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.
One of the biggest promises of Google Stadia is the ability to play AAA titles on low-end devices like a Chromebook, which can be done through Stadia’s web app. This week, the Stadia team has rolled out a slew of updates for their web app, fixing a variety of player complaints.
Google held its first Stadia Connect event of 2020 last month, during which they announced three new “First on Stadia” titles. One of these, Embr, a ludicrous game about being a firefighter in the world of gig workers, is releasing in Early Access this Thursday, May 21.
Google has been working to bring a suite of timed exclusive games over to Stadia, usually under the branding “First on Stadia,” but thus far they’ve mostly been indie titles like Get Packed and Lost Words. Later this year, Google Stadia is picking up a new timed exclusive in the form of Serious Sam 4.
May 21st marks the beginning of Culture Week in Zimbabwe, and Google is joining in the celebration with a homepage Doodle game that lets you play Zimbabwe’s national instrument, the mbira.
Google’s Digital Wellbeing is both an app for Pixels & other Android phones and a wider initiative to help folks find healthy ways to disconnect from their phones. The next step for the Digital Wellbeing app appears to be to use a variety of data from your phone to give insights into why you might not be sleeping at night.
During the most recent Stadia Connect, Google showed off three new First on Stadia titles, including Embr, a game about firefighters being an app-based service instead of a public offering. I got a chance to play and review Embr over the weekend, and it’s genuinely a fun game with a few caveats from being an “Early Access” release.
To celebrate Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, Google has shared a new Doodle video honoring musician Israel Kamakawiwoʻole on what would have been his 61st birthday.
For years, Mac users have been able to trigger things like the screensaver by moving their mouse to a corner of the screen, a feature known as “Hot Corners.” Today, evidence has surfaced that Google may be building its own version of Hot Corners for Chrome OS.
As of the end of last month, Google Meet (née Hangouts Meet) is officially free for everyone, not just those with a paid G Suite account, to help the millions of people now working from home every day. To help those of us with messier homes than others, it looks like the Google Meet app for Android is preparing to launch background blur.
Last year, OnePlus launched the Android TV based “OnePlus TV” devices, which have so far only launched in India. Now, a new model for the OnePlus TV and its accompanying remote have appeared in listings with the Bluetooth SIG, hinting at a possible hardware refresh.
Spring has sprung in the northern hemisphere, and things are warming up outside, which means many of us are looking for ways to keep cool indoors. To help, Google now allows developers to integrate the Google Assistant with freezers and air coolers.
In this week’s top stories: the Google Home and Google Maps apps each get minor redesigns, wallpapers leak out from the Pixel 4a, we share thoughts on returning to the Pixel 4, and more.
Ahead of the Microsoft Build developer event next week, Microsoft has released a guide to developing apps for the Surface Duo using Google’s massively cross-platform Flutter SDK.
From time to time, publishers will run a promotion that includes a code for a free game on Google Stadia — free DOOM 64 with early purchases of DOOM Eternal, for example. Here’s how to redeem codes on your Google Stadia account.
Earlier this year, we spotted that the Google Phone app, primarily developed for Pixel phones, was gaining the ability to record phone calls with a simple tap. Today, some folks in India are finding that their Nokia phones with Google’s dialer app have call recording enabled.
For the last few months, our APK Insight team has been tracking Google’s efforts to add emoji reactions to RCS and specifically their own Messages app. Some are now reporting that they’re able to add iMessage-like reactions to RCS messages.
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Back in December, at the Flutter Interact event, one of the more hotly anticipated announcements was a collaboration between Google and Adobe XD to benefit Flutter developers. Starting today, it’s now possible to use the Adobe XD design tool to create UI for Flutter apps.
Those of us with Android phones can connect the Google Messages app to “Messages for web” as a way to manage SMS and RCS from a browser. Google is getting ready to take things a step further for Google Fi customers by bringing calls and voicemails to the same Messages web app.
In what we initially believed to be a pricing mistake, Google Stadia has discounted NBA 2K20 by over 90% across Europe.
In 1997, Midway Games released the third title in their Doom series, fittingly titled Doom 64, as it was an exclusive for the Nintendo 64. More than 20 years later, Doom 64 has made a comeback with a new remake of nearly all platforms, including Google Stadia.
Thus far, the world of Chrome OS has only seen two kinds of tablets — premium, high-end devices like the Google Pixel Slate and low-end, education-focused ones like the Acer Chromebook Tab 10. The Lenovo IdeaPad Duet, which goes on sale today, aims to slot somewhere in the middle by bringing a well-rounded mid-tier spec sheet at an affordable price point.
In this week’s top stories: the Google Home app prominently suggests services to link, we review the 2020 Pixel Buds, Android TV rumored to be renamed to “Google TV,” and more.
Last month, Google Stadia expanded its feature set on the web by enabling support for 5.1 surround sound, but unlike Windows and Mac, this support was not available on Google’s own Chrome OS. Now it looks like Google is bringing 5.1 and 7.1 surround sound support to Chrome OS specifically to improve gaming on Stadia.
Right now, so many of us around the world are stuck at home, eager for a way to fill the time. For two weeks, Google is going to do its part to help cure your boredom by showcasing a popular game from a past Doodle every day.