Weekly output: Mark Vena podcast, Verizon customer service, AI fair use, Comcast ditches data caps, Auroraās autonomous trucks, age verification for porn sites, Universal Service Fund, Trump tariffs
The first half of this year is almost in the books, which means Iām thinking of a few longer pieces that Iād meant to have seen published and paid for by now but instead have yet to start writing.
Patreon readers got an extra post from me this week: a recap of how Uber rides in Mexico City helped me realize how much trouble cheap Chinese EVs are going to cause for Tesla.
6/23/2025: Ep 112 SmartTechCheck Podcast ā Apple WWDC 25, Apple Intelligence, OpenAI device, Trump phone, Mark Vena
I suggested that this podcast cover the exercise in commercialized cult worship that is Trump Mobile. Two days after we recorded the show, that siteās description of the T1 phone that it plans to sell changed from āproudly made right here in the USAā to ābrought to life right here in the USA.ā
6/24/2025: Verizon Touts Upgraded Customer Service Push: Will It Make a Difference?, PCMag
Put me down as a skeptic of the difference that customer service can make in broadband: I canāt remember when I last called either my wireless carrier or my Internet provider for help.
6/24/2025: Judge: Itās Fair Use to Train AI on Books You Bought, But Not Ones You Pirated, PCMag
I found this case interesting for two reasons: It did not involve any claims of AI plagiarism and it allowed for a distinction between training AI models on purchased content and training it on pirated material. That last point should have Silicon Valley nervious, since so many large firmsāhi, Metaācould not resist taking that copyright-infringing shortcut.
6/26/2025: Comcastās New Plans Dump the Data Caps, PCMag
This is a post I have wanted to be able to write for years. I guess seeing enough subscribers flee for unlimited-data offerings of fiber and fixed-wireless services had a persuasive effect on Comcastās management that my own posts denouncing this exercise in abuse of market power did not.
6/27/2025: Aurora hits a self-driving trucking milestone, Fast Company
One of my editors suggested that Aurora launching commercial deliveries via its self-driving trucks meant it was time to revisit the company Iād profiled for Fast Co. last summer. Conveniently enough, Auroraās president Ossa Fisher was one of the speakers at Web Summit Vancouver, allowing me to interview her IRL during that conference.
6/27/2025: Sorry, Pornhub Fans: Supreme Court Upholds Texas Age-Verification Law, PCMag
I had this case on my list of opinions to look for on the Supreme Courtās site Friday morning, with an idea that my lede would have to reference Avenue Qās āThe Internet Is For Pornā regardless of the outcome. Iām surprised nobody else seems to have gone with that. After publication, my editor added statements about the decision from a few interested parties.
6/27/2025: That āUniversal Service Chargeā on Your Phone Bill Isnāt Going Away, PCMag
As I was working on a post about the Texas case, I saw this opinion pop up and realized that I should write about that as well. In the hours that passed, my inbox accumulated comments from a variety of groupsāincluding telecom trade associations that in other scenarios want the government to butt outāapplauding this decision.
6/28/2025: For Electronics Makers in Latin America, the Roller-Coaster Ride Is Worse Than Just Paying a High Tariff, PCMag
I started writing this piece from my hotel in Mexico City hours before my departure and then needed another week to check with NielsenIQ to see if they had any stats about the effects of tariffs on the country and then find time to finish and file the thing.
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