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One of the benefits of being a Project Fi subscriber is the ability to place and receive calls over Wi-Fi.  Wi-Fi call is nothing new and Google certainly wasn’t the first with this minute savings feature.  But what Google has done with Project Fi is make it seamless – so much so that unless you look at your phone during a call, you may not even know you are using Wi-Fi for that conversation. Even better, if you start a call on Wi-Fi and your signal drops (or you leave the building), your call is handed over to the cellular network so you can keep talking.

I mentioned Wi-Fi calling in my review of Project Fi, which you can read at this link.  Earlier this week I also posted an overview of how Open Wi-Fi works on the service which would be a good read too as it is somewhat foundational to this article.

How Does Project Fi Determine When to Place a Call on Wi-Fi

At it’s core, Fi is always looking for Least Cost Routing (LCR).  This is a common term used in Unified Communications & Collaboration and what it means is that your Nexus device will always be looking for the lowest cost way to make a solid, reliable call.  To do this, a lot of things are taken into consideration.  What is the quality of your cellular signal?  What is the quality of your Wi-Fi signal?  How stable are these connections?  Taking all of this into consideration, when you start a call, Fi uses this information to determine which path to use that will meet the least cost criteria but also provide you the best quality of call.  So, for example, if both Wi-Fi and Cellular are available but the quality of the wireless connection is spotty, Fi will use the cellular path to make the call.

You may be asking yourself, “Why bother with Wi-Fi calls if the minutes on Project Fi are free?”.  That’s a great point but think about it from a call quality perspective, not just a cost perspective. If you are in an area where the cellular coverage is weak at best but you happen to be in a coffee shop with outstanding Wi-Fi, why not leverage that for a call?  That’s somewhat how Fi looks at the world of getting your call completed.  From the cost perspective, even though the minutes on Fi are free to you, they are not free to Google.  Any time they can off load a call to free Wi-Fi, it benefits them but ultimately us as users as well as it allows Google to keep costs low and thus our monthly subscriptions low.

Real Racing 3, arguably one of the best racing simulators for mobile platforms, has received another big update this month that brings a whole host of new cars, challenges and events.  Amongst those update is the new Lamborghini Huracana LP 610-4 which for most of us, let’s be honest, is the closest we will ever get to driving the real thing.  Not a Lambo fan? No problem as you can also try your driving skills in an Aston Martin Vulcan, Koenigsegg Regera and the McLaren MP4-12C Spyder.

If you are looking to drive a hyper-car, this game has it for you.

This update to Real Racing 3 is big at 48MB but certainly not as big as some of the updates in the past.  Still, you will want to make sure you are on Wi-Fi to do the download so you don’t eat up your data plan.  For those keeping score at home, this update take the game to version 4.0.3.

Real Racing 3 – Free (In-App Purchases) – Download Now

Last week Google rolled out what they are calling the Star Wars Experience.  If you go to http://www.google.com/starwars, you can sign yourself up for either the Light Side or Dark Side and when you do, you get all kinds of cool Star Wars related stuff in your Google Services like Gmail backgrounds, Chromecast backgrounds and there is even an official Star Wars app that gets you the latest news and information on the upcoming movie.  One of those apps that joins in the fun is Google Maps and it is in a subtle but fun way.  If you are on the Dark Side, you will get a Star Destroyer for your home location and for work, you get an Empire Transport Ship.  Geeky?  Absolutely.  Fun?  Absolutely.

By-the-way, if you want to return all your Google stuff back to normal, it is easy to do so.  Just go the Google Star Wars link above, chose Change Sides then move your avatar back to the neutral position between the sides and click Back to Default.  Now everything is back to normal.

To get this overlay on Google Maps to work, you have to first chose a side on the Star Wars link.  Next, within your Google account, if you have not done so already, you need to configure your Home and Work locations.  You can do this from your Android phone by going to Google Maps, opening the menu and tapping My Locations.  Now you are ready for some Star Wars fun!

One of the key features that has been missing from Instagram for, well really forever, has been the ability to log into multiple accounts.  For individual users, that may be no big deal. But for those of us who have a personal account and a corporate account for example, you are constantly having to log into one account then to the other.  It is a bit of a time suck and when you are in a hurry, undoubtedly you enter in your password wrong.

There seems to be light at the end of this particular tunnel.  Over the weekend, Instagram started rolling out a beta version of their Android app that allows you to sign into multiple accounts in the app at once.  Once you have your accounts in the app, you simply toggle between them much like you can do with the Twitter app for Android today.  This new feature is in beta so it isn’t something everyone can go download but after the break I outline how to get in on the action.