Free Voice Calls From Google Hangouts App

Voice calls in Hangouts: call history (left); dialer (middle); in a call (right) (source: Google)

Free voice calls from Hangouts: "... Hangouts already makes it easy to send a quick message, or start a group video chat. But sometimes it’s best to just call to say “I love you,” and with the new version of Hangouts you can. Starting today you can make voice calls from Hangouts on Android, iOS and the web. It’s free to call other Hangouts users, it’s free to call numbers in the U.S. and Canada, and the international rates are really low. So keeping in touch is easier and more affordable than ever. To get started on Android, just grab the new version of Hangouts (v2.3, rolling out over the next few days), then install the accompanying dialer to turn on voice calls. On iOS and the web, voice calls
will be available the next time you open the app..."

Call phones in Hangouts: Worldwide Calling Rates

Turn any Hangout into a live video call with up to 10 friends or simply choose a contact to start a phone call from your computer. Who says you can’t be together even when you’re not?
Download Hangouts: Google Play | iTunes App Store | For your computer

More info on Google Hangouts

Exclusive: Nokia, Windows Phone Brands to be Replaced By Microsoft, Windows - Geek on Gadgets : Geek on Gadgets: "we can confirm that Microsoft will be completely dropping the “Nokia” branding from their devices, leaving “Lumia” as the hero brand for upcoming devices. In fact we understand that the Lumia 830 and Lumia 730 will be the final two devices to launch with “Nokia” branded on the phone.  Future devices will most likely carry the “Microsoft” name along with “Lumia”."

RadioShack's Last Hope for Survival: Shrinking Fast in Bankruptcy - Businessweek: "RadioShack’s mission—to shrink like crazy—hasn’t been accomplished fast enough. The ailing electronics retailer said on Thursday that it may not be able to avoid bankruptcy. While still holding out hope for new financing, the company acknowledged it could run out of money as soon as this month..."


CNN
Facebook testing disappearing posts
CNN
(CNN) -- If you want to use Facebook a little more like Snapchat, you might soon get your chance. The social-media giant is testing a feature that would ...

What Exactly Is the Facebook Messenger App for iOS Tracking? | Motherboard: "... iOS forensics and security researcher Jonathan Zdziarski spent Tuesday morning disassembling Facebook Messenger’s iOS binary, at one point declaring via Twitter that “Messenger appears to have more spyware type code in it than I've seen in products intended specifically for enterprise surveillance.” In an email, Zdziarski said that Messenger is logging practically everything a user might do within the app, from what and where they tap, to how often a device is held in portrait versus landscape orientation; even time spent in the Messenger app, versus the time it spends running in the background...."

NBCNews.com
US threatened massive fine to force Yahoo to release data
Washington Post
The U.S. government threatened to fine Yahoo $250,000 a day in 2008 if it ... communications by users of Yahoo and other U.S.-based technology firms. ... The original order to Yahoo came in 2007 and set off alarms at the ... including Google, Apple and Facebook — to comply with the data demands.
Documents Unsealed in Yahoo's Case Against US Data Requests - New York Times


New York Times
Microsoft Sees More Than Fun in a Game Like Minecraft
New York Times
Technology |​​NYT Now ... And Microsoft likes the game so much that the tech giant wants to buy Minecraft's parent ... Already, Facebook bought a virtual reality headset maker for $2 billion and the Japanese ... Last month, Amazon agreed to buy Twitch, a streaming video site, for more than $1 billion.
Culture Clash: Minecraft Fans Fear Microsoft - Wall Street Journal

Google Continues To Build Upon Its Life Sciences Ecosystem
Forbes
Google has a mission to organize the world's information and make it accessible to everyone. The company is mostly known for its search engine and ...


Wall Street Journal
Europe's Google Piñata
Wall Street Journal
Mr. Almunia said in February he was satisfied with Google's third offer, reached after two rounds of renegotiation following competitor input on ...

A Google Glass fit for the factory floor
Fortune
 ... It wasn't long after Google first revealed its Glass project in 2012 that technology companies ...


