Weekly output: Internet Archive, Roblox parental controls, Google travel-search tools, T-Mobile yanks free WiFi from United flights, Mark Vena podcast, talking to local user groups, AST SpaceMobile

LAS VEGAS–I’m typing this from a press room in the Las Vegas Convention Center barely three months after I spent too much time in that facility for CES. Credit or blame for this trip goes to a different Washington-area trade group, the National Association of Broadcasters. Tuesday, I will be moderating an NAB Show panel about the state of content creation that features two people who are better at Instagram than me: Juliana Broste and my fellow former USA Today columnist Jefferson Graham.

4/13/2026: Journalists Applaud the Internet Archive’s Role In Preserving the Public Record, Fight for the Future

A staffer with Public Knowledge e-mailed me a few weeks ago to ask if I would be willing to sign a letter supporting the Internet Archive’s efforts to preserve the history of the Web and possibly provide a quote about how I’d used the Archive. Having repeatedly relied on the Archive’s Wayback Machine to link back to my own past published work, I said I would be happy to do that–having already donated $100 to that San Francisco non-profit in January.

4/13/2026: Roblox Adds Account Restrictions for Younger Users, Expands Age Verification, PCMag

I attended a press roundtable Monday morning featuring some Roblox trust-and-safety executives, allowing me to enrich this writeup of the platform’s changes with quotes from that conversation.

4/15/2026: T-Mobile Grounds Free In-Flight Wi-Fi Benefit for United Airlines Passengers, PCMag

I had the dumb luck to see this change firsthand on a flight from Denver to San Jose Tuesday, then needed the rest of that day to get some responses from T-Mobile and United. The airline’s switch to free Starlink connectivity will fix this problem, but we are months away from that rollout reaching a significant fraction of United’s mainline fleet.

4/17/2026: Like It or Not, Google Wants to Be Your AI Travel Buddy This Summer, PCMag

I wrote up this post off an embargoed copy of Google’s announcement that we had to correct the next day because I had missed two of the finer points of this bundle of news. In my halfhearted defense, it is more work than you might realize keeping track of Google’s ongoing efforts to infuse AI into its existing services.

4/17/2026: How NTT Research’s Upgrade 2026 Helps Silicon Valley Get Ready for The Future, Mark Vena

My industry-analyst pal had do a quick video from NTT Research’s Upgrade conference in San Jose, Calif.–with that firm covering my travel costs–about some of its initiatives.

4/18/2026: 2026 Consumer Electronics Show and Lots More!, Potomac Area Technology and Computer Society/Osher Lifelong Learning Institute Personal Computer User Group/Washington Apple Pi

Despite that title–picked by the organizers at PATACS, pronounced “Pat-Aces”–I spent more time talking about other topics. Among them: my switch from Evernote to Obsidian just in time for CES, the sad state of tech policy in Washington, and my takes on self-driving cars and what’s befallen the Washington Post. As I have in previous appearances before these folks, I showed up with a bag of trade-show swag and gave away all of it.

4/19/2026: Blue Origin Rocket Launches, Then Loses AST SpaceMobile BlueBird Satellite, PCMag

I watched the third launch of Blue Origin’s New Glenn rocket on my phone as I was walking up to the security checkpoint at Dulles early Sunday morning, started writing up what I thought was a successful launch, then learned–via painfully slow inflight WiFi–that New Glenn’s second stage had failed to deliver AST’s mobile-broadband BlueBird satellite to the intended orbit. This is a real black eye for Blue that should outweigh its achievement in reflying a New Glenn booster and then landing it on a barge in the Atlantic.

T-Mobile’s Internet Deal Sweetens the Switch — Up to $750 to Leave, a Free Month to Try + Bonus Cash

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://cordcuttersnews.com/t-mobiles-internet-deal-sweetens-the-switch-up-to-750-to-leave-a-free-month-to-try-bonus-cash/

Metro by T-Mobile is slashing 50% off its unlimited plan — score six months for only $20 per month!

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/t-mobile/metro-by-t-mobile-is-slashing-50-percent-off-its-unlimited-plan-score-six-months-for-only-usd20-per-month

This is not a test: T-Mobile will already give you the TCL NXTPAPER 70 Pro for FREE with new deal

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/t-mobile/this-is-not-a-test-t-mobile-will-already-give-you-the-tcl-nxtpaper-70-pro-for-free-with-new-deal

T-Mobile will apparently give you a free Pixel phone AND some earbuds this month — here's how to claim yours

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://www.androidcentral.com/phones/t-mobile/t-mobile-will-apparently-give-you-a-free-pixel-phone-and-some-earbuds-this-month-heres-how-to-claim-yours

T-Mobile Promises Free Netflix Even After Its Recent Price Hike

https://fed.brid.gy/r/https://cordcuttersnews.com/t-mobile-promises-free-netflix-even-after-its-recent-price-hike/

Anybody using 5G for their home internet? My girlfriend has terribly slow and horribly over-priced AT&T but it doesn't look like she has any other wired option...

She can get T-Mobile 5G home internet here (I'd probably do it through my Mint Mobile account, slightly cheaper), and even the minimum advertised download bandwidth would be 10x (yes, 10x) what she currently has, and it would be SO much more inexpensive.

I assume you run into some congestion at times? How does it work, I assume it's like a bunch of 5G cell phones in a box? 😆

I'd prefer something wired but looks like there's just no other option in her apartment complex.

#internet #5gInternet #mintmobile #tmobile