Techmeme: Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirms “Area 120” corporate incubator plans, says it is about “giving people a chance at 20% time more formally” (Miguel Helft/Forbes)

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May 20, 2016, 5:05 AM

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Ina Fried / Recode:

Google will compete with its partners and sell its own Daydream virtual reality headsets — Think Nexus, but for VR. — While focusing yesterday on its new virtual reality headset as a design that will be licensed to partners, Google also plans to sell a version of Daydream itself.

Lucas Matney / TechCrunch:

Unreal Engine adds full Google Daydream VR support, native Unity support coming this summer — VR developers looking to get started on readying content for Google's new Daydream VR platform can get started today thanks to an Unreal Engine preview version (4.1.2) that adds support for the Google platform.

More: UnrealEngine, Android Authority, VRFocus, Digital Trends, UploadVR, The Verge, The Register, VentureBeat, Android Central, Marketing Land, UploadVR, VentureBeat, VRFocus, The Verge, TechCrunch, The Verge and Recode

Tom Warren / The Verge:

IDC analyst says Chromebooks outsold Macs for the first time in the US in the latest quarter — Google's low-cost Chromebooks outsold Apple's range of Macs for the first time in the US recently. While IDC doesn't typically break out Windows vs. Chromebook sales, IDC analyst Linn Huang confirmed the milestone to The Verge.

Emil Protalinski / VentureBeat:

Developers can test Android apps on select Chrome OS devices starting in June, wide release planned for September — Google is finally bringing the Google Play store, including its more than 1.5 million Android apps, to Chrome OS. Google Play will first arrive with Chrome OS version 53 …

Nick Statt / The Verge:

Apple's new SF flagship store introduces suite of changes that will come to future flagship stores including remodelling of “Genius Bar” as “Genius Grove” — In downtown San Francisco, situated across the street from the city's iconic Union Square Park …

More: Apple, The Loop, Macworld, USA Today, CNET, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, Fast Company, TIME, New York Times, Bloomberg, Associated Press, Daily Mail, Fast Company, Patently Apple, Curbed SF - All, Reuters, TechSpot, Mashable, Business Insider, SiliconBeat, iPhone in Canada Blog, MacStories, iDownloadBlog.com, Tech Insider and NBC Bay Area

Tweets: @panzer, @panzer, @panzer and @panzer

Joe Mullin / Ars Technica:

Alphabet CEO Larry Page defended Android's use of Java APIs on the stand, saying they were “free and open” — “It was established industry practice,” says Page, as Oracle v. Google nears end. — SAN FRANCISCO—Alphabet CEO Larry Page testified in federal court this morning …

More: ZDNet and Ars Technica UK

Kate Conger / TechCrunch:

Oracle co-CEO Safra Catz argues Google split the Java community in two, cost Oracle hundreds of millions of dollars — Oracle and Google are back in the courtroom again — the same court they started in back in 2010, when Oracle first sued Google over the company's use of 37 Java APIs in its Android operating system.

More: TechEye, Reuters, Business Insider, TechCrunch, The Digital Reader, Business Insider, Ars Technica, Pocketnow, Ars Technica and FierceCIO News. Tweets: @calbucci

Miguel Helft / Forbes:

Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirms “Area 120” corporate incubator plans, says it is about “giving people a chance at 20% time more formally” — Google CEO Sundar Pichai confirmed to FORBES that the company is planning to set up a new corporate incubator dubbed “Area 120.”

More: Business Insider, CNET, The Verge and VentureBeat. Tweets: @elatable

Wall Street Journal:

Sources: Verizon and others are expected to bid $2B to $3B for Yahoo's core business, less than $4B to $8B figure reported earlier — Most of previous bids for core business came in the range of $4 billion and $8 billion; bids are due first week of June — Verizon Communications Inc …

More: The Next Web. Tweets: @scottmaustin, @mikeindustries and @scottmaustin. See also Mediagazer

Wall Street Journal:

Samsung and Alibaba announce that Samsung Pay will work with Alipay — South Korean smartphone giant is desperate to revive its position in the Chinese market — Samsung Electronics Co. agreed with Alibaba Group Holding Ltd.'s financial-services affiliate to cooperate on mobile payments …

More: Samsung Newsroom, Reuters, TechCrunch, CNET, AppleInsider, Android Central and Android Beat

Shara Tibken / CNET:

Samsung Pay now works with loyalty cards in the US

More: Pocketnow

Wall Street Journal:

Google will ban payday-loan ads while Alphabet's venture capital arm GV invests in online payday lender LendUp — Lendup specializes in short-term, small-dollar loans with annual percentage rates generally in the triple digits — Google announced this month it would ban payday-loan ads.

More: LendUp and Guardian. Tweets: @gvteam and @paulg

Anthony Ha / TechCrunch:

Now you can embed Reddit posts on other websites — Reddit posts are going to get the chance to live beyond Reddit itself, thanks to new embedding capabilities. — If you're an online writer or publisher, that means you can start including live Reddit content in your stories.

More: Engadget, The Next Web, The Verge and Washington Post

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