Rob Pegoraro<p><strong>Weekly output: Arc Boats, data brokers, Mark Vena podcast, New Glenn, Starship, TikTok</strong></p><p>Ideally, the week after CES would be a relaxing time with at least one day spent entirely disconnected from work. Because we don’t live in an ideal world, my week instead featured the Supreme Court blowing up TikTok and SpaceX blowing up the second stage of its giant Starship rocket.</p><p>And on top of that, I wrote a post Wednesday for Patreon readers <a href="https://www.patreon.com/posts/ces-extras-avs-120030705?utm_medium=clipboard_copy&utm_source=copyLink&utm_campaign=postshare_creator&utm_content=join_link" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">sharing further observations from CES</a>.</p><p><a href="https://robpegoraro.com/?attachment_id=25021" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank"></a>1/13/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/arc-sport-electric-boat-leaves-internal-combustion-in-its-wake-ces-2025" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">This Speedy Electric Sport Boat Leaves Internal Combustion in Its Wake</a>, PCMag</p><p>My CES coverage almost wrapped up with this report of a fun outing on Lake Mead on a battery-electric boat–“almost” as in I have a couple of other stories that began with notes and quotes from that trade show, but which can’t be finished without additional reporting.</p><p>1/13/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/even-the-experts-have-trouble-getting-data-brokers-to-stop-tracking-them" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Even the Experts Have Trouble Getting Data Brokers to Stop Tracking Them</a>, PCMag</p><p>After covering <a href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/shmoocon/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">ShmooCon</a> Saturday, I spent part of Sunday watching that hacker conference’s closing panels remotely and part of it writing a recap of <a href="https://yaelwrites.com/" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Yael Grauer’s</a> talk about the futility of trying to opt out of data brokers without any help from the federal privacy law that Congress keeps failing to pass.</p><p>1/15/2026: <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_FVHBSGlVVs" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Ep 106 SmartTechCheck Podcast — CES recap, TikTok, Zoox, TSMC, Apple</a>, Mark Vena</p><p>I joined my industry analyst friend Mark and my fellow tech journalists Stewart Wolpin and John Quain for this CES recap.</p><p>1/16/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/blue-origins-giant-new-glenn-rocket-reaches-orbit-on-its-first-try" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Blue Origin’s Giant New Glenn Rocket Reaches Orbit on Its First Try</a>, PCMag</p><p>The 1 to 4 a.m. launch window that Blue Origin apparently picked to minimize interference with air traffic maximized interference with my sleep–especially when the first attempt on Monday morning saw <a href="https://bsky.app/profile/robpegoraro.com/post/3lfmadg4cms27" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">five resets of the countdown clock</a> before finally getting scrubbed a little after 3 a.m. The second one resulted in a successful launch at 2:03 a.m., but then writing the post (and eyeing my bleary-eyed copy carefully before pasting it into the CMS) had me up until after 3 a.m. anyway.</p><p>1/16/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/spacex-catches-a-booster-but-loses-an-upper-stage-on-starships-seventh" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">SpaceX Catches a Booster But Loses an Upper Stage on Starship’s Seventh Flight</a>, PCMag</p><p>About 17 hours after watching one rocket launch Thursday, I watched a second one that was not so successful–and not in the way that I’d thought Starship’s seventh test might go awry, a failed booster catch.</p><p>1/17/2025: <a href="https://www.pcmag.com/news/supreme-court-upholds-tiktok-ban-finds-no-first-amendment-violations" rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" target="_blank">Supreme Court Upholds TikTok Ban, Finds No First Amendment Violations</a>, PCMag</p><p>I wrote more than 500 words of background material in advance, plus ledes and closing sentences that would go with a court opinion against TikTok or for it. That let me get a completed story filed within half an hour of the court’s mercifully brief opinion getting posted at 10 a.m. Friday. That afternoon, I added another section with reactions from various parties, including two of my favorite tech-policy experts who also happen to be among two of the fastest sources I know to answer an e-mail request for comment.</p><p><a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/arc-boats/" target="_blank">#ArcBoats</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/blue-origin/" target="_blank">#BlueOrigin</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/ces/" target="_blank">#ces</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/data-brokers/" target="_blank">#dataBrokers</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/electric-boat/" target="_blank">#electricBoat</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/first-amendment/" target="_blank">#FirstAmendment</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/las-vegas/" target="_blank">#LasVegas</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/mark-vena/" target="_blank">#MarkVena</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/new-glenn/" target="_blank">#NewGlenn</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/shmoocon/" target="_blank">#Shmoocon</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/spacex/" target="_blank">#SpaceX</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/starship/" target="_blank">#Starship</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/supreme-court/" target="_blank">#SupremeCourt</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/tiktok/" target="_blank">#TikTok</a> <a rel="nofollow noopener noreferrer" class="hashtag u-tag u-category" href="https://robpegoraro.com/tag/yael-grauer/" target="_blank">#YaelGrauer</a></p>