Fe Fi Fo Fum. Google skipped over Fe and launched Project Fi, a different kind of mobile service. So different that it's associated with 3 mobile carrier networks, uses Wi-Fi when it can, and will probably require you to buy a new phone. The week I started using Google Fi, I mentioned it here and said that I'd have a more complete evaluation later. After nearly 3 months, it's time.
Let's start with the requirement to buy a new phone. You won't have to if you already own a Nexus 5x, Nexus 6p, or Pixel phone -- but those are the only phones that work with the service. This is primarily because the phone needs to be capable of switching from one carrier to another or to use Wi-Fi when it's available. So depending on which signal offers the best connection, the phone will use T-Mobile, Sprint, US Cellular, or an acceptable Wi-Fi connection.
A Project Fi phone connects to free, open Wi-Fi networks that do not require any action to get connected (enter a password, watch an ad, or check-in). This may sound dangerous because what's being described is an open Wi-Fi hot-spot and I constantly warn that you need to set up a virtual private network (VPN) when you're on that kind of connection. When the phone connects through an open Wi-Fi network a secure VPN connection is established automatically.
Because Project Fi uses Wi-Fi whenever possible, you may see a significant drop in your data usage.
Previously I had a T-Mobile account that allowed for just 500MB of data per month. To avoid going over the limit, I rarely used the phone's data capabilities and my monthly usage was in the 200MB to 400MB range. Having switched to Project Fi, I use the phone for data operations much more than in the past, but my data usage has actually decreased.
Project Fi has an unusual pricing model, too. $20 per month for unlimited phone calls and text messages and $10 per gigabyte for data. If you don't use all of the data, you'll see a refund on the next month's bill. In my case, the $30 plan is more like $23 per month, which is about half of what I paid T-Mobile for less. And should I have a month during which I use more than my allotted 1000MB of data, the extra data will be billed in the following month.
The phones are designed to use Wi-Fi whenever possible, but what happens if you make a phone call from your home or office (on Wi-Fi) and then leave the building? Project Fi is supposed to transition the call to a cellular network if one is available and so far that seems to work as advertised.
Using 3 cellular networks probably doesn't greatly increase the number of locations where a signal will be available because most of the providers have similar coverage areas. If you compare a Project Fi coverage map to a map for any other provider, you'll generally see coverage in and around major cities and highways, with large open areas in the west. The primary advantage seems to be that any of the 3 carriers might have a better signal in one specific location. Google Fi should select the one with the best signal.
In the central part of the country -- Chicago on the west, Pittsburgh on the east, Louisville on the south -- there is nearly continuous coverage. Cities are blanketed with 4G signals and most of the remaining area has 3G signals. Only a few small areas are limited to 2G or no coverage.
Those who choose the Pixel phone will have a long payback time, even with lower monthly fees -- three years or more. But monthly savings could offset the cost of a Nexus 5x in about 2 years. The Pixel is the first phone built for Project Fi and is priced accordingly. It comes in two sizes and with two memory capacities. The smaller phone with 32GB of memory is $650 and the larger phone with 128GB of memory is $870. I chose the larger phone, but with 32GB of memory.
The Pixel runs on a Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 CPU with an Adreno 530 GPU. The display on the XL (with a slightly larger screen) has a resolution of 2560 x 1440 pixels. The rear camera creates 12.3Mpxl images and is capable of capturing 4K video at 30 frames per second. The front camera creates 8Mpxl images and can capture HD video at 30 frames per second.
Perhaps it's worth noting that images taken with either of the Pixel's cameras -- as well as screen shots -- are synchronized at full resolution to your Google Drive account and these images do not count against the Google Drive data limit.
The phone is filled with sensors: Pixel Imprint (a back-mounted fingerprint sensor for fast unlocking), accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer (to measure the earth's magnetic fields), barometer, proximity sensor, ambient light sensor, and a hall sensor (a transducer that varies its output voltage in response to a magnetic field). An Android app is available to show what these sensors are reading.
There are also 3 microphones, two face the front and one faces the rear. This allows noise cancellation circuitry to reduce local background noise.
The Pixel Imprint is the most frequently used of the sensors. Touching a finger to the sensor that's on the back of the phone usually unlocks it. The primary exception to this seems to be when the phone has been rebooted. Then the user needs to input the personal identification number.
Like most current phones, the user cannot open the case to replace the battery. When the battery dies, you'll need to have the phone serviced professionally or learn how to take the phone apart yourself. Here's how to take the phone apart yourself and this video illustrates clearly why (when my phone needs a new battery) I'll let a professional do it!
Disappointingly, there is no MicroXD slot for extra memory. The power and data connection use a new USB-C slot, which is a plus because the rotation of the plug no longer matters.
Some odd differences may confuse your muscle memory if you have been using an Android phone or tablet. Instead of being part of the hardware, the buttons at the bottom of the screen are built in to the user interface. When an application runs full screen, you may need to swipe up from the bottom to reveal the buttons. The order of the buttons is unusual, too. On most devices, the button that displays recent applications is on the left and the button used to go back a step is on the right. They are reversed on the Pixel.
The illustration here also shows that after nearly half of the current period, I have used only 200KB of data
Copying data from an existing Android phone to a Pixel is far easier than it has any right to be. A cable comes with the phone so that you can connect your other phone and turning the Pixel on for the first time runs through a guided process that's essentially goof-proof. If you cannot connect the phone with the cable, you can also use Wi-Fi to link them. Using the cables make the transfer about a 15-minute process.
Another task that turned out to be much easier than expected: Porting the number from T-Mobile to Google. When I ordered the phone, I was offered a form to fill out. It contained all the information needed to switch the service from one provider to another. When the phone arrived and I activated it, the final step involved submitting the information from the form I had filled out a week or so earlier. Although the porting process can take more than a day, the phone told me it was ready to make and receive calls in less than an hour.
