A year after announcing its plan to add a voice calling feature to its instant messaging client, WhatsApp began to test the feature in late January. The feature -- as we noted last week -- was rolling out to users on an invite basis. But the company is finally easing up on that as now it is allowing anyone to get the call feature provided they have an Android phone with the v2.11.561 installed on it, and a friend with the feature willing for you to call them. BetaNews is able to report and confirm that the aforementioned trick is working worldwide.

WhatsApp isn’t the first messaging client to get the internet voice calling feature. Rival apps such as Viber, Hangouts (it charges for international calls), Skype, and even Facebook’s Messenger offer a similar feature. But what makes WhatsApp triumph over competing apps is the voluminous amount of users it has attracted since its launch in 2009. WhatsApp -- which Facebook acquired last year for a whopping sum of $19 billion -- has more than 700 million users as of earlier this year, and just this week, the messaging app become the second non-Google app (after Facebook) to be downloaded 1 billion times on the Google Play Store.

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Hacktivist network Anonymous has been taking down ISIS related sites and Twitter accounts in a bid to prevent the terrorist organization from spreading its message online. Anonymous has declared ISIS a virus, and itself the cure.

However, cyber blog Krypt31a has described Anonymous's recent actions as Whack-a-mole without a plan, spurring a representative of the hacktivist group to issue a video reply setting the record straight.

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The chances of getting a new Windows 10 build this week are starting to look a little thin, but releases are going to be made available more frequently. Writing on Twitter, Gabe Aul said that "we've decided to try to increase pace of Fast", promising that more details would be forthcoming.

Earlier in the week, Aul responded to complaints that new builds were not appearing fast enough, joking that a new release ring called Ludicrous Speed was being considered. Now we've learned that "a good build candidate with some new features" is very close to release.

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If you watched the Apple keynote, then you got a great view of the Apple Watch. While I’m definitely not one of the few who will buy the $10,000 version of the watch, I do believe it will be a success, largely due to one feature: Apple Pay.

Samsung, Motorola, and Pebble already have watches with similar features to the Apple Watch. In fact, I thought it was funny to listen to Apple employees talk about how they can’t live without their Apple watch because of all the notifications the watch sends to their wrist.

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After nine years, Google Code is closing down. Starting today, it is no longer possible to create new projects, and over the course of the coming ten months, the service will be mothballed. Google Code was Google's attempt to help the open source community by offering somewhere to host projects, but the growth of the likes of GitHub and Bitbucket has taken its toll and Google Code has filled up with spam and abuse.

Competition in the world of project hosting has become fierce, and Google feels it's time to pass on the baton rather than fighting for attention. Google has itself moved many of its own open source projects to GitHub. Don't panic if you’re not quite ready to jump ship -- there's still a little time to play with.

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Bias in the media is inevitable, and any news gatherer who denies this fact is a liar. Companies seek favor or to influence in countless ways. It's the nature of the beast, which cannot be tamed. So I wonder how Chromebook Pixel embargoes impacted reporting about Apple's newest laptop. If so, Google pulled off one hell of a marketing coup.

The search and information giant provided many tech blogs and news sites with the new Pixel about a week before the laptop launched yesterday and the first reviews posted—that was also days before Apple's well-publicized media event where a new MacBook was rumored. Both computers share something in common: USB Type-C, which is bleeding-edge tech. The connector received much media attention on Monday and Tuesday two ways: Buzz about it being the next great thing, and MacBook having but one port (Pixel has two, and others).

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The Galaxy S6 is getting a strong reception from critics, and another tick in the box is the latest rating from DisplayMate, the screen testing experts.

Indeed, DisplayMate has just crowned the Galaxy S6’s display as the best in the smartphone world -- albeit tied with Samsung’s own Galaxy Note 4.

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When Edward Snowden blew the whistle on the activities of the NSA, it sparked a global interest in how internet traffic is monitored. The UK's Intelligence and Security Committee of Parliament today published a report into online surveillance carried out by GCHQ, MI5 and MI6 after an 18-month inquiry.

Among the findings is the conclusion that surveillance is legal, but an overhaul is needed to increase transparency. The suggestion that GCHQ's interception of emails "does not equate to blanket surveillance, nor does it equate to indiscriminate surveillance" is likely to be met with skepticism. But what's likely to raise more eyebrows is the revelation that the agency has apparently managed to crack encryption.

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During the Wearable Technology Show in London, LG’s head of business development Justin Jungsup Lee spoke about smartwatches, early adopters and sales.

Speaking in front of a packed out room in the LG keynote, Lee said that smartwatches should be more of a fashion item, and less of a gadget. And least of all, a smartphone accessory.

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Not all laptops are created equal. Case in point, the new Chromebook Pixel and MacBook. Both are unique and beautiful, but under-powered too, albeit in different ways. The MacBook is a bit anemic in its hardware, while the Pixel is limited by its operating system. With that said, they will meet the needs of some users.

For those looking for raw power and function instead of thinness and portability, Windows-based gaming laptops are the route to go. Even if you do not game, these models are usually very powerful overall. Today, Acer announces a refresh of its existing powerful Aspire V Nitro Black Edition laptops, by offering NVIDIA GeForce GTX 960M discrete graphics as an option. Yeehaw!

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Do you have an unused Android smartphone? It might be yesterday’s model, but Alfred can give it new life, turning the device into your very own home surveillance camera.

Setup starts by running Alfred on the phone you’ll be using as a monitor. Configure it as the camera, and log in with your Google account.

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Nest, the home automation company that designs and manufactures sensor-driven, Wi-Fi-enabled, self-learning, programmable thermostats and smoke detectors, is making a move into home audio.

A recruitment add appeared on the Nest website, seeking a "highly technical Head of Audio to lead the development of Nest Audio across hardware and software, present and future".

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According to a new survey from Durex and Durham University’s Center for Sex, Gender and Sexualities, a large portion of us are more likely to be seduced by the lure of our smartphones than our partners.

40 percent of couples admitted to delaying sex because of smartphones or tablets, while others said they’d raced through the act in order to respond to messages. One third of respondents admitted to interrupting sex in order to answer the phone (because, you never know, it might be the spouse calling to find out where you are).

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According to a new survey by the CyberEdge Group although IT security spending is increasing, confidence is falling, with the majority of respondents expecting to be breached in the next 12 months.

The survey of more than 800 security decision makers and practitioners finds that more than 70 percent of respondents' networks had been breached in 2014, which is a 62 percent increase from the previous year.

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Nielsen has been tracking the TV viewing habits of Americans practically since the invention of the tube. In recent years the polling company has had to adapt its operations to fit with newer technology that is increasingly being used by customers to satisfy their video needs.

That now seems to be leaning dramatically towards subscription-video-on-demand (SVOD). A new report states that this form of entertainment is winning across the board, and the numbers aren't even particularly close in this poll.

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