待できる。
　三部構成になっていて、自分はこう解釈した。
　①コミュニケーションを支える通信の進化と限界
　②テクノロジーが齎す次世代のエンターテイメント(IOWNとPerfumeライブによるデモ)
　③テクノロジーが変革する社会文化の可能性
https://group.ntt/jp/expo2025/pavilion/
　IOWNのデモも外で行っていて超低遅延通信を体験できる。
　NTTの良い広報施設だね。「旧公社、お役所っぽい」「とりあえずデカい」「電話の会社」「保守的」みたいなイメージを払拭したいという目的はあったに違いない。NTTは万博への出資を最大限上手く使ったと言えそうだ。
#万博 #Perfume #IOWN #NTT

Weekly output: IOWN, eSIMs, Android sneak peek, Ranking Digital Rights, Web3, data ownership in Brazil, Elon Musk’s DOGE detour, blanding, passkey adoption, Google’s AI Mode, Read AI bundles two more AI platforms

Even subtracting the posts written in previous weeks (the first and second links below) and the time I spent moderating panels at Web Summit Rio (the fifth, sixth and eighth links below), this was a busy week. And yet I wish I’d had time to write about one more thing: the brutal ruling that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down Wednesday against Apple in the long-running Epic v. Apple case. In that opinion, which essentially destroys a large part of Apple’s rent-seeking App Store strategy, the judge condemned multiple levels of Apple duplicity that included one vice president lying under oath and concluded that Apple thinking “this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation.”

Patreon readers got an extra post from me this week: a recap of how Web Summit Rio highlighted the useful and cringe-inducing-to-outright-offensive sides of cryptocurrency advocacy.

4/28/2025: NTT’s IOWN pitch: long on possibilities, sometimes short on metrics, Light Reading

I wanted to get an outside perspective on the sales pitch I got from NTT at its Upgrade 2025 conference in San Francisco in mid-April (for which the Japanese telco covered my travel expenses), and the one I got from my tech-analyst pal Mark Vena pointed out some non-trivial gaps in NTT’s presentation.

4/28/2025: Why You Should Use eSIMs When Traveling Internationally, AARP

Most of the research for this happened during MWC Barcelona in early March, but various hangups in AARP’s story-assignment machinery held up the piece for a while.

4/28/2025: Why Wait? Google Teases Android 16 Sneak Peek Ahead of I/O, PCMag

This was one of the shortest posts I’ve ever filed for PCMag, owing to the lack of details in this Google announcement.

4/28/2025: More Breakdowns Than Breakthroughs in Latest Big Tech Digital Rights Scorecard, PCMag

The Ranking Digital Rights project posted its first assessment in about two and a half years of the commitments tech companies make to uphold human rights. Spoiler alert: This survey found no heroes.

4/28/2025: Does Web3 represent an opportunity or a risk?, Web Summit Rio

The last panel this conference asked me to moderate came first on the schedule–and then I went from having two fintech investors to quiz to having one, Kaszek partner Santiago Fossatti. My worries that I’d have to improvise at length to fill this timeslot evaporated once I saw how he’d answer my questions at length.

4/29/2025: Owning your own data, Web Summit Rio

I’ve been watching and moderating Web Summit panels about data ownership and privacy for years, but this one–featuring Brittany Kaiser, co-founder of the Own Your Data Foundation; Rodrigo Assumpção, CEO of Brazil’s social-security firm Dataprev; and Gustavo Franco, former governor of Brazil’s central bank–outlined some real-world steps happening in Brazil to make that vision a working reality that might yield some modest extra income for citizens who opt in.

4/30/2025: 100 Days of DOGE: Is Elon Musk’s Protective Layer of Sycophants Thinning?, PCMag

I wrote up a very good panel featuring New York Times tech reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, in which the authors of the book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter unpacked how Musk has given the federal government the same treatment he inflicted on Twitter.

4/30/2025: AI and the rise of blanding, Web Summit Rio

Title notwithstanding, this panel with Camila Moletta, CEO of More Grls, and Lisa Smith, global executive creative director of Jones Knowles Ritchie, was less about AI than about graphic design in advertising.

5/1/2025: 75% of People Are ‘Aware’ of Passkeys, But Are They Actually Using Them?, PCMag

I wrote up an embargoed copy of a survey about passkey adoption that had some stats that confused me, so I e-mailed the publicist to get more context and then quoted his explanation in the post. After publication, the PR guy asked if we could take his name out of the story because he works for an outside PR firm; I replied that my editor would probably be fine with that (which was true), but that he needed to make that request upfront instead of incorrectly assuming some default setting of anonymity for PR types.

