Techmeme: Samsung Gear VR hands-on: a solid virtual reality experience, but lack of lateral head tracking noticeable (Kyle Orland/Ars Technica)

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September 29, 2014, 5:20 AM

Top News

Peter Kafka / Re/code:

Facebook Will Use Facebook Data to Sell Ads on Sites That Aren't Facebook — Investors and analysts spent years clamoring for Facebook to start up an ad network, and earlier this year it obliged them. — And now Facebook is rolling out another one. — Caveat — this isn't an ad network in a formal sense.

More: New York Times, Gizmodo, CNET, Bloomberg and Shelly Palmer

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Facebook Relaunches Atlas Ad Platform With Cross-Device Targeting And Offline Sales Tracking — As Advertising Week kicks off in New York City, Facebook is announcing a new version of its Atlas ad platform, which it says represents the next step in tracking ad effectiveness across devices.

More: Atlas Solutions, VatorNews, Marketing Land, memeburn and Salon

Tweets: @sfiegerman, @pkafka, @pkafka and @pkafka

Economist:

Schmidt's “How Google Works” encourages managers to think big, fail fast, rely on data, but these principles may not apply to the average company — Don't be modest — AS A service, Google has become indispensable to people's interactions online.

More: New York Times and Wall Street Journal. Tweets: @dkroy and @orbooks

Juli Clover / MacRumors:

Google Chairman Eric Schmidt: Competition Between Apple and Google is More Brutal Than Ever — Google executive chairman Eric Schmidt and former SVP of products, Jonathan Rosenberg, recently published a new book entitled “How Google Works, which explores topics like corporate culture …

More: Bloomberg, Business Insider, Financial Times, Guardian, BGR, ZDNet, Cult of Mac, Tech Times, AppleInsider, Re/code, VentureBeat, 9to5Google, Business Insider and Guardian

Tweets: @dujkan and @amir

Kim Masters / Hollywood Reporter:

Japan's SoftBank reportedly in talks to acquire DreamWorks Animation in a deal valued at $3.4B — Source: DreamWorks Animation in Sale Talks With Japan's SoftBank (Exclusive) — The company, which has seen up-and-down box office numbers of late, would be valued at $3.4 billion, a source tells THR

More: Reuters, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, CNET, Wall Street Journal, The Verge, PC World, VentureBeat, Engadget and USA Today. See also Mediagazer

Ryan Vlastelica / Reuters:

Instagram reportedly blocked in China amid Hong Kong protests — (Reuters) - Instagram, the popular photo-sharing service owned by Facebook Inc (FB.O), has been blocked in China, according to numerous reports, including from Hong Kong-based reporters with the New York Times.

More: The Verge, Wall Street Journal, Engadget, Business Insider, ZDNet, VentureBreak, NBC News, CNET, Gizmodo, Vox and Mashable

Michael Crider / Android Police:

AT&T Promotion Doubles Some Mobile Share Value Data Plans (From 30GB Up To 100GB) From Now Until October 31st — Are you and your family so-called “data hounds,” who need much, much more mobile data per month than the average user? Then for God's sake, avoid the limited plans on AT&T and Verizon …

More: Engadget, about.att.com, BGR, CNET, MacNN, Bloomberg, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, DailyTech, VentureBeat, The Verge and PC Magazine

Erika Adams / Racked National:

How case makers prepare for iPhone launches, often risking thousands on unconfirmed specs — By The Numbers: The Big Money, High-Stakes iPhone Case Race — Apple's newest phones sold 10 million units last weekend—strange reports of bending aside, they're breaking records left and right.

More: Baltimore Sun

Ron Amadeo / Ars Technica:

Android Auto developer docs show off more UI, detail 3rd-party apps — An example of a generic interface that Google designs. Developers can customize the colors and icons. — 7 more images in gallery — Google just released a set of Android Auto developer documents to developer.android.com …

More: Ubergizmo, Android Police and Liliputing

AppleInsider:

European Commission seeking retroactive tax windfall from Apple Inc subsidiary in Ireland — The European Commission is expected to release a report this week alleging that Ireland provided illegal “state aid” to Apple when it set tax rates for the company in 1991 and 2007 …

More: Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, Gigaom, Business Insider, Seeking Alpha, MacNN and MacDailyNews

Jeffrey Toobin / New Yorker:

The history of the “right to be forgotten”, and a look inside Google's removal process — Google and the Right to Be Forgotten — In Europe, the right to be forgotten trumps the Internet. … “We should support the local farm as well as the local confectioner.” — »

More: Search Engine Land and ROUGH TYPE. Tweets: @veorq and @kashhill

Kyle Orland / Ars Technica:

Samsung Gear VR hands-on: a solid virtual reality experience, but lack of lateral head tracking noticeable — Hands-on: Gear VR is better than smartphone VR has a right to be — Over the last few years, I've tried a number of virtual reality “solutions” that involve popping a smartphone …

More: Tested, PC World and gameinformer.com

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