Looking for a new phone? Take a look at Project FiIf you're happy with your current cellular provider, there's no reason to look elsewhere. But if you feel like you're paying too much, the data plan is too small
or not flexible enough, or you want to upgrade your phone, Project Fi is worth investigating.
Additional details are available on the Google Project Fi website.
Microsoft will start pushing the Creators Update out to users on April 11th. This is a major update and maybe you want to delay it for a while. Enterprise users won't receive the update for 4 months and if your computer runs Windows 10 Pro (not the Home edition), you can enable the same delay if you wish.
The Creators Update has been well tested by Windows Insider program users, but it's likely that some bugs will slip through. The Anniversary update had been well tested, too, but some systems went into continuous reboot cycles and some hardware devices were rendered inoperative until Microsoft could push out patches.
The Insider program has some 10 million participants, but that's still a small number of actual Windows users. I've been running the Creators Update on a secondary computer and have seen no problems. That secondary computer, though, is a mainstream system. Problems are most common with systems that have unusual hardware that might not have been seen in testing.
That is both the beauty and the beast of Windows. Individual users can connect hundreds of thousands of individual devices to their computers. But with extreme flexibility comes the potential for problems.
If your computer runs Windows 10 Home, delaying the update is not an option. Once Windows Home users have the Creators update, they will have limited options to delay future updates.
And despite the fact that the roll-out begins on Tuesday, not all computers will be updated on the same day. Microsoft typically manages the process to avoid overloading servers and -- probably -- to monitor for any potentially serious issues. Those who want to speed the process can obtain the update now even if you're not in the Windows Insider program using the Update Assistant tool. And if you have a Windows 10 phone, you'll see the Creators Update sometime after April 25.
So if you want to delay the Creators Update for a while, here's how. And again, this is for those with Windows 10 Pro.
First, find out whether you have Windows 10 Home or Pro. Open Settings, scroll to the bottom of the list, and click About. The Edition entry will specify which is on the computer.
If you have the Pro edition and want to delay the Creators update, return to the main Settings panel and choose Update and Security. Click Advanced Options at the bottom of the panel and select "Defer feature updates." This will stall the Creators version for 4 months, but you'll still receive security updates.
If you want to get the Creators update sooner, the previous screen (Update Status) should now have additional information about how to get it sooner. Click the link for more information and you'll see this reminder: "When the update is ready for your device, you'll receive a notification asking you to review your privacy settings before downloading the update." You'll also be invited to join the Windows Insider program. Late in the week, Microsoft added a link to the Windows 10 update.
On Thursday, I ran the Creators Update on the Surface tablet. The process completed in about half an hour and, as with the secondary notebook the update has been running on for about a week, I encountered no problems. Given two successes, I'll probably update my main computer and my wife's computer before Monday.
On the first boot following the update, Microsoft Edge will open to display information about new features. Microsoft will continue to do everything possible to convince you to switch from whatever browser you're using to Edge.
Hackers say they have access to 300 million ICloud user accounts and they say they'll delete the data if Apple doesn't pay $100,000. The so-called "Turkish Crime Family" made the claim, but the number of accounts varies. They've also claimed more than 500 million accounts.
This will all play out in the coming week. The crooks gave Apple until Friday, April 7, to pay up and the results won't be known until after this week's program closes. Apple has been skeptical and various groups that have investigated the claims suggested that the breach -- if it exists at all -- is considerably smaller than claimed.
The group had threatened to delete data from "some" of the accounts on Friday, so this might be a high-stakes game of poker.
Apple says that its security team found no breaches had affected its systems. Additionally, Apple noted that the email addresses and passwords they've seen "appear to have been obtained from previously compromised third-party services."
While it appears that the claim of 300 million hacked accounts looks more and more like a simple con job, there's a separate con being played. There's been so much discussion of the supposed attack that certain schemers (possibly the same ones that call to say your Windows computer has been compromised) are in the game. They call, pretending to be Apple Support.
If you get one of these calls, here's what you should do:
Oh, and you really might want to enable two-factor authentication. This is a good safeguard for any data that you've stored on-line. TechRepublic has a useful article that explains how to set up two-factor authentication for Apple accounts.
McAfee, the formerly independent anti-virus maker that was acquired by Intel, is once again an independent company after Intel completed the spin off of the company it bought 6 years ago for more than 7 and a half billion dollars.
McAfee is used by many large enterprises -- more than 60% of the world's largest companies according to some estimates and revenue is up considerably so far this year.
The founder, John McAfee, resigned in 1994 from the company he had founded in 1987 and attempted, in 2016, to gain the Libertarian nomination for the presidency, losing to Gary Johnson.
McAfee (the company) will concentrate on threat detection, plans to modernize the approach by depending more on artificial intelligence to detect constantly changing threats that can be missed by signature-based approaches. The objective is to intercept threats before they can damage the computer instead of reporting the damage after it happens.
Shortly after Intel bought the company, John McAfee was named a "person of interest in the death of his neighbor in Belize" and was arrested when a gun was found in his car following a drunk driving citation. Intel dropped the McAfee name for a time, but then restored it. McAfee (the person) has filed a suit against Intel for using his name.
McAfee CEO Chris Young says the spin off gives the company "the agility to unite people, technology and organizations against our common adversaries and ensure our technology-driven future is safe."
Intel sees positives, too. CEO Brian Krzanich says he offers the new company Intel's "full support as they establish themselves as one of the largest pure-play cybersecurity companies in the industry." The term "pure play" means that the company focuses on a particular product or activity instead of multiple interests.
