Weekly output: Verizon revamps plans, edge and on-device AI in connected homes

I keep saying that the only thing I really want for Father’s Day is a nap. This one has somehow not featured that, but I still can’t complain about how today has gone for me.

6/16/2026: Verizon Wireless Drops 2 Fees, Adds Rewards Programs and ‘Simplicity’ Plan, PCMag

I spent more time quizzing a Verizon publicist about this bundle of announcements than I’d expected because the advance copy of the company’s press release left out so many details–and then I still had to revise the post Tuesday morning with additional information about its new Verizon One bundle of home and mobile broadband.

6/18/2026: AI at the Edge: Smarter Decisions, Less Latency, Unify 2026

The Connectivity Standards Alliance, the trade group behind the Matter standard for connected-home devices, hosted a conference in Austin and saw fit to include me in the proceedings (and to pay me a stipend for my work as a panel moderator). My spot on the program was this panel featuring Felipe Benavides, head of partnerships at Liquid AI; Alan Coleman, chief product officer of Plume; Colin Cureton, product line vice president for  home business at Silicon Labs; and Rolf de Vegt, vice president of technical standards at Qualcomm. We spent 45 minutes unpacking what on-device AI models can do for gadgets ranging from light bulbs to dishwashers to thermostats–in particular, about the privacy upsides of sending less data to cloud services.

#Austin #ConnectivityStandardsAlliance #Matter #onDeviceAI #SimplicityPlan #verizon #VerizonOne #VerizonShine #VerizonWireless