Technologies

Starlink Wi-Fi Now Available on a Quarter of All United Airlines Flights

By the end of 2026, most United flights will have the faster in-flight Wi-Fi, the companies say.

When I flew in the first mainline United Airlines aircraft equipped with Starlink Wi-Fi last year, I was amazed to discover that the satellite-based in-flight internet service felt like… the regular internet. I streamed movies, accessed the web and held a video call (which is not normally legal) that had better quality than some of my everyday remote meetings when I’m at home.

Since then, United says roughly 1,200 daily departures, more than a quarter of its schedule, now have Starlink Wi-Fi. It hit its goal of outfitting its entire regional fleet (two-cabin aircraft such as the Embraer E175) of more than 300 aircraft and is on track to equip 500 mainline craft (like the Boeing 737-800 I was on) by the end of 2026. If it meets its mainline goal, three out of four United flights will be set up with the new service.

On my test flight, I tried to saturate the data of as many devices as possible, from my laptop to an iPad and a couple of phones. Now that customers are using the service, I wanted to know what that looks like in real-world use. The company said in a press release that 7 million passengers across 129,000 flights have flown on Starlink-equipped aircraft.

«The [data] consumption is through the roof,» said Grant Milstead, vice president of digital technology at United Airlines. «It’s at least 100 times what we were seeing on our old aircraft, and a lot of that is driven by stage length.» Longer flights see more data usage, not just because of the extended flight times, but because those are the flights on which people are streaming more movies, live sports and other content.

He said passenger feedback indicates families aren’t spending time pre-loading devices with movies, because they know they can stream anything on the plane.

«This isn’t ‘airplane Wi-Fi’ anymore,» he said. «It’s Wi-Fi like your home. And now people are starting to treat it like that.»

Starlink Wi-Fi is free for members of its United MileagePlus program (which itself is free to join).

In addition to United, Starlink service is available on some flights operated by Hawaiian Airlines, Alaska Airlines, airBaltic, Air France, Qatar Airways, WestJet and Emirates. In the coming year, Aer Lingus, British Airways, Iberia, Level and Vueling will include satellite internet.

Some of this uptake can be attributed to the higher performance, but it’s also a matter of cost and equipment: the hardware itself is smaller, lighter (especially important for aircraft) and less expensive to install than other onboard Wi-Fi system.

Technologies

A Hacker Threat Is Hiding in Your Car’s Tire Pressure System

A new study reveals that a car’s tire pressure monitoring system can be easily accessed by hackers.

Technologies

Today’s NYT Mini Crossword Answers for Friday, Feb. 27

Here are the answers for The New York Times Mini Crossword for Feb. 27.

Looking for the most recent Mini Crossword answer? Click here for today’s Mini Crossword hints, as well as our daily answers and hints for The New York Times Wordle, Strands, Connections and Connections: Sports Edition puzzles.

Was today’s Mini Crossword too short for you? The New York Times now has a Midi Crossword, which is not as big as the original NYT Crossword, but longer than the Mini. Read on for the answers to today’s Mini Crossword. And if you could use some hints and guidance for daily solving, check out our Mini Crossword tips.

If you’re looking for today’s Wordle, Connections, Connections: Sports Edition and Strands answers, you can visit CNET’s NYT puzzle hints page.

Read more: Tips and Tricks for Solving The New York Times Mini Crossword

Let’s get to those Mini Crossword clues and answers.

Mini across clues and answers

1A clue: Lacking locks
Answer: BALD

5A clue: One of the Great Lakes
Answer: ERIE

6A clue: Movie with the fake newspaper headline «Wonder Elephant Soars to Fame!»
Answer: DUMBO

8A clue: Live tweeter?
Answer: BIRD

9A clue: The slightest bit
Answer: ATAD

Mini down clues and answers

1D clue: Hard thing to leave on a cold day
Answer: BED

2D clue: Caribbean island northwest of Curaçao
Answer: ARUBA

3D clue: The sky, in a saying
Answer: LIMIT

4D clue: Actress Messing
Answer: DEBRA

7D clue: Like this clue number
Answer: ODD

Technologies

Smartphone Sales to Plummet 13% in 2026 Due to RAM Crisis, Says IDC

AI-fueled memory scarcity is hitting the phone market hard this year, particularly for inexpensive, low-end devices.

The projected shortage of memory chips worldwide will have a more serious impact on smartphone sales in 2026 than previously projected, according to new data from International Data Corporation Worldwide. Whereas the company just in November had estimated a drop of between 0.9% and 5.2% (the latter being its «pessimistic scenario»), now it sees a 12.9% decline this year, based on its Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker.

«What we are witnessing is not a temporary squeeze, but a tsunami-like shock originating in the memory supply chain, with ripple effects spreading across the entire consumer electronics industry,» Francisco Jeronimo, vice president for Worldwide Client Devices at IDC, said in a statement.

The hardest-hit companies are expected to be those selling to the lower end of the market, which can’t absorb the higher component costs while maintaining profitable margins. As a result, Jeronimo says, many of those players will pass the added costs on to consumers.

That also includes regional markets like the Middle East and Africa that sell mostly inexpensive smartphones, which could see a steep 20.6% drop year-over-year.

By contrast, IDC expects Apple and Samsung to be better able to withstand the crisis. «As smaller and low-end-positioned Android vendors struggle with rising costs, Apple and Samsung could not only weather the storm but potentially expand market share as the competitive landscape tightens,» said Jeronimo.

Memory has become scarce due to the insatiable demand to feed generative AI. Essentially all of the memory set to be manufactured this year is already earmarked. What started as a demand for graphics processors has expanded to other components. For example, hard drive manufacturer Western Digital announced in early February that it had already sold out of its supply for 2026.

«We expect consolidation as smaller players exit, and low-end vendors face sharp shipment declines amid supply constraints and lower demand at higher price points,» said Nabila Popal, senior research director at IDC, projecting a 14% rise in the average selling price of smartphones to $523.

Popal expects memory prices to stabilize by the middle of 2027, but doesn’t see them coming down to earlier levels. The sub-$100 segment, made up of approximately 171 million devices, will be «permanently uneconomical,» she said. «In short, there is no return to business as usual for vendors and consumers.»