Pair, an app that helps couples stay in touch, no longer discriminates against cross-platform romance.

The startup launched its first Android app on Tuesday.

Like its iOS counterpart, the new app creates a private shared timeline for couples that allows them to easily swap SMS messages, photos, videos and locations.

The app takes the concept behind Path a step further. Instead of sharing personal updates within a small network, it’s a way to stay constantly connected with the smallest of networks — one other person.

Since launching in March, Pair has picked up about 220,000 users, $4.2 million in funding and a lawsuit over its name.

Until now, however, only couples who both had iPhones could use the social network for two. Those with Android-toting significant others couldn’t participate, even if they had an iPhone themselves.

Pair’s iPhone and Android apps are identical, down to a feature called “thumb kiss” that vibrates when both parties touch the same spot on the screen. Couples can also co-create drawings, maintain a joint to-do list and send a “thinking of you” message that works like a more thoughtful Facebook poke.

Though some have dubbed Pair “the perfect sexting app,” co-founder Oleg Kostour says the most-common activity on the app is actually doodling.

More About: apps, dating, pair, trending

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

The Nest Learning Thermostat just became a lot more available — that is, if you happen to be around one of the 500+ Lowe’s stores in the US that now carry the smart appliance. Lowe’s insists that the product, designed by former Apple employees, is in line with the chain’s do-it-yourself focus, seeing as home most buyers will likely install the product on their own. And everyone could stand to shed a some cost from their energy bills, right? More info can be found in the press release after the break.

Continue reading Nest Learning Thermostat on sale at Lowe’s, thinks you should climate control it yourself

Nest Learning Thermostat on sale at Lowe’s, thinks you should climate control it yourself originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 15:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |   | Email this | Comments

The passage of time can be measured with increasing accuracy, but our own perception of it often diverges wildly from the generally accepted reality. A pair of students from Cornell University, however, are hoping to make clock-watchers more aware of when they believe time is running fast or slow. The TicTocTrac wristwatch, built as an engineering project, is a handsome analog-faced watch with a 3D-printed case and microSD card slot. You can check the time by double-tapping its face, activating LED indicators.

Once the watch is “awake,” double-tapping it again will start a time estimation exercise. The screen lights up briefly, showing a random amount of time (between 5 and 55 minutes) for you to wait. Once you think that amount of time…

Continue reading…

In an unexpected announcement, the U.S. and China have announced they will be working together on matters of cybersecurity, despite many cybersecurity experts’ assessments that China is the main source of digital attacks against the U.S.

The partnership was announced after a Monday meeting between U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta and Chinese Minister for National Defense Liang Guanglie in Washington, D.C, according to the BBC.

It’s “extremely important” for the two nations to be working together to “avoid a crisis in this area,” said Panetta.

“Because the United States and China have developed the technological capabilities in this arena, it’s extremely important that we work together to develop ways to avoid any miscalculation or misperception that could lead to a crisis in this area,” he said.

Laing refuted claims that China was the main source of cyberattacks launched against the U.S. government and American businesses and citizens, countering the assessment of many cybersecurity experts.

Panetta also refuted those claims. “I can hardly agree with the proposition that the cyberattacks directed to the United States are directly coming from China,” he said.

Reports from the U.S. government and American security firms have accused the Chinese government of sponsoring cyberattacks designed to steal high-tech intellectual property for Chinese firms.

Estimates of economic loss due to all cybercrime that hits U.S. businesses vary from $6 billion to $400 billion.

China officially denies any involvement in such attacks.

More About: china, cyberattacks, cybersecurity, US, World

Not exactly groundbreaking news here — Clearwire’s impending LTE TDD network is happening, regardless — but it’s always good to have the weight of a mainstay like Qualcomm behind you. Particularly when you’re pushing uphill, into the wind, against far more established 4G networks from AT&T and Verizon Wireless. Qually has announced that it’ll soon add support for the aforesaid waves, including Clearwire in its list of partners ready to ingest those multi-mode LTE chipsets that are so vital to our future enjoyment. The key here is support for 3GPP’s Band 41 (B41) radio frequency, and we’re told that the outfit plans to make chipsets supporting that band available “later this year.” You’re cool to wait, right?

Continue reading Qualcomm gets on the Band 41 bandwagon, pledges support for Clearwire’s upcoming LTE TDD network

Qualcomm gets on the Band 41 bandwagon, pledges support for Clearwire’s upcoming LTE TDD network originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 15:09:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Clearwire  | Email this | Comments

The ubiquitous Apple Preview JPEG icon is symbolic computer shorthand for an image, but artist Alan Belcher has turned the humble vacation shot into what he calls “the ultimate ‘photo-object.’” ______.jpg is a series of 125 ceramic icons, manufactured in China, then signed and dated. According to Belcher, it’s “solidified its default icon into a standard image surrogate,” turning it from background noise into a central object of focus. It’s currently being shown at the Marianne Boesky Gallery in Manhattan, but hopefully at least one of the pieces will eventually end up in a massive three-dimensional OS X desktop.

