‘I became very aware of how misunderstood autistic people still are, especially in education, healthcare and workplaces’.

Lisa O’Neill is researching neuroaffirmative approaches in education for autistic students as part of her master’s degree at University College Dublin’s School of Medicine.

Alongside her research, O’Neill is the founder and CEO behind ‘NeuroConnect’, an autistic-led platform designed to translate research and lived experience into practical training, guidance and AI-supported tools. The tool is designed for a variety of groups, including educators, employers, families and autistic people.

O’Neill herself is autistic, having been diagnosed in her mid-forties. She says this new understanding set off a spark in her.

“Suddenly, so many experiences from my life started to make sense, but at the same time I became very aware of how misunderstood autistic people still are, especially in education, healthcare and workplaces.”

What inspired you to become a researcher? Do you have any specific memories that set off a spark?

One specific memory that stayed with me was realising how often autistic people are talked about in research and training but not genuinely included in shaping it. It made me want to contribute to research that centres lived experience and creates practical change, not just theory.

That experience inspired both my MSc research and my work developing NeuroConnect, an AI enabled, autistic-led platform focused on more neuroaffirmative support for educators, employers, families and autistic people themselves.

Can you tell us about the research you’re currently working on?

I’m currently completing an MSc research project focused on collaborative partnerships around autistic students in mainstream lower-secondary education. My research looks at how schools, families and autistic people can work together more effectively to create more supportive and neuroaffirmative educational experiences.

The project grew from my lived experience (as a late-diagnosed autistic adult and parent of an autistic child), and from seeing how often misunderstandings happen between systems, professionals, families and autistic people.

Over time, the research has evolved from simply looking at ‘support’ into exploring shared understanding, communication and relationship-building.

Drawing on my lived experience and understanding of autism, I worked closely with my child’s school during a very difficult transition, to help them better understand his needs and communication style. Over time, they began taking on board my advice and guidance, and the situation gradually improved. Today my son is attending school every day, which has had a huge impact on me personally and really shaped the direction of my research.

I’m working with supervisors across medicine and psychology, which has been really valuable because the project is very interdisciplinary.

Alongside my MSc, I’m also developing NeuroConnect, an autistic-led platform that translates a lot of these ideas into practical training and AI-supported guidance for educators, employers, families and autistic people. For me, the research and the platform are very connected because they are both focused on creating practical, real-world change.

In your opinion, why is your research important?

I think this research is important because many autistic people, particularly children and young people, are still trying to fit into systems that were never designed with autistic experiences in mind. Too often, support focuses on changing the autistic person rather than improving understanding, communication and the environments around them.

My research focuses on collaboration and shared understanding because I believe better outcomes happen when autistic people, families, educators and professionals genuinely work together and value each other’s perspectives. Small changes in understanding and communication can make a huge difference to a person’s education, wellbeing, confidence and future opportunities.

I also think it is important that autistic voices are included meaningfully in research and practice. Lived experience should not be an afterthought. It should help shape the systems and supports being created.

What commercial applications do you foresee for your research?

I see strong potential for my research to be translated into practical tools and training that improve real-world support for autistic people across education, healthcare and workplaces. Alongside my research, I am developing the NeuroConnect platform with the aim of turning research and lived experience into accessible training, guidance and AI-supported support tools.

The long-term goal is to develop evidence-informed resources that help educators, employers and professionals better understand and support autistic people in everyday settings. This could include neuroaffirmative training programmes, digital support platforms, collaborative planning tools, and AI-assisted guidance systems informed by lived experience and research evidence.

What is most important to me is that any commercial application remains grounded in ethics, accessibility and autistic perspectives, so that it creates meaningful and practical change rather than simply raising awareness.

What are some of the biggest challenges you face as a researcher in your field?

One of the biggest challenges is trying to bridge the gap between lived experience and traditional systems. In autism research, autistic voices have historically been underrepresented so there can still be a disconnect between what research focuses on and what autistic people actually need in everyday life.

