Weekly output: Machine Zone (x2), Vivaldi browser, ad blockers, cord cutting, big data, Facebook Live, vanishing wireless plans

Posted on May 7, 2017 by robpegoraro

I had a short, fun and productive trip to New Orleans to attend and speak at the Collision conference. It doesn’t look like any of the panels I moderated got their own write-up, but I did get mentioned by Politico for attending the Cato Institute’s 40th-birthday celebration Saturday. That kind of publicity weirds me out a little.

5/2/2017: New sights, Collision

I didn’t know I’d be doing this interview of Machine Zone CEO Gabe Leydon–on the conference’s center stage–until the night before. The organizers asked if I could fill in, and I said sure. Our chat went well, but in retrospect I should have asked pressed Leydon on the risks to his ambitious and somewhat vague data-platform dreams.

5/2/2017: The journey towards corporate monopolies: The evolution of browsing, Collision

I interviewed Jon von Tetzchner, developer of the Opera and Vivaldi browsers, about the state of the market. You can see our chat 34 minutes into this video.

5/2/2017: Ad-blocking does more harm than good, Collision

I moderated a debate between Business Insider senior correspondent Steve Kovach and AdBlock CEO Matt Maier.

5/3/2017: Why Hulu with Live TV and other streaming TV services are worth the money, Yahoo Finance

The idea for this post debunking three common arguments against cord-cutting came together in my head as I walked from my hotel to the New Orleans convention center that morning.

5/4/2017: How will big data drive competitive intelligence?, Collision

This is an extraordinarily vague and buzzwordy title–I was prepared to start saying such replacement phrases for “big data” as “binary donuts,” “brand dances,” “bonus daguerrotypes,” and “brave daisies” to avoid repeating that two-word combo 50 times–but my conversation with Interana CEO Ann Johnson and DAQRI co-founder Gaia Dempsey stayed on the incisive side.

5/4/2017: Next level: Realtime for the cloud, Collision

My interview with Machine Zone CMO Kristen Dumont–a little more down to earth than Tuesday’s chat with the CEO–starts at about an hour and 58 minutes into this clip.

5/5/2017: These are the tech industry’s 2 biggest concerns about Trump, Yahoo Finance

I wrote much of this Collision recap on the flight back from New Orleans, then spent as much time on the piece in some editorial back-and-forth Friday.

5/7/2017: Facebook Live video, Al Jazeera

I talked about Facebook’s plans to hire another 3,000 people to police Live video.

5/7/2017: How to get AT&T’s cheaper wireless plans, USA Today

The cheaper, data-capped forms of AT&T’s Mobile Share Advantage plans have gotten harder to find on the carrier’s site, and this column explains why.

Weekly output: Porsche Design laptop, net neutrality (x2), getting the world online, app privacy

Posted on May 1, 2017 by robpegoraro

You can tell I’m about to go to New Orleans because I put a bunch of songs from the Meters and the Neville Brothers on my phone. As was the case about this time last year, my excuse is the Collision conference; I’ll be moderating four panels at this offshoot of Web Summit.

4/24/2017: We took Porsche’s pricey new laptop for a spin, Yahoo Finance

I filed this first-look report from the IFA Global Press Conference, but it didn’t get posted until the day after I returned from Lisbon.

4/26/2017: Trump’s FCC bulldozes open internet rules without a plan B, Yahoo Finance

The copy I filed went into more detail about FCC chair Ajit Pai’s weird, red-baiting attack on the liberal tech-policy group Free Press, but my editor thought that was a little too much inside baseball. I should note that I’ve spoken at two of Free Press’s events, most recently in Denver in 2013; I may have missed any praise from the organizers for Marx and Lenin when I ditched the conference for an afternoon to see the Rockies home opener.

4/27/2017: Trump’s FCC chair issues attack on open internet rules, Yahoo Finance

A day after Pai spoke about his intention to demolish the current net-neutrality rules, I unpacked the FCC notice of proposed rulemaking that would accomplish that goal.