Continue reading…

Zynga will launch its first game in the arcade genre on Wednesday, the social game company announced.

Bubble Safari starts with a story of an adorable monkey named Bubbles (a drop-out from the space program) who is living the good life in the jungle when his lady love and monkey friends gets captured by poachers. Bubbles sets off on a journey to find the poachers. The player’s job is to pop the right bubbles to supply Bubbles the monkey with fruit for his journey. There are many fun ways to get points — catch “on fire” to blast away bubbles or get help from hummingbird friends. Each level-up takes Bubbles one step closer to finding the poachers. Levels get increasingly challenging, with obstacles like swarms of bees and bubble spawners.

A large team led by arcade game-designing legend Mark Turmell, senior creative director at Zynga San Diego, created Bubble Safari. Turmell has 20 years in arcade game designing (his resume includes being responsible for NBA Jam and NFL Blitz). He began designing games for tangible machines in arcades, then worked on developing games for consoles and finally online arcade games. He said arcade games are perfect for the casual and social gaming space.

“It’s easy to pick-up and easy to play,” he said.

Bubble Safari is similar to a console game, he said, in that if you win a level, you can keep playing. Otherwise, players tap into their social network to ask friends for extra plays. Friends who give you extra bubbles to keep playing also get a boost themselves, making the shared bubble more powerful.

There are 65 levels in the game right now and new levels will be added on a weekly, Turmell said.

“We probably have two years of ideas to keep this game going,” he said.

What do you think about Bubble Safari? Will you play this game? Tell us in the comments.

More About: Gaming, Social Media, Zynga

For more Entertainment coverage:

• Follow Mashable Entertainment on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Entertainment channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Carrier IQ is no stranger to privacy issues after last November’s discovery that its software was being improperly logged by HTC — the company quickly became a flashpoint for controversy, even though it worked with nearly every company in mobile from Apple to Sprint to Samsung. Today, the company is taking steps to rebuild its reputation, starting with the announced that it’s hired a new Chief Privacy Officer and General Counsel named Magnolia Mobley. We sat down with Mobley and Carrier IQ’s Andrew Coward to discuss her new role in the company and where Carrier IQ future now that it’s more public than ever before.

Mobley comes to Carrier IQ from Verizon, where spent much of her time as the carrier’s Lead Privacy Counsel. Her goal at…

Continue reading…

Ivy Bridge continues to subsume its aging Sandy brother, this time as part of NEC‘s refresh of both its laptop and desktop families. However, only two machines have been gifted Intel’s third-generation processors. The ValueStar L desktop series arrives with a Core i7-3770S at 3.1GHz, accompanied by a 2TB HDD and a 23-inch display. The LaVie L series packs a Core i7-3770S clocked at 2.3GHz, alongside a 15.6-inch screen, 1TB hard-disk, USB 3.0 port and digital TV tuner — well, it is Japan. NEC expects both models (alongside the renewed LaVie S, E, M and ValueStar W and N series) to hit Japanese stores later this month.

NEC announces Ivy Bridge processors for some, not all, of its series refreshes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 14:51:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Akihabara News  |  NEC (translated)  | Email this | Comments

Last month, we looked at Google’s amazing growth over the last few years. This month, a sadder tale.

Yahoo, a darling of the dot-com era, has had a rough transition into the social media age. As the following infographic shows, the company’s performance has suffered particularly in the past eight years. Yahoo is still a powerhouse — after all, few can claim to control more than 1% of the Internet’s traffic — but its grip on the web is loosening. Meanwhile, the company’s management troubles — the latest is the controversy over CEO Scott Thompson’s fudged resume — continue.

Overall, the trends — outlined in this infographic from HighTable — aren’t good. Here’s hoping the company can turn things around.

More About: Google, infographics, trending, Yahoo

Google’s Play Store has now served more than 15 billion downloads. The folks in Mountain View filled TechCrunch in on the milestone yesterday, though it appears Google actually crossed the number “weeks ago” without much fanfare. The store hit 10 billion downloads back in December — when Play still carried its original Android Market branding — and Google indicated they were seeing downloads increase by a billion each month. Based on that pattern, the 15 billion threshold was surpassed slightly ahead of schedule.