Another challenge is that education, healthcare and workplace systems are often under significant pressure, so even when people want to do better, they may lack the time, training or resources to fully support neuroaffirmative approaches. Part of my research involves exploring how to create approaches that are both meaningful and realistic within real-world settings.

As someone coming into research through lived experience as well as academia, I also think there can sometimes be challenges in balancing personal insight with traditional academic expectations. At the same time, I see that as one of the strengths I bring to my work because it keeps the research grounded in real experiences and practical impact.

Are there any common misconceptions about this area of research? How would you address them?

Yes, I think one common misconception is that autism research is only about deficits, behaviours or finding ways to ‘fix’ autistic people. Increasingly, many researchers and autistic advocates are challenging that approach and focusing instead on shared understanding, communication and relational factors such as collaboration and emotional safety between autistic people and their wider support systems.

Another misconception is that supporting autistic people requires huge or unrealistic changes. In reality, small adjustments in communication, predictability, flexibility and understanding can often make a very significant difference.

I also think there can be a misunderstanding that lived experience and academic research are somehow separate. For me, lived experience strengthens research because it helps ensure the questions being asked are relevant to real life and the outcomes are meaningful for the people the research is intended to support.

What are some of the areas of research you’d like to see tackled in the years ahead?

I would really like to see more research that is genuinely co-produced with autistic people and grounded in lived experience from the beginning, rather than autistic people only being consulted at the end of a project.

I’d also like to see greater focus on relational and systemic approaches, particularly around communication, shared understanding and collaboration between autistic people, families, educators, clinicians and employers. I think there is still a lot we do not fully understand about how environments and relationships shape outcomes for autistic people.

Another area I think is incredibly important is the ethical use of AI and technology to improve accessibility, education, mental health support and everyday communication for neurodivergent people. There is huge potential there if it is developed in a neuroaffirmative and human-centred way.

Finally, I would love to see more strengths-based research that looks at autistic wellbeing, belonging, identity and long-term quality of life, rather than focusing only on difficulties or deficits.

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Portable Bluetooth speakers have grown far beyond the disposable little cylinders that once lived in kitchen drawers, rental cars, and beach bags until their batteries gave up the ghost. The category has exploded in recent years, drawing serious attention from brands such as KEF, DALI, Devialet, and Andover Audio, all of which see an opening for compact, battery-powered speakers that do more than make noise near a pool and can be tossed at that annoying relative who lacks a filter.

That brings us to the Andover Audio FreePlay and KEF Muo. On paper, there is a clear price difference, and the KEF arrives with the kind of industrial design pedigree and premium-brand cachet one expects. But this is not quite a battle between a luxury object and a lesser alternative. Both are designed to work at home, travel without complaint, and survive time outdoors; both also aim to offer more musical weight, clarity, and refinement than the usual Bluetooth-speaker suspects.

The real question is not which one has the fancier badge or the longer specification sheet. It is which portable speaker makes more sense for how you actually listen: on the kitchen counter, in a hotel room, by the grill, at the beach, or anywhere a proper stereo system would be excessive, impractical, or likely to attract complaints from someone who detests fun.

Related Reviews:

Andover Audio FreePlay vs. KEF Muo Specifications

Design, Portability, and Outdoor Use

Before getting into bass, detail, dynamic capabilities, and all of the other things people claim to hear while standing next to a braai with an ice-cold Castle Lager in one hand, the more useful question is how these speakers fit into daily life.

The FreePlay and Muo are both meant to travel beyond the living room, but that does not make them interchangeable. Size, weight, battery performance, weather resistance, charging, physical controls, wireless stability, and how easily each speaker moves from kitchen counter to hotel room to backyard all matter here. A portable speaker that sounds wonderful but stays on a shelf because it is too precious, too awkward, or too annoying to charge has rather missed the assignment.