NPR (blog)
Is Amazon's Failed Phone A Cautionary Tale?
NPR (blog)
Amazon slashed the price of the Fire phone from $199 To 99 cents. ... Google has gone to great pains to build versions of Android that use less and ...

Google's studied silence on net neutrality finally broken
Washington Post (blog)
After a long silence, one of the Internet's biggest companies has finally weighed in on the latest net neutrality debate. On Wednesday, Google said it ...

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Is US Government Sanctioning Bitcoin With Auction? (video)

Is the Government Sanctioning Bitcoin With Auction?: Video - Bloomberg:
(Allow video to load after clicking play)
The U.S. government will start selling one of the largest caches of bitcoins, seized last year from the illicit Silk Road marketplace, triggering a decline in the virtual currency’s price. Coin Apex co-founder Alex Waters, TradeHill CEO Jared Kenna and Bloomberg's Matt Miller comment on Bloomberg Television's "Street Smart." (Source: Bloomberg, June 13)

Jonathan Ive on Apple's Design Process and Product Philosophy - NYTimes.com: "Innovation at Apple has always been a team game. It has always been a case where you have a number of small groups working together. The industrial design team is a very small team. We’ve worked together, most for 15 or 20 years. That’s a fairly typical story here: Creative teams are small and very focused. One of the underlying characteristics is being inquisitive and being curious. Some of those personal attributes and hallmarks haven’t changed at all."

Microsoft, Apple, Cisco seek to halt overseas snooping by US
San Jose Mercury News
NEW YORK -- Microsoft, Apple, Cisco Systems and two large American telecommunication companies are using a Manhattan court case to draw a line ...

Apple Reaches Settlement on E-Books Suit
Wall Street Journal
In a letter to U.S. District Judge Denise Cote, Steve Berman, an attorney representing consumers and some U.S. states, said Apple and the plaintiffs ...

Microsoft Supercharges Bing Search With Programmable Chips
Wired
The move is part of a larger effort to fix what is an increasingly worrisome problem for big web companies like Microsoft, Google, and Facebook.

Microsoft Embraces Open With IE Developer Channel
InformationWeek
Microsoft on Monday launched Internet Explorer Developer Channel, ... IE Developer Channel could help by shifting Microsoft's Web efforts toward the ... rapid-release models favored by competitors such as Mozilla and Google. .... Apple just held WWDC, where the theme of the day was more open ...

Microsoft readies public preview of cloud-based machine-learning service
ZDNet
Azure ML got its start as a Microsoft Research project that was codenamed "Passau."Microsoft's developers used the algorithms the company developed for services like Xbox Live ... Vice President Joseph Sirosh who joined Microsoft at the end of 2013 fromAmazon, where he was ... Facebook Activity ...

Amazon Appstore Selection Nearly Triples Year-Over-Year
Wall Street Journal
The Amazon Appstore now has over 240,000 apps and games, is available in ... The broad growth in the Amazon Appstore is enticing developers--the ... login in with their Amazon,Facebook or Google identities, leading to higher ...

Apple opens applications for $100 million program to improve tech in schools
Washington Post (blog)
Apple chief executive Tim Cook is starting to send out letters soliciting ... Several other firms, including Microsoft, Sprint and Verizon are also ...

Google's Balloon Internet Experiment, One Year Later
Wired
This Week's Apple Rumors, Ranked From Dumbest to Most Plausible .... A Loon balloon ascends to the stratosphere and heads toward Google's ... Earlier this month, Mike Cassidy, a project director at Google's high-risk .... (Facebook reportedly also bid on Titan; not long afterward it bought another ...

310 Microsoft patents used in Android licensing agreements revealed by Chinese gov
ZDNet
While Microsoft and Google are rivals in many arenas, Microsoft makes a ... scrutiny by the country's government, alongside IBM, Google and Apple.

Parallels Access goes universal, extends Mac and Windows remote desktop ...
Apple Insider
Parallels on Tuesday announced an update to its subscription-based Parallels Access remote desktop app, adding new gestures and controls to support operation on smartphones like Apple's iPhone. With the latest Parallels Access version 2.0 for iOS, the ...

