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Just a few months ago Google added US Cellular to the Project Fi lineup, allowing the service to pick the fastest network between T-Mobile, Sprint, and US Cellular when users are here in the US. Today, Google is making a similar announcement for international coverage, adding the cellular carrier Three to the lineup of international carriers.

Project Fi has always worked internationally in 135 countries, with data costing the same as it does in the US ($10 per GB). The downside was that it was very slow—you'd be stuck with 3G-ish speeds. Today Google also announced it's uncapping speeds internationally, offering a "10x-20x" speed boost.

The official post is pretty vague about what this means, but a Google spokesperson told TechCrunch, “Users will get the fastest connection available on a given network, speeds aren’t capped. In some cases, that would be LTE networks, in others it would be 3G networks (depending on roaming agreements). Different countries will have different speeds, which is why we set a range.”

(credit: Apple)

For all Apple’s obsessive secrecy, even its senior managers acknowledge these days with an on-stage wink that much of what they announce has already been predicted. In the run-up to WWDC, I saw developers on Twitter wishlisting "Xcode for iPad"—a way to write apps on an iOS device, rather than in the Xcode integrated development environment (IDE) that Apple makes available exclusively for the Mac. One suggestion was that this could be an iOS version of Playgrounds, the interactive test builder that Apple added to Xcode when launching its new programming language, Swift, in 2014.

Sure enough, 45 minutes into the WWDC keynote on 13 June, Tim Cook—not an SVP, but Tim himself, so that we knew it was important—unveiled Swift Playgrounds for iPad, "a new way to learn to code." And, because I’d been thinking about this, I tweeted: "I personally think a way to learn Swift is not what the iPad needs—it needs a 21st Century HyperCard. But let’s see."

Later, John Gruber, whose Daring Fireball blog is to Apple what BBC Radio 4’s Today show is to British politics, tweeted: "Swift Playgrounds = the new HyperCard?"

Microsoft's Surface Book. (credit: Nathan Fitch)

Microsoft is continuing to expand. At its Worldwide Partner Conference in Toronto, Microsoft announced new ways that its all-important partners can sell not just the company's software but also its hardware as it seeks to grow its Surface business.

At Surface's initial release, it was sold strictly as a consumer offering, available only from consumer retail outlets. As the product has grown more successful and better defined, Microsoft has expanded its sales channels to include a wider range of retailers, business suppliers, and earlier this year, the "Surface Membership Plan" rent-to-own offering. Today, the company added "Surface as a Service," a new leasing scheme that allows Surface hardware to be bought alongside Office 365 and Windows 10 subscriptions. The company says that customers of this scheme will have access to the latest hardware and faster device refresh cycles.

The expanded availability and better products have already seen the Surface business grow; Microsoft says that it has gone from generating $1 billion a year in revenue to $1 billion a quarter.