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.
After years of relying on the outdated Qualcomm Snapdragon Wear 2100 chipset in its wearables, Mobvoi dropped the first Snapdragon Wear 4100 chipset earlier this year. Now they are adding to the TicWatch Pro 3 series with a LTE connected option, but only in Europe.
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The most confusing of Made by Google series launches effectively concluded in 2020 with the public-facing release of the Pixel 4a 5G — from the outset, a particularly tricky handset to review.
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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.
With the recent release of M1-powered Apple Macs and MacBooks that are capable of running iOS apps, it seems as though on the PC side of the fence we may soon see something similar occur. According to Windows Central, Microsoft’s “Project Latte” could see Android apps run on Windows.
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The latest version of Google Fit brought about a substantial UI refresh just a few weeks ago, with enhanced features and sleep tracking, but it appears that the ability to track your weight training workouts has disappeared.
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With an even earlier launch cycle, interesting renders, and a completely new direction for the company, OnePlus is shaking things up with the OnePlus 9 series launch. The latest rumor points toward a third device arriving alongside the OnePlus 9 and 9 Pro in the form of the OnePlus 9E.
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So we are running out of days in 2020 and we’ve hit a major milestone for Google’s cloud-gaming platform. November 2020 saw us celebrate the 1-year anniversary of Stadia and some hardcore PR in an attempt to turn around the public perception of Stadia after some serious PR missteps last month. That’s not all though, as some great things have been happening throughout November for one of the front-running game streaming services.
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The OnePlus 8T may have been released a little while back but along with a number of other devices including the Nokia 3.4 and Sony Xperia 5 II, it is officially joining the ARCore support list.
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OxygenOS 11.0.2.2 is now rolling out for the OnePlus 8 and 8 Pro, with a ton of fixes for common issues plus the November 2020 security patch.
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The OxygenOS 10.3.7 update is now rolling out for the OnePlus 6 and 6T, bringing with it some brand new features and the all-important November 2020 security patch.
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If you have a large display on your smartphone, did you know you can enter split-screen for most of your apps and even some games? The split-screen process changed with Android Pie and has remained the same through to Android 11 now that gestures are the main UI input method.
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While there are a number of 8K TVs with Android TV support, standard Android TV boxes were capped at 4K when streaming YouTube content — even if higher resolution videos are available on the platform.
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Today’s Google Doodle in the UK is honoring yet another of Britain’s trailblazers, Frank Bailey, on what would have been his 95th birthday.
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How do you choose between the Pixel 4a 5G and the Pixel 5, when both devices share such tightly knit DNA? We’re here to examine the nuances, differences, and help you make that all-important decision.
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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’s Project Mainline — or Mainline — effectively turns part of your favorite mobile OS into modules that are treated as independent portions of the wider build. It was introduced with Android 10, with the express aim of making core updates easier by decoupling them from the main system into modules.
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So Android 11 is still officially missing from Samsung Galaxy devices, but the Android 11-based One UI 3.0 beta has offered a preview phase ahead of a global rollout.
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YouTube is trialing yet more features as part of its experiments and UI tests, the latest being an easier way to tag a time stamp within video comments.
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Motorola effectively bombards the low-end of the Android smartphone market with reasonably well-priced, modestly-specced devices that are well worth a look. The latest is that of the Moto e7, which has been announced as available in select European markets.
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The OxygenOS 10.0.10 update is now rolling out for the OnePlus 7 and 7 Pro with very little notable beyond the November 2020 security patch.
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Android Go might only be aimed at those in emerging markets, which means modest internals and an even more modest price. The Vsmart Bee Lite is the cheapest Android Go device to date, though, with a staggeringly low $26 asking price.
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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.
YouTube’s experiments are regularly testbeds for core features that will eventually come to the video-sharing platform wholesale. Chapters have been a big component for creators for a little while now but needed manual inclusion within a video description. Now time may be saved as YouTube is testing auto-generated video chapters for selected videos.
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Considering that the Google Podcasts app is effectively an instance of the Google Search app, the dedicated podcast player has now hit an impressive 50 million downloads on the Google Play Store.
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