Both proved more durable than their polished finishes might suggest. I used them at the beach, left them in the sand, poured water over them, and left both outside for roughly 30 seconds after the rain began. Neither speaker flinched. I did not submerge either one, because there is a difference between testing an IP67 rating and behaving like a man who has lost a bet.

The FreePlay’s protected connections inspire more confidence in that context. My only concern with the Muo is that its USB-C input is exposed rather than covered by a rubber flap. That has not proved to be a real-world issue so far. After nearly two months of regular use and more than a little abuse, the Muo is still kicking butt. But on a sandy beach or in wet conditions, it is one detail worth keeping in mind.

The two speakers approach portability from opposite ends of the dock.

At 9 pounds, the Andover Audio FreePlay is not something you toss into a coat pocket before leaving the house. It is a substantial portable speaker built around a genuine stereo driver array: two 5.25-inch woofers, two 25mm dome tweeters, and a large rear passive radiator. The fold-down handle, tie-down bars, included shoulder bag, IP67 rating, 24-hour battery claim, Qi charging pad, USB-C power delivery, microphone input, and Party Mode make clear that Andover expects the FreePlay to work as the musical center of a patio, pool day, boat trip, golf outing, or camping trip to get away from all of the summer people.

The KEF Muo is the more genuinely travel-friendly option. At only 1.6 pounds and 8.5 inches tall, it slides into a bag without requiring a logistical meeting first. Its sculptural aluminum enclosure, removable carry strap, IP67 protection, USB-C audio, Bluetooth 5.4 with aptX Adaptive, speakerphone function, KEF Connect app, and claimed 24-hour battery life give it a more compact and technologically polished brief. Pair two for dedicated left and right channels, or use Auracast to spread music across multiple compatible speakers.

It also has a useful second life as a desktop speaker. Positioned horizontally beneath an Apple iMac or on a narrow IKEA desk shelf, the Muo fits neatly where a conventional pair of speakers would be impractical. Its small rubber feet create a stable contact surface, while its orientation detection adjusts the DSP when the speaker is placed on its side. The result is a broader, more room-filling presentation than its narrow cabinet suggests, with a soundstage that can extend meaningfully beyond the speaker itself.

That is why the price difference is not as straightforward as it first appears. The Muo asks you to pay for miniaturization, materials, everyday portability, and KEF’s refined industrial design. The FreePlay gives you far more physical speaker, true stereo from a single enclosure, more output potential, more bass-producing surface area, and features that make it feel closer to a compact outdoor music system than a conventional portable Bluetooth speaker.

Both can handle the kitchen counter, hotel room, pool deck, beach, or backyard. The difference is that the KEF is the one you carry everywhere because it disappears into a bag; the Andover is the one you bring when the music needs to annoy everyone within 100 feet in every direction.

Connectivity, DSP, and Real World Performance

The technology matters here because these are fundamentally different solutions. KEF uses DSP, compact engineering, and app-based adjustment to make the Muo unusually flexible for its size. Andover gives the FreePlay more cabinet volume, more drivers, and far more physical presence. Neither approach is accidental.

Bluetooth, Apps, and Useful Technology

Both speakers paired quickly and reliably, with connection taking less than a second in most cases. The KEF Connect app gives the Muo useful sound-adjustment options, while the FreePlay keeps things more direct. Casting from an iPhone to the FreePlay simplified playback, and TIDAL, Qobuz, and Spotify all worked without noticeable lag.

Inside the house, wireless range was broadly similar. Interior walls mattered more than either speaker’s Bluetooth implementation, depending on where the source device was located. Outdoors, the Muo held a slight edge in connection range.

Indoor Listening and Low Volume Performance

The Muo is particularly effective in close-range listening. Positioned horizontally beneath an iMac, on a desk shelf, or on a kitchen counter, its orientation detection adjusts the DSP and creates a wider, more focused presentation than its narrow enclosure suggests. Pointed toward the listener, it works extremely well as a personal speaker.

