Google Introduces Wireless Service Called Project Fi

CONOR DOUGHERTY - Now you can Google a phone call.

On Wednesday, Google unveiled its long-awaited phone service, called Project Fi, putting the search giant in competition with Verizon, AT&T and other wireless service providers. In addition to new turf, the service is an attempt to blend several communication tools and the multiplying ways of calling people — cellular calls, online calls like those offered by Skype — into a single phone number and service.

For now, Project Fi could be considered an experiment. It will be available only to people using Google’s Nexus 6 phone, limiting its reach.

Analysts see the new service as a bid to reimagine phone calls so that they have greater overlap with Google’s expanding world of devices and services.

Unlike your typical cell service, Project Fi will mix traditional wireless technology, where calls are routed through cellular towers, with the wireless Internet service found in Starbucks, airports and elsewhere. Google has teamed with Sprint and T-Mobile to provide the traditional wireless service, and said it had about a million wireless hot spots for the rest.

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Making Change in an Apple Pay World

Edward Lewellen - I was recently asked by one of the largest international hotel brands in the world to produce a presentation on adapting to change to present at their upcoming international Leadership Conference. I've mentioned the topic as I've presented to groups over the last two weeks and as I've interacted with other business executives and it's made me realize how important this topic is and how much it is needed.

As you've noticed, I chose the title Making Change in an Apple Pay World. The reason is that, in years gone by we used to have to learn the value of hard currency and do the math every time we gave it to someone so that we knew how much change we were to receive. Then came credit and debit cards and the charge was automatic and we didn't have to think about making change. Of course, the latest in the evolution of exchanging value is Apple Pay and others like it. Apple Pay is even easier to use than credit and debit cards and it requires no thinking to make change. So, I use this as an illustration that adapting to change can become easy and automatic if you know the secrets to how we humans are actually made to easily accept change. We do it every day, because "the only constant is change". Most change takes place outside of our awareness; our cells in our bodies are constantly being replaced so that somewhere between every 7-10 years we have a "new" body, our thoughts and beliefs change, businesses constantly change to keep up with, or stay ahead of, their competition, etc.

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