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
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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Samsung just got approval from the FDA to use Galaxy Watch to detect if the wearer is dealing with sleep apnea.
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Recent updates to Android Auto seem to be causing problems with Google Assistant for some users, with “oops, something went wrong” error messages whenever a voice command is attempted.
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Over the past few months, Google has been working behind the scenes to launch more “Cross-Device Services” on Android to enable features that work across your various Android smartphones and tablets. However, we’ve yet to see the features debut. Slowly, though, it looks like things are coming together.
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Google launched Gemini this week with the new AI experience set to replace Assistant for many users. If you do go out and enable Gemini on your Android device, though, you might find that there are two Gemini apps on your device. Here’s why.
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Google’s Waze app is most useful for its ability to crowdsource information about what’s on the road, and that’s all powered by the reporting option in the app. Now, though, a new update for Waze is giving reporting a new look, and also taking away some options.
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With Valentine’s Day around the corner, Google TV is preparing with “Cupid’s Choice” content now appearing on the homescreen.
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The wave of AI has also ushered in some wild new hardware concepts such as the Humane AI Pin and the Rabbit R1. Today, Brilliant Labs has announced “Frame,” a pair of glasses with a heads-up display and multimodal AI, up for pre-order now at $350.
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Google Bard is now Gemini, and with that rebrand, it’s also now the default assistant app on Android. But, if you were in the habit of using Google Assistant for home controls, Gemini can only replace that functionality if you use it in a specific way.
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For years now the top 10 smartphones of every year have been Apple’s iPhones with a couple of cheap Galaxy models slipped in. For 2023, though, the top 10 smartphones also included a slightly more expensive Galaxy devices.
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Samsung’s new Galaxy Tab A9+ just launched in the US a few weeks ago, but there’s now a new promo that offers up doubled storage and RAM at no additional cost.
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Google launched the first beta preview for Android 14 QPR3 yesterday, and with that update, Android made a slight change to biometric prompts to show which app is asking for your fingerprint or face scan.
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Weather apps first arrived on Android Auto last year with the debut of “Weather & Radar,” and now that app is getting a huge update with new features, split-screen dashboard view support, and more.
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