Author: Clinton

2015 was a breakout year for ClintonFitch.com and I have you to thank. Thank you for reading the posts, commenting here, on Twitter and Google+ and for following. Without you, there really would be no point to the site.

I have been running this site since 2004 and while it has gone through many iterations, every year I look back to see what caught your eye over the course of a year. 2015 is no exception.  I like looking back as it gives me an idea of what you want to see out of the site and the content you find most valuable.  Ultimately that is want I want to provide to readers.  With that then, here are the top 10 most read articles from 2015.

#10 Most Read Article in 2015: Real Racing 3 Gets A Massive Porsche Update And New Daily Rewards (July)

Just a month after its big Le Mans update, Real Racing 3 has received another massive update that brings a host of new features, cars and tracks.  If you are a Porsche fan, you will just love this update!  Even if you aren’t, the new daily reward system is much improved for those who play the racing sim daily and want to race against your friends?  It’s easy now with the Android Party Play functionality built into the game.

#9 Most Read Article in 2015: Real Racing 3 Gets a Massive NASCAR Update (June)

You peeps like your Real Racing! 🙂

Arguably one of the best mobile racing simulators available today is Real Racing 3. It has outstanding graphics and game controls and the FireMonkey team over at EA Sports are continually adding to the game, bringing more tracks and more cars. Now, finally, it has NASCAR.

If you have been reading my site for the past few months, you know that I recently switched over to Project Fi after being an AT&T customer for over 17 years. You can read my review of Project Fi here but you can find all of my Project Fi related tips, tricks and How To’s at this link.  One of the key advantages of the service is the ability to switch between T-Mobile and Sprint, the two providers that make up Google’s MNVO (Mobile Network Virtual Operator).  In principle, the way it works is that whichever carrier has the stronger signal in your area is the one you will connect to but as you travel, you may switch from Sprint to T-Mobile or vise-versa.  The challenge is that you never really know which network you are on at any given moment and that fact, along with several other key features, is why Signal Spy is a must have app for Fi users.

Signal Spy is an app you may have heard of before as it was know as Fi Spy up until a few weeks ago after what I think was a discussion between the developer Novvia and Google’s legal team. 🙂  The name aside, Signal Spy gives Fi users the ability to not only see what carrier they happen to be using but also what LTE band they are using with that carrier, their Wi-Fi information (if connected) and the ability to force your Nexus device to switch from one carrier to another.  I have been using the app for several weeks now (I’m part of their beta program) and now that it is out and available for everyone, it should be an app that Fi users download right after the Project Fi app itself.  Even if you are not on Fi, you can still get some really useful information out of Signal Spy that makes it worth the download for anyone.

For the purpose of this review I am going to assume that you are a Project Fi user so I can explain all the features and usefulness of the app.  If you are a non-Fi user, keep in mind that your mileage will vary on what you can see in the app.

Signal Spy – Free (In-App Donation) – Download Now

If you have been wanting to try Google’s Project Fi mobile service, now is a good time to give it a go.  Now through December 30th, you can sign up on the Fi website and there is no wait time for you to get your SIM.  The “instant invitation” program means that instead of having to wait in queue before your SIM was sent to you, you will now get it in about a week and can start using the service in your Nexus 6, Nexus 6P or Nexus 5X.

It is not a well kept secret that I am a Project Fi users and I am very pleased with the service.  You can read my full review of the service but also check out the many posts I have made on making Fi work a bit better for you and explanations of the intricacies of the service.  The bottom line is I’m happy and after 17 years of being an AT&T customer, I’m not looking back.

While I and many users of Fi are quite happy with the service, it is technically still in beta. That means that Google has been slowly feeding new subscribers into the system and if you applied for a SIM it could be a matter of weeks or even months before you got it to try in your phone.  While there are still some rough edges with Fi, it is solid for the vast majority of users and Google has run this “instant invitation” twice now in as many months.  To me, that indicates they are more confident in the service themselves and are wanting more subscribers to try it and use the service.

To sign up, just go to http://fi.google.com and sign in with your Google account to get started.

More details after the break.

One of the big benefits of Project Fi is the ability to place Wi-Fi calls.  What that means is that if I have a call come in to me or I place a call and my Wi-Fi signal is measured as being stable and fast enough by Fi, the call will be placed over my Wi-Fi connection instead of cellular.  So what is the advantage of this?  Think about a time where you had plenty of Wireless signal but no cellular signal.  But even in a scenario where you have ample cellular coverage and Wi-Fi coverage, Fi will chose the Wi-Fi first based on the principle of Least Cost Routing.  It costs Google less (remember, your talk minutes are free from Fi but Google still pays for any minutes you use) to place a call over wireless than cellular.

While I covered Wi-Fi calling in my review of Project Fi, on this particular subject I was a bit vague in showing exactly how this worked.  Hopefully this post will clear things up for you.  To be clear, I’m not talking about calls made via Hangouts.  That’s a whole different subject. No, I’m talking about calls placed with the Google Dialer app that is built into your Nexus device – just like you would if you were using cellular.

So how then can you tell if your Fi call has gone over Wi-Fi?  It’s pretty clear and I’ll show you after the break.

HTC has started pushing out the Android Marshmallow 6.0.1 update to the One A9 today and owners of unlocked variants here in the US should already see the update starting to hit their phone.  The news came via the Twitter account of HTC’s Mo Versi and certainly is welcome news to owners of both the One A9 as well the One M9 which is seeing the 6.0 update roll out.

Happy Holidays! Updates to the Unlocked A9 6.0.1 and Unlocked M9 6.0 will be able to be downloaded within next 24 hours! Enjoy 🙂

— Mo Versi (@moversi) December 23, 2015

When the A9 was released, HTC committed to having Marshmallow updates out to the device within 15 days of them being released by Google.  While they are hitting the 15 day… ish mark on those releases, they are a far cry better than many other OEMs out there.  Indeed new phones being announced are still coming with Lollipop on them.

If you are curious as to what is new in the 6.0.1 update, you can read about it here and of course my review of Android Marshmallow is available at this link.

Google has thrown out another nice little holiday treat for everyone.  Now through January 4, 2016, you can save 50% off of any album in the Google Play Store when you use the link below.  The really nice thing is that this promotion is really on any album.  I checked out several this morning at various price levels and the coupon code worked on all of them.  Keep in mind that you can only use the coupon one time per account so make it count!

50% Off any one album at the Google Play Store