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’s Android TV has long been competing for its place in the market, and in the United States it primarily goes against Roku and Amazon’s Fire TV. Most Android TV and Google TV partners also sell Roku models, but they’ve never mixed in with Fire TV. That changes now, as Hisense has launched its first Amazon Fire TV model.
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Google Stadia is adding Cities: Skylines today, and in a surprise, the game is a free addition to Stadia Pro!
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2020’s LG Wing turned out to be a bit of a “last hurrah” for LG, as it was the company’s last ambitious smartphone release before shutting down its mobile division. Despite the concept not taking off in any major way, LG isn’t quite done with the Wing, as it has this week rolled out an update to add support for C-Band 5G on the Verizon model.
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Google’s upcoming Pixel Buds Pro look like an exciting release from their battery life to the addition of active noise cancellation. Like in years past, though, Google won’t be selling Pixel Buds Pro in every region, and availability of certain colors will be limited in select regions.
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Advertising tends to creep its way into anything and everything you’re using in some form, and it seems that text messaging is a focus for some brands in India. Lately, Google Messages and its RCS messaging has been abused by businesses in India.
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Google Stadia has been pretty slow to add new games to its platform so far this year, but there are a few big ones on the horizon. This week, Ubisoft has confirmed that Roller Champions and a new Rabbids game to Stadia.
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Google’s switch to Tensor in the Pixel 6 has seemingly sent waves through the rest of the Android market. Earlier this year, Samsung executives announced plans for a chip dedicated to the company’s Galaxy smartphones, but it seems that won’t actually arrive for a few years.
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The rollout of Android 12 has been swift on some devices, and relatively slow on others. But right on schedule, Asus just released its Android 12 update for the ZenFone 7 series.
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The Galaxy Z Fold 4 is quickly shaping up to be a sizeable upgrade to Samsung’s flagship foldable, and that primarily comes from the camera. According to a new report, the Galaxy Z Fold 4 will even best one of the telephoto lenses on the Galaxy S22 Ultra.
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Google announced recently that it would purge the Play Store of outdated Android apps that didn’t support the platform’s latest features or had been neglected. According to a new report, Google’s crackdown will remove nearly 900,000 outdated Android apps from the Play Store.
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Qualcomm has confirmed, at least via its social media, that there will be a launch event this Friday, May 20, to launch a new Snapdragon chipset.
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During this past week’s Google I/O keynote, the company officially announced the “Look and Talk” feature for the Nest Hub Max that we’ve been tracking. Now, just a few days later, that feature appears to be rolling out widely.
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Google’s Pixel 7 and Pixel 7 Pro aren’t due to launch until later this year, but at Google I/O 2022 the company unexpectedly offered a first look at the new devices. As far as specs go, here’s what we know about the Pixel 7.
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The Galaxy Watch 5 Pro is shaping up to be a pretty exciting Wear OS release, and now it appears it’s also going to bring some stronger materials. According to a reliable tipster, Samsung is set to deliver sapphire glass and a titanium build on the Galaxy Watch 5 Pro.
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Google showed off its revival of Google Wallet this week at Google I/O, but the company isn’t yet done with Pay. In a developer session talking about what’s new in Google Pay, the company outlined a potential future feature where you’ll be shown which credit cards have the best rewards for your purchase.
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As focus has seemed to lessen on Stadia over the past couple of years, Stadia was an unsurprising no-show at this year’s Google I/O conference, and it also came as no new games were released this week.
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Chromebooks have long been criticized for their lack of ways to edit photos and videos. While there are some solid web apps, the tide is finally turning. LumaFusion, a popular video editor from iOS, previously announced that it would be launching an app on Chrome OS, and at I/O Google has shown off the app up and running on a Chromebook.
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There’s a lot to be excited about with the Google Pixel 7, but soft-touch glass apparently won’t be on that list.
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As Google has put more of its weight behind streaming in the living room, Android TV OS has seen considerable growth. This week as part of Google I/O 2022, Google has revealed that Android TV now has over 10,000 apps.
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The vision of Google TV is to make streaming your favorite shows effortless by keeping everything in one place. The Google TV app is now building on that idea by delivering support for casting content from multiple streaming services through a single app.
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After quietly launching the first beta update earlier this month, Google is taking to I/O to announce a few more details on the Android TV 13 update.
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Google threw away its fabric cases with the Pixel 5a and the Pixel 6 series, and it seems the replacement is sticking around. Like last year’s lineup, the Pixel 6a will get a set of pretty boring official cases.
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Truly wireless earbuds can be found at virtually any price point, but the most affordable ones are often less trustworthy. Today OnePlus is announcing the Nord Buds, its most affordable pair of truly wireless earbuds yet with a price of just $39.
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The Google I/O 2022 keynote brought a lot of exciting announcements, but also a glaring mistake. While talking about Google Translate, the company showed the Arabic incorrectly.
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