So Long 2024: Thanks for Everything, Especially the Coconuts!

It’s the last day of the year, and I’m going to recap what happened in my little world during the last 364 days. If you find this post personal, that’s intentional. It’s part of a years-long tradition, partly so you know that this website, as well as the man behind it, is as real as the tech information it provides.

As usual, 2024 had its challenges, but overall, it’s been a wonderful year for me personally, especially when compared to 2023. It’s impossible to mention everything without boring everyone, so I’ll only put down what I find most significant.

Let’s start with the tech.

2024 in the rearview mirror: The tech

Lots of things happened in 2024.

The ups and downs (mostly ups) of Wi-Fi 7’s official debut

The year started with a bang when, on the Monday of the first workweek, the Wi-Fi Alliance officially certified the Wi-Fi 7 standard and paved the way for hardware vendors to release their first and, for some, second waves of routers and mesh systems.

By the end of the year, virtually all noteworthy networking vendors had introduced their own, including Ubiquiti, which has been known for being slow to adopt a new standard. In fact, the only noticeable vendor that remained without Wi-Fi 7 hardware is Synology.

In 2024, Uniquiti introduced over half a dozen Wi-Fi 7 access points, compared to just a single Wi-Fi 6E unit in the years before, the U6 Enterprise.

As a result, so far, I’ve tested and reviewed dozens of Wi-Fi 7 broadcasters—enough to curate a few best lists. There will be more in the coming year, and you’ll see a good collection as soon as CES 2025, which takes place in less than a week.

On the receiving end, by late 2024, virtually all the latest smartphones and computers came equipped with Wi-Fi 7, and most of those with a Wi-Fi 5 or newer can be upgraded to Wi-Fi 7 via add-on chips or USB adapters.

Finally, Windows 11 version 24H2, released in October, officially supports Wi-Fi 7, including the MLO feature.

So, it’s safe to say Wi-Fi 7 has proven to be the fastest-adopted standard. And for the most part, deservedly so, thanks to the improvement on all three bands, 2.4GHz, 5GHz, and 6GHz.

On the downside, though, it has some quirks and issues.

The first is the fact that the standard’s 6GHz band has proven problematic worldwide. It’s so much so that many vendors have opted to offer dual-band hardware that has only the 2.4GHz and 5GHz bands instead.

Secondly, the new standard also has a backward compatibility problem with legacy clients, especially IoT devices that can’t be upgraded to support higher security or performance requirements. For this reason, for the time being, and at least a few years in the future, my take is that Wi-Fi 6 is still the best standard to get. (Alternatively, keeping a Wi-Fi 6 access point with a Wi-Fi 7 router is a good practice for complete backward compatibility.)

Finally, in 2024, virtually all Wi-Fi 7 broadcasters were either buggy or incomplete. The AFC feature, for example, is essentially not yet viable—Netgear has said outright that it wouldn’t enable it on the Orbi lineup. That’s simply the case with new technology.

Hopefully, 2025 will iron things out, though that might not apply to all vendors, at least in the US.

The potential ban of TP-Link in the US

Indeed, in the past couple of years, the US government has contemplated banning TP-Link hardware due to national security concerns.

This effort kicked into high gear in late 2024 when the authorities started investigating TP-Link’s involvement in Chinese hackers’ cyberattacks.

TP-Link has been accused of flooding the US market with its hardware by selling routers and other devices at lower prices than manufacturing costs, which may include backdoors or security flaws. By late this year, the company’s market share reportedly reached 65% (up from 20% in 2019).

Will this ban happen? We’ll likely have the answer in 2025.

Why is the US considering banning TP-Link

The Windows 11 upgrade anxiety

2024 is the last full year where Windows 10 is supported. Comes October 14, 2025, it’ll reach the end-of-life stage, and you have no choice but to move to Windows 11. If you want to get a new PC, that’s a no-brainer. Chances are it’ll come with Windows 11. End of story.

However, many existing Windows 10 computers are still in excellent working condition. Unfortunately, most of them are not qualified to run Windows 11 due to Microsoft’s arbitrary new “hardware requirements” that include TPM 2.0 and secure boot.

If you haven’t heard of them, you’re not alone. These are features unnecessary for a computer’s general operation. They are similar to an AC unit or security cameras, which are not a requirement for a home to be a home.

However, Microsoft has been adamant about meeting these requirements. They will soon render millions of perfectly functioning computers e-waste.

Here’s the thing: All computers running Windows 10 can indeed run Windows 11. And you can upgrade them for free via this simple and detailed guide.

How to upgrade your dated Windows 10 computer to Windows 11 for free

Google SEO update, AI, and the death of many tech sites

2024 might have been the most challenging year for online media, especially those that rely on SEO, which is the case for almost all online media entities.

In August 2023, Google released the most extensive core update in its Helpful Content Update (HCU) algorithm and then subsequent minor updates, inadvertently (accidentally or maybe even intentionally?), causing thousands of once-popular websites to lose ranking and traffic in 2024.

Additionally, the implementation of AI, such as ChatGPT, which basically steals content from publishers around the web to provide answers to end-users without crediting the source, and the use of adblockers further depletes many sites’ traffic and resources.

As a result, by the end of the year, many well-known tech websites had either ceased to exist or simply given up—some might not have had the will or resources to remain until they could recover. The most significant example was probably AnandTech, which ran out of steam in August after 27 years. What a bummer!

In case you’re wondering, Dong Knows Tech was also affected, but it’s still here, thanks mainly to your support (for the no-nonsense approach, presumably).

Tesla FSD finally came out as the lie it has always been

Speaking of nonsense, 2024 marked when Tesla’s notoriously named Full Self-Driving feature came out of the once-seemingly-perpetual beta state as not what its name had always suggested. The company added “(Supervised)” to the moniker, effectively canceling out the “full” notion forever.

