New features found in the latest WhatsApp beta. Screenshots: Javier Santos

WhatsApp made millions of smartphone users happy with week when it announced it will be ditching its annual subscription fee, but its next move might not be so popular.

According to a hidden option found in the latest WhatsApp beta for Android, the service is planning to share user data with Facebook “to improve [your] Facebook experiences.”

Update your One A9 today. Photo: HTC

Listen up, HTC One A9 owners! If you have an unlocked device, you’re about to get an over-the-air software update that brings Android’s latest security patch and some welcome bug fixes.

Breaking news: There’s big money in search. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Android and iOS may be mortal enemies in some ways, but Google clearly realizes the value of having Apple’s hundreds of millions of customers use its search engine.

So much so, in fact, that in 2014 Google paid Apple a massive $1 billion to keep its search bar on the iPhone.

Android may be free, but it’s worth a huge sum to Google. Photo: Killian Bell/Cult of Android

Android has reportedly earned Google $31 billion since the mobile operating system’s inception, according to a stat revealed during the company’s ongoing court battle with Oracle.

Google is already squashing the latest Linux/Android bug to be discovered. Image: Mazeo/OpenClipArt.org

Since early 2013, a raft of Linux servers, machines running embedded Linux, and even some Android devices have been open to an attack that could allow an unprivileged user or application to execute code as a root user, according to a new report.

Security researchers at Perception Point have outed an issue that was originally introduced when Linux kernel version number 3.8 was released almost three full years ago. It has yet to be patched.