#wifihotspots — Public Fediverse posts

Weekly output: Clarus the dogcow, Pixel feature drop, trust in AI, WiFi hotspots

I’m in the middle of one of my shorter pauses between trips this year–I got home Sunday evening from visiting Los Angeles for Cranky Dorkfest, my second trip to that excellent avgeek meetup, and Monday afternoon I start my journey to Amsterdam for the HumanX AI conference there, where I’m moderating two panels and having my airfare and lodging covered by the organizers.

Patreon readers got an extra post Saturday, inspired in part by my Dorkfest travel logistics: how the major hotel operators, Hyatt in particular, have convinced me that it’s not particularly worth trying to earn elite status better than whatever tier is above general membership.

9/14/2026: Apple Hid a Legendary ’80s Mac Mascot Inside Its New OSes. Here’s How to Find It, PCMag

After reading a report about this Easter egg in 9to5Mac, I felt obliged to write it up myself as a Mac user old enough to remember seeing this printer-settings mascot in everyday use.

9/15/2026: Latest Pixel Feature Drop Expands Access to Scam-Text Detection, PCMag

This was one of Google’s skimpier sets of updates to its Pixel devices.

9/16/2026: Trust in AI Eroded Significantly Over Past Year, Even Among Those Who Use It, PCMag

A survey with surprising results will always get my attention.

9/16/2026: The Best Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wirecutter

This update was supposed to have been published months ago. But right as I was about to file my revisions, I learned that AT&T had discontinued the hotspot we’d picked as the best option for most people. Then I learned of new hotspots coming to all three carriers, which required me to request loaner units and reboot my hardware testing for this piece–after which I also had to update our information about hotspot-data plans on the market because those, too, had changed a bit.

Mashable: Microsoft warns hackers have compromised many hotel WiFi networks. “Microsoft says the WiFi at your hotel might be compromised. In a post on its Threat Intelligence website (via ABC News), Microsoft warned of a new hacking operation called ‘CaptiveCrunch,’ which the company claimed had some ties to Russia.”

Weekly output: FCC independence, Starlink mobile-broadband ambitions, TAE + TMTG, best WiFi hotspots

In addition to wrapping up my holiday shopping far later than I expected, this week saw me mostly finish migrating from Evernote to Obsidian after management at the note-taking app I’ve used since 2010 elected to impose a 92 percent rate increase.

12/18/2025: FCC Scrambles to Edit Website After Chair Refuses to Say Agency Is Independent, PCMag

Here we have yet another case of the 2025 version of FCC chair Brendan Carr taking a position on a tech-policy issue explicitly rejected by an earlier model year of this man. But this time around, the Trump-loyalist chairman made his heel turn even more obvious by apparently ordering up a hasty edit of the commission’s about-us page.

12/19/2025: SpaceX Exec Tips ‘Real’ High-Speed Cellular Starlink, With 15K More Satellites, PCMag

This story started with my attending a space-telecom conference in D.C. two Mondays ago, then I needed to educate myself much more about SpaceX’s ambitions for direct-to-device broadband from a future generation of Starlink satellites.

12/19/2025: Trump’s Truth Social to Merge With Fusion Startup You’ve Probably Never Heard Of, PCMag

Will the Trump family still be so enthusiastic about TAE Technologies if their backing somehow helps it finally commercialize fusion power generation and in so doing hammers the last nail into the coffin of the coal-fired power plants so beloved by our scientifically-illiterate president? (Answer: That question is probably irrelevant, because coal is already so uncompetitive that this administration’s fossil-fuel fetishists feel compelled to issue orders to keep obsolete coal plants online on a fake “emergency” basis.)

12/19/2025: The Best Wi-Fi Hotspot, Wirecutter

I updated the “What to look forward to” section of this guide–last updated almost a year ago–to note how AT&T has added two newer models to its lineup. One of them looks like an immense improvement over our previous pick from that carrier.

#ATTHotspots #BrendanCarr #cleanPower #D2D #directToDevice #directToCell #FCC #FCCIndependentAgency #FranklinA70 #fusionPower #SpaceX #Starlink #TAE #TMTG #TrumpMediaTechnologyGroup #TruthSocial #WiFiHotspots