Top News this week: Apple-Beats deal, Sony Xperia Z2, iPhone 6 and more!

It has been an interesting week with Apple considering to buy Beats, Sony launching its flagship Xperia Z2, Rajinikant joining Twitter and more. For those who haven’t got time to catch up what’s happening in the tech world, here’s a quick recap.

Apple in talks to buy Beats for $3.2 billion; deal likely to be announced next week Apple is close to paying a record $3.2 billion for Beats Electronics, two people with knowledge of the matter said earlier this week, an expensive foray into music streaming and headphone gear that would mark a departure for the usually cash-conservative iPhone maker. Dr. Dre has almost confirmed the acquisition and could become the first billionaire hip-hopper.

Rajinikanth joins Twitter: Over 1.5 lakh followers with just one tweet Indian film superstar Rajinikanth has at long last joined Twitter and with his first tweet the legendary actor has garnered over 3 lakh followers so far and counting. In fact, before Rajini even  made his first ever tweet , he had gained over 10,000 followers. It’s believed to be the first social networking site joined by Rajinikanth.

Apple to launch 4.7-inch iPhone 6 in August, 5.5-inch variant in September: report Apple will unveil the next incarnation of the iPhone in August, one month earlier than industry watchers were generally expecting, Taiwanese media reported on Friday citing unidentified supply-chain sources. A 4.7-inch screen version of the iPhone 6 will reach stores in August, the Economic Daily News reported without specifying which markets would receive the phone first. A 5.5-inch or 5.6-inch model will be released in September, the newspaper said, as the iPhone 5 series was previously.

73 percent Indian pre-teens access Facebook, other social networks: Survey Government norms restricting children under the age of 13 years access to social networking sites are certainly not working if a recent survey is to be believed. According to  ASSOCHAM  survey, a whopping 73 percent of children in the age group of 8 to 13 years are using social networking sites like Facebook. The survey was conducted in tier-I and tier-II cities like Delhi-NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Chennai, Kolkata, Ahmadabad, Hyderabad, Pune, Lucknow and Dehradun.

Sony Xperia Z2 and SmartBand combo arrives in India for Rs 49,990 Finally, Sony has launched the  Xperia Z2  in India. The new Sony flagship is priced at an MRP of Rs 49,990 and will be available starting May 12. It will be competing with the  HTC One M8  and  Galaxy S5 . As suspected, Sony has also launched the fitness-centric SmartBand, that’s being positioned as a life logger. The SmartBand, priced at Rs 5,990, will come bundled with the device.

Jury leaves damages Samsung must pay Apple unchanged at $119.6 million A US jury on Monday left the total damages Samsung Electronics must pay Apple unchanged at $119.6 million, after additional deliberations in a trial where the South Korean smartphone maker was found to have infringed three Apple patents.

Google’s Intel-powered Chromebooks: Devices from Dell, HP, Lenovo, Asus, LG coming this year At an event in San Francisco, Intel and Google have announced a slew of new Chromebook models from manufacturers like Acer, Asus, Dell, Toshiba and LG.

China’s Alibaba embarks on US IPO journey, set to be biggest in the US Alibaba gave investors a closer look at the scale and growth of the Chinese e-commerce juggernaut in an initial public offering prospectus filed on Tuesday, the first step in what could be the largest technology debut in history.Alibaba Group Holding, which powers 80 percent of all online commerce conducted in the world’s second-largest economy, is expected to raise more than $15 billion, potentially surpassing the $16 billion that Facebook raised when it went public in 2012.

SanDisk 128GB microSDXC UHS-I microSD cards now available in India for Rs 9999 With smartphones nowadays coming with hardware to support 128GB microSD cards, we will start seeing more and more such memory cards in the market. First up is SanDisk, which has launched its new 128GB microSD card, SanDisk Ultra microSDXC UHS-I, in India for Rs 9,999.

