Ben Schoon is a Senior Editor at 9to5Google, working for the publication as one of its primary news writers since 2016.
In 2013, Ben helped start an independent tech publication where he learned the skills used at 9to5Google including writing, product photography, and videography. He is located in the city of Winston-Salem in North Carolina where he lives with his wife Melissa. Ben is an avid disc golf player.
He primarily covers Android products, including Google Pixel devices, Samsung Galaxy smartphones, as well as devices from OnePlus, Oppo, Motorola, and more. Beyond just covering news about these products, Ben also spends time using these products himself, speaking from experience with the articles he writes. Some of Ben’s most recent hands-on reviews include; Pixel 8 Pro, Pixel Watch 2, Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 5, Samsung Galaxy S23 Ultra, Motorola Razr+, HP Dragonfly Pro Chromebook, and more.
Ben is also a leading source for information about Google’s Android TV, diving deeply into important parts of the platform including its powerful Operator Tier, explaining future changes to the platform, and reviewing its products such as Chromecast with Google TV, Nvidia Shield TV, and more.
In 2019, Ben leaked one of the first in-person photos of the Pixel 4 before later revealing the Recorder and Pixel Themes apps months ahead of launch. In 2020, Ben also reported on multiple upcoming Pixel devices including Pixel 5a and the first report of Google working on a foldable Pixel smartphone. That same month, he was also the first to correctly report the $49 price point of what became the Chromecast with Google TV.
Ben Schoon is active on Twitter, @nexusben, but can also be found on Instagram and LinkedIn. For questions or tips, you can email him directly, and his portfolio is also available online.
Email: schoon@9to5mac.com | Encrypted Email: benschoon@protonmail.com
After almost two months of back and forth, YouTube TV has just officially launched its new “Last Channel Shortcut” which allows users to quickly switch back and forth between channels they’re watching.
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Rolling out now, YouTube Shorts is adding the ability to add content from official music videos to your Shorts.
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Business cards, receipts, signs, etc. We’ve all taken pictures of these for safekeeping only to have to dig through our library to find them later. Google Photos already has a “Documents” section to help speed that update, but now the app seems to be adding support for better controls over what photos do and do not appear in it.
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Buying a phone from your carrier is a good way to get great deals or an easy payment option, but it also often means being stuck with a device locked to one carrier. A glitch over at T-Mobile, though, has left the ability to permanently unlock Samsung smartphones just a few taps away.
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The popular custom ROM LineageOS is debuting its Android 14 builds, LineageOS 21, with a few key improvements and the addition of an ad-free Android TV launcher too.
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Over the past several years, Apple has managed to pull in more and more marketshare from Android to the point where Apple now sells more smartphones than Samsung. But, in 2023, fewer Android users reportedly switched over to the iPhone than the year prior.
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The Xiaomi 14 series is set to make its global debut later this month, and now we’ve got price leaks as well as images of the upcoming “Ultra” model.
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A big part of the appeal of the original Nothing Phone was its affordable price tag, and it seems the upcoming Nothing Phone (2a) will be beating that with an even lower price.
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Google’s road to the launch of the first Pixel Fold last year was long and complicated, but as time goes on, we’re getting a bit more clarity into the development. This week, the “jumbojack” Pixel foldable we spotted back in 2021 has allegedly surfaced, and its a little different than expected.
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Samsung has just announced the first Galaxy S24 update which will bring customizable display settings among some other new tweaks.
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Google One has crossed 100 million subscribers and has a big new focus on its “AI Premium” tier with Gemini Advanced, but caught up in the crossfire seems to have been the 200GB plan, which is no longer being surfaced to account holders.
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The new Google Weather app made its debut last year on Pixel phones with a wonderful new design, and now the icons from that revamp seem to be coming to At a Glance and weather widgets.
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Late last year YouTube TV quietly started testing out a button shortcut that would let you quickly switch between your last-viewed channels, but the feature didn’t show up for everyone. This week, the shortcut appears to be rolling out more widely to Roku owners.
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Amazon Prime Video has been a perk of Prime for years, but this year the company forced ads on users who weren’t willing to pay a bit extra for the service. As it turns out, Amazon also stripped Dolby Vision HDR and Dolby Atmos from Prime Video’s “free” tier too.
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In October 2022, Google Meet made its debut on Samsung TVs but, now, the app seems to be shutting down.
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The death of Beeper Mini practically killed the dream of iMessage for Android, and now an FCC commissioner is calling for an investigation into Apple’s actions in pulling the plug.
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Early last year Google announced that Workspace plans would see price increases in 2024 and, this month, those price increases are now arriving for existing customers.
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Material You themed icons in Android have come a long way since their debut in Android 12, with many more apps now supported. But, still, there are a lot of Android apps without themed icons? What’s missing on your homescreen?
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The Xiaomi 14 series debuted in China last year and is launching globally later this month, but a new entry is also coming in the Xiaomi 14 Ultra, which has been confirmed by the company’s own website.
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The OnePlus 12R is one of the best deals we’ve seen in a while on a “near-flagship” smartphone at $499, but one of its specs, the storage, turned out to be too good to be true.
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Xiaomi is preparing to launch another Wear OS smartwatch with the upcoming “Xiaomi Watch 2” surfacing in Europe with a great chip and an affordable price.
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The NFL Super Bowl is one of the biggest live TV events of the year, and with more and more folks switching from traditional cable to internet streaming, YouTube TV is the choice of many to stream the big game. But, for some, it seems that streaming issues are affecting the quality.
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The latest redesign of Android Auto brings a useful new “dashboard” view that can show multiple pieces of information at once, but I wish it was better at supporting multiple apps at once.
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Towards the end of last year Google unveiled “Chromebook Plus,” a new standard to help customers get better Chromebooks. Acer is among the first to adopt it, and after spending a fair bit of time with the Acer Chromebook Plus 515, there’s definitely something here.
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