Top news this week: Lenovo buys Motorola, Nadella as Microsoft CEO, Red Nexus 5 and more!

This was one of the most exciting weeks in the tech industry. We got some surprises such as Google’s decision to sell Motorola to Lenovo and news about India-born Satya Nadella first in line to be the next Microsoft CEO. But there were other big highlights too. Here they are for a quick recap of the biggest happenings in the tech world over the past week.   **Google sells Motorola phone business along with 2000 patents to Lenovo for $2.9 billion** Lenovo agreed to buy Google’s Motorola handset division for $2.91 billion, in what is China’s largest-ever tech deal as Lenovo buys its way into a heavily competitive US handset market dominated by Apple. [caption id=“attachment_216901” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Lenovo buys Motorola. (Image credit: Reuters)[/caption]   **Microsoft close to naming India-born Satya Nadella as next CEO** Microsoft board is preparing to tap 47-year-old Hyderabad-born Satya Nadella as CEO Steve Ballmer’s successor and is also holding discussions to replace Chairman Bill Gates, according to media reports. Nadella, who joined Microsoft in 1992, is executive vice president of Microsoft’s Cloud and Enterprise group.   **With iOS 8, iWatch and Healthbook, Apple could bring native fitness tracking to iPhones** iOS 8 is expected to debut with the iPhone 6 and word is Apple is betting big on health and fitness tracking features, and will be including a dedicated app for the same, called Healthbook. The app could work in tandem with the rumoured iWatch, which is also expected to debut this year.   **5.5-inch Samsung Galaxy Note 3 Neo and Neo LTE+ with hexacore CPU now official** Samsung’s Galaxy Note 3 Neo and Note 3 Neo LTE+ are now official. The rumoured budget version of the company’s premium and popular Note 3 has finally been unveiled. A look at the two Neos and you will find a striking resemblance with the their elder sibling, the Note 3, except for the difference in length and width. Check out the link for the full specs. [caption id=“attachment_217466” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Note 3 Neo is here[/caption]   **Samsung Galaxy Gear gets second price drop in less than a month, now priced at Rs 15,290** In less than a month, Samsung’s Galaxy Gear smartphone has got another price cut. The smartwatch, that launched amidst much fan fare along with the Note 3 for Rs 22,990, was being sold at Rs 19,075 till yesterday and is now available for Rs 15,290 on the Samsung eStore, after a cut of Rs 3,785.   **New leak of Nexus 5 dressed in red suggests launch is coming soon** We can be a little more sure of new colours for the Nexus 5, because the latest leak comes from the house of @evleaks, who also leaked the press renders of the original Nexus 5.   **Oppo N1 with rotating 13 MP camera debuts in India for Rs 39,999** Popular Chinese smartphone maker and electronics brand Oppo has finally made an entry in the Indian market, with the launch of the Oppo N1.While Chinese brands usually are seen as non-premium or even cheap, the N1 has a vaunted price tag of Rs 39,999, which shows Oppo’s ambition for the Indian smartphone market.   **Google tells Samsung to scale back customisation and homegrown apps in future devices** Setting most of their differences aside, Google and Samsung have reportedly met up to discuss Android’s future, with emphasis on how the OS will look on Samsung phones. On the agenda for the companies is bringing Samsung’s view of Android in line with how Google envisioned it.   **Indian hackers deface Pakistani websites after massive Republic Day cyber-attack** It’s becoming a bit of an annual ritual now; Pakistani hackers deface Indian websites and Indian hackers hit back. This year too leading up to and on Republic Day, a massive number of Indian websites were attacked and defaced by Pakistani hackers. In response, Indian hackers broke into more than 100 Pakistani websites. [caption id=“attachment_217389” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Indian and Pakistani hackers locked in a cyber war (Image credit: Getty Images)[/caption]   **Yahoo mail hacked! Attackers walk away with usernames and passwords** Usernames and passwords of some of Yahoo’s email customers have been stolen and used to gather personal information about people those Yahoo mail users have recently corresponded with, the company said.   **Memories of Home: Facebook’s iPhone-only Paper app leaves you with a familiar feeling** Facebook has finally taken the wraps off Paper, its news-aggregator application, which will release on 3 February, a day before the social networking website celebrates its 10th birthday. The timing of the app’s release comes right on cue, with rumours swirling around Facebook’s expansion into mobiles, but the app itself is completely unexpected. Check out our very in-depth look at it.   **Here’s what makes the BlackBerry 10.2.1 update a big deal** BlackBerry has rolled out an update to the BlackBerry 10 OS, releasing version 10.2.1 globally through operators. While it may seem like a smaller incremental update as compared to the move from 10.1 to 10.2, in reality 10.2.1 brings several new enhancements to BlackBerry 10 and is mostly focused on the platform’s core USP i.e productivity. [caption id=“attachment_217272” align=“aligncenter” width=“640”]  Actionable notifications on the lockscreen[/caption]   **Is Google about to say goodbye to the Nexus line next year?** Will Google stop the Nexus line of smartphones and tablets by 2015? That’s what Russian blogger Eldar Murtazin claims.   Micromax Canvas Turbo Mini, Bolt A71 launched for Rs 14,490 and Rs 6,750 After appearing on an online retailer’s site last week, Micromax has finally launched the Canvas Turbo Mini A350 for Indian users. Along with the Turbo Mini, the company has also launched its latest addition to the Bolt series – A71.   **Android 4.4.2 KitKat update now being rolled out for the international HTC One** Finally, HTC has started rolling out Android 4.4 KitKat to its One users in Europe and Russia. Some users reportedly from Finland, Norway, Romania, the Czech Republic, Russia, and Spain have started receiving the update.   **At 1.4Mbps, India has the slowest average Internet speed in Asia Pacific: Akamai** The new State of the Internet report for Q3 2013 has been released by Akamai and it makes for very bad reading if you are an Indian. While the global average connection speeds have risen 29 percent year-over-year to 3.6Mbps in Q3 2013, the average connection speed in India is just 1.4 Mbps. That by the way is the lowest average connection speed for the Asia Pacific region.   **Microsoft SkyDrive to soon be called OneDrive** Microsoft is making some changes to its cloud storage service and is renaming SkyDrive to OneDrive due to a legal wrangle. The familiar dark blue clouds, denoting SkyDrive’s logo will still remain around as evidently Microsoft has tried to change as little as possible with this move.   **Google’s acquisition of artificial intelligence startup DeepMind and the fascination with robotics** Google on Sunday said it had agreed to acquire privately held artificial intelligence company DeepMind Technologies. DeepMind uses general-purpose learning algorithms for applications such as simulations, e-commerce and games. So what exactly does Google intend to do with it? [caption id=“attachment_217090” align=“aligncenter” width=“638”]  This is a robotic dog that developed by Boston Dynamics, which is now owned by Google.[/caption]   **Wikipedia announces Voice Intro Project to preserve voices of famous personalities** Wikipedia has long been touted as the encyclopaedia for generations to come. The crowd-sourced encyclopaedia contains articles on nearly everything in the world and is now planning to expand this feature. Wikipedia has announced that it intends to store audio clips on the biography pages of select famous people to preserve one more aspect of their lives.