4/29/2017: How to get 4 billion unconnected people online, Yahoo Finance

I wrote this post about the issues that keep some four billion people off the Internet after attending a Tuesday IEEE event featuring TCP/IP co-author Vint Cerf, but this week’s surplus of net-neutrality news caused it to get set aside for a few days. Having a chance to talk shop with one of the inventors of the Internet remains a mind-bending experience.

4/30/2017: Your data is priceless; that’s why some apps sell it, USA Today

Writing this piece about the amount of access some apps have to your data led me to yank the TripIt app out of my Gmail–I can have that service advise me about changes to my travel plans almost as easily by forwarding booking e-mails to it. And that way, I won’t have TripIt thinking an incremental e-mail from an airline or Amtrak represents a new itinerary.

Weekly output: tech-policy problems, Facebook video horrors, Tech Titans, Gmail password reset

Posted on April 23, 2017 by robpegoraro

I had my shortest-ever international business trip this week: Wednesday night I flew to Lisbon for the IFA Global Press Conference, and then today I came home. I was supposed to moderate a panel there, much as I did at least year’s version of this annual event run by the organizers of Europe’s big gadget trade show–but with less than two weeks to go, my panel got scratched. Whoops.

4/18/2017: 4 tech problems America’s lawmakers should fix, Yahoo Finance

This post inventoried four tech-policy areas where Congress is overdue to take action. Don’t be surprised if I get to rewrite this next year.

4/19/2017: Facebook can’t police Live video, and neither can anyone else, Yahoo Finance

A Washington Post story reminded me that a social-media expert with whom I’d shared a panel in 2014 would be a good source for a post about people using Facebook video to broadcast their crimes.

4/23/2017: Tech Titans, Washingtonian

The magazine put me on its biennial list of the most important people in technology for the second time in a row. I’m not sure made me more eligible for a spot than, say, Walt Mossberg–but I’m not going to turn this honor down either. This story is in the print copy of the lifestyle mag’s May issue; ~~once it’s online, I’ll add a link here~~ they posted it online May 3.

4/23/2017: I’ve lost my Gmail password: Now what?, USA Today

A one-time Discovery News colleague was willing to share his experience getting his Gmail password reset after realizing he’d also forgotten to update the recovery e-mail address for his account, which short-circuited the usual password-reset process.

Weekly output: border device searches, airline angst, Twitter bots, German cybersecurity

Posted on April 16, 2017 by robpegoraro

Happy Easter!

4/10/2017: The government might stop searching your phone at the border, but things could still get worse, Yahoo Finance

I haven’t had many reasons to worry about hangups returning to the United States since I got Global Entry, but any increase in the small chance that Customs and Border Protection officials might detain my devices for a search alarms me.

4/12/2017: The airline industry has never been better for customers, Yahoo Finance

You’ll get no argument from me that United Airlines screwed up by summoning police to drag a passenger off a plane to make room for a crew needed to work a flight the next day. But the idea that we’ve now descended into the worst era of commercial aviation is ridiculous. I’ll admit that the headline here may oversell the story slightly–but it’s nowhere as out-there as Wired’s “How United Turned the Friendly Skies Into a Flying Hellscape.”

4/13/2017: Twitter bots, Al Jazeera

The Arabic-language news channel had me on to discuss a recent study finding a strikingly high percentage of Twitter accounts did not seem to have a human behind them.

4/15/2017: Germany’s cyber corps, Al Jazeera

I appeared via Skype to discuss Germany’s move to launch a new cyber command. My main reaction: moderate confusion as to why did Berlin only decide now that they needed such a thing, when America set up its own cybersecurity branch in 2009 and Israel’s 8200 unit has become a talent pipeline to private industry.

Weekly output: watching baseball online, broadband privacy, Apple secrecy, Comcast wireless, Tech Night Owl

Posted on April 9, 2017 by robpegoraro

This week saw me at two Opening Days: On Monday, I attended the Nats’ home opener, and today I kicked off the 2017 lawn-mowing season. In both cases, I’m worried we’re going to fade down the stretch.

4/3/2017: The cheapest way to watch baseball online, Yahoo Finance

For once, I had good things to say about the availability of sports programming online, thanks to many regional sports networks now showing up on services like Sling TV, PlayStation Vue and DirecTV Now. Alas, the Nats’ Mid-Atlantic Sports Network is not among them.

