What I Use: Mexico City, January to May 2026 ⭐️

We’re wrapping up our longest-ever stay in Mexico City and will be heading back to the U.S. tomorrow. This was a big trip, not just for the length, and I previously described some of the troubles we’ve experienced over the past several months. But it was mostly good, of course, and there was a lot of change and so there’s a lot more to discuss.

🧘‍♂️ A focus on focus months in 2026

Heading into 2026, I wanted to see whether I could have a focus for each month, something that would warrant a series of themed articles. I knew this was mostly impossible, that these topics would often bleed into subsequent months or, knowing me, that I would start early on certain topics because they were stuck in my brain or whatever. And sure enough, that’s what happened. Which is fine.

The focus in January was security. In February, I turned to de-enshittifying Windows 11, which turned into a book. March was about using AI to finish my WinUIpad coding project. And in April, I moved onto the Switcher series, which focuses on Windows 11 alternatives and is continuing in May and expanding to include non-OS platform alternatives.

You may (or may not) be curious about the coming months. None of this is set in stone, some of these may never happen, some new ideas will occur, and I will almost certainly move things around.

There will definitely be a technology nostalgia focus that will, among other things, see a continuation of the personal technology history I write about from time to time. As a reminder, I did pre-order an Amiga 1200.

There is that Markdown book that I may or may not write; I’ve written parts of other chapters already and it’s probably more correctly described as “Markdown for writing.”

The article From the Editor’s Desk: Inconvenient ⭐️ will almost certainly turn into a focus month as it touches on just one part of a broader topic that, sorry, might boil down to Unf$%k your life. I mentioned this in an Ask Paul recently, but in addition to the tech-focused bits, including eliminating subscription services as much as possible, there are related things like minimalism, ownership, necessary vs. nice to have, how we spend our time, eliminating noise, and a lot more, and I think this may be important. It’s definitely a big thing to tackle.

There are other topics that are just ongoing, like Little Tech and Little AI. And broader issues I’m still trying to resolve around the Windows 11 Field Guide and other books. I will write about that soon, as I’ve been reviewing options around splitting up the book in different ways and have book bundles on Leanpub. But again, if you are a Thurrott Premium subscriber, you get all that, whatever it is, as part of the membership.

📱 Phones

I came here with four three phones: The Apple iPhone 17 Pro Max that I later reviewed in March, the Pixel 10 Pro XL, and the Google Pixel 10 Pro Fold, which I also reviewed it in March. While I was here, Google sent me a Pixel 10a as well, so I reviewed that, too, in, wait for it, March.

I used the iPhone most of all during the trip, but I became disenchanted with the camera more and more despite my efforts to figure out how to make it work more consistently and deliver the types of photos I want. I spent a lot of time thinking about switching back to Pixel, with the big blocker being which Pixel, as I want to spend more time with the Fold but also very much prefer the superior camera experience afforded by the Pixel 10 Pro XL. And in the end, the camera did put the Pro XL over the top.

Speaking of which, I had switched from Google Fi back to Mint Mobile in December because my wife and I have AT&T Mexico phone numbers and accounts now, so we have a crazy amount of cellular data from those that work in both Mexico and the U.S. Mint Mobile makes it easy to switch phones via eSIM, though you have a pay a small fee if you do that more than five times in a calendar year. So I made that switch. But AT&T Mexico is more complicated because you have to go into the store, which is a block from our apartment, and that takes a long time because Mexico. I switched that account to the iPhone in January, but won’t move it again until we come back in July.

💻 Laptops

I brought three laptops to Mexico, my suddenly two-year-old (where does the time go?) MacBook Air M3 plus two review units, the Intel “Panther”-based HP OmniBook Ultra, and the Lenovo ThinkPad P1 (Gen 8). I reviewed the OmniBook Ultra and the ThinkPad P1 while we were here, so I now I need to lug them back home. Yay!

But I also received four review laptops while we were here: The Lenovo ThinkPad P16 Gen 3, which I have yet to review, the Lenovo IdeaPad 5a 2-in-1 that I just reviewed, and then two Snapdragon X2-based laptops, the Lenovo Yoga Slim 7x Gen 11 and the Lenovo IdeaPad Slim 5x Gen 11. Those are coming home with me so I can review them, and then they’ll come back to Mexico in July so I can ship them back to Lenovo. That’s the job.

Left unsaid here is that I flew here without a single Snapdragon-based laptop. That was by design: I very much prefer Snapdragon over any x86 machine for day-to-day work, but they’re so good it can be distracting and I wanted to force myself to spend time with the review units so I could give them a fair shake. So I guess I was suffering for the greater good, but it worked out fine. Plus, now I can hyper-focus on Snapdragon X2, as I also have an ASUS Zenbook A16 review unit waiting for me in Pennsylvania. Yes, I am looking forward to this.