During the year, Tesla also repeatedly offered this feature as free trials to the existing cars with the hope that folks would subscribe afterward (for $99/month).

According to the reports, the conversion rate proved low, and for good reasons. While full Self-Driving (Supervised) is impressive in many cases, it is simply not and never will be a 100% reliable solution due to the lack of sensors in the existing fleet. When it does not work well, it can be fatal.

If you own a Tesla, keep in mind that Auto Pilot (which is more like a “copilot”) is sufficient and will much less likely cause you harm. I speak from experience.

Tesla Full Self-Driving (Supervised): Cool until it’s potentially deadly

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With that, let’s move on to my stuff.

2024 in the rearview mirror: The life

If you followed my previous year-end briefings, you’d know that by the end of 2023, we were exhausted. Among other things, our third boy had breathing issues, and up to then, we had had to take him to the ER and ICU seven times, or about once every four months of his age.

So, I’m happy to report that we didn’t have to go to the hospital at all during the entire 2024. That alone was tremendous, considering the first thing my wife would do before we went anywhere out of our comfort zone was to check the availability of local hospitals. As the little guy got older, the breathing problems slowly became less of an issue, and he turned three in November. That was a milestone.

No, the year wasn’t always rosy—that’s a given, considering we have three little children, among other things—but stuff was generally manageable. With that as the baseline, I’d say we had a great 2024.

And as usual, we went places.

A memorable Spanish summer

During early summer, we visited my good friend in Mallorca, a small island off the coast of Barcelona. It’s a bit out of the way, but totally worth it.

Some traveling tips: If you ever get to Mallorca, rent a car and drive around—don’t stay in the popular Palma area! There is so much to see, including a museum, aquarium, and caves with fantastic performances and affordable tour programs.

And if you like swimming or hiking, there are many well-preserved beaches around the island and excellent trails for short or not-so-short hikes. Remember to bring plenty of water since the Mediterranean Sea is known to be extra salty. You float well, but your taste buds will suffer after being in the water for a while. Mine did.

By the way, if you stand still in the water around the island, there will be lots of little fish that come and feast on your body’s dead skin and stuff. Some find that creepy. I personally enjoyed the free cleaning service. It was quite an experience.

After that, we spent a reasonable amount of time in the greater Barcelona area, including a quick trip to the Castellfollit de la Roca, a town atop a cliff. You might have seen it on your computer or TV screen saver, but photos, including those above, don’t do it justice. It’s an awesome place to visit in real life, worthy of an item on the bucket list. Do you know that they have fast, free Wi-Fi (Internet) up there and a delicious pizza restaurant that charges you way less than you’d expect, considering it’s the only place to have a beer, a coffee, or lunch with a view?

Here’s another tip: Folks in this area generally don’t consider themselves “Spanish,” and they don’t speak Spanish by default. But almost everyone speaks English.

In short, Spain was great! But as it turned out, our best vacation was closer to home.

Puerto Rico and the plentiful coconuts

Indeed, we spent the Thanksgiving week in Puerto Rico for the first time. It’s another Spanish-speaking island, but this time, it’s part of the US. It was fun to be in a foreign country that is not supposed to be foreign.

But Puerto Rich was foreign to us indeed, in a good Caribbean vibe that never existed in the lower 48 states. In the words of Bob Marley, the island has the “no problems, only situations” spirit.

Aside from San Juan, which is similar to any large city, the rest of the main island is undeveloped and has lots of nature. It’s even more so if you go to the smaller islands, including Culebra and Vieques, each about an hour’s ferry ride away. There are feral chickens, cats, dogs, and even horses everywhere… Many parts of the region still bear the lasting scars from the double hurricanes of 2017. Some of those animals used to have a home…

Overall, Puerto Rico, to us, was such a wonderful place with friendly folks and giving nature, albeit with a good amount of mosquitos and bugs—bring sprays and repellents if you can’t deal with them. Here’s an anecdote that sums up our experience:

I love fresh coconuts and was looking forward to having some arriving on the island. The first day we were there, I found no coconuts on sale at any store, and no street vendors were selling them, either, like the case of all tropical countries I’d been to, including Hawaii. So, I asked a local boy where I could find coconuts. He gave me a strange look and pointed to a tree nearby.

As it turned out, in many parts of Puerto Rico, if you want coconuts, you just have to climb the trees—they are everywhere! And on many beaches, you don’t even need to climb much, if at all. The goods are within your reach.

We ended up getting so many coconuts directly from the dangling clusters. Most were full of juice, others flesh. There were several coconut types with different tastes and characters (some were easier to open than others). I never had so much fun with the fruit.

Speaking of fun, we even blended the meat to make fresh coconut cream. In case you don’t know, mixing that cream with pineapple juice, a bit of orange juice, and a good amount of dark rum creates a much better drink than Piña Colada. So good it’s called a “painkiller.”

At the very least of it, Puerto Rico was definitely a pain-free experience. I can’t wait for a chance to come back.

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So, 2024 was great, and I have a feeling that 2025 will be the same, if not even better.

Here’s a sign: The year will start with me attending CES for the first time in years. If you happen to be at the show, especially if you attend PepCom or ShowStoppers, hit me up! Let’s chat in person! Otherwise, stay tuned to see what the show has in its store.

Until then, THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT!

Believe it or not, during 2024, your typo reports kept this website clean, and your donations, as well as subscriptions, played a significant role in keeping it alive in the face of the challenges mentioned above and the changes in the landscape of written journalism. I’m in awe of your generosity and your support. In return, you can continue to count on the fact there’s only nonsense-free content on Dong Knows Tech. That’s a promise.

With that:

Happy New Year 2025! Año Nuevo, Vida Nueva!