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Google has announced today that the Chromecast app for Android and iOS is going to be rebranded as Google Cast over the course of the next week.  The reason for the change is that the Cast technology is in more devices than just Chromecast now and the new name is more reflective of the service instead of being tied to a specific device.  The announcement was made as part of a larger announcement around Vizio P-Series televisions which has Google Cast technology built into it.

If you are a Project Fi user, in Google maps is one that you will want to get on your phone.  The reason?  You can now have the app show you were Open Wi-Fi compatible hotspots are near you so you can securely connect your Nexus device to them without any configuring on your part.  The points are user generated and provided to you within the Maps app.  As Fi users know, Open Wi-Fi is built into Nexus devices and Fi leverages it to connect you automatically to hotspots that meet Google’s criteria.  The connections are secure thanks to them being an encrypted VPN connection and when you go into a location with an approved network, your phone will connect automatically for you.  I wrote on this feature back in November and if you aren’t familiar with this aspect of Fi, give it a read to get caught up.

Over the course of the past few weeks, I’ve read a lot of comments here and on Google+ with regards to Project Fi and the criteria it uses to select the carrier to use at any given time.  It is an interesting subject and one that I have a fair amount of experience with not only as a Fi subscriber, but in my day job in the communications industry.  The confusion, I think, rests with a user having what appears to be full signal strength in their area on say T-Mobile yet their phone is continually connecting to Sprint which has less signal in that location.  As a general rule, you won’t know which network you are on unless you are using a tool like Signal Spy to check it out.  But the bottom line is that a stronger signal isn’t the only thing that Google is looking for when it comes to selecting the network in Project Fi.

If you have the AT&T locked version of the Blackberry Priv, you should start seeing the March security update coming to your device starting today.  The update comes 2 weeks-and-a-day after it was released by Google themselves so all-in-all, that is not a bad time frame for a carrier locked device.  Further, the update makes AT&T the first carrier here in the US to get the update to the Priv on their network with T-Mobile, Verizon and Sprint all having the device but none of them have pushed out this update.  For a point of reference, the update came out the same week as Google released it on the unlocked version of the Priv.