5/1/2025: Google Drops AI Mode Waitlist, Adds Shopping Tools: Here’s How to Try, PCMag

I filed my last copy for April from my hotel room in Rio a little before midnight on April 30. Being able to put one last bit of work on a monthly invoice can be a powerful motivation.

5/2/2025: Why Have One AI Service When You Can Have 3? Read Bundles GPT-4.1, Claude, PCMag

I didn’t have this on my story-possibilities list for Web Summit, but I got into a conversation with the CEO and publicist of the AI service Read on a shuttle from the convention center back to the hotel, which led to the publicist asking if I’d like cover Read’s imminent announcement of it bundling two other AI services, which led to my quizzing Read CEO David Shim in the speaker lounge Wednesday.

#advertising #AIMode #blanding #Brazil #cryptocurrency #dataOwnership #Dataprev #DrumWave #eSIM #eSIMs #GoogleAISearch #IOWN #NTT #owningYourData #passkeys #photonics #ReadAI #Rio #WebSummitRio #WorldPasswordDay

Weekly output: IOWN, eSIMs, Android sneak peek, Ranking Digital Rights, Web3, data ownership in Brazil, Elon Musk’s DOGE detour, blanding, passkey adoption, Google’s AI Mode, Read AI bundles two more AI platforms

Even subtracting the posts written in previous weeks (the first and second links below) and the time I spent moderating panels at Web Summit Rio (the fifth, sixth and eighth links below), this was a busy week. And yet I wish I’d had time to write about one more thing: the brutal ruling that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down Wednesday against Apple in the long-running Epic v. Apple case. In that opinion, which essentially destroys a large part of Apple’s rent-seeking App Store strategy, the judge condemned multiple levels of Apple duplicity that included one vice president lying under oath and concluded that Apple thinking “this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation.”

Patreon readers got an extra post from me this week: a recap of how Web Summit Rio highlighted the useful and cringe-inducing-to-outright-offensive sides of cryptocurrency advocacy.

4/28/2025: NTT’s IOWN pitch: long on possibilities, sometimes short on metrics, Light Reading

I wanted to get an outside perspective on the sales pitch I got from NTT at its Upgrade 2025 conference in San Francisco in mid-April (for which the Japanese telco covered my travel expenses), and the one I got from my tech-analyst pal Mark Vena pointed out some non-trivial gaps in NTT’s presentation.

4/28/2025: Why You Should Use eSIMs When Traveling Internationally, AARP

Most of the research for this happened during MWC Barcelona in early March, but various hangups in AARP’s story-assignment machinery held up the piece for a while.

4/28/2025: Why Wait? Google Teases Android 16 Sneak Peek Ahead of I/O, PCMag

This was one of the shortest posts I’ve ever filed for PCMag, owing to the lack of details in this Google announcement.

4/28/2025: More Breakdowns Than Breakthroughs in Latest Big Tech Digital Rights Scorecard, PCMag

The Ranking Digital Rights project posted its first assessment in about two and a half years of the commitments tech companies make to uphold human rights. Spoiler alert: This survey found no heroes.

4/28/2025: Does Web3 represent an opportunity or a risk?, Web Summit Rio

The last panel this conference asked me to moderate came first on the schedule–and then I went from having two fintech investors to quiz to having one, Kaszek partner Santiago Fossatti. My worries that I’d have to improvise at length to fill this timeslot evaporated once I saw how he’d answer my questions at length.

4/29/2025: Owning your own data, Web Summit Rio

I’ve been watching and moderating Web Summit panels about data ownership and privacy for years, but this one–featuring Brittany Kaiser, co-founder of the Own Your Data Foundation; Rodrigo Assumpção, CEO of Brazil’s social-security firm Dataprev; and Gustavo Franco, former governor of Brazil’s central bank–outlined some real-world steps happening in Brazil to make that vision a working reality that might yield some modest extra income for citizens who opt in.

4/30/2025: 100 Days of DOGE: Is Elon Musk’s Protective Layer of Sycophants Thinning?, PCMag

I wrote up a very good panel featuring New York Times tech reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, in which the authors of the book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter unpacked how Musk has given the federal government the same treatment he inflicted on Twitter.

4/30/2025: AI and the rise of blanding, Web Summit Rio

Title notwithstanding, this panel with Camila Moletta, CEO of More Grls, and Lisa Smith, global executive creative director of Jones Knowles Ritchie, was less about AI than about graphic design in advertising.

