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’s long in-development operating system Fuchsia has taken one step closer to running on real devices, as a Bluetooth listing shows the Nest Hub running “Fuchsia 1.0.”
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Android Auto is great for getting maps and music running in your car, but the vast majority of vehicles that support it also limit users to slow charging speeds. Now, one person has come up with a clever way to bring fast charging to essentially any Android Auto user.
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Some players are currently unable to browse the Google Stadia store, getting errors like “Something weird happened, try loading the page again.”
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Every month, Stadia Pro offers a diverse selection of games for subscribers to claim for free, which is sure to leave quite a few games unplayed in some players’ libraries. How many unplayed Pro games do you have in your Stadia library?
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Google is beginning Teacher Appreciation Week 2021 in the US with an interactive homepage Doodle telling five wholesome stories of the influence an educator can have.
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If you’ve already bought into the Google Home ecosystem, it’s easy to think that Google’s own Nest thermostats are the only way to go. However, Ecobee’s line of smart thermostats offer full integration with the Google Assistant, but how do they stack up against Nest?
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In this week’s top stories: Google Messages gains an alternate One UI-inspired design, the Chromecast with Google TV gets an April update, Samsung begins rolling out its May 2021 patch, and more.
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Google is experimenting with putting ultra-wideband (UWB) connectivity into their Android hardware, likely for the Pixel 6 family of phones.
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Those on the Android 12 Developer Preview have begun to notice a “Google Voice Typing [Legacy]” option in their keyboard list. This is due to a mildly interesting tweak being made that moves Google Voice Typing from one app to another.
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9to5Google’s Game of the Week is brought to you by GeForce NOW. GeForce NOW Instantly transforms nearly any laptop, desktop, Mac, SHIELD TV, Android device, iPhone, or iPad into the PC gaming rig you’ve always dreamed of. And, every GFN Thursday, new games are added to the GeForce NOW Library.
Over the weekend, I took time to play Turnip Boy Commits Tax Evasion, an accurately titled video game and easily the funniest game I’ve ever played.
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Google’s apps for messaging and video calling, Google Meet and Google Chat, will soon be installed by default on Chrome OS devices.
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For a few months now, Chrome for Android has had an easy shortcut to search for an image you find online using Google Lens. Now it seems Chrome for Android may be gaining more handy Google Lens shortcuts.
Update 4/29: This feature has begun to roll out in Chrome Beta for Android.
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One of the most bizarrely missing features for Stadia is finally launching. Starting today, Stadia for web now offers a proper search bar to find games in the store, as well as a revamped library view, and Google is teasing a few future upgrades.
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Last month, Google Stadia co-hosted the “Play Anywhere Game Jam,” and as a result three indie games have been offered the chance to become full Stadia games.
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Recently, Samsung made Google Messages the default messaging app on the Galaxy S21 series outside of the US, instead of their own app. It seems the next step of this change is that Google has more widely launched a redesign for the Messages app that looks more like Samsung’s One UI on Galaxy S21 series phones.
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Google Lens has begun to appear in the Pixel Launcher’s search bar side-by-side with the Google Assistant, in a new test.
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As we steadily approach the midway point of the year, rumors have begun to swirl about the next Google Pixel phone, presumed to be the “Pixel 5a.” Here’s what we’ve learned about Google’s next phone from the Android 12 Preview builds.
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Telegram, one of the hottest private messaging apps, shared an update today with new features for its Android app, including a revamped payments system, voice chat scheduling, and more.
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Twitter has begun making its Clubhouse-like “Spaces” available to more people — here’s how to disable notifications for them.
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Google is celebrating the 94th birthday of Anne McLaren, one of the biologists credited for the development of in vitro fertilization, with a homepage Doodle.
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In this week’s top stories: we compare the Apple TV versus the Chromecast with Google TV, Android 12 gets its third developer preview, the Pixel 5a’s chipset gets leaked, and more.
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In honor of the United Nations’ annual “Spanish Language Day” on April 23, Google is celebrating the letter “Ñ” — or “eñe.”
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Chrome OS will soon be testing a frequently requested feature, the ability to have the current date and notification icons displayed in the corner of the shelf.
Update: Google has changed the flags that are used to add the date to your Chrome OS shelf.
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9to5Google’s Game of the Week is brought to you by GeForce NOW. GeForce NOW Instantly transforms nearly any laptop, desktop, Mac, SHIELD TV, Android device, iPhone, or iPad into the PC gaming rig you’ve always dreamed of. And, every GFN Thursday, new games are added to the GeForce NOW Library.
Loop Hero is one of the most innovative indie games that has been released in years, reversing the usual focus of “gameplay” to create a fantastically ambient experience. This reversal makes Loop Hero a perfect fit for playing from mobile.
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