Google Glass priced at $1500; components cost around $80 Google Glass, which was available for a limited time in the US, for a hefty sum of $1,500, may have been quite cheaper to build (hardware). TechInsights’ Teardown.com, known to rip apart and analyze gadgets, now reveals that the Google Glass components cost as low as $79.78.

World’s internet population to be 3 billion by the end of this year: UN The world will have nearly three billion Internet users by the end of 2014, with two-thirds of them from the developing world, and mobile-cellular subscriptions will reach almost seven billion by the year end, new figures released by the UN said. The report by the UN’s International Telecommunications Union (ITU) said 44 percent of the world’s households will have internet access by end of 2014.

Microsoft launches Office 365 Personal; subscriptions starting at Rs 330 a month Earlier this week, Microsoft announced the availability of Office 365 Personal for individual users in the Indian market. Office 365 Personal allows users to connect up to two home devices to use the cloud-based document editing and office software.

Apple on medical expert hiring spree; iWatch development on track Over the past year, Apple has snapped up at least half a dozen prominent experts in biomedicine, according to LinkedIn profile changes. One prominent researcher moved two weeks ago, and Apple is recruiting other medical professionals and hardware experts, although the number of hires is not clear, said two people familiar with the hiring, who declined to be named.

Airtel resumes 3G services in eight circles; Vodafone, Idea likely to follow suit After the Telecom Disputes Settlement and Appellate Tribunal (TDSAT) upheld their plea to provide 3G intra-circle roaming (ICR) services, Airtel announced the resumption of its 3G services in eight circles. In a statement, the service provider said 3G roaming services would now be available in Haryana, Maharashtra, Goa, Kerala, MPCG (Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh), Gujarat, Kolkata and UP (east).

Leak shows iPhone 6 with large display, iPad-like body The iPhone 6 has been rumoured to have a 4.8-inch display for many months now and we have heard that the display will curve on to the edges, which themselves will resemble the new iPads.And now we have alleged images of the new iPhone from Italian Apple blog Macitynet. It shows the alleged iPhone 6 next to a dummy Galaxy S5.

Apple iPhone lockscreen bypassed, with a little help from Siri Siri is amazing. Apple’s voice assistant makes a lot of smartphone actions easier, and is funny to boot, chiming in with the occasional joke, when asked the right question. But we are sure Apple didn’t design Siri to be so polite and helpful that ‘she’ would let just about anyone in to the phone.

Samsung to host heath-related event on May 28, just ahead of WWDC Samsung has started sending out invites to international media for a ‘health-related’ event to be held in San Francisco on May 28, reports  Engadget . The invite reportedly reads, “new conversation around heath.” As Samsung recently launched the Gear 2 and  Gear Fit , the company will most likely not launch a new product.

Apple withdraws iPhone 4 from India just four months after re-launch After just four months in the market, Apple has withdrawn the iPhone 4 from Indian stores, according to a new report. The iPhone 4 might have been removed off shelves because it  wasn’t the best showcase for Apple’s iOS 7  software. It’s certainly not the best way to show first time users what an iPhone can do. However, it’s more likely that the company has run out of stock for the older phone because Apple’s distributors say it has had a tremendous impact on the market.

Gear Solo with SIM slot could be Samsung’s first standalone smartwatch A listing spotted by  Maktechblog  on Indian import site  Zauba  shows a device called Gear Solo with a code name SM-R710. The smartwatch comes with a network receiver and an embedded SIM. Thanks to the embedded SIM, users will be able to make a call without any need to connect to a smartphone. This is a feature which distinguishes it from  Gear 2 which was launched by Samsung in India recently .

Nintendo back in red with $229 million annual loss Japanese videogame giant Nintendo said it logged a $229 million loss for its fiscal year to March as sales of its Wii U console disappointed. The company said its net loss came in at 23.2 billion yen ($229 million) — reversing a net profit of 7.1 billion yen a year ago — on sales of 571.7 billion yen, which were down 10.0 percent on the year.