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Your Home Wi-Fi Could Get Slower: Senate Bill Targets Key Frequencies

UPDATE July 3, 2025: The 6GHz WiFi concerns are resolved – the final bill exempts the 5.925-7.125 GHz band from auction. Your home WiFi speeds are safe.

UPDATE July 1. 2025: The Senate passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act,” and the final version still removes protections for the 6 GHz Wi-Fi band that could slow home internet speeds. The bill now heads back to the House, meaning the threat to Wi-Fi spectrum is closer to becoming law.

If you’ve noticed your Wi-Fi getting faster over the past few years, you can thank the 6 GHz band – a chunk of wireless spectrum that delivers faster speeds than older 2.4 and 5 GHz networks. But a provision buried in the Senate’s budget bill could change that. (See more detail at: https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2025/06/senate-gop-budget-bill-has-little-noticed-provision-that-could-hurt-your-wi-fi/) Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) has a plan for spectrum auctions that could take frequencies away from Wi-Fi and reallocate them for the exclusive use of wireless carriers like AT&T, Verizon, and T-Mobile.

When the House of Representatives passed the “One Big Beautiful Bill,” it excluded all of the frequencies between 5.925 and 7.125 gigahertz from the planned spectrum auctions. But Cruz’s version of the budget reconciliation bill, which is moving quickly toward a final vote, removed the 6 GHz band’s protection from spectrum auctions. This would directly impact how well your home internet works.

For everyone with home WiFi, aka everyone, this matters. The 6 GHz band has been crucial for reducing Wi-Fi congestion, especially in apartment buildings where dozens of networks compete for the same airwaves. If these frequencies get auctioned off to cellular carriers, your router may struggle to maintain the fast, reliable connections you’ve come to expect.

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Must-read for DC tech policy folks: “Apple in China” by Patrick McGee

Book recommendation:
Apple in China: The Capture of the World’s Greatest Company” by Patrick McGee

Understanding Apple’s China entanglement is essential for anyone working on tech competition, export controls, or supply chain policy. Patrick McGee does an amazing job explaining how Apple and China got to this point in time.

Apple’s China investments exceeded the Marshall Plan, creating unprecedented supply chain interdependence. Now Apple trained 28M+ workers who power competitors like Huawei.

China played the long game—used Apple (and Tesla) partnerships to systematically upgrade domestic tech capabilities.

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AR Glasses Are Coming—But Will Anyone Really Wear Them?

After years of hype, AR glasses are finally on the horizon. Snap says its next-gen smart glasses will launch in 2026. Meta has already sold over two million of its Ray-Ban smartglasses. And it’s reportedly working on a new version instead of next updating its Quest line of VR headsets. Apple is rumored to be quietly working on its own version. These will be much less obtrusive than big VR headsets—they look (mostly) like regular glasses and promise real-time translation, video calls, and turn-by-turn directions, all floating in front of your eyes.

It sounds amazing. But will people actually wear them?

We’ve already seen how virtual reality (VR) goggles, while fun for gaming, are not yet regularly used by most people. Typically, people are wowed by the technology, but don’t want to strap something to their face that cuts them off from the real world. Think of it like an amusement park. It’s really great and fun, but you wouldn’t want to go every day or every week.

I’ve used both the Apple Vision Pro and the Meta Quest 3 VR headsets. Both are fun, but even if they were lighter and cheaper, they’re a niche product because they’re a big thing strapped to your head. AR is much more subtle—but it still involves wearing something on your head.

For AR glasses to go mainstream, they need to solve real problems—without being awkward or invasive. Think language translation while traveling, guided workouts, hands-free help for delivery drivers, or facial recognition to remind you who that work associate is. It could be an easy way to interact with ever more ubiquitous AI tools. But wearing something on your face is much more difficult and personal than wearing a watch. If the tech feels weird or doesn’t match people’s personal tastes, it won’t be widely used.

For now, the promise is exciting. The reality? Still very much TBD.

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Intel Mac Support Ending: Time to Plan Your Upgrade

If you’re still using a Mac with an Intel processor, it’s time to start planning your next move. Apple has officially announced that macOS 26 Tahoe – releasing this fall – will be the final version of macOS to support Intel-based Macs. After 2025, your Intel Mac won’t receive new features, and security updates will stop by 2028.

The Timeline

  • Fall 2025: macOS 26 Tahoe releases – the last macOS for Intel Macs
  • 2026 and beyond: No new macOS versions for Intel hardware
  • Through 2028: Security updates continue
  • After 2028: No support at all

Which Macs Are Affected?

All Intel Macs from 2020 and earlier will lose support. If you bought your Mac before November 2020, you’re likely affected.

How to Check Your Processor

  1. Click the Apple logo → “About This Mac”
  2. Look for:
    • “Chip Apple M1/M2/M3/M4” = You’re safe
    • “Processor Intel Core” = You’re affected

What This Means

Your Intel Mac won’t stop working immediately, but you’ll gradually face:

  • No new macOS features after 2025
  • Apps stopping support for older systems
  • Security vulnerabilities after 2028
  • Compatibility issues with new software

Your Options

Upgrade to Apple Silicon: New MacBook Airs starts around $850. The speed difference is dramatic – M-series chips deliver significantly faster performance than Intel Macs, often 2-3x faster for everyday tasks, plus much better battery life on laptops.

Keep Your Intel Mac: Fine for basic tasks, but understand the growing limitations over time.

Plan Your Timeline: You have until end of 2025 for the transition, with security updates continuing through 2028.

Bottom Line

You have time to plan, but don’t wait too long. If your Intel Mac is critical for work, start budgeting for an upgrade now. For casual use, you can take a more relaxed approach, but remember that by 2026, you’ll want to have made the switch.

Need help planning your Mac upgrade? As a DC-area technology consultant, I help clients navigate these transitions every day.

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TRMNL Non-obtrusive Status Display

I’m getting back into making short videos—something I haven’t done in a while—and the TRMNL e-ink display caught my attention as a fun tech gadget.

What TRMNL Does

TRMNL is a 7.5-inch e-ink display designed to show you information without the distraction. There’s no touchscreen or interface to get lost in—just a clean display that pulls bitmap images from their servers every 5 minutes to an hour.

This isn’t meant for real-time updates. You won’t use it as a clock or for urgent notifications. Instead, it’s perfect for the kind of information that’s useful but not urgent: weather, calendar events, web stats, and other ambient data.

The Experience

Setup happens through their website where you can add plugins for weather, calendars, and dozens of other services. The open-source ecosystem means techies can build custom plugins, but it works great out of the box for everyone else.

The hardware feels solid with good build quality. The battery lasts 1-3 months since e-ink only uses power when the display changes. You can wall mount it with command strips or use the included stand.

Why It Works

At $140, TRMNL avoids the subscription trap that plagues other smart displays. The plugins are free forever, and the company makes money through device sales rather than monthly fees. There’s also an option for a slightly larger battery for $10 extra.

The development community appears active and committed for the long haul—a refreshing change from products that get discontinued after a year or two.

The Real Appeal

TRMNL succeeds because it knows what it isn’t. It’s not trying to grab your attention or pull you into endless scrolling. In a world of notification chaos, having a device that simply informs without intruding feels almost radical.

If you’re interested, you can use promo code “techdc” for $15 off. I’ll get $5 toward future TRMNL purchases if use that code. Thanks for helping me buy more of them!

You can check out TRMNL at usetrmnl.com