The European Commission said Monday it has cleared Apple's $3 billion (2.2 billion euros) acquisition of U.S. headphone maker and music streaming business Beats.

Brussels had been concerned the takeover of Beats Electronics, founded by rapper Dr Dre and music industry giant Jimmy Iovine, by the technology giant could hurt competition as both make headphones.

Online real estate website Zillow announced Monday it was buying rival Trulia in a $3.5 billion stock deal that merges the two main firms in the sector.

"Consumers love using Zillow and Trulia to find vital information about homes and connect with the best local real estate professionals," Zillow chief executive Spencer Rascoff said.

Microsoft said Monday it was under investigation by antitrust authorities in China, pledging to cooperate in the investigation.

"We aim to build products that deliver the features, security and reliability customers expect, and we will address any concerns the government may have," Microsoft said in an emailed statement.

Samsung Electronics said Monday it would postpone the roll-out of its new smartphone based on Tizen, a home-grown operating system aimed at breaking away from Google's Android system.

The delay is seen as a blow to Samsung's campaign to carve out a niche in mobile software and services, to complement its dominant hardware role.

Your smartphone is not only your best friend, it's also become your personal trainer, coach, medical lab and maybe even your doctor.

Two grandmothers mystified by computer tablets have inspired a French-Romanian startup to develop an application and service to help the elderly stay in touch with their relatives through the Internet.

Big passenger jets and air traffic controllers are equipped with increasingly sophisticated tracking and communication technology. Some of the world’s most advanced systems have been developed in Canada to oversee our vast airspace.

Yet the unsolved disappearance of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370 in March and the 2009 crash of Air France flight 447 into a desolate patch of ocean between Brazil and Senegal have left many wondering how huge airplanes can seemingly vanish. Again on Thursday, the doomed Air Algerie flight was missing for hours before its wreckage was located in northern Mali.

You are likely being tracked online by a sneaky, new technology that works without your consent, and can track you even if you use anti-tracking toolbars or strict privacy settings.

-- How is this possible?

There is life after mobile phones for Nokia.

Shares in the Finnish wireless equipment maker surged Thursday after it reported higher profits and an improved earnings outlook in the wake of the sale to Microsoft of its troubled handset division.

Fans dressed as Transformers, Iron Man and Jedi knights were among thousands at the first day of Hong Kong's comic and games expo Friday, where Xbox and Playstation went head-to-head with their new consoles.

The Ani-Com show at the city's harborside convention center is one of the biggest of its kind in Asia and was packed with teenagers, many of them in colored wigs and costumes mimicking their favorite Japanese comic book heroes.