4/5/2017: Broadband privacy, Al Jazeera

I talked about the swift, Republican-led dispatch of privacy regulations for the Arabic news network.

4/6/2017: How Apple’s secrecy can hurt consumers, Yahoo Finance

Apple’s unprecedented revelation of even broad details about the next Mac Pro and iMac kicked off this post about the unhelpful hangup many tech companies–no, not just Apple–have about keeping customers in the loop.

4/7/2017: The hidden details in Comcast’s wireless plan, USA Today

The amount of interest in Comcast’s upcoming Xfinity Mobile wireless service–which will run off Verizon’s network as well as Comcast’s network of WiFi hot spots–is remarkable, given that you’ll need to subscribe to Comcast Internet to use it. Also remarkable: how many details Comcast left out of its opening sales pitch for Xfinity Mobile.

If you look at the comments, you’ll see a complaint from a reader that an accompanying chart didn’t list the correct price for Google’s Project Fi wireless service. That chart now lists the right rate–yes, I do try to read comments, and in this case I sent a quick note to my editors advising them of the error.

4/8/2017: April 8, 2017 — John Martellaro and Rob Pegoraro, Tech Night Owl

I returned to this podcast for the first time since August (had it really been that long?) to talk about Apple’s tepid gesture at transparency, Xfinity Mobile, and the state of broadband privacy and competition.

Weekly output: Internet-provider privacy (x2), net neutrality, online privacy advice

Posted on April 2, 2017 by robpegoraro

I spent the first two days of the week commuting to Reston (by Metro and then Bikeshare) for a fascinating conference on drone policy issues. That hasn’t yielded a story yet, but it should soon.

3/28/2017: Congress votes to roll back internet privacy protection, Yahoo Finance

The speed with which Congress moved to dispatch pending FCC regulations that would have stopped Internet providers from selling your browsing history to advertisers without your upfront permission is remarkable, considering how our legislators can’t be bothered to fix actual tech-policy problems that have persisted for decades. It’s also remarkable how blind many people in Washington are to the immense unpopularity of this move.

I’m told this post got a spot on the Yahoo home page, which may explain the 2,796 comments it’s drawn. Would anybody like to summarize them for me?

3/29/2017: Internet providers and privacy, WTOP

The news station interviewed me about this issue. I was supposed to do the interview live, but after I got bumped for breaking news, they recorded me for later airing. How did I sound?

3/31/2017: Trump is going after the open internet next, Yahoo Finance

I have to admit that I missed White House press secretary Sean Spicer using part of his Thursday briefing to denounce the idea of the FCC classifying Internet providers as “common carriers,” which he compared to them being treated “much like a hotel.” That would be because I’ve never made a habit of watching White House press briefings live; it’s a little concerning to see alerts about them splashed atop the Post’s home page.

4/2/2017: Take these 5 steps to help protect your privacy online, USA Today

This story benefited from some fortuitous timing. When I wrote it, USAT’s site had not yet switched on encryption, and so the copy I filed had to note its absence. I asked my editor if she’d heard anything about a move to secure the connection between the site and a reader’s browser. She made some inquiries and learned that this upgrade would go into effect Sunday, my column’s usual publication day.

Weekly output: cybersecurity knowledge, defending digital rights, app cleanup

Posted on March 26, 2017 by robpegoraro

I have had a dreadful week, on account of being deprived Monday of one of my best friends in the Post newsroom. I can only hope yours was better.

3/22/2017: You’re not as secure online as you might think, Yahoo Finance

My takeaway from this Pew study of American acquaintance with cybersecurity was that I need to do a better job of coaching readers.

3/24/2017: Digital rights report hits Apple for its secrecy, Yahoo Finance

I had meant to attend Thursday’s presentation of the Ranking Digital Rights survey of how tech companies defend their customers, but I wound up watching the livestream of it–at the cost of missing out on whatever breakfast New America had.

3/26/2017: It’s time to spring-clean your phone apps, USA Today

I was running on fumes by Friday, so I was glad that my editor had suggested this easy-to-write topic a few weeks before.

Rob Pegoraro

Occasional shop talk about journalism, technology and a few other things

Category Archives: Weekly output