Android’s ecosystem is clearly expanding at a healthy clip, but that’s not to say there’s no room for improvement. Apple’s iOS App Store (which launched several months before Google’s offering) reached 15 billion downloads i…

Continue reading…

Apple already made clear that it was expanding iOS 5-like notifications to the desktop with OS X Mountain Lion, but it now looks as though that’s extending to your web browser, too. Some visitors to iCloud.com have reported seeing notifications show at the top of the page that were both based on iOS’ look and which were clearly not ready for prime time — not unless Default Title for English is a new iCloud feature, at least. There’s no indication of how advanced notifications might become in Apple’s web portal, or if they’ll transition from development cocoon to public butterfly at all. In the meantime, though, keep an eye on the top of your browser and let us know if you see anything leap out in the near future.

Apple inadvertently teases iCloud.com banner notifications, pings your browser iOS 5-style originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 14:35:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink AppleInsider  |  iCloud.com  | Email this | Comments

If you’ve ever dreamed of visiting the Great Pyramids of Giza, you can hold off on purchasing the plane ticket. An online experience now brings Giza to you, transporting you across the world — and through time — to the land of the Pharaohs.

Dassault Systèmes created a 3D model of the Giza Necropolis, a free application available to all Internet users, which was unveiled Tuesday at Boston’s Museum of Fine Arts.

This digital model is the only way we can see Giza in its ancient splendor, due to looting, erosion, urban sprawl and artifacts being sent across the world.

“You are visiting and discovering through a new kind of interactive story,” says Mehdi Tayoubi, VP of design and experimental strategy at Dassault Systèmes. “Each time, you can take control of the 3D expereince as a time travel tourist.”

Giza 3D, which targets academics, researchers, museums and the general public, shows how technologies can be integral to historical and art preservation.

“We’ve equipped software for a new generation of classroom,” Tayoubi told Mashable. “We have the teacher traveling through time, bringing students inside pyramids, temples and funeral ceremonies.”

There are two ways you can explore Giza 3D. You can take guided tours of certain monuments by Harvard’s Peter Der Manuelian, the Philip J. King Professor of Egyptology or you can wander through the ancient temples, restored tombs, burial chambers and pyramids.

Each site is annotated, so you can read archaeologists field journals and maps, view contemporary and ancient pictures and browse some 30 objects constructed in 3D.

Giza 3D integrates 100 years of research by the Giza Archives Project, and museums and universities from around the world, in an effort lead by Professor Der Manuelian. Only 10% of Giza 3D is completed, currently including four temples and the Pyramids of Khufu and Menhaure.

The Pyramid of Khafre, the middle of the Necropolis’s three pyramids, and the Sphinx aren’t part of the experience yet.

“What is important for us is to create a community around this experience,” Tayoubi says. “You can bring kids to this virtual environment and they will understand, but if you adapt what you say it will work for an entirely different audience.”

Tayoubi sees these 3D experiences extending beyond locations you can visit — possibly into medicine, entertainment, or robotics — though the Dassault team is currently working on recreating the history of Paris as a 3D experience.

“This is how innovation comes: when different people in different fields come together to think differently,” he says.

Is 3D interactive modeling the future of studying history? What other landmarks would you like to see digitized? Let us know in the comments.

More About: 3D, Egypt, interactive, museum

Looks like we’re starting to get a little insight into Google’s Project Glass testing process. Seems like the augmented reality glasses need to make their way onto every head on the Google staff, before the company feels confident moving ahead with them. First we caught sight of co-founder Sergey Brin, then it was Sebastian Thrun of Project X fame, and now social exec Vic Gundotra is getting a crack. He looks reasonably happy, so that’s probably a good sign, right?

Update: Looks like Google employee Sebastian Thrun actually tried one on… and got a photo of what it looks like from the inside. Head on the past the break for a glimpse.

Continue reading Google’s Vic Gundotra tries Project Glass on for size

Google’s Vic Gundotra tries Project Glass on for size originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 14:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Google+ (1), (2)  | Email this | Comments

We just happened upon the Sony Xperia Acro HD for NTT DoCoMo, which is sold as the SO-03HD and recently launched with the Japanese carrier. As many of you are aware, the handset is a variant of the Xperia Ion, but with a few features for the locals such as a built-in TV tuner, mobile payment and infrared support. The Acro HD offers a respectable list of specs, which include a Qualcomm MSM 8260 SoC with a dual-core 1.5GHz CPU, a 4.3-inch, 720p display and a 12.1 megapixel camera that includes Sony’s Exmor R sensor and is capable of shooting 1080p video. It also includes 1GB of RAM, 16GB of storage and an 1,840mAh battery. As a final notable aspect, the Xperia Acro HD is waterproof and can remain submerged in up to one meter of water for a half-hour.

The phone is available in a variety of colors, which include Blue, Pink, White and Black — the last being the particular variant that we sighted today. While there are many aspects of the phone we liked, such as its high-quality display and refined aesthetics, a number of its design elements such as the extendable TV antenna and atrocious number of doors for ports struck us as quite flimsy. The phone runs Android 2.3.7 with a heavy amount of skinning from the carrier, which you can see in our hands-on video after the break.

