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
Google unveiled a new “Find My Device” network for Android users that would allow trackers to be located using millions of Android devices. That network is currently waiting on Apple to be released, but things are finally getting closer as the industry specification that Apple is waiting on is nearing its release, and in turn support for Android “Find My Device.”
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Wireless Android Auto adapters have been one of the best new accessories of the past few years, but they launched with a pretty hefty price tag. For the holidays, though, the best wireless Android Auto adapters are still discounted, even though you can’t get one of them through Amazon.
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After offering the series in India over the past few years, OnePlus is officially bringing the OnePlus 12R to the US and Europe in 2024, the company has confirmed in a recent video.
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For quite a while, Fossil was pretty much the only name in the Wear OS game, but as Samsung and Google have reinvigorated the platform, Fossil seems to be falling behind, leaving more questions than answers about the brand’s future.
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Samsung is expanding its do-it-yourself repair program to add new devices, including its first foldable, the Galaxy Z Fold 5 and Galaxy Z Flip 5.
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One of the best parts of Wear OS is the flexibility in watch faces, with thousands of great options available for download. Pujie Watch Faces is an app that lets you create custom watch faces for Wear OS watches, and it’s now adding a clever ability to build tools like stopwatches and calculators directly into your watch face.
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Google has reached a settlement in a US antitrust lawsuit which will have effects on the future of sideloading on Android, and we’re getting an idea of what that means for app sideloading and more in court documents.
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Xiaomi recently announced that it would do away with MIUI and move its Android devices over to a new, practically identical Android skin called HyperOS. Now, that update is going global and the company is confirming an initial roadmap of supported devices.
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Astrophotography has been a fun part of Google’s camera experience for the past several years, but the feature lost support for ultrawide shots a while back. Now, ultrawide astrophotography is returning, but solely on the Pixel 8 Pro.
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After announcing the long-delayed update last week, Mobvoi is starting its rollout of Wear OS 3.5 to the TicWatch Pro 3 series.
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If you’re still trying to squeeze in some last-minute holiday gifts, shipping probably won’t be able to get it to your door in time. Here are some of the best tech gifts you can buy in local stores with pickup instead of waiting for delivery.
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The Google Play Store is adding a new option that will allow users to uninstall apps from their other Android devices remotely.
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Beeper Mini managed to pull off the impossible in bringing a proper iMessage app to Android, but Apple shut it down in a matter of days. Now, members of the US government are calling for an investigation into Apple’s shutdown of Beeper Mini, which sets the stage for much bigger conversations.
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Nearing two months into its Android 14 rollout, Samsung has finally remembered its last-generation foldable smartphones, with One UI 6 now heading to 2022’s Galaxy Z Fold 4 and Flip 4, as well as 2021’s Galaxy Z Fold 3 and Flip 3.
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As more and more customers have moved away from traditional cable TV services, YouTube TV has continued to grow in popularity, leading to the product getting regular feature updates. Now, YouTube TV is adding a new button shortcut that makes it easier to switch between your last-viewed channels.
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In the barely two weeks since its debut, Beeper Mini and its sibling, Beeper Cloud, have experienced several major outages to iMessage support on Android and other platforms by Apple’s hand and, this evening, it’s happening yet again.
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Video Boost is in the process of rolling out to Google’s Pixel 8 Pro, with the promise of much better video quality after Google gets a chance to process your recordings. Video Boost is an impressive feature, but in our time testing it so far, Night Sight Video is clearly the most impressive point Google has for this Pixel 8 Pro-exclusive feature.
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Over the past several weeks, iMessage for Android has been a big topic of discussion and, for many, it comes back to why Android users seem to want iMessage so much. Personally, I don’t. iMessage for Android just happens to, somehow, be the path of least resistance when it comes to using a decent messaging app with people.
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It may soon be easier to pull pictures from your Google Photos library into Android apps, as a new change in the system’s photo picker will integrate with cloud storage apps.
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Browser extensions are super useful on desktop platforms, but mobile browsers rarely support them. This week, Firefox for Android is taking a big step in changing that with support for over 450 new extensions available now.
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The Google Stadia Controller was pretty much the only piece of consumer hardware that came from the company’s cloud gaming project, but it would have been useless without the platform to go with it. As such, Google opened up a conversion tool that allowed the Stadia Controller to work as a regular Bluetooth controller, and now, it’s leaving that tool open for longer.
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Gboard is picking up better support for the Spanish language in new updates.
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The Nothing Phone (2) proved to be a stellar affordable flagship, but now the company seems to be working on a new budget device, the “Nothing Phone 2a,” and we’re getting an early peek at the big new design and the specs.
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After its debut in China earlier this month, the OnePlus 12 is officially coming to the US and other global markets with a release date set for January 23, and it might not be the only device.
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