Weekly output: tech for creators, Xfinity Mobile plans, how 1Password eyes AI, cheaper NextGen TV tuners

This coming week will not be like the last six and change because my calendar has me sleeping in my own bed every night. That is an exciting prospect after a string of trips that took me to Austin, L.A., Chicago, Boston, San Francisco, San Jose and Las Vegas… but this workweek isn’t free of travel, as I’m taking a day trip to NYC for Uber’s Go-Get press event Wednesday.

4/21/2026: Out and About with Jefferson and Jules, NAB Show

I went to the National Association of Broadcasters’ conference for the first time since 2015 for about the same reason as that previous trip: speaking on a panel. This one featured my former USA Today colleague Jefferson Graham and travel journalist Juliana Broste (the last name rhymes with “frosty”) talking about the tools they use to take and share photos and videos from interesting places. Having two people well-versed in speaking on camera on the same stage made my job as a panel moderator easy.

4/22/2026: Comcast Adds 2 Premium Xfinity Mobile Plans With Global Roaming Included, PCMag

This post was kind of a disaster, in that Comcast’s embargoed press release left out important details about these new plans and then my PR contact provided also-unhelpful answers to my questions. After seeing the details of these plans Wednesday morning, I rewrote a large chunk of the post from the United lounge at LAS before boarding my flight out of Vegas.

4/23/2026: 1Password sees AI as both threat and tool, Fast Company

I interviewed 1Password’s new chief technology officer Nancy Wang in the speaker lounge at HumanX in San Francisco as that room was getting closed down at the end of that conference. I did not write up the interview that night, as I was meeting an old friend for dinner, and then did not get around to writing the story on the flight home.

4/24/2026: NextGen TV Backers Aim to Advance the Standard With Cheaper Converter Boxes, PCMag

I returned to the topic of this upgrade to broadcast TV (also known as “ATSC 3.0”) for the first time since 2024 (I think) to cover an initiative aired at NAB to lower the cost of watching NextGen TV broadcasts on sets without compatible tuners. Most new TVs still fall under that description, which is not something I would have predicted four years ago.

Weekly output: Bluesky verification, brain-computer interface, Xfinity Mobile, resisting FTC commissioners, Comcast pain points

RIO DE JANEIRO–The organizers of Web Summit Rio have once again seen fit to have me moderate panels at their conference here (with my hotel paid for and my airfare to be reimbursed). And while last year I got away with only doing one panel, this year I have three: a discussion about Web3 possibilities Monday, a session on data privacy Tuesday, and a panel about AI in advertising on Wednesday.

4/21/2025: Bluesky Adds Blue Checks to Verified Accounts, But They’re Not for Sale, PCMag

Bluesky’s management continues to impress me with their thoughtful responses to problems that arise with that decentralized platform.

4/23/2025: I Controlled a Wheelchair With My Mind (Well, I Think I Did), PCMag

The research for this happened three weeks ago at NTT’s Upgrade 2025 conference in San Francisco (with that Japanese telco covering my airfare and lodging), but writing this post took some time. And then my editor had to find time of her own to edit this between all of the news breaking this month.

4/23/2025: Xfinity Mobile’s New Premium Unlimited Plan Doubles Data Without a Price Hike, PCMag

I felt a little confused covering a story about Comcast that did not involve a service costing more–especially coming a day after T-Mobile announced a rate rewrite that looks like it will amount to a large cost increase for many users.

4/24/2025: The FTC Commissioners That Trump Wants to Fire: We’re Not Going Away, PCMag

I spent Wednesday and Thursday at the privacy trade group IAPP’s annual conference in D.C. thinking that Verge editor-in-chief Nilay Patel interviewing Rebecca Slaughter and Alvaro Bedoya, the two members of the Federal Trade Commission that Trump wants gone, would be the newsiest part. And so it was.

4/25/2025: Comcast Execs: Our Pricing Is Opaque and We Can Be Hard to Do Business With, PCMag

Because I was busy getting ready for IAPP Thursday morning, I missed the Comcast earnings call that featured executives admitting the “pain points” the company had created with its customers. Fortunately, nobody else at PCMag picked up the story before I could get to it Friday.

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