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.
Slowly but surely, Chrome for Android’s New Tab Page has become one of Google’s many content discovery hubs, thanks to the “Articles for you” section. After a recent code change, the Chrome for Android New Tab Page can now include snippets from your suggested articles.
Earlier this week at AMP Conf 2019, Google announced that it was now possible for their Accelerated Mobile Pages to display the original page’s URL, despite the site not actually being “served” from that URL. However, in the months that Google has been planning that announcement, Apple and Mozilla have been sharing their concerns about the feature’s impact on the future security of the web.
Part of using any fitness app like Google Fit is to be challenged to do more activities. Continuing the app’s partnership with the World Health Organization, Google Fit will be inviting users to participate in the 2019 “Walk the Talk: The Health for All Challenge” next month.
One of the coolest parts of the modern web is being able improve and personalize your experience through extensions. Thus far, however, Google has not made it possible to use Chrome extensions on Android. The latest update to Kiwi Browser is doing what Google hasn’t, with support for full Chrome extensions.
Over the years, Google’s Android and Google Play teams have not exactly gained the best reputation among Android developers. The company is now seeking to reshape this image with new developer relations policies going forward, including increased human interaction in the decision making process.
In this week’s top stories: we review the Pixel 3 a second time six months into its life, the Play Store preps triggering system updates, we uncover the Play Store’s upcoming Material Theme redesign, and more.
In the last few weeks, Google developers have become less tight-lipped about the upcoming Pixel 4 phone, mentioning it twice in the Android Open Source Project. Today, another layer of the mystery has been unraveled to reveal the codenames of the Pixel 4, Pixel 4 XL, and a third, unknown Google device.
Before Google’s Pixel Slate launched, we discovered that two additional Chromebooks were in-development with built-in fingerprint support. During today’s Next@Acer event, both of these fingerprint sensor equipped devices showed up as the Acer Chromebook 714 and 715, and we were able to go hands-on with them.
Developing for the cloud can be an entirely different experience than developing a local app, but it doesn’t necessarily need to be this way. During the second day of Cloud Next ’19, Google has launched Cloud Code, a plugin for IntelliJ IDEs and Visual Studio Code that will help developers create cloud applications.
For the past few months, all signs have pointed to Google creating a 10-inch Assistant smart display as the next step up from the Google Home Hub. While this device, tentatively revealed to have the name “Nest Hub Max,” hasn’t yet been formally announced, there’s still quite a bit of information available to sort through. So here’s everything we think we know about the Google Nest Hub Max.
While it’s easy to look at Dropbox and G Suite as competitors, many have wanted to see the two services align. At Google Cloud Next ’19, Dropbox has announced that this is happening, with business customers gaining access to deep integration with Docs, Sheets, and Slides.
Last week, we were treated to the first appearance of the Google Pixel 4 inside the Android Open Source Project (or AOSP), which gave us a fairly clear indicator that the device is in-development and possibly already in some (but not all) Google developers’ hands. Today, the Google Pixel 4 has surfaced again in AOSP, this time side-by-side with the continuously-leaked Pixel 3a.
Over the past few months, we’ve been following Microsoft’s plan to replace their Edge browser on Windows 10 with a browser based on Chromium, Google’s open-source base for Chrome. As of today, Microsoft has made the new Chromium-based Edge available to download for public testing.
In this week’s top stories: the Palm Phone moves from “companion” to standalone Android device, the Google Pixel 4 makes its first appearance in the Android Open Source Project, Inbox by Gmail is shut down for good, and more.
Each year, Chromebooks become thinner and more portable, but this unfortunately comes at the cost of once-indispensable ports like HDMI and Ethernet. Some devices, like the Pixelbook, don’t even have so much as a full USB-A port.
These can, of course, each be replaced with a separate dongle, but many Chromebooks have only two USB-C ports, which would make it impossible to use two dongles and charge simultaneously. The Moshi Symbus Q, which plugs in with just one USB-C port, is able to replace all of these dongles, charge your Chromebook, and wirelessly charge your phone simultaneously.
Back in 2017, Google announced its Advanced Protection program, designed to safeguard the Google Accounts of those who are “most at risk.” Google is now looking to expand the Advanced Protection program from just protecting individuals’ Google Accounts to protecting their web browsing with Chrome.
As many have noted, Android hardware has a tendency to follow the trends of Apple’s hardware. The clearest example of this is the prevalence of display notches, following the release of the iPhone X. It seems this trend has the potential to continue with the next generation of Android phones, as Android Q is adding support for “deep presses” on the touchscreen, loosely similar to the 3D Touch capabilities found on recent iPhones.
In its first update since the demise of Google Allo, Messages 4.2 is getting proper file attachments, continuing to prep for the launch of its Google Assistant integration, and picking up the ability to automatically verify a business’s identity.
Between all the bigger, more exciting features launched in yesterday’s Android Q Beta 2, one that’s gone relatively unexplained is the new Notification Assistant setting, which claims to help you manage your notifications. We’ve deciphered some of the documentation to help give you a better idea of what to expect from the new Notification Assistant apps that may be coming to Android Q.
Android developers were thrilled last year that Google brought back the Android Dev Summit after taking a few years off. Today, in a somewhat encoded tweet, Google has revealed both the date and location for Android Dev Summit 2019, which is now presumably an annual event.
The Android Q Beta has thus far only officially been available for Google’s own Pixel phones, unlike last year’s Android P Beta which launched on a significant number of non-Pixel phones. While other OEMs haven’t launched their beta programs yet, Google has provided an Android Q Beta 2 GSI that can be flashed to some non-Pixel phones, thanks to Project Treble. However, you probably shouldn’t install it just yet.
There’s an enormous variety of tiny adjustments and quality-of-life changes in Android Q Beta 2, but some aren’t necessarily an improvement. For whatever reason, on Android Q Beta 2, the Pixel 3 no longer displays whether it is charging slowly or rapidly when on a wireless charger.
If you’re like me, and typically swipe your notifications from left-to-right, you were likely very frustrated with last month’s Android Q Beta 1 and its new menu for each notification. Previously, Android notifications could be swiped in either direction to dismiss, but in Android Q Beta 1, swiping left-to-right opened the new notification menu. With today’s Android Q Beta 2, you can now choose which direction of swipe opens the notification menu versus dismissing.