The FreePlay cannot play that role in the same way. It is too large to disappear beneath a monitor, but it fills a room more easily and sounds clearer overall. The KEF works best when you are sitting near it; the FreePlay makes more sense when the music needs to reach beyond one person at a desk or table.

Bass, Scale, and Outdoor Volume

This is not a close contest.

The FreePlay has larger drivers, more cabinet volume, more bass-producing surface area, and more output. Those advantages matter outdoors, where music has to compete with wind, conversation, traffic, water, and the general chaos of people enjoying themselves. It produces more weight, more scale, and greater presence, while maintaining clarity as the volume rises.

The Muo is capable outdoors for personal listening, a small patio, or a hotel balcony. But it is still a compact portable speaker. The FreePlay is the one to bring when the music is expected to carry an outdoor gathering rather than simply accompany it.

The Bottom Line

The Andover Audio FreePlay and KEF Muo are closer than their price tags and dimensions initially suggest, but they are not trying to solve the same problem.

The KEF Muo is the more elegant compact speaker. It travels easily, looks at home on a desk or kitchen shelf, works exceptionally well beneath a monitor in its horizontal orientation, and uses its DSP intelligently to create a wider, more focused presentation for close-range listening. It is the better choice for hotel rooms, desktop systems, smaller spaces, and listeners who want a genuinely premium portable speaker without carrying something the size of a small carry-on bag.

The Andover Audio FreePlay is the more complete all-purpose music system. Its larger cabinet, true stereo driver array, stronger bass, greater output, and superior ability to fill a room or outdoor space give it a clear advantage when more people are listening or the environment is working against you. It also brings useful extras, including Qi charging, USB-C power delivery, a microphone input, Party Mode, and the kind of ruggedness that makes it easy to use at the beach, by the pool, or during a braai without treating it like a museum piece.

Buy the KEF Muo if portability, desktop use, design, and close-range listening are the priorities. Buy the Andover FreePlay if you want more scale, more bass, more output, and a speaker that can comfortably move from the kitchen counter to the backyard without running out of breath.

The Muo is the better compact speaker. The FreePlay is the better choice when you need a portable speaker to behave like a real music system.

Where to buy:

Related Reading:

Peranakan heritage food biz Tiap Tiap began selling on a Facebook group, now it’s a full-fledged shopfront

Most food businesses start with a business plan. Peranakan heritage food brand Tiap Tiap started with a pandan cake and friends who wouldn’t stop asking Sophia Yeow to cook for them.

Six years on, what began as a two-product home-based operation during Singapore’s circuit breaker has grown into a brick-and-mortar shopfront on East Coast Road in Joo Chiat. It’s a fitting location for the brand, rooted in the Peranakan heritage of the neighbourhood where Sophia grew up.

Vulcan Post spoke with Sophia, 55, and her daughter, Nicole Lian, 29, about how a small family business grew into a brick-and-mortar brand, and what it took to get there.

An accident that changed everything

Sophia launched Tiap Tiap in 2020 when an accident sent her to the hospital and prompted a reckoning with what she actually valued in life.

She had previously spent two decades in senior marketing and communications roles alongside running a child enrichment centre in Bukit Timah with a friend.

What was important to me was family. So I stepped away from everything.

Sophia Yeow

Sophia sold the enrichment business, gave six months’ notice at her corporate job, and spent time travelling with her parents and cooking for people she loved. 

With encouragement from her friend, Sophia began posting in a Facebook group called Singapore Home-cooked Delights. She started with just three products: a pandan chiffon cake, radish kueh, and yam kueh. She wasn’t sure anyone would buy.

To her surprise, strangers not only placed orders but also shared reviews in the group, helping word spread organically.

Soon, banks and other organisations looking to support home-based businesses during the pandemic began placing orders. At one point, Sophia was coordinating deliveries to 150 locations across Singapore over two days, juggling production and logistics on her own.