5/1/2025: 75% of People Are ‘Aware’ of Passkeys, But Are They Actually Using Them?, PCMag

I wrote up an embargoed copy of a survey about passkey adoption that had some stats that confused me, so I e-mailed the publicist to get more context and then quoted his explanation in the post. After publication, the PR guy asked if we could take his name out of the story because he works for an outside PR firm; I replied that my editor would probably be fine with that (which was true), but that he needed to make that request upfront instead of incorrectly assuming some default setting of anonymity for PR types.

5/1/2025: Google Drops AI Mode Waitlist, Adds Shopping Tools: Here’s How to Try, PCMag

I filed my last copy for April from my hotel room in Rio a little before midnight on April 30. Being able to put one last bit of work on a monthly invoice can be a powerful motivation.

5/2/2025: Why Have One AI Service When You Can Have 3? Read Bundles GPT-4.1, Claude, PCMag

I didn’t have this on my story-possibilities list for Web Summit, but I got into a conversation with the CEO and publicist of the AI service Read on a shuttle from the convention center back to the hotel, which led to the publicist asking if I’d like cover Read’s imminent announcement of it bundling two other AI services, which led to my quizzing Read CEO David Shim in the speaker lounge Wednesday.

#advertising #AIMode #blanding #Brazil #cryptocurrency #dataOwnership #Dataprev #DrumWave #eSIM #eSIMs #GoogleAISearch #IOWN #NTT #owningYourData #passkeys #photonics #ReadAI #Rio #WebSummitRio #WorldPasswordDay

Weekly output: IOWN, eSIMs, Android sneak peek, Ranking Digital Rights, Web3, data ownership in Brazil, Elon Musk’s DOGE detour, blanding, passkey adoption, Google’s AI Mode, Read AI bundles two more AI platforms

Even subtracting the posts written in previous weeks (the first and second links below) and the time I spent moderating panels at Web Summit Rio (the fifth, sixth and eighth links below), this was a busy week. And yet I wish I’d had time to write about one more thing: the brutal ruling that Judge Yvonne Gonzalez Rogers handed down Wednesday against Apple in the long-running Epic v. Apple case. In that opinion, which essentially destroys a large part of Apple’s rent-seeking App Store strategy, the judge condemned multiple levels of Apple duplicity that included one vice president lying under oath and concluded that Apple thinking “this Court would tolerate such insubordination was a gross miscalculation.”

Patreon readers got an extra post from me this week: a recap of how Web Summit Rio highlighted the useful and cringe-inducing-to-outright-offensive sides of cryptocurrency advocacy.

4/28/2025: NTT’s IOWN pitch: long on possibilities, sometimes short on metrics, Light Reading

I wanted to get an outside perspective on the sales pitch I got from NTT at its Upgrade 2025 conference in San Francisco in mid-April (for which the Japanese telco covered my travel expenses), and the one I got from my tech-analyst pal Mark Vena pointed out some non-trivial gaps in NTT’s presentation.

4/28/2025: Why You Should Use eSIMs When Traveling Internationally, AARP

Most of the research for this happened during MWC Barcelona in early March, but various hangups in AARP’s story-assignment machinery held up the piece for a while.

4/28/2025: Why Wait? Google Teases Android 16 Sneak Peek Ahead of I/O, PCMag

This was one of the shortest posts I’ve ever filed for PCMag, owing to the lack of details in this Google announcement.

4/28/2025: More Breakdowns Than Breakthroughs in Latest Big Tech Digital Rights Scorecard, PCMag

The Ranking Digital Rights project posted its first assessment in about two and a half years of the commitments tech companies make to uphold human rights. Spoiler alert: This survey found no heroes.

4/28/2025: Does Web3 represent an opportunity or a risk?, Web Summit Rio

The last panel this conference asked me to moderate came first on the schedule–and then I went from having two fintech investors to quiz to having one, Kaszek partner Santiago Fossatti. My worries that I’d have to improvise at length to fill this timeslot evaporated once I saw how he’d answer my questions at length.

4/29/2025: Owning your own data, Web Summit Rio

I’ve been watching and moderating Web Summit panels about data ownership and privacy for years, but this one–featuring Brittany Kaiser, co-founder of the Own Your Data Foundation; Rodrigo Assumpção, CEO of Brazil’s social-security firm Dataprev; and Gustavo Franco, former governor of Brazil’s central bank–outlined some real-world steps happening in Brazil to make that vision a working reality that might yield some modest extra income for citizens who opt in.