I have several other laptops here, mostly 16-inch refurbished HP EliteBooks, plus a few 14-inchers, and I used those for the Linux and ChromeOS Flex experiences I wrote about in the Switcher 2026 series and, in one case because it has a 2 TB SSD, for the 2025 photo collection digital decluttering work. I also added to this collection when I purchased an inexpensive Chromebook here in Mexico back in April so I could write about ChromeOS and Chromebooks for the Switcher 2026 series.

🍎 Tablets

In a classic example of timing, I bought an 11-inch iPad Air M3 last spring right before Apple announced iPadOS 26 and turned the device into an excellent laptop alternative. So in July, I bought an Apple Magic Keyboard for that iPad Air, curious about the experience. I’m surprised to tell you it’s stuck: I rarely use the iPad for writing, of course, though it’s an interesting use case when you’re stuck in a cramped space like an airplane where a laptop won’t fit or might get damaged. Mostly, I just use it as a stand while reading, and though I figured I would miss the normal portrait mode orientation for that, I haven’t.

We also have a Pixel Tablet here that we use as a smart display in the kitchen. I have it on the Android beta, so I kept that up-to-date and experimented a bit with it to see what a Googlebook-like Android laptop experience might be like. I would love to use this more, but the 16:9 display is not ideal and Google seems to have mostly given up on it. Ah well.

🎧 Headphones and earbuds

I always keep at least one pair of earbuds at the ready in my laptop bag, though it will vary depending on which phone I’m using at the time. Tied to my Pixel 10 series reviews and write-ups over late 2025 and early 2026, I purchased a pair of Google Pixel Buds Pro 2 earbuds last September, so those came along to Mexico. And in December, I purchased a pair of Apple AirPods Pro 3 earbuds to replace the previous generation pair. I mean to write those up, preferably after using them for live language translation here in Mexico, but that never came together for whatever reasons.

Earbuds like the two noted above are pretty good on planes from a noise cancellation perspective, but real headphones are better. When we make short flights within Mexico, as we did in January during a trip to Acapulco, I just stick with earbuds, in that case the AirPods Pro 3, because they take up no space at all in a bag. But for longer flights, like those to and from Mexico, I want something more effective. And these days, that’s a pair of Beats Studio Pro headphones that I purchased in August 2024. They work wonderfully across Android and Apple devices and have terrific active noise cancellation (ANC). My wife wanted something better for flying as well, so I bought her a pair in January for her birthday this year.

Also new to this stay and a godsend for Mexico City, which can randomly be loud from time-to-time at night, is a pair of Soundcore Sleep A30 earbuds that my wife had bought for me for Christmas last year. You can’t sleep effectively with normal earbuds, especially AirPods, but these are wonderful and I used them just about every night for the past five months.

✈️ Other tech that came to Mexico

As you might imagine, I often have interesting moments in the security line at the airport because I fly with so much tech. Sometimes I sail through, which always amuses me because I wonder what on earth the TSA agent needs to see on the X-ray before they pull a bag aside. And sometimes I get the swab. You never know.

In addition to the phones and laptops noted above, I came here with a bag full of other technology in the form of little hardware devices and whatnot. We’ve been here long enough that I had trouble remembering what exactly it was I brought here with me from Pennsylvania. Fortunately, a quick peek at Amazon revealed the following.

I wanted to test the Google Pixel Tablet, Pixel 10 Pro Fold, and iPad Air with a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse (and/or with whatever USB hubs), so I brought an HP Bluetooth keyboard that I’ve had for a bit along with a small $12 Logitech M170 wireless mouse and a $10 Lamicall Tablet Stand; I also used that stand with my iPad when I temporarily stopped using the Magic Keyboard and used it in portrait mode while reading in the mornings for a bit. And then went back to the Magic Keyboard.

We have a Blink outdoor camera on our balcony in Mexico City pointing to the west so that we can see the sunsets here remotely when we’re away. Amazon announced Blink camera and device updates last September, the Blink Outdoor 2K+ camera among them. I resisted this unnecessary purchase for a bit, but then I bought one when there was a sale in the U.S. I brought it here and successfully replaced the previous unit, but with two minor issues. I couldn’t get the new sync module it came with to work, so I stuck with the older version. And I can’t have both cameras enabled at the same time because doing that would require me to upgrade my Blink Basic plan, which costs just $39.99 a year, to Blink Plus, which is $119.99 a year. I am not doing that.

As you may know, I’m a big fan of MagSafe (or what Google calls PixelSnap), and in addition to a little trove of Google-branded magnetic accessories, I came here with a THREEKEY 3-in-1 Qi2 charging station that comes with a 45-watt charger and can charge a MagSafe-compatible phone (like my iPhone and most new Pixels), an Apple Watch, and an AirPods Pro 3 case simultaneously. I experimented with this in Pennsylvania before bringing it here. And I will leave it here: I don’t bring a phone to bed with me normally in the U.S. but I do here because the time change requires me to set an alarm so I am up in time for First Ring Daily.

📦 Tech I acquired while in Mexico

This has been a curious stay when it comes to buying technology. For the most part, electronics are more expensive in Mexico, often much more, so I hadn’t really bought a lot over previous trips. But this time was different.

