Top news this week: Moto X, Android Wear, Twitter turns 8 and more!

From Twitter getting nostalgic on its 8th birthday to Moto X reaching Indian shores, this week has been quite eventful for the tech terrain. If you’ve missed on your daily dose of tech, then here’s a quick recap of the top news this week.   Twitter gets nostalgic on its 8th birthday; lets you find your first ever tweet As Twitter turned 8 earlier this, the micro-blogging site decided to celebrate by getting all nostalgic, and allowing users to find out what their first ever tweet was. The new site has already taking the social network by storm.take a look at the some of the  memorable first tweets  by popular Twitter celebrities. The week was quite eventful for Twitter. On the other hand,  Turkish court banned Twitter  following PM Erdogan’s threat to wipe it out.   Meet Android Wear: Google’s new OS for smartwatches So this is Google’s vision for a smartwatch and we love what we see. Android Wear brings the refinement of the Google’s card-based design language and the power of Google Now to your wrist in what looks and sounds like a fantastic product.   Moto X launched for Rs 23,999; exclusively available on Flipkart Moto X is finally here! It is now available exclusive on Flipkart. The online retailer has begun selling the Moto X starting at Rs 23,999. The black, white, red and turquoise variants are now available for Rs 23,999, while the wooden-based teak and walnut variants are being sold for a little more at Rs 25,999. [caption id=“attachment_219868” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Moto X is here![/caption]   Moto 360 and G Watch: First smartwatches to run Google Android Wear Its official. Google has disclosed its plans to build smartwatches based on its Android mobile operating system. LG will be building the first Google watch, dubbed G Watch, slated to launch in the second quarter. It will be followed by Mototrola’s Moto 360 Android watch that is likely to launch sometime in summer this year.   Flappy Bird will return on App Store, but not so soon: Dong Nguyen It’s been a month since Dong Nguyen, the maker of the uber-addictive Flappy Bird, pulled the plug on the Google Play and App Store. He cited reasons like people were “getting too addictive“. Answering to a tweet, Nguyen has confirmed that the game will be returning to the App Store, but not so soon.   2048, the next gaming sensation, is as addictive as Flappy Bird While Flappy Bird may enter the addictive mobile gaming space anytime soon, yet another game has already begun wooing gaming addicts.The new number-crunching puzzle game called 2048 is said to be the new sensation in the addictive gaming segment.   Cheaper Apple 8GB iPhone 5c launched, but no word on India pricing Looks like the  reports were bang on the money . Apple officially launched an 8GB version of the iPhone 5c  earlier this week, with the variant going on sale on UK  carrier O2’s website .   Post iOS 7.1 update, Apple’s iPhone 4 is finally running faster With the new 7.1 update, Apple has managed to make the iPhone 4 a little more appealing to those who were looking to buy one, but were afraid of the bad user experience. [caption id=“attachment_219795” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Fewer headaches now[/caption]   Google adds in-app purchase password options Keeping in view the recent events about accidental  in-app purchases by kids , Google announced to push out a new update to its Google Play Store application that will allow users to choose if they want to retain the 30-minute restriction-free purchase window that is opened after purchasing an app. Google update will also allow users to configure the Play Store to ask for a password every time an in-app purchase is requested.  

Indian journalist Shubranshu Choudhary wins digital activism award for regional news service Indian journalist Shubhranshu Choudhary has been given  the 2014 Google Digital Activism Award  for his work in using mobile phones to bring local news to remote Indian regions in their native language. The initiative, which is called CGNet Swara (Voice of Chhattisgarh), allowed Indian citizens to report on local issues as well as listen to other reports in their language using basic or feature phones.   HTTPS encryption now made mandatory for Gmail, says Google Remember Google employees and bigwigs lashing out against the NSA and its allies after it was revealed that they  can secretly access all your Gmail communication ? Google had vowed to fight back by making Gmail use an encrypted HTTPS connection in the future. Starting this week, Google has flicked the switch on to make the move final.   With less than a month for deadline, 95% of world’s ATMs still run Windows XP With less than a month to go before Microsoft ends support for Windows XP, a lot of businesses have begun upgrading their systems to avoid crucial productivity loss and also protect against security vulnerability. One of the most important machines that need to be upgraded from Windows XP on an urgent basis are ATMs.   Facebook Messenger for Android now adds ‘free’ voice calling for India As the buzz around VoIP calling for WhatsApp gathers pace, Facebook has quietly launched voice-calling functionality for Android users in India. Facebook had introduced voice calling over wireless network and data connection last year in March, and it took almost a year for the feature to finally roll out here, after being initially launched for US and Canada users. [caption id=“attachment_220021” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Free Call option[/caption]   Sony rolls out Android KitKat update for Xperia Z1, Z1 Compact and Z Ultra; reveals update roadmap Earlier this week, Sony confirmed to roll out Android 4.4 KitKat update, which updates the platform and brings several other improvements for the Xperia Z1, Xperia Z1 Compact and Xperia Z Ultra. The company has also promised to roll out Android KitKat update for Xperia Z, Xperia ZL, Xperia ZR, and Xperia Tablet Z soon, in the next few weeks.   Karbonn’s octa-core Titanium Octane and Octane Plus running KitKat launched for Rs 14,490, Rs 17,990 Joining the octa-core brigade, Karbonn has launched two smartphones using MediaTek’s low-cost octa-core chips. Dubbed the Titanium Octane and the Titanium Octane Plus, they are priced at Rs 14,490 and Rs 17,990 and like the Titanium Hexa, will be available in the first week of April.   Crowdsourcing site to find missing Malaysia Airlines plane ‘overloaded’ with traffic A crowdsourcing effort to locate the missing Malaysia Airlines plane using satellite imagery overloaded the computer network with an “unprecedented” amount of traffic.   Oppo launches Find 7: First smartphone capable of taking 50MP photos After a series of rumours, Oppo has finally pulled the curtains off its latest flagship Find 7.The device is now launched in China for CNY 3,498 that translates to approximately Rs 34,500 and will be available starting May or June. The USP of the device is its camera that is capable of taking 50MP pictures. [caption id=“attachment_220112” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”] Oppo Find 7 now official[/caption]   Nikon unveils flagship full-frame D4S along with entry-level D3300 in India Nikon has announced the launch of its flagship full-frame camera, the Nikon D4S in India. At an event held in New Delhi yesterday, Nikon announced the D4S along with the entry level D3300. The D4s is an upgrade of its former full-frame flagship model – the D4. According to Nikon, the D4S offers improvements in areas such as autofocus performance, image quality, movie recording and so on over its predecessor.   Facebook Beta app released for Windows Phone devices News has it that Windows Phone users accessing the Facebook app will be asked to update to Facebook Beta 5.2.3.1.However, the report suggests users may still face some bugs. The Facebook beta app is compatible with all devices running Windows Phone 7.5 and above.