Techmeme: Google plays catch-up at I/O, relying on its technological dominance to establish Home, Assistant, Allo, and Daydream as viable competitors in their markets (Charlie Warzel/BuzzFeed)

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May 21, 2016, 11:20 AM

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David Pierce / Wired:

Inside Project Ara, Google's quest to create a modular smartphone — The building that houses Google's Advanced Technology and Products division offers a few subtle hints that something weird is going on inside. The pirate flags in the bathroom. The big sign reminding ATAP employees …

Ina Fried / Recode:

Project Ara modular phone shipping to developers in Q4 2016, to consumers in 2017; Google is spinning out Ara from ATAP team into a separate business unit — Consumers will have to wait until next year. — Google said Friday that it is nearly ready to let developers get their hands on Project Ara …

More: Tech Times, ZDNet, Ubergizmo, The Verge, The Register, Phandroid, Android Authority and Droid Life. Tweets: @vladsavov

Sarah Perez / TechCrunch:

Google and Levi's will launch touch-enabled jacket that lets you control music, maps, and more in spring 2017, the first consumer garment for Project Jacquard — At Google's I/O conference today, Google's Advanced Technology and Projects (ATAP) research unit offered an update …

Dieter Bohn / The Verge:

Google demos watch and speaker with Project Soli radar sensors to detect hand gestures — “How are you going to interact with an invisible computer?” — When you hear a question like that posted in a conference room at a major tech corporation like Google, you expect you're …

More: TechCrunch, Engadget, Android Authority, Melo, AndroidHeadlines.com, Android Central, VentureBeat, Liliputing and 9to5Google. Tweets: @backlon

Rene Ritchie / iMore:

Apple has pulled the iOS 9.3.2 update for 9.7-inch iPad Pro that was bricking some tablets and says it is working on a fix — Following the iOS 9.3.2 update, Apple is looking into ‘Error 56’, affecting a ‘small number’ of iPad customers. — Update: Apple has pulled the iOS 9.3.2 update …

More: ZDNet, Tech Times, Ars Technica, MacRumors, 9to5Mac, TechnoBuffalo, Ubergizmo, Forbes, Mashable, Business Insider, Engadget, InvestorPlace, iPhone Hacks, iDownloadBlog.com, Neowin, Pocketnow and Daring Fireball. Tweets: @reneritchie

Charlie Warzel / BuzzFeed:

Google plays catch-up at I/O, relying on its technological dominance to establish Home, Assistant, Allo, and Daydream as viable competitors in their markets — The search giant's annual developer conference revealed that Google is playing catch-up to its Big Tech competitors and it doesn't seem to care one bit.

More: Stratechery, Recode, iTech Post and Forbes

William Alden / BuzzFeed:

Palantir buying up to $225M of common stock back from employees at $7.40/share, well over price several investors value preferred stock, says leaked memo — The “liquidity event" will offer current and former employees $7.40 a share for their common stock — a price above where some large investors value their own Palantir stakes.

More: Business Insider. Tweets: @williamalden

Andy Greenberg / Wired:

Researchers demonstrate ability to pinpoint users of Grindr, other gay dating apps with “colluding” trilateration attack — A few days ago, I warned my wife that the experiment I was about to engage in was entirely non-sexual, lest she glance over my shoulder at my iPhone.

Tweets: @caseynewton

Aaron Pressman / Fortune:

Online consumer lending startup Avant lays off nearly 60 people, about 7% of its workforce, puts plans for credit card, expansion into Australia on hold — With the business climate for the once richly-funded wave of online lending startups worsening by the day, bad news continues to hit the sector.

More: Chicago Business. Tweets: @bgurley

Mike Isaac / New York Times:

Current and former workers say Facebook Trending Topics group was ill-managed, relied on personal news judgment, had no intentional, institutional bias — SAN FRANCISCO — Last July, in a seventh-floor conference room at Facebook's Lower Manhattan offices, a small group met to discuss the future of news media on the social network.

More: Washington Post, Mashable and The Daily Signal

Tweets: @jamisonfoser, @ryantate, @pkafka, @pkafka, @jimkerstetter, @caseynewton, @mikeisaac, @mikeisaac and @puiwingtam

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