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.
In this week’s top stories: Google Pixel phones gain a new collection of ‘Curated Culture’ wallpapers, the February Android security patch arrives, OnePlus 7 series gets its last Android 10 based update, and more.
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The Stadia app for Android has received an update to version 3.2, containing another tease of Project Hailstorm and progress toward voice chat, Android TV, and much more.
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This afternoon, Google has delisted the popular extension The Great Suspender for containing malware and is proactively disabling the extension for those who have it.
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Pikuniku, a quirky indie game about striving to make people happy — and failing spectacularly — is coming to Google Stadia in February.
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In the wake of the shutdown of Google’s Stadia Games and Entertainment division, Amazon’s new CEO has shared his commitment to the company’s efforts to create video games.
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This week, Stadia became the center of attention in the worst possible way, with Google shutting down first-party game development after less than two years. This has led many to wonder whether or not Google Stadia is “dead.” The short answer is no, Stadia isn’t dead, at least not yet.
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For six months now, we’ve been patiently tracking progress on a new “Phone Hub” feature that is poised to make Chrome OS and Android devices “better together.” It seems patience is finally paying off, as the Chrome OS “Phone Hub” has begun to arrive for a very limited group of people.
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The latest update to the Pixel Buds app prepares to bring the ability to manually update to the newest firmware.
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Earlier today, Google made the surprise announcement that they would be ending their efforts to develop first-party games for Stadia. However, is it possible for Google Stadia to succeed without first-party games?
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Google has announced that it is winding down Stadia Games and Entertainment, shutting down efforts to develop first-party games.
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Stadia’s latest sale gets you ready for Super Bowl Sunday with discounts on Madden 21, a variety of Ubisoft games, and a discounted Stadia Premiere Edition from the Google Store.
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Chrome Remote Desktop, Google’s free, handy web app to let you take control of another computer, has gotten a redesign, complete with dark mode.
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Crayta, an engine to both play games and create games of your own, is dropping its Stadia exclusivity and gaining a PC release later this year.
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Last week, Cyberpunk 2077 got its biggest bug-squashing update since launch with Patch 1.1. Today, CD Projekt Red is following that up with Cyberpunk 2077 Hotfix 1.11 which fixes a major bug from the last update.
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One of the better recent features of the web is the ability for websites to be upgraded into standalone apps — called Progressive Web Apps — on your phone or desktop. Unfortunately, it seems Mozilla has discontinued the development of supporting Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) on desktop versions of Firefox.
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With Android 10, Google introduced a dedicated dark mode to reduce eye strain and simply look cooler. For Android 12, Google is working to bring a much deeper theming system, able to recolor supported apps.
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Cloud streaming has benefits for gaming, as we’ve seen with Google Stadia, but it’s not all about high-end, graphically demanding titles. Sometimes, it’s just about making games easy to access. Today, “Plex Arcade” is launching as a way to stream classic video games to Android and Android TV devices, Chrome, and more.
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Last week, our APK Insight team uncovered mentions in the Google Stadia app of an ominous “Project Hailstorm.” Since then, the Stadia community has been abuzz with speculation about what Project Hailstorm could be. Here are some of my own guesses.
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Though Cyberpunk 2077 was a hotly anticipated title ahead of its launch, the game was swiftly found to be a bit of a mess. Today, CD Projekt Red has released Patch 1.1 for Cyberpunk 2077, bringing many stability fixes to all platforms, including Stadia.
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Last year, in the initial releases of the Android 11 Developer Preview, we discovered that Google was developing a new double tap gesture for Pixel phones. Now it seems Google is working to bring the Columbus gesture back to Pixel phones with Android 12.
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With COVID-19 still affecting the world, many schools are using tools like Google Classroom to help with the process of turning in assignments while learning from home. Tonight, however, many students are unable to turn in their assignments as Google Classroom is experiencing an outage.
Update: Google Classroom is now back online.
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It seems Google Duo may soon cease to work on uncertified Android devices, following the trend set by the Google Messages app.
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On Android 11 today, you can use split screen to open two apps on your device at the same time. However, the process is a bit awkward and hasn’t kept pace with new phone form factors. For Android 12, Google is working on a revamped version of split screen called “App Pairs.”
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Hitman 3, the conclusion of the World of Assassination trilogy, has launched across all platforms, even bringing State Share support as a Stadia exclusive feature.
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