Weekly output: Most Innovative Companies, Serve Robotics, Android 17, United Airlines’ ambitions, Polymarket’s pop-up bar

CHICAGO–This is one of my favorite cities in the U.S., but it doesn’t show up in my work travel as often as I’d like. So I’m delighted that the Online News Association decided to move its annual conference from late summer to early spring and then stage this year’s event here–in a hotel that should be familiar to everybody who’s seen The Fugitive.

Patreon readers got a bonus post that I’d meant to have written weeks earlier: a recap of MWC Barcelona in which I also gave away a global eSIM to the first reader to ask for it.

3/24/2026: The most innovative robotics and engineering companies of 2026, Fast Company

This list, the product of months of research and editorial back-and-forth, finally emerged online this week. And then we had to run a quick correction after one of the companies honored said that we’d mentioned an achievement that they did not want disclosed.

3/25/2026: Delivery Robots Have a Mapping Problem, PCMag

I sat down in a hotel lobby in Austin during SXSW with MJ Burk Chun, co-founder and vice president of product and design at Serve Robotics, to talk about the issues that company is working to address as it tries to scale up having four-wheeled robots cart food deliveries to customers.

3/27/2026: Google Ships Latest Android 17 Beta. Here’s What’s New, PCMag

In between having so many longer stories to write, I was happy to get one that I could bang out in an hour or so.

3/28/2026: United’s New Upgrades Aim to Keep You Online and Fully Charged at 35,000 Feet, PCMag

My week started with me flying to another one of United’s hubs–with the airline covering my airfare and lodging–for its United Elevated event at LAX. In addition to looping me into UA’s ambitions for its onboard product, this event doubled as a reunion with some of the avgeek journalists I met at Cranky Dorkfest in September and with my former Washington Post colleague Lori Aratani, who interviewed United CEO Scott Kirby onstage Tuesday morning.

3/29/2026: Pints meet prop bets: Polymarket’s “Situation Room” pop-up bar in DC, Ars Technica

I thought I saw an opportunity to write for this occasional client for the first time since the summer of 2023; fortunately, my editor then and now agreed.

Serve Robotics Goes Indoor! $29M Deal to Acquire Diligent Robotics Finalized.

The robots are moving indoors! Serve Robotics just announced a game-changing $29 million acquisition of Diligent Robotics, the company behind the famous Moxi hospital robot. This isn't just a merger; it’s the birth of a unified "Physical AI" powerhouse.

#serverobotics #diligentrobotics #moxi #roboticsnews #autonomousdelivery

#TheMetalDogArticleList
#MetalSucks
Ghost Team Up with FeedLA & Serve Robotics to Give Out Food in Los Angeles

https://www.metalsucks.net/2025/12/20/ghost-team-up-with-feedla-serve-robotics-to-give-out-food-in-los-angeles/

#GhostTeamUp #ServeRobotics #EP #MetalSucks #metal #music

Serve Robotics Hits Major Delivery Robot Milestone on Time and on Budget!

Serve Robotics has hit its massive 2025 milestone! With over 2,000 autonomous delivery robots now patrolling the sidewalks of the U.S., Serve officially operates the largest fleet of its kind in the country. Accomplished on time and on budget, this rollout marks a twentyfold increase in their active fleet this year alone.

#serverobotics #autonomousdelivery #physical #technews #sustainablelogistics #lastmiledelivery

Weekly output: Next Big Things in Tech (x3), Starship, T-Satellite, prepaid home wireless broadband

A months-in-the-work project finally reached the publication stage this week, which felt good–if not as good as invoicing for this project. Another high point of this week: spending a chunk of Saturday afternoon at the No Kings demonstration in D.C. and seeing how strong the protest-sign game remains in my city.

10/14/2025: The 5 next big things in space and telecom for 2025, Fast Company

Once again, my work on Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech list (NBTT for short) started with judging entries in the converging industries of space and telecom.

10/14/2025: The 4 next big things in robotics and automation for 2025, Fast Company

This is another category I’ve judged before, but most of the companies I considered this year were new to my work at Fast Co.

10/14/2025: These 4 innovations help solve critical issues for North America, Fast Company

This was a new addition to my NBTT work, and deciding what made companies worthy of this honor in this geographically-defined category got tricky at times.

10/14/2025: Starship’s Version 2 Flies for the Last Time, Splashes Down in One Piece, PCMag

I wrote this recap of Starship’s 11th flight test Monday night and then revised the piece slightly Tuesday morning–hours before SpaceX released video of Starship’s upper stage looking more than a little cooked as it lowered itself into the Indian Ocean.

10/16/2025: Who’s on T-Satellite? T-Mobile Dominates, But Verizon Customers Say No Thanks, PCMag

One surprise of this study from Ookla was how many AT&T subscribers chose to pay $10 a month extra to T-Mobile for Starlink satellite roaming; another was how rarely wireless users now find themselves without a terrestrial signal.

10/17/2025: T-Mobile, Verizon Now Selling 5G Home Internet Service Via Their Prepaid Brands, PCMag

Telecom-industry analyst Jeff Moore e-mailed me about the impending launch of resold Verizon fixed-wireless-access broadband by its Tracfone subsidiary, then T-Mobile’s Mint Mobile subsidiary started reselling its parent firm’s FWA. Moore then gave me some useful insight about the state of prepaid home wireless broadband.

#911inform #AES #EascraBiotech #fixedWireless #Heven #home5G #ImpulseSpace #MintMobile #MobileX #Ookla #OWLIntegrations #PilaEnergy #ProRataAi #ServeRobotics #SpaceXStarship #Starlink #Starship #TMobileStarlink #TSatellite #TracFone #USMobile #Vantor #Varda

#Verpasstodon

Neue Form der Überwachung: Video von Lieferroboter ging "proaktiv" an Polizei

Auf den Gehwegen von Los Angeles sind immer mehr Lieferroboter unterwegs. Nun ruft ein Fall in Erinnerung, dass die ihre Umgebung auch konstant filmen.

https://www.heise.de/news/Neue-Form-der-Ueberwachung-Video-von-Lieferroboter-ging-proaktiv-an-Polizei-9320856.html?wt_mc=sm.red.ho.mastodon.mastodon.md_beitraege.md_beitraege

#Datenschutz #LosAngeles #Roboter #ServeRobotics #UberEats #Überwachung