Weekly output: AT&T’s mass-market plans, digital transformations, ROI of AI, AI in Android and Chrome development, Firefox as anti-Chrome, AT&T’s Build-A-Plan, DeepMind CEO on AGI, Starship v3 launch

After yet another week of travel–this time to the Bay Area, spending one day in San Jose at TechEx North America and then the next two days at Google I/O–I’m not going anywhere for the next two work weeks. I’m happy about that.

In addition to everything below, I wrote a post for Patreon readers about two recent challenges I experienced with public speaking: doing a solo PowerPoint presentation and then moderating a panel without being able to see how much time was left or even revise my handwritten notes.

5/18/2026: AT&T’s mass-markets chief: Consumers aren’t ‘chomping at the bit for 6G’, Light Reading

I interviewed Jenifer Robertson, executive vice president and general manager of mass markets at AT&T, at the wireless trade group CTIA’s summer in D.C. two weeks ago, and then getting some clarification about that company’s fiber-buildout plans took longer than I would have expected.

5/18/2026: Fireside Chat: My Transformation Stalled–What’s Gone Wrong?, TechEx North America

The first of two panels i did at TechEx in my second year speaking at this conference had me quizzing Manav Khatri, VP of product and strategy at Ford Credit, and Romona Brown, North American president at Prosci, about how companies can go awry when trying to advance digital transformations of legacy platforms.

5/18/2026: Panel: Measuring Success: ROI of AI and Automation in Business Transformation, TechEx North America

My second panel at TechEx, in the potentially dicey postprandial timeslot, had me quizzing Leo Le Hoang Dung, director of manufacturing digital systems and regional digital transformation at Procter & Gamble; Alice Hilson, senior director of digital innovation and enterprise technology at DuPont; and Brenton House, IBM’s principal advisor for automation and emerging technology. I was pleasantly surprised to see the number of people watching exceed the seats available.

5/19/2026: Google Unwraps Plans to Put AI to Work for Android, Web Developers, PCMag

I wrote part of this on the day before Google I/O and the rest early in the morning before the opening keynote.

5/20/2026: Firefox wants to be the anti-Chrome browser for the AI era, Fast Company

I scheduled an interview at Web Summit Vancouver with Ajit Varma, Mozilla’s head of Firefox, without realizing that my Fast Co. editor Harry McCracken had also booked time with him. But Harry didn’t have time to write something from his interview and generously handed his recording to me.

5/21/2026: AT&T Adds a New (But Retro) Wireless Plan Option: Data By the Bucket, PCMag

My advance copy of AT&T’s press release didn’t mention some important details, so I appreciated an AT&T publicist fielding questions I sent late in the day from Pacific Time while he was working in Central Time.

5/22/2026: DeepMind CEO: ‘AGI’ Is Coming Soon, But Here’s the Test It Must Pass First, PCMag

My one datelined I/O post from Mountain View covered a talk that DeepMind CEO and co-founder Demis Hassabis did with Axios co-founder Mike Allen that shed a little light about how one of the more accomplished people in AI sees where this technology is going.

5/23/2026: SpaceX Starship Hits Some Targets, Misses Others on Latest Test Flight, PCMag

I was ready to write about a launch of SpaceX’s Starship v3 Thursday, but a series of last-minute scrubs pushed that test flight to Friday and gave me enough time to write a little more of the story in advance.

For possible benefit to anyone.

I’m specifically referring to #Hulu and #ATT #ATTfiber but this may apply to more streaming services and ISPs.

I’d been getting more and more service disruption from Hulu lately and spent this afternoon troubleshooting.

I’m now thinking ATT’s default/automatic DNS service is awful for how VERY sensitive Hulu is to IP-based location. YTTV may be the same.

Switched my Apple TV to manual DNS using Cloudflare’s 1.1.1.1 and so far everything seems good again.

YMMV

Soooo

It's fkn down again. A 27 hr breath of air is now a giant, disconnected turd. The outage map says "equipment failure." I'm here to tell ya I got a piece of equipment right here that fails less than this and I'm almost 50. Just sayin'.

My wife tells me they gave us a giant $2.50 price break for the inconvenience. Hon, let's go to Chicago!

#ATT, your blazing fast fiber speeds are almost not enough to make up for your flaccid equipment. FIX IT, FOOLS!

#attfiber
#firstworldproblems
#attblackout2025

So after 65 hrs of continuous #attfiber no show, I am happy to say the blackout has ended. For now.

I'm not hopeful.

Thanks for following along and supporting me through this difficult time.

#attsucks
#firstworldproblems
#attblackout2025

I wonder what cavemen did before they could order worthless shit from Ali Express on their phone.

#attblackout2025
#firstworldproblems
#tethering
#attfiber