Sean Cooper contributed to this report

Continue reading Sony Xperia Acro HD for NTT DoCoMo hands-on (video)

Sony Xperia Acro HD for NTT DoCoMo hands-on (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 14:25:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We’ve got two famous Seans (with two different spellings) but not a whole lot else to go on when it comes to the new social video chat platform, Airtime, Sean Parker and Shawn Fanning are launching together.

Now, however, we have a date. Airtime launches June 5 at a somewhat exclusive New York City event.

If you don’t know anything about Airtime, stop beating yourself up. No one knows anything, except for who is launching it. They’re the industry’s blue-chip product creators and investors. Sean Parker is Facebook‘s former president and a current Spotify investor.

Shawn Fanning famously launched the world’s most popular peer-to-peer song sharing service Napster (no, not Napster’s recent, though deceased, upstanding incarnation. Ask your parents or older siblings about the history of Napster, they’ll know). Parker also claims to be a co-founder of Napster.

Little is known about Airtime. There is a website, complete with a countdown clock — which we now know means “Countdown to Launch.” Parker verified last year that he was working on Airtime, but offered no details. Speculation says the service will offer real-time video chat, but in a social atmosphere.

Airtime’s site says the company is located in San Francisco, and continues, “Our small team shares a passion for using the latest video technology to bring people together. Our investors include Founders Fund, Accel Partners, Andreessen Horowitz, Google Ventures, SV Angel, Yuri Milner, Ashton Kutcher, will.i.am, Scott Braun, and Michael Arrington.”

It’s an impressive list, which means we’ll be watching the launch closely. We’ll be there at Milk Studios to report on the June 5 event in person.

What do you think: Can Parker strike social media gold again? Let us know in the comments.

More About: Airtime, Facebook, sean parker

For more Social Media coverage:

• Follow Mashable Social Media on Twitter
• Become a Fan on Facebook
• Subscribe to the Social Media channel
• Download our free apps for Android, Mac, iPhone and iPad

Microsoft’s “Smoked by Windows Phone” challenge has been long on claims that Windows Phone can outrace your smartphone platform of choice in day-to-day tasks, but it’s been short on hard numbers. Until now, that is. Company Evangelist Ben Rudolph claims that over 50,000 smartphones — or 98 percent of all contenders — have been beaten in the challenges since the company started running them back at CES, with just 638 people having proved their devices faster at a trade show or a Microsoft Store. That’s good news for advocates, although it doesn’t come without its share of controversies over fairness and whether or not the challenges overlook the advantages of your Android phone, BlackBerry or iPhone. Ultimately, the real challenge for Microsoft may be translating those successes into real improvements for its so-so market share.

Microsoft touts 98-percent ‘Smoked by Windows Phone’ success rate, a few beg to differ originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 08 May 2012 14:17:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Windows Phone Blog  | Email this | Comments

We just spoke with SIM card maker (and pioneer) Giesecke & Devrient here at CTIA about progress on the creation of the 4FF standard — the so-called nano-SIM — over which Apple and Nokia have been warring in recent months. The company is showcasing Apple’s design here at the show, an evolution of the 3FF micro-SIM that iPhone and iPad users have become well acquainted with over the years, though there aren’t any prototypes of Nokia’s competing design at the booth. When asked if that meant they were siding with Apple on this one, we were told “we work with everybody.”

The company tells us that the ETSI vote on the 4FF standard that had been delayed back in March is actually now underway. Voting began for ETSI members in mid-April and…

Continue reading…

Evernote just pushed out version 4.2 of its popular iOS app, which includes a “major note editor upgrade” that moves around icons, better checkboxes, support for attaching Photo Stream images to notes, a redesigned audio recorder, and several bug fixes and enhancements. Among the most noticeable new updates, attachment icons now inhabit the top of the notes editor, and the text styling page has been relocated to a better spot — a small icon just above your keyboard. It’s also great that you can now indent checkboxes, so you can do task lists in nested/outline form. Lastly, the audio recorder no longer looks like a hack — it now replaces your top navigation bar while you’re recording and just looks a lot prettier. Here’s the full…

Continue reading…

In the St. Louis suburb of Clayton, Missouri, a high school principal has resigned, possibly for keeping track of students through a fake Facebook profile. The specific reasoning behind the resignation wasn’t revealed, but the school district told STLToday.com that principal Louise Losos would officially resign on June 30th due to “a fundamental dispute concerning the appropriate use of social media.” Losos is accused of operating an account under the name of “Suzy Harriston,” which was friends with a number of students from her high school. However, no student under that name actually attended Clayton High School during the last two years and the profile itself featured a generic picture of some penguins.

The connection between the…

Continue reading…