In addition to the Chromebook and my wife’s Beats Studio Pro headphones noted above, I bought a DJI Neo 2 drone, a pair of Casper Sleep Glow lights that we use as nightlights in the second bathroom and in a hallway of sorts, a cheap JTECH case to protect the Pixel 10a that Google sent me, a terra cotta Apple silicone case for my iPhone to replace the one that was destroyed when I tripped and almost killed myself, an ESR Cartera magnetic wallet for the iPhone that I mostly just use as a mini-wallet for my front pocket when we go out, and an Eversame 2-in-1 USB voltage device that I’ve used to observe charging speeds for phones and laptops.

This may not seem like personal technology, but it is, and it’s useful regardless: After an unseasonably hot April, I decided to spend a bit on a fan to see if I could get something that works really well and is quiet, unlike every single fan we’ve bought here in Mexico. Checking Wirecutter, I came across the DREO smart fan, which offers smart home control features I will never use, omnidirectional rotation, and a wonderful set of controls on the device itself and via a remote control. This thing is expensive for a fan, like $150, but it is the best, and it’s quite quiet, which was my biggest concern. We bought a smaller, cheaper, non-smart version when we thought an electrical incident had destroyed three of our fans and whatever else. But we’re keeping that and will buy another in July so we have something in each of the main rooms. These are excellent fans.

Finally, as part of a potential future focus on tech nostalgia, I bought a book, a paper book if you can believe it, called Commodore 64 Machine Language for the Absolute Beginner. (Obviously, I would have gotten a digital version if possible.) Why? I’m halfheartedly trying to learn 6502 assembly language, which I figure is the simplest way to go down that path. We’ll see what, if anything, comes of that.

🧑‍💻 Working in Mexico

In previous What I Use posts, I described all the gadgets and other personal technology hardware, software, and services I use in Mexico. Most of that is unchanged. But in addition to the fans, glow lights, and whatever else I mentioned above, I did make two daily workflow changes, lacking a proper term, that sort of mimic changes I’ve also made in Pennsylvania.

I’ve worked from home longer than most: I started writing professionally in 1993, and while I’ve had the odd job here and there, like a stint in the SCC computer lab in the mid-1990s, I’ve been working from home for over 30 years. I’ve had a home office in all the homes we’ve owned dating back to our first house, which we bought in Phoenix, Arizona in 1998. The only time I didn’t was when we lived in an apartment in Pennsylvania for almost a year after we sold our last house there. And, as it turns out, here in Mexico City too.

Our apartment here is tiny, just 750 square feet, and it has two bedrooms and two bathrooms. We really need three bedrooms, as we have two kids, and they often visit at the same time, forcing my wife and me to sleep on a surprisingly good inflatable mattress in the living room when that happens. But it mostly works out.

Before this stay, I had been using a kitchen table as a makeshift desk and pseudo-home office. This involved setting up a laptop stand, two external displays, a keyboard and mouse, my podcasting gear, and whatever else. And then, depending on what was happening when we left, I would often break that all down, pack it up, and then repeat the process when we came back.

When we moved into the condo in Pennsylvania (which we ended up purchasing last September), we went from a two-bedroom apartment (and no home office for me) to a three bedroom setup. My wife uses the upstairs bedroom as her office, and I use the second bedroom on the first floor for mine. And when people visit, we give up one or both depending on the need. No big deal, and this has driven home why three bedrooms is perhaps the ideal amount for us. My wife works at home as well, I should note.

The thing is, I’ve stopped using that office unless I’m recording Windows Weekly, Hands-On Windows, and some other podcasts. I don’t remember when, but at some point, I just started recording First Ring Daily from a chair in our living room, perhaps because someone was visiting and in the room I use as an office, and it just kind of stuck. I prefer doing it that way.

So when we came back to Mexico in January, I just continued doing that, but here. I also decided to stop setting up my kitchen table-based mini home office. Instead, when I have to record podcasts other than First Ring Daily, I use the setup in the second bedroom that my wife typically uses for her home office, and she temporarily moves out to the living room. At all other times, I just work from a laptop on a stand in the living room. And sometimes, laying on the bed, though I usually don’t do that until the afternoon.

This has been curiously freeing. Tied to that Unf$%k your life thing noted above, which, yes, is not a great name, and the From the Editor’s Desk: Inconvenient ⭐️ article I have published are related ideas around ownership and needs. And these things require a bit of a rethinking, or a reset. During our short time in an apartment in Macungie, Pennsylvania, we did not really have space for my home office, and so I threw one together in the corner of the living room there. In doing so, I realized I didn’t want to be there, didn’t want to use that setup, and didn’t really need it. So even though I have a home office now in our Pennsylvania home, have that space, I barely use it.

In Mexico, that space also doesn’t exist, and this apartment in smaller than the one in Macungie. And it’s fine. I don’t want the home office, and I don’t miss it. I like working this way. It’s more portable and it meets my needs. It’s different. It’s not somethig the Paul or 10 or 20 years ago probably would have liked. But I like it now. Sometimes, less really is more.