Send tips/talk to abner@9to5mac.com or @technacity (open DMs).
Abner Li has worked at 9to5Google since 2015 and in late 2020 took on the role of editor-in-chief. He is keenly focused on tracking what happens at Google, and is often the first to spot new features in Google’s ever-growing family of applications that are updated on a daily basis, including Search, Assistant, Maps, Workspace, Android, Chrome/OS, Wear OS, and YouTube Music.
To him, what Google does greatly impacts the technology space and modern life. Inside the company, he is particularly interested in the key products mentioned above, as well as services like Google Podcasts and Google Lens. Each are massive platforms that can be unwieldy to grasp, with Abner keenly bent on understanding their philosophy and future direction. He is most excited about Google’s plans for augmented reality glasses.
Abner spearheads the APK Insight program at 9to5Google to chronicle all changes in the company’s Android apps, often finding new features before they are officially announced. This includes redesigns and revamps, launches, and new products.
A big area of interest is Google’s hardware division, including Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest. He detailed all of the Pixel 3’s camera features before launch and scooped the 2nd-generation Nest Hub’s Soli-powered Sleep Sensing capability, including how it would integrate with Google Fit.
Recently, Abner detailed the Pixel Watch’s specs in full before launch, including bands and pricing. He also got wind of the Pixel Tablet’s ultimate form factor.
The best applications of AI on the Pixel 9 Pro let people benefit from what large language models (LLMs) are good at — summarization, natural language/multimodal understanding, classification, etc. — without having to enter a prompt. The fact that Google identified this best practice is promising as the underlying hardware admirably provides premium hardware in a compact form factor.
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Last August, Pixel became the official phone of Arsenal and Liverpool Football Club, with Google now marking the sponsorship with some new wallpapers.
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Google is updating Help me write in Gmail with a “Polish” draft feature on Android, iOS, and the web.
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Ahead of the launch on Thursday, Google has published the Android 14 factory images for the first three phones in the Pixel 9 series.
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Ahead of the upcoming season, YouTube TV is getting a handful of NFL Sunday Ticket updates, like custom multiview, to improve the subscriber experience.
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After introducing on iOS last year, Chrome for Android and desktop will soon replace the “Chrome Sync” system with a more standard Google Account sign in approach.
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With this year’s hardware devices, Google has an entirely new uniform packaging. In detailing the design, Google gives us a Pixel Watch 3 unboxing today.
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If something about Google Messages for Android looks different, it’s the tweaked design for the send button.
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As announced last week, Zoom Enhance in Google Photos is now available on the Pixel 8 Pro.
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The next Waymo vehicle you’ll see on city streets will leverage more custom robotaxi hardware than what came before (Jaguar I-Pace and Chrysler Pacifica). Waymo today detailed its 6th-generation hardware and sensor suite.
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With the Pixel 9 series, Google introduced a new collection of ringtones and alarm sounds called “Sound Matters” that’s now rolling out to previous devices.
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Back in July, the Google Store already teased a pre-order gift for Australia, Japan, and Singapore. We now know it’s an “exclusive design sketch poster” for the Pixel 9 Pro series.
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On Tuesday, Google announced that Zoom Enhance will be available on the Pixel 9 Pro series and is rolling out to the Pixel 8 Pro. Ahead of that, here’s a lot more examples and details on how Pixel Zoom Enhance works.
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Since launch, Google Messages has not allowed RCS on more than one phone number, but the app is now adding support for dual (multi) SIM.
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YouTube Music introduced the Quick picks in 2020 and a big update to the shelf will let you quickly create a multi-song radio.
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Gemini is now available on the Pixel Tablet if you have the “app” installed. Notably, some of the Google Assistant experience is preserved.
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Android 15 Beta 4.2 is the final patch before the stable launch and Google has posted the last feedback survey.
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As previewed at I/O 2024 in May, the Gemini Q&A panel is now more broadly available in Gmail for Android and iOS if you’re part of Workspace Labs. In essence, this is a more complete version of Gemini for your emails on mobile.
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Welcome to episode 21 of Pixelated, a podcast by 9to5Google. This week, we recap Made by Google 2024, including the Pixel 9 and Pixel Watch 3.
As always, the Pixel 9 series introduces many new camera features. It remains to be seen what will be brought to older devices in future Feature Drops, but Pixel Camera 9.5 is now out there.
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As announced with the Pixel Watch 3, Google Maps for Wear OS is already rolling out offline support.
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Last year, the document scanner in Google Drive got a big update, and the tool on Android can now save uploads as JPEG files.
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As mentioned at Made by Google 2024, Pixel Magnifier 2.0 is rolling out with a number of major additions since it was introduced last year.
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It should have been clear from the start that Team Pixel is an influencer marketing program. With the launch of the Pixel 9 series this week, that is being made explicit.
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