Today, Tiap Tiap has set up a 500 sq ft central kitchen in Bedok, while its production capacity has increased by 500% from its early pandemic days.

A mother-daughter business

In 2021, MediaCorp, having spotted her Instagram account where she shared food, travel and snippets of daily life, reached out to ask if she’d consider joining MasterChef Singapore.

Despite having no experience, she did it anyway, reaching the top 24. The experience led her to a subsequent cooking competition for home cooks, the Lee Kum Kee Supreme Chef Cooking Competition II, which Sophia won that same year.

The competitions gave Sophia greater visibility, but to her daughter, Nicole, her talent had never been in doubt.

Nicole grew up watching her mother set the family table differently from everyone else. Sophia would host themed dinners regularly. Indonesian night meant banana leaves and matching crockery; a trip to Athens meant Mediterranean food for a week, served on pieces Sophia had brought back specifically for the occasion. Besides the food, the whole experience surrounding the food was equally important to the family.

“As a kid growing up, I kind of knew there was something special in her cooking,” Nicole said.

So when Sophia started Tiap Tiap, Nicole naturally recommended the brand to friends and colleagues—she already believed in what her mother was making.

After COVID-19, Nicole noticed that while many home-based businesses fell away as restrictions eased, Tiap Tiap’s orders kept coming. This pushed Nicole to leave her corporate career in 2024 to join Tiap Tiap as Managing Director.

Nicole brought operational structure to what her mother had been running on instinct and craft by creating a system of orders that made organising and fulfilling orders simpler.

Sharing Peranakan heritage

By that point, Tiap Tiap had grown beyond cakes.

The brand also hosts Butterfly Table, a private dining experience held in Sophia’s home.

The weekly three-hour dinner combines Peranakan cuisine, storytelling and Sophia’s collection of antique crockery, giving guests a deeper appreciation of the culture behind the food.

Butterfly Table was born after a senior executive who had tasted Sophia’s cooking invited her to cater for Temasek and its board of directors for a month.

That opportunity led to her first private dining session at home—a Peranakan tok panjang for the current Singapore Ambassador to China, Peter Tan, who later told her it felt like coming home.

A measured expansion

Opening a physical store wasn’t an impulsive decision.

Before committing to a permanent retail space, Sophia and Nicole spent two years testing demand through pop-ups, allowing them to gauge customer interest and learn how to scale the business without taking on significant overhead.

Their first pop-up at Takashimaya in 2025 regularly sold out within 10 minutes of each restock, with customers queuing for the next batch of cakes to arrive from Tiap Tiap’s central kitchen.

At Boutiques Singapore, vendors from around the venue reserved cakes before the doors even opened, leaving little stock for the general public by 10AM.

The pop-ups confirmed what years of online orders had already suggested: demand for Tiap Tiap had outlasted the pandemic. Today, around 40% of its customers are repeat buyers who have supported the brand since its home-based days.

With that validation established, the team spent time at the central kitchen refining SOPs, building the team, and working out how to scale production reliably before making the retail commitment.

The shopfront at 374 East Coast Road eventually opened in late Jun 2026. Actual costs came in just under S$500,000—entirely self-funded, with no external investors.

Taking it one step at a time

Today, Tiap Tiap’s East Coast Road store operates as a takeaway concept, offering a range of sweet and savoury Peranakan fare.

The sweet treats are made on-site, while the savoury range and delivery orders continue to be prepared at the brand’s central kitchen in Bedok.

Although Sophia and Nicole still drop by the shop almost every day, Nicole’s immediate goal is to build the business to a point where it can operate without either of them being physically present.

After six years, neither mother nor daughter romanticises the leap from corporate life into entrepreneurship. Passion, Sophia said, is important—but it has to be matched with an understanding of what customers want.

Passion without appreciating what the market wants will eat you up very quickly.

