Daily Tech Snippet: Monday, September 7

• Google hopes to reenter China by fall: Google expects to return to mainland China as early as this fall following a five-year absence, tech website The Information reported on Friday. The company hopes to get Chinese government approval for a China version of its Play store mobile app, The Information reported, citing people familiar with the plan. The tech giant is also planning to extend support of a version of Android for wearable devices in the country, The Information cited one of the people as saying. Google has assured Chinese authorities that it will follow local laws and block Play store apps that the government deems objectionable, one person familiar with the plans told the website. The Play store app will only work on devices running the recently unveiled "M" version of Android, and only on devices that comply with China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology requirements, The Information reported. Google is also planning to offer new incentives to phone makers to upgrade Android phones to the latest versions of its operating system, one person familiar with the plans told the website.

• New Apple TV Is Said to Focus on Games, Challenging Traditional Consoles: Apple is expected to make games a primary selling point of its new Apple TV product, which is scheduled to be announced on Wednesday in San Francisco, according to people briefed on Apple’s plans who spoke on the condition of anonymity. This is a big change from Apple’s previous versions of Apple TV, a device shaped like a hockey puck that for the first eight years of its existence has mainly been used to stream videos and music. “I think Apple’s going to create a big new category in gaming, one that others have tried and failed to create before,” said Jan Dawson, chief analyst at the technology research firm Jackdaw Research. “What the Apple TV has the potential to do is to bring casual gaming to the living room and make it a much more social activity.” Most game executives and analysts see little chance that Apple will be able to woo hard-core fans of the leading high-end game consoles, the Xbox One from Microsoft and the PlayStation 4 from Sony — both of which will most likely still have better graphics than the new Apple TV. Gamers who fancy big-budget games like Call of Duty and Destiny will probably not be easily persuaded to switch systems. That still leaves a large market of casual gamers whom Apple could target with the new Apple TV: people who find traditional game controllers complicated and who enjoy lighter, less epic forms of content. The new product is expected to have a starting price around $150, according to the people briefed on the product. While that is more than double the price of the least expensive Apple TV on sale today, it is significantly less than the latest traditional game consoles, which range in price from $300 to $500, depending on the maker and configuration. The business opportunity for Apple could be huge. The company now takes nearly a third of the revenue from sales of any games and other software purchased in its app stores. Total revenue from console games is expected to be more than $27 billion this year, which is more than a third of the $75 billion global games business, according to estimates by PricewaterhouseCoopers.

• Ireland Seen Losing Apple Tax Skirmish, Triggering Legal Battle: Ireland will probably face censure from European authorities within months in relation to its tax dealings with Apple Inc., according to a person with knowledge of the matter. A finding against Ireland will spark a legal battle that may last years, as the government is ready to fight the decision in the European Union Court of Justice, according to the person, who asked not to be named because the case is ongoing. In preliminary findings last year, European antitrust authorities said Apple’s tax arrangements were improperly designed to give the iPhone maker a financial boost in exchange for jobs in the country. Apple said in 2013 it had paid an effective tax rate of less than 2 percent in Ireland over the previous ten years. The EU inquiry comes amid a global crackdown on corporate tax-affairs, with the European Commission estimating that tax avoidance and evasion in the region cost about 1 trillion euros ($1.11 trillion) a year. In a worst-case scenario, Apple may face a $19 billion bill if the government in Dublin ultimately loses and is forced to recoup tax from the company, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co. analyst Rod Hall.