Chinese smartphone manufacturer OnePlus made a big splash last year with its OnePlus One flagship smartphone. The handset packs in the best in class hardware specifications while maintaining an enticing and comparatively cheaper $300 price tag. The phone -- which is often touted as the "flagship killer" -- however, garnered press for another reason: for just how hard it is to purchase the darn handset! But here comes the good news, OnePlus is finally cosying up with the way it sells handsets, making it easier for consumers to purchase the One.

The company sells the handsets through an "invitation" model wherein it requires a customer to have the invitation code before an order can be placed. If that wasn’t confusing already, the invitation is also pretty hard to collect. Among other ways, one has to take part in the company’s social media contests and share OnePlus related updates on their social media accounts. But those days are finally behind us...at least for one day a week. In a blog post, the company has announced that it will no longer ask users for an invitation on Tuesdays.

The DMCA has been the subject of controversy since it was passed, being used and, in many cases, misused to try and take down content. Now we encounter what may just be the strangest example of misuse. Alien visitors, or at least the investigation of their possible existence, have run up against genealogy website Ancestry.com. Talk about strange encounters!

The behemoth of the genealogy industry is strong-arming The Black Vault to take down records that are in the public domain. On the surface this may seem like a laughable claim, but the company is actually serious about it.

Two of the largest network gaming services, Xbox Live and PlayStation Network, took unplanned hiatuses on Christmas Day 2014. And for their credit, both Sony and Microsoft were not the culprits for the outages. Newly infamous hacking group Lizard Squad used DDoS attacks against the gaming networks to chalk up part publicity stunt and part targeted advertising for their new DDoS-for-hire service.

At this point, the who and why of this story aren't anything new if you've been watching IT news the last few weeks. But something that hasn't gotten as much attention is the "how" of Lizard Squad's Xmas Day barrage last year.

Most people may be inclined to think that today is just another Monday, but tech enthusiasts all around the globe know better. That's because the second Monday of February is when we celebrate Clean Out Your Computer Day. It's time for our PCs and laptops to get some well-deserved TLC, folks!

Of course, Clean Out Your Computer Day shouldn't be only about plain-old computers. Our mobile devices are just as important, so feel free to include them too! Here are some of the things you can do on Clean Out Your Computer Day.

The writing has been on the wall for quite some time now, but the deadline is finally here. Google's Gtalk service is set to be discontinued as of 16 February, and from this time users will have to use Google Hangouts or seek out an alternative.

This is not the first online service that Google has killed, and it certainly won't be the last. While Hangouts is generally regarded as a superior service, there are still diehards who will hold out until the very last minute to switch -- or they might jump ship completely in favor of something like WhatsApp.

Technology is everywhere. Whether you’re ordering lunch at noon, doing some weekend shopping or at work monitoring business performance, everything happens with the help of machines. The cash register at the deli and the complex network that supports a bank must work together seamlessly to deliver the service required for fast orders and accurate payment processing from credit cards or smartphones.

Customers expect more all the time from the companies they do business with. The challenge for any organization is to grow quickly while keeping costs down as demand grows. That's why all businesses have refocused on IT for 2015. It's a priority that drives differentiation. According to Gartner, global IT spending will grow 2.4 percent to $3.8 trillion this year on purchases of devices, data center systems, enterprise software, IT services and telecom services.

2015 is still relatively young, but we've already witnessed plenty of action. Torrent sites like The Pirate Bay and EZTV have been taken down, only to resurface. EZTV made a very quick reappearance, while The Pirate Bay took a bit longer to recover, though its comeback always seemed inevitable. Today we can add another site to this list -- Kickass Torrents has had its domain seized.

Being one of the most popular torrent sites on the web, it was always a major target. It most recently resided in Somalia -- pirate jokes aside, this seemed like a safe haven. Apparently it has become even less safe than it is for the ships that sail by the African nation.

There is no doubt in my mind that Microsoft really wants to make Windows 10 available for as many Windows Phone 8.1 devices as possible. The software giant envisions a future when "the idea of asking 'What version are you on?' will cease to make sense" -- that can only be achieved by getting existing users on board through software updates.

However, it would seem that hardware limitations are getting in the way. The vast majority of smartphones running Windows Phone 8.1 are low-spec devices, packing just 512 MB of RAM. Their meager hardware may not be able to handle all of Windows 10's features, according to Microsoft's Joe Belfiore.

There are lots of solutions to help collaboration and sharing of information within the workplace. However, it isn't always easy to exchange information if it's stored in different apps.

Collaboration platform Incentive is addressing this by adding seamless integration with Microsoft SharePoint, allowing users to search, visualize and collaborate on files natively within Incentive.

There's a reason we are in a cultural, military, and cyber messaging war with a twisted group called IS -- still widely called ISIS, its old name. It doesn't call itself HISIS; they don't claim to represent Hinduism. Nor BISIS; they aren't Buddhist radicals. CRISIS and JISIS would also be incorrect, since they aren't Christian or Jewish radicals, either.

They may not represent mainstream Islam, but they wholeheartedly believe in their evil calling to establish a global Islamic caliphate based on a radical Sharia ideology -- affectionately and simply called the Islamic State.

A police investigation has been launched after fraudsters targeted members of the UK’s biggest loyalty card scheme, Nectar.

Nectar, used by over 19 million people, has beefed up security after members reported fraudulent transactions on accounts that had been linked to online auction website eBay.

Benjamin Leclerc has announced that TaskUnifier Pro, his comprehensive task manager for Windows, Mac and Linux, is now available for free.

Unfortunately this isn’t quite as good as it sounds, because the reason is the program will no longer be maintained.

In the past malware developers and hackers have tended to concentrate on Windows. But as mobile has taken off and there's been a shift in the type of systems people use they've diversified their efforts into other systems.

In particular Android, as the most popular mobile OS, has become a prime target. We spoke to Huan Ren, chief architect at Android security and performance specialist 360 Security to get his view of the mobile security landscape.

A month ago hacker collective Anonymous vowed to go after terrorists, and shortly afterwards took down its first target, ansar-alhaqq.net.

That was just the first shot in Anonymous’ war on terror and the hacktivists have been actively targeting Islamic State-related Twitter and Facebook accounts to reduce the terrorist group’s ability to spread its message online.

We’re hearing a lot about how wearables are set to explode before this decade is out -- not literally explode (well hopefully not -- though there’s bound to be some sort of incident like that at some point, if smartphones are anything to go by), but rather to explode in terms of their numbers.

And Cisco has released another report which points to big numbers of wearables before 2020 arrives.