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Microsoft now considers US government an "advanced persistent threat" like malware and cyber attacks

Red, white and blue anyone? Microsoft (and everyone else in tech) is now treating NSA like a virus, malware or cyberattack --

Microsoft TechNet Blogs: "... [US] government snooping potentially now constitutes an “advanced persistent threat,” alongside sophisticated malware and cyber attacks. In light of these allegations, we’ve decided to take immediate and coordinated action in three areas: · We are expanding encryption across our services. · We are reinforcing legal protections for our customers’ data. · We are enhancing the transparency of our software code, making it easier for customers to reassure themselves that our products do not contain back doors...."

Microsoft to encrypt data in its services in bid to prevent snooping

Washington Post
Microsoft plans to encrypt data flowing through all of its communication, ...into the private communications links of Google and Yahoo as information flowed ...

Wall Street Journal (blog)

Apple desktops overtake Dell on shoppers' holiday wish lists | Apple - CNET News: "It appears Dell has lost its multiyear edge on Apple as US consumers' most-desired desktop computer brand. Apple also beats out Roku for streaming media devices and Samsung for smartphones."

Apple said to ink deal with China Mobile, adding 760 million potential iPhone ...

Register
Apple has reportedly signed a deal with the world's largest mobile phone service provider, China Mobile, although a conflicting report says that the telco giant is "still negotiating" with Cupertino. The original report comes from The Wall Street Journal, citing ...

Apple Stock Yawns As Icahn Renews Unrequited Buyback Push

Forbes
Without fail, when Carl Icahn tweets, the internet reacts with a flurry of retweets, favorites, and breathless articles about the billionaire's 140-character (or less) ...

MiamiHerald.com

Google's mystery barge in San Francisco Bay under investigation

Reuters
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - The agency that oversees development in the San Francisco Bay in California has begun a formal investigation into the ...

Times of India

Apple desktops overtake Dell on shoppers' holiday wish lists

CNET
It appears Dell has lost its multiyear edge on Apple as US consumers' ... 4 for gaming consoles, Amazon's Kindle for e-readers, and Samsung for flat-panel TVs.

The Mac Observer

Here's Why Microsoft's New Mobile Strategy Will Help It Overtake ...

Forbes
The latter description, as you probably suspect, aptly portrays Microsoft ...So why does all of this help Microsoft to dominate Apple mobile devices in three years ...

Moneycontrol.com

Amazon brings WorkSpaces virtual desktop app to the iPad

ZDNet
Although Amazon's virtual desktop kit, WorkSpaces, is still in limited preview, ... that extends its subscription-based Windows 7 virtual desktop toApple's tablets.

TabTimes

Amazon Publishing Launches StoryFront

Wall Street Journal
(NASDAQ: AMZN)--Amazon Publishing today announced the launch of StoryFront, a new imprint offering high-quality short fiction across genres and home of ...

Android Community

Microsoft, University of Melbourne launch high-tech research centre

The Australian
The Centre is being jointly funded for three years with Microsoft, the university and the Victorian government contributing funding. The break down of the funding ...

The Australian Financial Review

Amazon loses a battle but still fights the war on state sales tax

Fortune
FORTUNE -- For Amazon, it's not a matter now of whether the company will collect sales tax in many states, but when. On Monday, the U.S. Supreme Court let ...

Christian Science Monitor

Apple's iPad Strength On Black Friday Weekend Could Portend ...

Forbes
Localytics analyzed over 1 million new devices over the two three day periods and found that Apple's iPads and iPhones took 6 of the 8 top positions for mobile ...

TechnoBuffalo

Pod Of Pilot Whales Stranded Off Everglades Nat’l Park « CBS Miami: "...NOAA, Florida Fish and Wildlife Conservation Commission, the Marine Animal Rescue Society out of Miami, and Marine Mammal Conservancy, along with the aid of the National Park Service, are all assisting in the attempt to save the stranded whales. When the crew arrived, six of the whales were dead on scene and 45 were swimming in the shallow waters, according to Mase...."
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Why is the US Government so inept at tech?