Sophia Yeow

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Featured Image Credit: Veronica C via Google Reviews, Tiap Tiap

• OpenAI reveals first branded hardware, the Codex Micro, a programmable macro pad built with keyboard maker Work Louder
• Codex Micro seems to be based on Work Louder’s Creator Micro 2’s layout, mapped to Codex coding-agent shortcuts
• The move reinforces OpenAI’s Codex offering as one of its mainstay areas of focus by allowing developers the ability to perform tasks or interact with AI faster

OpenAI’s first branded piece of hardware is not a long-anticipated consumer device it is building with ex-Apple design chief Jony Ive, but rather a programmable macro pad called the Codex Micro.

The keyboard, which consists entirely of macro keys designed to “supercharge people’s Codex usage,” according to an OpenAI spokesperson at the AI Engineer World’s Fair, is reportedly a collaboration between the iPhone creator and the custom macro pad creator Work Louder.

Apple has released a new firmware developer beta build for AirPods and AirPods Pro, preparing the personal audio devices for upcoming iOS 27 changes.

Apple periodically updates the firmware of its accessories and peripherals to account for new features being added to its operating systems. With iOS 27, macOS 27, and others undergoing testing, that same process also happens for firmware updates.

Tuesday’s new firmware, build 9A5314b, is for the AirPods 4, AirPods Pro 3, and AirPods Max 2. The firmware is only available to developers, not to the general public.

The firmware can be downloaded by using the AirPods with an Apple device running iOS 26 or later, iPadOS 26 or later, or macOS 26 or later. There is an option under the AirPods settings interface to enable beta firmware installation.

After enabling it, the update process happens automatically, while recharging and within range of the host device.

Audio changes

While Apple doesn’t state what the firmware is for, it is almost certainly going to enable Apple’s personal audio devices to work properly with changes in its 27-generation operating systems.

Those changes include a redesign of the AirPods settings submenu, including easy-to-read labels and groupings similar to other Settings elements.

A new customizable EQ is also on the way, found under Settings, AirPods, Audio and Routing, then Equalizer.

Apple Watch users will also be able to use Find My to track down a pair of missing AirPods Pro. Lastly, for AirPods Pro 3, the heart rate tracking will now sync with GymKit on supportive exercise equipment.

Photo credit: Australia Space Agency
Over the weekend, visitors wandering along Australia’s Forrest Beach, just north of Townsville, came across something pretty unusual. A host of shining, metallic spheres began washing up on the beach, attracting attention due to their unique shapes and fittings in an area of the coastline where little else happens. Six of these appeared on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday, each almost twice the size of a basketball.

The news of the discovery spread quickly throughout the normally calm community, and before long, Queensland officials and police had established 50-meter safety zones around each of the orbs to keep everyone safe. The men in the big, heavy suits entered and began cleaning up the debris, depositing it into large bins, while they searched for any rocket chemicals that could cause problems. Researchers eventually concluded that the spheres were safe to be around.

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The Australian Space Agency arrived to take a closer look, and their researchers compared the shape, material, and construction of these orbs to every spacecraft component they could find, quickly concluding that these were essentially pressure tanks holding fuel or gases under extreme pressure to help the rocket lift off the ground and into the atmosphere. The agency has already determined which launch it most likely came from, and they are working with other countries to validate the exact rocket and who shot it.

Apparently, these small orbs serve as pressure tanks, keeping the propellants or oxidizers at the proper pressure so that the engines can fire properly as the rocket takes off and zooms across space. They’re rather well protected by thick walls and strong metals that can withstand the heat of re-entry, while the lighter pieces blast away. Over the next two days, ocean currents brought them closer to the Queensland shore.

