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...