4/30/2025: 100 Days of DOGE: Is Elon Musk’s Protective Layer of Sycophants Thinning?, PCMag

I wrote up a very good panel featuring New York Times tech reporters Kate Conger and Ryan Mac, in which the authors of the book Character Limit: How Elon Musk Destroyed Twitter unpacked how Musk has given the federal government the same treatment he inflicted on Twitter.

4/30/2025: AI and the rise of blanding, Web Summit Rio

Title notwithstanding, this panel with Camila Moletta, CEO of More Grls, and Lisa Smith, global executive creative director of Jones Knowles Ritchie, was less about AI than about graphic design in advertising.

5/1/2025: 75% of People Are ‘Aware’ of Passkeys, But Are They Actually Using Them?, PCMag

I wrote up an embargoed copy of a survey about passkey adoption that had some stats that confused me, so I e-mailed the publicist to get more context and then quoted his explanation in the post. After publication, the PR guy asked if we could take his name out of the story because he works for an outside PR firm; I replied that my editor would probably be fine with that (which was true), but that he needed to make that request upfront instead of incorrectly assuming some default setting of anonymity for PR types.

5/1/2025: Google Drops AI Mode Waitlist, Adds Shopping Tools: Here’s How to Try, PCMag

I filed my last copy for April from my hotel room in Rio a little before midnight on April 30. Being able to put one last bit of work on a monthly invoice can be a powerful motivation.

5/2/2025: Why Have One AI Service When You Can Have 3? Read Bundles GPT-4.1, Claude, PCMag

I didn’t have this on my story-possibilities list for Web Summit, but I got into a conversation with the CEO and publicist of the AI service Read on a shuttle from the convention center back to the hotel, which led to the publicist asking if I’d like cover Read’s imminent announcement of it bundling two other AI services, which led to my quizzing Read CEO David Shim in the speaker lounge Wednesday.

#advertising #AIMode #blanding #Brazil #cryptocurrency #dataOwnership #Dataprev #DrumWave #eSIM #eSIMs #GoogleAISearch #IOWN #NTT #owningYourData #passkeys #photonics #ReadAI #Rio #WebSummitRio #WorldPasswordDay

RT @RK802STAFF: 今夜11時〜 #RK802
昨日、大阪・吹田の万博記念公園から行った
#IOWN を活用した 世界初の
パフォーマンス✨直後の声が到着☎️🌍

いつも通りリスナーメッセージにもお答え✉️
推しが多すぎる悩み🌀3人それぞれの名前の由来は？

新曲「…
April 03, 2025 at 07:40PM
https://twitter.com/Perfume_Staff/status/1907744911849640218

ドコモ、IOWNの活用による東京ドーム巨人戦を映像配信する実証実験--新たな観戦体験を提供
https://japan.cnet.com/article/35224033/
#japan_cnet #IOWN #プロ野球

Fujitsu aims to popularise APNs with new lab https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/fujitsu-aims-popularise-apns-new-lab/ #fujitsu #apn #iown #telecoms #digitaltwin #connectivity #networks #tech #news #technology

Fujitsu aims to popularise APNs with new lab https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/fujitsu-aims-popularise-apns-new-lab/ #fujitsu #apn #iown #telecoms #digitaltwin #connectivity #networks #tech #news #technology

Fujitsu aims to popularise APNs with new lab https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/fujitsu-aims-popularise-apns-new-lab/ #fujitsu #apn #iown #telecoms #digitaltwin #connectivity #networks #tech #news #technology

Fujitsu aims to popularise APNs with new lab https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/fujitsu-aims-popularise-apns-new-lab/ #fujitsu #apn #iown #telecoms #digitaltwin #connectivity #networks #tech #news #technology

Fujitsu aims to popularise APNs with new lab https://www.telecomstechnews.com/news/fujitsu-aims-popularise-apns-new-lab/ #fujitsu #apn #iown #telecoms #digitaltwin #connectivity #networks #tech #news #technology

注目集めた指輪型にEV、「主役」はスマホからAIへ--MWC Barcelona 2024振り返り、日本企業は存在感高められるか
https://japan.cnet.com/article/35215921/
#japan_cnet #NTT #NTTドコモ #KDDI #ソフトバンク #サムスン電子 #シャオミ #ファーウェイ_テクノロジーズ #モトローラ_モビリティ #クアルコム #エヌビディア #ARM #楽天モバイル #IOWN

NTT、「デジタル分身」の実現に向けた2つの新技術--対話技術と声を低コストで再現
https://japan.cnet.com/article/35213903/
#japan_cnet #IOWN