Kyle Bradshaw joined 9to5Google in 2018 with a special interest in Google’s Fuchsia OS, rooted in his experience of being the first to offer a visual preview of the revolutionary design of the in-development operating system. Since then, his attention has broadened to include the secrets hidden within other areas of Google’s public codebases.
By reading the public Fuchsia code, Kyle was able to prove the existence of the Nest Mini and the Nest Hub Max months ahead of their respective announcements. With evidence from Chromium, he reported on Google’s since-canceled efforts to create an offshoot of Android designed for “touchless” feature phones.
In 2018, Kyle reported on three distinct Made by Google Chromebooks in development, the Pixel Slate, the Pixelbook Go — a full year before its release — and “Meowth,” the original version of the Pixel Slate that was canceled due to Intel’s delays that year. For ChromeOS itself, Kyle was the first to demonstrate the upcoming light theme redesign in action.
Looking at the early evidence of the Pixel 5’s specs, Kyle accurately predicted in February 2020 that the Pixel 5 might not be a traditional “flagship” phone. In 2021, he reported that Google’s next headset would be the “Pixel Buds A.”
Kyle was the first to report that the Pixel 6 would mark the debut of Google’s in-house processors, later revealed to be the Tensor chips.
Kyle contributes to the APK Insight column at 9to5Google, discovering the hidden changes in Google’s apps. These efforts have revealed hotly anticipated features, details about upcoming devices, and unexpected connections between companies.
He can be reached for tips or just friendly chat by Threads, Mastodon, Bluesky, or email. If you’re looking for his other works or side projects, head over to Kyle’s personal portfolio.
Google has lost a member of its Information Security team. These past few weeks have been a tumultuous time in terms of Information Security, with recent allegations against Facebook including the Cambridge Analytica scandal, but it’s unclear the reasoning behind his departure.
In Raleigh, NC, (via WRAL) it’s been discovered that local police have issued search warrants for Google to surrender data on Google Accounts that are near crime scenes within a given window of time.
It should seem obvious to users of Google Maps that Google keeps record of your location over time. Less obvious is that even with GPS disabled, Google still has a decent idea where you are, using other factors like cell towers and WiFi networks. This is true whether you use an Android phone or the Google app on an iPhone, including innocuous ones like Inbox by Gmail.
When describing the organization of Fuchsia code, Google uses a “layer cake” metaphor. Fuchsia is the name of the project as a whole and of the finished product (we presume), but under the hood there are 4 distinct layers that it’s divided into. This week’s Fuchsia Friday details each layer and what we know about them.
In an effort to protect consumers, Google has announced a new policy for AdWords relating to cryptocurrency. Basically, cryptocurrency ads are over.
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If something isn’t growing, it’s dying. With the slew of neglected devices not receiving Android Oreo, it could be argued that the update system is one of Android’s fatal flaws. Fuchsia is trying to be different. This week in Fuchsia Friday we look at Fuchsia’s ambitious update system.
Over the years, Android has added many ways to make it easier to securely unlock your phone. However, some argue that these features allow intruders easier access into your device. With Android P, Google is taking a step in the opposite direction by introducing an interesting countermeasure.
The latest major Android update is chock full of big changes, but sometimes the finer details are worth noting. Android P includes one such quality of life change with the ability to adjust vibration strength.
As excitement grows for Google’s highly anticipated OS, Fuchsia, some people are investing their time and talents into fan projects. One such person is Noah Cain, who has developed a working demo of Fuchsia’s Capybara design, for the browser.
Earlier this week, Google’s new cross-platform mobile app framework Flutter hit Beta. To celebrate that, let’s take a closer look at what Flutter is doing for app development today, and how it’s preparing developers and users alike for Fuchsia.
This week in Fuchsia Friday we look at the bigger picture. Google is making Fuchsia fundamentally different from systems of the past, especially learning from the challenges the company has encountered with Android. But now that we’ve taken a few weeks to describe some of its more important elements in detail, let’s take a step back and look at the big picture. Let’s check out the building blocks and terminology that Google uses to describe Fuchsia’s “modular” design.
The development of potential Google’s in-the-works Fuchsia OS is gradually getting more and more interesting. This afternoon, the Fuchsia OS team gained a valuable new team member, as Head of Platform Security for Android transferred to work on the fledgling OS.
We’ve slowly been learning more about Google’s upcoming Fuchsia OS, but given how different it is from Android, we can’t take anything for granted. It was easy to assume that Assistant would be back, but today we’ve gotten accidental confirmation from discussed changes to the source code.
With Fuchsia, Google’s upcoming OS for phones and computers, comes a chance to revamp and rebuild existing Android experiences and build them deeper into the operating system. In this week’s Fuchsia Friday, we’re looking closer at how Fuchsia has replaced the app drawer, and what seems to be an exciting reimagining of Instant Apps-like functionality.
Unilever, the owner of brands like Dove, Country Crock, and Popsicle, recently put social advertising platforms like YouTube and Facebook on notice by threatening to pull its ads unless they take action to help remove “toxic content.”
Two weeks ago, we learned about Fuchsia’s Stories and Modules, and how they will help us better organize our time, tasks, and ideas. This week, we’re looking at the idea of ‘entities’, Fuchsia’s attempt to catalog the digital world to be read by Assistant. Entities are also part of the glue that holds disparate “modules” together into one coherent Story.
Last Friday, we took a look at how ‘modules’ in Google’s forthcoming Fuchsia OS come together to make ‘stories’. As we learned last week, a story is one or more apps working together to help you complete a single task. Fuchsia, for the uninitiated, is also designed to allow for quick switching between devices by saving your Stories to your personal ledger.
This week, we’re learning more about Ledger and how it helps Fuchsia tell your story.
Excitement about Google’s skunkworks Fuchsia OS is building on Reddit and elsewhere on the web, and of course that’s leading to lots of chatter about Google’s plans for the platform. Recently, one Redditor found an opportunity to try and learn more by pressing a Google employee for info, but we’re skeptical in these kinds of situations.
Raph Levien, a member of the Fuchsia OS team at Google, apparently spends a significant amount of his time (his 20% time perhaps) on Xi, a new text/code editor. Levien has lofty goals for the code editor, including availability for all desktop platforms, and, of course, being the primary text editor for Google’s forthcoming Fuchsia OS.
Earlier this week, we took a broad look at what Google’s Fuchsia OS could mean if and when it’s finished. Today, we begin a new series of diving in and taking a closer look at the variety of unique features and changes that the operating system offers. Our first topic is Stories and Modules, and how they could radically change the way you use your phone and desktop.
In 2016, we learned that Google was beginning work on a new operating system, with speculation at the time being that it could replace Android. Things were quiet until May of last year, when an innovative, but early home screen design was uncovered. Now that we’ve seen it up and running on a Pixelbook, it seems more likely Fuchsia could eventually supplant both Android and Chrome OS.
With the resurgence of attention on Google’s new Fuchsia OS, we thought it would be good to give a recap of what exactly Fuchsia is and why we’re excited about it.