It's a good question. It's certainly not a lack of money--too much money, if fact, may be part of the problem, along with the bidding/contracting process--from the NSA to Obamacare's multimillion dollar website FAIL, here's one word that describes the US Government tech: "pathetic" . . . 

Why Government Tech Is So Poor - WSJ.com: " . . . In consumer tech, performance matters. When things go wrong, customers balk, investors flee, and heads roll. In the government, despite several attempts at reform, few of these consequences seem to apply. Isn't it time that changed? Healthcare.gov—which has been described as a failure by many experts, including supporters of the health law—is only the latest in a series of faulty, overpriced governmental tech launches during administrations of both parties. . . ." (read more at link above)

Apple expected to unveil new iPads on Tuesday
San Jose Mercury News
With just 66 shopping days left until Christmas, Apple (AAPL) is about to give ... IDC analyst Tom Mainelli thinks this week's iPad refresh should help Apple as ...

Times of India

Apple event: Expect new iPads, Macs and Mavericks, but no Apple TV
Los Angeles Times
However, a recent report said the tech company has been slow to start production on the iPad mini with Retina display, so whether Apple will indeed includes the feature on its new small-size tablet is one of the big mysteries of the event. Mavericks OS X....
Google cameras capture a walk through Arlington National Cemetery
Washington Post
The walk through Arlington National Cemetery on a beautiful October day was being captured by Google for anyone to experience with a few keystrokes or the ...

Washington Post

Google In The Enterprise Survey: Mind The Gaps
InformationWeek
In fact, Google is doing to Microsoft as Microsoft has done to countless competitors: releasing products that are pretty good, improving incrementally and making ...

Microsoft Ventures's first funding: How enterprise mobility startup ...
ZDNet
Summary: On the prowl for top startup tech, Microsoft has invested in a ...Microsoft Ventures last week announced that it was investing an undisclosed sum in ...

ZDNet

Google's T&Cs Should Be More 50 Shades Of Grey And Less Beowulf
Forbes
That's the suggestion from a recent look at the complexity of language used in the terms and conditions pages of Google Google. That the language should be ...

Microsoft Just Edges Sony in ABI Research's Game Console ...
HispanicBusiness.com
Release date- 18102013 - Scottsdale, Arizona - Microsoft just edged Sony for the top position in ABI Research's game console Competitive Assessment, based ...

Crave Online

Google, Facebook lead Bay Area corporate buying binge
San Jose Mercury News
Since 2010, Google (GOOG) has gobbled up nearly 200 businesses here and ... Even Apple(AAPL) -- celebrated for its innovations -- has gotten much of its ...

Why Google and Its $1000 Shares Will Never Crack the Dow
Businessweek
Google's share price crossed $1,000 for the first time on Friday, surging past the ... tech names such as Apple (AAPL), Amazon.com (AMZN), and Netflix (NFLX).

Sydney Morning Herald

Google Street View Could Fight Invasive Species
Discovery News
Recently, Google Street View has offered vistas of many places off the beaten track as well, such as Antarctica, the Galapagos, the Amazon, Mount Everest's ...

International Business Times

6 Major Google Changes Reveal the Future of SEO - Search Engine ...
Eric Enge
PageRank and keyword obsession is fading away. Google is now pushing you to focus on understanding your target users, producing great content, ...
Search Engine Watch

Microsoft Surface 2 review: a second chance for Windows RT?
Dana Wollman
We get the sense Microsoft wants to distance itself from the original Surface RT. ... Dell FacebookGoogle HP HTC Intel Lenovo LG Microsoft Nikon Nintendo Nokia ..... Temple Run, Spotify,Amazon, Instapaper, Pocket (Read it Later), Flipboard, .... Then again, Apple dominates the tablet market and the iPad and Surface 2 ...
Engadget RSS Feed

Amazon Interview Questions - Business Insider
Caroline Moss
If You Want To Work For Amazon, You Better Be Able To Answer These Questions. Caroline Moss... 
Business Insider