Similar fragments have already been found on the beach, including an Indian rocket component discovered in Western Australia in 2023, and parts from NASA’s Skylab space station landed in the same state in 1979. Even with all of the new launches taking place across the world, it is extremely rare to locate parts of re-entry gear on land since, let’s be honest, the majority of it breaks apart or splashes into the water. When it comes to dealing with space trash, Australia follows the usual international guidelines. The components that survive re-entry are kept by the country that launched the rocket, and the government must request their return.
[Source]

A look at the dwarf planet Pluto and Titan, Saturn’s largest moon, baffled astronomers after the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) detected a chemical signature on their surfaces that does not match any recorded in spectroscopic databases. Researchers believe this is not an instrument error, but rather the signature of a compound whose identity remains a mystery—a mixture of materials never studied in a laboratory, or even a compound whose chemistry has not yet been characterized.

The finding appears in a study awaiting publication in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics. Scientists identified an absorption band centered at 5.113 micrometers on both Titan and Pluto—two worlds separated by billions of kilometers and with very different physical conditions. The signal appeared in observations made with two different instruments on the JWST, leading the team to rule out the possibility that it was a calibration issue or some other type of technical error.

Pluto, the dwarf planet.

Heritage Images/Getty Images

The key to the discovery lies in a technique known as spectroscopy. Each element or molecule interacts with light in a unique way, absorbing certain wavelengths and leaving a characteristic pattern, like a fingerprint. For decades, scientists have compiled vast catalogs of these spectral signatures to identify compounds such as water, methane, carbon dioxide, or ammonia on planets and moons, as well as on other bodies outside the solar system.

In this case, the comparison yielded no convincing matches. Furthermore, at this stage, discovering a chemical signature that cannot be linked to a known compound is highly unusual. Therefore, figuring out what is happening on Titan and Pluto could become the new fundamental question for planetary science.

Researchers have already explored several possibilities. They examined laboratory spectra of ices and organic compounds that might exist on these worlds, including acetylene, benzene, ketene, and a family of molecules known as alenes. None of them exactly match the observed signature. The most likely explanation is that it’s from a known compound that exists in a physical state or mixture never before studied in the laboratory, although the authors do not rule out the possibility that the signal comes from a material whose chemistry has not yet been characterized.

The fact that the same signal appears in two such different places makes the mystery even more intriguing. Titan has an atmosphere rich in nitrogen and methane with a surface pressure of approximately 1.5 bar—higher than Earth’s—as well as rivers and lakes of liquid methane and a temperature of about –180 degrees Celsius (–292 Fahrenheit). Pluto, on the other hand, retains only a tenuous atmosphere of about 10 microbars (some 150,000 times less dense); has an ice-covered surface composed of nitrogen, methane, and carbon monoxide; and reaches temperatures close to –235 C (–391 Fahrenheit).

from the the-lobbyist-with-the-most-money-wins dept

Earlier this year I noted how the Trump FCC, at the direct request of wireless phone giants, destroyed popular phone unlocking rules that would have made it easier and cheaper to switch wireless carriers. The rules, applied via spectrum acquisition and merger conditions after decades of activism, required that Verizon unlock your phone within 60 days after purchase so you could easily switch to competitors.

Verizon, as I’ve long established, hates competition, and early last year immediately got to work lobbying the Trump administration to destroy the rules (falsely) claiming, without evidence, that the modest phone unlocking requirements were a boon to criminals and scammers. Since the rollback they’ve slowly been making unlocking more annoying, hoping a slowly boiled frog approach would keep it on the down low.

Enter one of Trump Corp’s other biggest constituents: Elon Musk and Space X.

I’ve already explained how the SpaceX IPO includes all sorts of fantastical claims related to Starlink (the only profitable company in the prospectus). Musk Corp insists Starlink will grow extremely quickly from 10 million current subscribers to 300 million. As I explain here that’s simply not happening, for a long list of reasons authoritarian pump and dumpers don’t actually care about.

But there’s an interesting wrinkle: to grow, Musk’s Starlink is hoping to increasingly tether Starlink to existing cellular providers. Starlink has increasingly partnered with companies like T-Mobile to extend connectivity for customers when they’re outside of the range of traditional towers.

