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.
For the past six months, we’ve been tracking Google’s progress on introducing feature phones as a new form factor for both Android and the Chrome browser. Now it seems plans may have changed, as Google seems to be removing all of the code for Chrome’s Android-based touchless mode.
At Google Developer Days China, Google has announced the simultaneous release of Flutter 1.9 and version 2.5 of the underlying Dart programming language, with a variety of new features like iOS 13 support.
In this week’s top stories: the Google Pixel 4 gets more hands-on leak videos, we detail two major features coming to the Google Camera app for the Pixel 4, Google releases Android 10 for Pixel phones, and more.
With all of the exciting leaks over the past few days, we’re all very eager to get our hands on the Google Pixel 4. Sadly, the Made by Google event is still most likely about a month away. In the meantime, to help us feel one step closer to Google’s next phone, an artist recreated the wallpapers seen in Pixel 4 leaks, and you can download them here.
Like it or not, Chromebooks do have something of an expiration date when you purchase them, namely that one day they’ll stop receiving updates. Thankfully, that date is typically over five years after the Chromebook’s original release. For some, however, Chrome OS has been wrongly indicating this week that their Chromebook has received its “final update” many years too early.
IFA marches on this week, and Motorola is joining in on the fun by unveiling their latest mid-range Android phone. The Motorola One Zoom packs four rear-facing cameras, including a 10x zoom telephoto shooter, for just $450.
Last month, our Stephen Hall exclusively reported almost the entire spec sheet for the Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL. One of the most exciting details first uncovered there, the inclusion of a 90Hz display on both Google Pixel 4 and Pixel 4 XL, possibly branded as a “Smooth Display,” has now been corroborated by a piece of code uncovered in the Android Open Source Project.
Though the brave among us have enjoyed Android 10 through beta updates on our devices for a few months now, the official Android 10 release finally hit Google Pixel phones (and more) this week. While that beta testing process found many issues ahead of time, some problems still made it through, as some Google Pixel owners on Android 10 are unable to use phone features that rely on sensors, including Active Edge and adaptive brightness.
For the past year, Google Assistant has had a variety of voices to personalize your experience, and while most Google Assistant related apps have respected this setting, there have been a few holdouts. One of those, Google Maps, is now testing using your chosen Google Assistant voice when navigating, including in Android Auto.
Earlier this year, ASUS launched the long-awaited Chromebook Flip C434, which is easily the Google Pixelbook’s closest rival at only $529 and one of the best Chromebooks of 2019. The company is following on this success by launching the ASUS Chromebook C425 at $499, but it doesn’t include a touchscreen.
Today’s the big day of the Android 10 launch on Google Pixel phones, and one of Google’s continued focuses has been on their Digital Wellbeing initiative. With Android 10, Digital Wellbeing is picking up two new capabilities, Focus Mode, which keeps you from using distracting apps, and Site Timers, which allow you to control how long you use certain sites, just like you can with apps. Here’s how you can use these features to better balance your life.
We’re still over a month away from the usual timeframe for the Made by Google hardware event, where Google will wow us with their latest phones, computers, and smart home tech. Today, we’re getting another peek behind the curtain, as the company has just filed four new FCC listings that seem very likely to be the Pixel 4, complete with support for Google’s Project Soli.
In this week’s top stories: we get our best and clearest look yet at close-ups of both the front and the back of the Google Pixel 4, Gmail for Android gains a new swipe gesture to quickly switch accounts, Google Camera 6.3 rolls out with Android 10 now required, and more.
Earlier this week, our Damien Wilde shared his love for the Lenovo S330 Chromebook, a budget-friendly (and ever-on-sale) favorite Chromebook. Following recent leaks, Lenovo has today announced a follow-up in the form of the S340 Chromebook, which features an Intel processor instead of MediaTek.
Back in May, we learned that while Android Auto for screens in the car is here to stay — and even getting a slick redesign — the experience of using Android Auto on your phone screen was being killed in favor of the Google Assistant’s Driving Mode. We’re now seeing our first evidence of this on the Android Auto side in its latest update, version 4.6, which includes multiple suggestions and warnings to use Google Assistant Driving Mode instead.
Google’s G Suite offers a rich platform to build upon, allowing developers to create G Suite extensions for Docs and Sheets or apps powered by Drive. These extensions are currently available from the Chrome Web Store, but Google has decided to give them a new home in the G Suite Marketplace.
Dark mode lovers have already been rejoicing in the upcoming release of Chrome for Android’s own version of dark mode, since we demonstrated an early version in Chrome 73 beta. In that demo, it was only Chrome’s own UI that was being darkened, but Google has bigger ambitions for its web browser’s dark mode on Android. A new code change indicates that Chrome for Android will recolor web pages themselves when using the browser’s upcoming dark mode.
Sometimes when trying to put in a password, it’s handy to be able to check what you typed before hitting submit. Some websites have created their own ways of temporarily revealing the password, but many haven’t yet. Microsoft wants to make revealing your typed password a consistent experience, available on every site you browse, in Google Chrome and their own Chromium-based Edge, by adding a new button to password fields.
Over the past few weeks, spammers have been desperately trying to inform us that our “iPhone X Max is here” by using a trick that adds events to your Google Calendar without your direct permission. Here’s how you can stop events from Gmail spam from appearing in your Google Calendar on Android and the web.
Google introduced us all to the Chromecast back in 2013, allowing us to easily and affordably play movies and more on our TV, using our phones. Since then, the company has released the 4K Chromecast Ultra, the audio-only Chromecast Audio, and two hardware refreshes in 2015 and 2018. It seems that, after six years of service, Google is beginning to wind down its support for the original, first-generation Chromecast by discontinuing major updates.
In this week’s top stories: Android TV picks up an app for the free streaming service XUMO, Samsung shares GIFs to fight back against the hate of “green bubbles,” we get our first real details of the “Nest Mini” Assistant speaker, and more.
Today’s the big day for the release of some of the hottest phones of 2019, the Samsung Galaxy Note 10 and Note 10+. Here’s where you can buy either the Galaxy Note 10 or Note 10+ in the United States, and who has the best deals.
It’s almost impossible to browse the web these days without being inundated by sites asking if they can send you notifications. Infuriatingly, these notification requests even appear as dialogs that take over your screen on Chrome for Android. Google is working on a new way for Chrome and Chrome OS to deal with requests for notification access, including blocking them automatically.
A key part of owning a Tesla is managing your car and browsing for upgrades through the powerful Tesla apps on Android and iOS. Drivers with Android phones are currently unable to download the Tesla app, as it has been temporarily removed from the Google Play Store.