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 is honoring the German history of dachshunds and the dashboard bobblehead figures made in their likeness with an interactive bobblehead Doodle.
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Ahead of the Launch Night In event where Google is expected to take the wraps off their next Chromecast, the Stadia app has received an update to version 2.36 that includes work on adding your voice to captures, benefits for the referral program, and more details of how family sharing will work.
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Today, during the Gearbox Digital Showcase at PAX Online, it was announced that Risk of Rain 2 is coming to Google Stadia with an exclusive new stage.
Update: Risk of Rain 2 is now available for purchase from the Stadia Store, complete with a launch discount.
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Last week, official renders of the Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G leaked out, with both phones’ renders using a wallpaper that emphasizes their 5G capabilities with Google’s traditional colors. Artists have taken the time to recreate these Pixel 5 and Pixel 4a 5G wallpapers, and you can download them here.
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In this week’s top stories: numerous official renders of the Google Pixel 5 leak out, we talk about what to expect at Wednesday’s Launch Night In, OnePlus Messages arrives in the Play Store, and more.
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While Flutter first made its name for making it easy to create apps for iOS and Android, the app development framework has since grown to become the massively cross-platform epitome of “write once, run anywhere.” The latest improvement to Flutter makes it easy to create apps for Windows computers.
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Every year, Google gives K-12 students a chance to draw a new “Doodle” to be featured on the company’s homepage and net some other prizes. All day today, the Doodle for Google 2020 winner is being showcased on Google.com.
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Over the last few years, one of the more major enhancements to operating systems like iOS and Android is the addition of a dark mode. Chrome OS is going in the opposite direction by bringing a dedicated light theme, which we managed to get our hands on early.
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Earlier this year, Google Stadia launched their version of free weekends for games under the name “Free Play Days.” The latest Free Play Days event, taking place this weekend, will let Stadia Pro members play Tom Clancy’s The Division 2 for free.
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Last year, Google took mesh Wi-Fi networks to the next level by having access points that also serve as Google Assistant speakers. However, this advancement understandably came with increased cost. Potentially to give the Nest Wifi ecosystem a more affordable entry point, we found evidence that suggests Google may release some $99 Nest Wifi hardware later this year.
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Today is National Voter Registration Day in the US, and Google is celebrating with an “#election2020” Doodle showing you how to get registered to vote.
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While the biggest promise of Google Stadia is the ability to play AAA titles on almost any hardware, Stadia is also a great platform for playing indie games. Today, Google is announcing the first batch of indie games funded and supported by their “Stadia Makers” program.
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Last week, Google began what now looks to be a series of Doodles in celebration of Latin American History Month. Today, the series continues with a Google Doodle in honor of Jovita Idár, a Mexican-American civil rights activist.
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In this week’s top stories: Google’s ‘Phone’ app for Android gets renamed, new images leak of the upcoming “Google TV” powered Chromecast, renders appear for the OnePlus 8T, and more.
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One of my favorite ways to use Google Assistant smart displays and speakers is to set timers and alarms, especially in the kitchen. But if you’ve walked away from that speaker into another room when your timer goes off, you had no way to dismiss your alarm. Now, the Google Assistant can stop these timers from anywhere!
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Google is working on a new “Holding Space” for Chrome OS that will give you quick access to your most recent and most commonly used files and screenshots.
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Earlier this year, we uncovered that Chromebooks were set to get deeper integration with Android through a new suite of “Phone Hub” features. Since then, the UI has appeared in Chrome OS Canary along with more details about how things like notification mirroring and “task continuation” will work.
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In the Android world, two different types of “foldables” have been on the rise — those that have a foldable display like the Galaxy Z Flip, and those that have two separate displays like the LG V60 ThinQ and Microsoft Surface Duo. It looks like Google Chrome for Android is now looking to improve the latter kind of foldables with support for multiple displays.
Update: This feature is now live and working in Google Chrome for Android.
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September 15 marks the first day of Hispanic Heritage Month in the United States, and to celebrate that, Google has replaced their homepage logo with a Doodle in honor of Felicitas Mendez.
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While all attention this month will surely be on Google’s next Pixel devices, the original Nexus series is now further in the grave with the second-generation Nexus 7 tablet appearing to lose support for HD videos on Netflix.
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When buying a new Chromebook, one thing we should all by now be trained to look out for is its “expiration date,” or the date after which you’ll no longer receive updates. It seems Google has found a clever potential solution to make the end of OS updates less of a death sentence for your Chromebook by separating browser updates from Chrome OS updates.
Update: We’ve now gotten our first look at Google’s efforts to let Chromebooks continue to get browser updates well past their “expiration date.”
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Today, Google is remembering Canadian athlete and cancer activist Terry Fox by replacing its homepage logo with a beautifully illustrated and inspirational Doodle.
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In this week’s top stories: a new leak of the Google Pixel 5 shows an interesting “Pixel 5s” name, the Pixel 4a arrives in more countries worldwide, a new Nest Thermostat shows up at the FCC, and more.
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While the usual way for Google to celebrate or commemorate a bit of culture is to give it a homepage Google Doodle, sometimes the company will put longer-lasting easter eggs for specific search terms. The latest easter egg in Google Search gives you a 90s throwback to celebrate the 30th anniversary of The Fresh Prince of Bel-Air.
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