So in a filing last month sent to the FCC, SpaceX joined a bunch of other smaller providers in pushing the FCC to adopt a new 180 day phone unlocking rule:

“…we write to urge the Commission to adopt a clear, uniform requirement that mobile devices be automatically unlocked within 180 days after activation. Automatic mobile device unlocking is essential to protecting consumer choice, promoting competition, and lowering costs in the mobile marketplace. Allowing a “lock period” of 180 days gives providers enough time to protect against the significant fraud concerns identified by the FCC and to ensure mobile devices are not exploited for criminal acts.”

So for one thing, the 180 day locked phone rule would be much worse (and far friendlier to giants like Verizon) than the 60 day lock window the Biden FCC proposed (but never actually implemented because our regulatory structures are too corrupted to function). You’d also have to doubt whether Brendan Carr, who largely supports big telecom positions across the board, would ever enforce them.

Another point of note is that the FCC’s claims that they had to destroy unlocking rules to “fight crime” are bullshit. They’ve provided zero hard evidence to support that idea. The destruction of unlocking rules was just blatant regulatory capture in service to Verizon lobbyists, using “crime” as flimsy justification.

Still, it’s interesting to see SpaceX suddenly on the other side of the table to Verizon in support of something that could, for once, actually help people.

Musk Corp appears to also have convinced three Republican Senators (Cynthia Lummis, John N. Kennedy, and Eric S. Schmitt) to send a letter to the FCC also supporting a new 180 day unlocking plan. You’ve also got people traditionally lined up against consumer rights — like former FCC Ajit Pai staffer Evan Swarztrauber — suddenly writing op-eds in favor of phone unlocking.

Swarztrauber crafts a bizarre alternate reality in his op-ed where Brendan Carr didn’t destroy popular unlocking rules, U.S. wireless is hyper cheap and competitive (despite his former boss Pai rubber stamping the Sprint-T-Mobile merger), and Republicans aren’t doing everything in their power to undermine internet access affordability. But he does make the correct point that arbitrary phone locks are anti-competitive:

“But mobile locking weakens all the pressure to reduce prices and improve service—and that’s by design. Reasonable waiting periods for phone unlocking to guard against fraud are fine—no one opposes that. But unlocking should otherwise be automatic once devices are paid off, and customers shouldn’t be forced to pay fees or jump through hoops to take their phones—their own property—to a competitor that could be saving them up to $1,000 annually.”

I think SpaceX simply wants to ensure its path into the cellular market expansion through partnership and acquisition, and knows unlocked phones lead to more competition. I think the sudden flood of Republican interest in phone unlocking comes primarily as a byproduct of SpaceX lobbying. I would not be surprised if SpaceX would consider a T-Mobile acquisition to grow very quickly and keep the valuation hype rolling down the road.

That said, I’d want to see the final, actual unlocking proposal before getting too excited. Republicans have historically opposed nearly every telecom consumer benefit policy that matters, their proposals uniformly include loopholes to ensure the biggest companies are well coddled, and it’s entirely possible that the finished proposal could have more than its share of bad ideas. Stay tuned.

Filed Under: brendan carr, cellular, consumers, fcc, phone unlocking, smartphones, telecom, unlocking, wireless

Companies: spacex

• Microsoft’s new Windows 11 recovery method is available for Windows Insiders
• Cloud Rebuild allows users to reinstall Windows 11 and necessary drivers via the cloud, without a USB drive
• The feature should begin rolling out to users on stable Windows 11 builds

Microsoft is continually making adjustments to its Windows 11 operating system through patches that address user pain points, and, fortunately, its latest move is certainly welcome.

As reported by Windows Central, Microsoft has implemented a new recovery method for Windows 11, known as Cloud Rebuild, which is available to Windows Insider users. Cloud Rebuild allows users to reinstall the operating system and drivers from the cloud without the need for a USB drive.