Microsoft yanks Windows RT 8.1 update after users report machine ...
Ricardo Bilton
Microsoft announced on Saturday that it's pulled the Windows RT 8.1 update from .... Some of the companies it covers in depth include Facebook, Google, Apple, ...
VentureBeat

Apple's Business Plan: What iPhone 5C/5S Tells Us - Seeking Alpha
Quoth the Raven
In previous articles about Apple's (AAPL) iPhone, I had postulated that Apple was doing the right thing in their recent iPhone game plan - coming up with a ...
SeekingAlpha.com: Home Page

Apple leak reveals GarageBand to go free for iOS - Digital Trends
Trevor Mogg
Information that appeared briefly on Apple's website Sunday revealed the ... Hitting the 'publish' button before you're supposed to clearly isn't the preserve of Google employees, as an Appleworker over the ... Has Microsoft 'fixed' Windows 8?
Digital Trends

Apple Quietly Updates OS X Mavericks GM With Bug Fixes Before ...
Alex Heath
Apple has quietly updated the OS X Mavericks developer GM to a new build number ahead of the software's imminent public release. The new build number is ...
Cult of Mac

Ad for UN Women Campaign Duplicates Awful Google Search ...
Doug Barry
This ad, created for the United Nations Women campaign (which is unfortunately shortened to the UN Women campaign), becomes more devastating when you ...
Jezebel

Balkinization: Apple Justice
Frank Pasquale
Recent decisions at Apple's app store-which determines the applications that can run on Apple products-reinforce their concerns, as Jussi Parikka explains:.
Balkinization

Apple reveals full set of new icons for iLife and iWork apps
Cody Lee
Following last week's iCloud unveiling of new iPhoto and GarageBand icons, Apple has revised its built-in apps page for the iPhone 5s to reveal several new.
iDownloadBlog.com

The New Kindles - In Photos: Amazon's New Kindles - Forbes
On September 28th, 2011, Amazon introduced four new Kindles: At left, a basic Kindle with no touch screen or keyboard; At center, two new touch-screen ...
www.forbes.com/pictures/ekhf45iljl/the-new-kindles-2/

Apple Adjusts Tablet Strategy - WSJ.com
Apple is expected to unveil a new batch of iPads on Tuesday, as rivals, including Samsung and Amazon.com, look ... Might Google Have a Sly Motive Behind M..
online.wsj.com/.../SB10001424052702304384104579146601...

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Google, US government, transparency

US government, NSA, et al, -- the "cat's out of the bag" --

Google to hit U.S. gov't harder with transparency reporting demands ...
By Meghan Kelly
In June, Google formally asked the courts to allow it to publish the total number of requests for user information made under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) as well as the number of people and accounts affected by these requests. Google releases a transparency report .... Some of the companies it covers in depth include Facebook, Google, Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, Zynga, Cisco, RIM, but it also covers path breaking start-up companies. VentureBeat | News About Tech, ...
VentureBeat

Microsoft strikes deal with ValueAct Capital
USA TODAY
Under an agreement announced Friday, ValueAct's President Mason Morfit will meet with Microsoft directors and management to discuss a range of business issues. The agreement also gives ValueAct the option of having Morfit join the Microsoft board of ...

Apple ups its odds of gaining on Samsung in China
CNET
Apple's growth in China has been stunted, in part, because it hasn't been able to strike a deal with China Mobile and its 740 million subscribers. (Apple lost market share in China last quarter.) Talks continue -- Apple CEO Tim Cook met with China ...

Google, Pitting Itself Against Samsung, Prepares For Device War
Forbes
The old lines that barely separated supplier from buyer are blurring further, however, bringing Google and Samsung into direct competition, with a face-off against Apple on the horizon. It means that all three will have already reset their strategies ...

Apple's Very Clever Trick With The iPhone Trade-In Program
Forbes
Apple demands, and gets, a subsidy from the airtime providers. They agree to sell the handset to the consumer for less than they are paying Apple for it: they make this up from the monthly charges over the life of the contract. However, a retailer also ...

