Google Unveils Project Fi: A Network for the Nexus 6

Today Google officially announced their previously rumored entry into the world of wireless service. This new endeavor is known as Project Fi, and it's exclusive to owners of the Nexus 6 who live in the United States. While carriers have offered branded mobile devices at times, the entry of a company making mobile phones into the business of providing the wireless service for their own devices is unprecedented. But unlike Google Fiber, Project Fi is not Google's attempt to build a new wireless network in the United States. Rather, they will be acting as a Mobile Virtual Network Operator (MVNO) running on the T-Mobile and Sprint networks, as well as piggybacking off of open WiFi hotspots.

On a typical carrier you will pay for some bucket of data alongside your calling minutes and texts, and if you don't use all that data during the month then it disappears. Some carriers like T-Mobile USA have played with this by allowing data to roll over to another month, much like how many prepaid carriers allow minutes to roll over to the next month if they are unused. But in general, you often end up paying for more data then you actually need to avoid overage charges. With Project Fi, Google starts plans at $20 per month for unlimited domestic calling and unlimited domestic + international texting. On top of that you can select how much data you believe you will need, with the cost being $10/GB.

The unique aspect of Project Fi when compared to other network operators is how Google is changing the situation with unused data. Rather than rolling it over or having it disappear, Google simply credits you for the difference. For example, a user who pays $30 for 3GB per month may only use 1.4GB that month. In that situation, Google will credit them $16 for the data they did not use. Effectively, this means that Google only charges users for the data they use, but not at the typically ridiculous rates for pay as you need data on other carriers. What I don't understand is why Google even has data tiers in the first place. Given the rounding, they might as well just charge $1 for every 100MB used, as any overages are charged as the same rate as the data in the plan itself.

Google is also taking much of the pain out of roaming in other nations. The data you purchase for your Project Fi plan is usable in 120 different countries, although it's limited to a speed of 256Kbps. Google's network also extends beyond cellular carriers, with Google's network configured to automatically utilize public hotspots as part of the network itself. WiFi calling is supported, and so the transition between cellular and WiFi should be seamless in theory. Google is also promising that information will be encrypted so that users can have their privacy preserved when using public WiFi.

The last really interesting part of Project Fi is how it will be able to integrate with Hangouts. Since your phone number "lives in the cloud", Google can push texts and phone calls to any devices that have the Google Hangouts application installed. This extends from your Nexus 6, to your Chromebook, to your iPad, to your Windows PC.

Project Fi is currently beginning as an early access program. Users who are interested and who own the Nexus 6 can check out Google's sign up page to apply to be one of the first users of this new network. Google's blog post in the source below has a bit more information as well as a video about this new project

Google Maps Gets A Major Upgrade, Promises Interstellar Accuracy

Even without any new hardware announcements, Google's opening keynote at I/O '13 this morning was an absolute treat on the software front, and even more so for developers. Notwithstanding the enhancements to Google Maps on the mobile front, the massive update to Google Maps for non-mobile devices was definitely the highlight of the morning.

Most of us have have probably seen the gradual progression of Google Maps ever since it launched, but today's update brings to the table an entirely new design paradigm, promising a holistic user interface, allowing users to focus on tasks at hand and not be distracted by traditional UI elements; the map is the UI.

I was never really a big fan of the current iteration of the Google Maps UI, not because it was confusing at times or the sidebar wasted valuable screen space, but because the UI often turned out to be unintuitive, progressively increasing my reliance on more constrained mobile mapping solutions. Google's re-imagination of their entire mapping experience this morinng really ticks the box for most of my gripes with Google Maps, if not all of them. The new Google Maps is built using the latest web standards, leveraging vector maps support and promising an extremely snappy user experience in the browser environment, with no plugins required.

The user interface is uncluttered, almost pristine, allowing users to focus on the content, with just the search bar on the top left corner. All search results are displayed on the map simultaneously, with finer descriptions for top results, allowing users to delineate them easily. Integration with Google+ pulls up places that your friends have reviewed or liked, making it that much more easier to pick your perfect destination. The search bar is dynamic, providing contextual options, based on the search results. Once you have decided on the place, you can also access indoor imagery (if available) of the establishment to resolve any outstanding doubts, if any. And since the results are sourced from other Google services, they are dynamic and ever-evolving, only getting better as time progresses. Another neat feature highlights similar and related places on the map once a desired place has been selected, making it easier to plan your itinerary for places you are visiting. 

Getting directions to a place has also been streamlined, by highlighting the relevant routes and automatically displaying available public transit information using an intuitive UI, allowing users to compare driving times versus public transportation times, to plan trips with granular precision. This feature will be very useful in cities like Chicago with well established public transportation systems, where the new public transit scheduling UI will add a whole new level of precision when it comes to planning your trips.

On an international front, the new Maps experience integrates stunning panoramic views of available locations, including relevant crowd-sourced imagery and viewpoints, including Photo Sphere integration. Google has also promised support for the Oculus Rift and the Leapmotion Controller, for those of us slightly ahead of the technological curve. Google has also added other interstellar features, where zooming out a bit further presents a blissfully accurate rendering of our planet, including real-time cloud and planetary data.

All in all, this is unequivocally the biggest upgrade to Google Maps in recent times and most likely helps Google leapfrog any advances by Microsoft or Apple to their mapping platforms, at least in the near future. 

So go on and sign up for the preview now. Google has promised invites to start rolling out tomorrow morning.

--->Google Maps Preview<---