Damien is 9to5Google‘s resident Video Producer and has over a decade of UK media experience. He worked within the sports industry and with numerous sports-focused publications — including golfing publication National Club Golfer — prior to joining the 9to5Google team.
After completing a BSc in Computer Science at the University of Hull with a major focus on data analytics and UX, he joined the Press Association (now PA Media), developing growing sports data products for the Barclay’s Premier League. These’s data packages included the now-defunct ACTIM Index which eventually evolved into the EA Sports Player Performance Index.
While working with the UK’s largest media agency, he attained a MA in Journalism at Sheffield Hallam University after completing his studies in 2014. This is where a love affair with all things videography surfaced after a brief stint in student TV. A major interest and constantly growing know-how of technology and videography have seen Damien lead 9to5Google’s official YouTube channel since 2018. He previously hosted the 9to5Google Daily podcast from 2019 to 2021.
Damien’s expertise and focus area lie in a number of beats including Android and OEM software updates, mobile applications, smartphone and accessory reviews, and just about anything that makes a modern mobile nerd tick. He says that he is “platform agnostic” despite primarily using Android devices and attempts to regularly test the iOS waters to better understand the nuances of the tech he covers on a day-to-day basis.
Outside of the tech space Damien is an avid supporter of his boyhood soccer team Hull City and is even a fully qualified Barista — with 3 years of experience making speciality coffee. Be sure to follow him on Threads, Bluesky, LinkedIn, and Instagram for insights and upcoming video updates and tidbits. If you are interested, you can also check out just what video gear he is currently using on his dedicated Kit.co page.
Although not necessarily the best calendar experience, Google Calendar is a solid digital diary, but a recent shift to the search button to the top navbar might be one of the best simple UI changes in recent updates.
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After multiple early teasers, the OnePlus Band has now officially launched in India with a price tag to rival the most popular fitness bands on the market.
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Android 12 may not be here in a full release capacity until the latter half of 2021, but that hasn’t stopped us from dreaming up a wish list of things we really hope to see in the next OS build.
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Listen to a short-form recap or roundup of all the top 9to5Google stories of the previous 24 hours. 9to5Google Daily is available on Spotify,Google Podcasts, Amazon, iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Pocket Casts and other podcast players.
Google looks to be working on a unified one-stop hub for all of your video streaming services in Chrome called Kaleidoscope.
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In terms of horror movie history, there are very few that match the iconic status of Dracula and Frankenstein. The horror movie duo along with five other classic titles are set to be made available for free on Universal’s “Fear: The Home of Horror” YouTube channel from January 15.
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The latest OxygenOS 11.0.3.3 update is now rolling out for the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro with the incremental OTA update oddly missing the latest security patch but bringing some admittedly notable new features.
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The idea that cheap phones are bad has persisted for a long time, but it often isn’t true of every cheap phone — case in point, the Poco M3.
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Listen to a short-form recap or roundup of all the top 9to5Google stories of the previous 24 hours. 9to5Google Daily is available on Spotify,Google Podcasts, Amazon, iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Pocket Casts and other podcast players.
Some people are not fans of display notches, and the ability to “hide” a camera cutout has existed on many devices for quite a while. However, for Samsung Galaxy owners updating to One UI 3.0, the ability to hide the camera display notch appears to have vanished.
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In the browser battles, Microsoft Edge hasn’t made too much of a splash since being rebuilt from the ground up in Google’s Chromium. It has, however, added some notable tweaks and features, but like its counterpart Chrome, it has now finally gained the ability to sync search history and tabs across devices.
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The OxygenOS 11.0.6.8 update is now rolling out for the OnePlus 8T with the aim of resolving some of the issues that many owners encountered after updating to the previous 11.0.6.7 build.
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One of the major benefits of being a Google One subscriber is the random and sometimes impressive freebies, the latest such “gift” for UK-based users is three months of free YouTube Premium.
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Listen to a short-form recap or roundup of all the top 9to5Google stories of the previous 24 hours. 9to5Google Daily is available on Spotify,Google Podcasts, Amazon, iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Pocket Casts and other podcast players.
As an advocate of affordable Android smartphones, HMD Global has a portion of the Android One market almost cornered. The recently released Nokia 3.4 is another such cheap, accessible Android One-powered device, but how does it stack up?
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The Google Assistant is helpful, it’s useful, and it certainly doesn’t “do nothing” in the wider sense. However, a brand-new “Do Nothing Mode” has arrived on the Google Assistant and all associated devices in India.
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True multi-device support is arguably the biggest and most anticipated feature to ever arrive on WhatsApp, but thanks to some new information, it looks like a public preview may be in the pipeline.
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The Pixel 5 has already had a pretty rocky start to life, thanks to issues pertaining to display gaps, the battery indicator stalling, a proximity sensor flicker bug, and now some volume level problems.
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Listen to a short-form recap or roundup of all the top 9to5Google stories of the previous 24 hours. 9to5Google Daily is available on Spotify,Google Podcasts, Amazon, iTunes and Apple’s Podcasts app, Stitcher, or through our dedicated RSS feed for Pocket Casts and other podcast players.
After initially only launching in selected markets, the OnePlus Nord N10 5G and N100 are set to go on sale from January 15 in the US.
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After confirming that the OxygenOS 11.0 Open Beta would be available for the OnePlus Nord just a few days ago, owners can now get a taste of Android 11 on their affordable Android devices right now.
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The Xiaomi Mi 10i 5G has now been officially unveiled with the device expanding the ever-growing Mi 10 series, but with the caveat that this device has been made in India.
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Despite the fact that Google Photos is the “premiere” photo-focused product from Google, Gallery Go is the lightweight, offline alternative for those with modest Android hardware on offer. Having only been released around 18 months ago, Gallery Go has now amassed 50 million downloads on the Google Play Store.
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Right on cue, Samsung is now rolling out the January 2021 security patch to those with the Galaxy S20, S20+, and S20 Ultra.
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