Amazon Picks Supreme Court Tax Fight Over New York, But Collects In Virginia ...
Forbes
Amazon famously started life in the “no-taxes ever” column. More recently, the Bezos-driven behemoth emerged from its chrysalis with a pair of sales tax wings. Starting September 1st, Amazon adds two states, Virginia and Georgia, to its growing stable ...

Microsoft abruptly pulls 'masters' certification; hints a replacement may come
ZDNet (blog)
Microsoft's surprise phase-out of its highest-level certification programs has angered a number of those who have trained or are in the midst of training to be "masters" across a variety of the company's products. microsoftmasters. Microsoft officials ...

Apple Loop: iPhone Trade-Ins Begin, Siri Trash Talks Google Glass, iTunes ...
Forbes
Those prices are significantly lower than the trade-in quotes being offered by competing services” such as Amazon, Gazelle, GameStop and even Apple's own online trade-in program. I asked Gazelle what they think of Apple's entry into the take-back space ...

Yes, Microsoft Could Have Invented the iPhone. Here's How
TIME
Basically, if Microsoft had announced Surface a year or so after Steve Jobs introduced the iPhone, it would have been subject to an avalanche of snark about it being a Jumbotron-sized knockoff of Apple's product. Even though they both owed a ...

Fascinating Number: Amazon Is Larger Than The Next Dozen Internet Retailers ...
Forbes
The implication for Amazon being of course that there's still plenty of expansion possible. The only thing that slightly puzzles me is why internet sales would be so much smaller in the US. I would have thought that the geographic dispersion of the ...

Microsoft, Google to sue US over releasing user data requests
Economic Times
WASHINGTON: Technology firms Microsoft and Google are set to sue the US government after the failure of their talks on releasing official requests for user data. The two technology giants filed suits in June, demanding a right to disclose more ...

Apple's bug reporting tool redesign goes live (again), includes ...
By Mark Gurman
Developers tell us that the new design opens up the door for Apple to add new functionality. Additionally, the updated reporter more intuitively informs developers if their bug report has already been submitted. Other new features include ...
9to5Mac

Apple iPhone Trade-Ins More About Convenience Than Savings ...
By Ian Sherr
Apple's long-rumored iPhone trade-in program is up and running at its U.S. stores around the country, adding to a healthy mix of competitors offering similar schemes. But isApple's program a good deal?
AllThingsD

Google-Owned Panoramio Gets a New Design - The Next Web
By Jon Russell
Panoramio, the Google-owned service that showcases geolocation tagged photos and is an important source of images for Google Earth and Google Maps, has got a fresh look that places greater emphasis on its photos. A blog post from ...
The Next Web Top Stories

Google's Crazy Internet Balloons Will Flock Together Like Cyborg ...
By Eric Limer
Google's Project Loon is sort of insane. Then again, that's kind of the point. And to make it actually work, the squadrons of balloons are taking a cue from nature.
Gizmodo

Microsoft's Next Era | TechCrunch
The story of Microsoft under Steve Ballmer can be told in two very different ways. ... low-end software disruptors like Google Apps and Amazon Web Services; a missed ...Apple producing better devices gets Google producing better operating ...
techcrunch.com/2013/08/25/microsofts-next-era/

Ex-NASA CTO on using cloud computing to discover galaxies, and ...

GigaOM
Ex-NASA CIO and CTO, and current Nebula co-founder and CEO, Chris Kemp came on the Structure Show podcast this week to talk about everything from ...

Crop Pests Moving North Fast
Discovery News
Trees and shrubs are taking hold on what was once tundra, like this young pine and surrounding shrubs in Norway's Arctic Finnmark. NASA Vegetation Index. NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center ...

LG unveils 'pocket-sized' G Pad 8.3 tablet
CNET
LG hopes to make a splash at IFA 2013 with its G Pad 8.3 tablet, which will feature an 8.3-inch WUXGA display and a Qualcomm Snapdragon 600 quad-core processor. 

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