Ryan is a writer and researcher for 9to5Google specializing in web-related research. When he’s not working, he likes tinkering with old devices and listening to Taylor Swift.
You can contact him at ryan@9to5mac.com or on Twitter at @ryank_43.
In an email sent out to those on the Google Nest mailing list this morning, Google has included a small image of the yet-to-be-announced “Pixel Buds A” in a dark green color variant that we exclusively revealed last week.
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Google has rolled out a new wallpaper collection to Chromebooks called “Imaginary” that adds 12 colorful new images to Chrome OS. Each background contains a fun, digitally-sculpted scene.
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After Google’s acquisition of JotSpot, the launch of Google Sites in 2008 brought easy wiki-style website creation to many users. Eight years later, a new Google Sites was introduced to the masses to replace the withering shell of classic Sites and become a part of G Suite — allowing for easy integration with Docs, Sheets, and Slides. In an email sent out today to users, Google notified that the service would be sent off in 2021.
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With the vast and ever-expanding library that is the Internet of Things, the Google Assistant is always playing a cat-and-mouse game in an effort to support everything. Last night, Google mistakenly updated their Assistant developer docs to include doorbell and styler device types, which will soon be supported widely. Expand
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In July 2019, Google’s experimental project incubator Area 120 launched a new local meetup app that would connect users in New York City. Shoelace began as an invite-only beta for iOS and Android, allowing users to plan and attend various activities around town, and potentially make new friends in the process. Unfortunately, as meetups became a thing of the past, Shoelace was forced to hit pause on its operations. Now, an email sent out this morning announces that the project will be shutting down completely.
When you’re looking to define a word quickly, Google Search’s dictionary feature often comes in handy. Pulling its data from Oxford‘s Lexico service, users often look to Google for fast, reliable definitions. But because the English language is so complex and flexible, some words have come to have many definitions that are difficult to distinguish. Google has added a filter to the dictionary card in Search that remedies this, allowing users to sort the definitions by topic.
As Play Music nears the end of its life, Google has been amping up development on YouTube Music to prepare for the influx of new users. In recent weeks, we’ve seen music uploads roll out on the web, as well as lyric support landing on Android. This week, Google has quietly rolled out a new set of backdrops for YouTube Music’s web app that accompany the homescreen carousels. Expand
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Introduced in March of 2017, Google’s Issue Tracker (known semi-internally as Buganizer) is a tool for reporting bugs in various Google products. This week it received a Material Theme revamp that brings a fresh look to the platform, including the familiar colored plus button and Google Sans font. Expand
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When you’re not using the Nest Hub for household smarts, it’s designed to blend into the background of any setting. This naturally comes with the option for users to choose how they want their idle Hub to present itself, and the device’s ‘Word Clock’ screen tends to be a popular choice. It would seem that Google has pushed an update to the Word Clock that alters its color scheme, bringing a more vibrant appearance to the previously black-and-white layout. Expand
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A server-side switch has been flipped to enable a ‘Game of the Day’ feature for some in the latest Chrome Dev and Chrome Canary builds for Android, which promotes Google-made minigames around the web. The new card appears front-and-center on Chrome’s home page, above recommended articles, and below top sites.
It’s been almost a year since I got my first Assistant-enabled smart display, the Google Nest Hub, and since then, it has been at the center of my daily routine. I loved it so much, in fact, that I got another one.
I mainly use my Google Home devices to listen to music, get news briefings, and control lights, so the concept of the smart display fits perfectly in my workflow as the control center for everything happening in my home. Naturally, when Lenovo asked me to take their new Smart Display 7-inch for a spin, I was eager to get it up and going.
Starting in late November, Google began offering free Nest Minis to users of their Advanced Protection Program, which promises “Google’s strongest security” through physical security keys. This afternoon brings an extension to the previous deadline, which gives users an additional two and a half weeks to refer friends or family.
The Google app has long had the ability to bring up personal and on-device results alongside online ones. It seems that a recent update has broken this feature, thus causing it to crash on a number of Android devices.
The Google Assistant on Android is testing a new feature for users who prefer keyboard input over voice. This experiment adds autocomplete suggestions above the text field, similar to the Google app when searching the web. Expand
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Yesterday, annual fan voting for The Game Awards — a popular celebration of video game creatives and Esports personalities — opened. Google has partnered with the event to bring voting functionality to Google Search.
As we near Stadia’s imminent launch, more is becoming clear about how it will work and what we can expect on the first day. Yesterday saw the release of the Stadia mobile app on the Play Store, and since then we’ve been digging into it for info on the highly anticipated cloud gaming platform. Google has commented on what we’ll be able to do with Stadia, but info on what Stadia features aren’t ready for launch is scarce. Here is a collection of evidence we found in the Stadia app that tells us what could come after November 19th’s launch.
Exactly one month ago, we reported on a speed test feature being developed for Nest Hub and Nest Hub Max. According to a Reddit post on r/googlehome, one user has noticed the feature appear after adding their first generation Google Wifi device to the new Home app.
Google Keep is getting ready for integration with the Google Assistant on all platforms, as well as the ability to upload audio from web. We’ve managed to enable a few features on Keep which show us how they work.
An update pushed today for the Nest app contains hints towards a seasonal “themes” feature which allows the user to change the chime of their Nest Hello doorbell for a holiday season. For Halloween, which is a mere two weeks away, users will soon be able to enable a “Spooky sounds” theme.
According to strings found in a build of the Nest Hub’s frontend software, Google is actively developing (and is nearing launch of) a new speed test feature for the popular Nest Hub smart display. The feature could possibly allow for troubleshooting connection issues when devices are unresponsive, or perhaps just exist as a standalone feature.