digital culture

Google finally has a solution for those multiplatform relationships (you know, if he's an Android and she's an iOS or vice versa), and it's called Hangouts. The video chatting feature for Google+ is now a standalone app for Android and iOS and as an extension for Chrome.

How is the Hangouts app, introduced at today's Google I/O conference, about to change the way we communicate? By eliminating the barriers between different mobile platforms that prevent texters on different types of devices from sending video, photos, and — most importantly — Emoji. Hangouts is a messaging app that streamlines conversation between multiple people, enabling one-on-one or group chatting across both iPhone and Android devices.

You can invite up to 10 friends to a video call and "hang out" on a computer or a smartphone. Conversations, shared photos, and video call history are kept in the cloud, so you always have access to those threads even if you lose your device.

Synchronicity is definitely one of Hangouts' best features. Once you get a notification for a new message on one device, that alert will be silenced across your computer or other devices. There's even a snooze option when you need some peace and quiet from notifications. Download Hangouts and see how Google's new app bridges the multiplatform divide!

Organic shapes against manmade architectural lines always makes for an alluring contrast. Instagram user zivanod used the #CoolCapture hashtag to submit this awesome shot.

Have you been testing out your photography skills and snapped a shot you want to share? Submit your pics to our Cool Capture group or to Instagram with the #coolcapture hashtag, and your pic might be featured on the POPSUGAR Tech homepage. And don't forget to follow @popsugartech on Instagram!

Very few are fluent in the the guttural language of the Klingon warrior race — but now Trekkies around the World Wide Web can try their hand at the ancient alien dialect with the new Klingon Translator by Bing for web and Windows Phone.

Head over to bing.com/translator to see what your favorite Star Trek-isms look like in Latin-based Klingon or the traditional piqaD Klingon script. In the words of Captain Picard, "make it so," and master the old alien tongue one word at a time!

The Klingon Language Institute, along with professor Marc Orkrand, who is credited with inventing the language, built the Star Trek-approved translation algorithms from the ground up. This, of course, means that there is still a lot of work to do on the translator, and master Klingon speakers can contribute to its progress by emailing translator@microsoft.org.

Before you hit the theater on May 17 to see Star Trek Into Darkness (which stars the one, the only Benedict Cumberbatch), learn the language of Worf to impress all your Trekkie friends.

The city of Toronto is practically turned on its head, and we're seeing double! We like the play on reflection and rotation in this spectacular shot. Instagram user zivanod snapped and submitted the picture using the #CoolCapture hashtag.

Have you been testing out your photography skills and snapped a shot you want to share? Submit your pics to our Cool Capture group or to Instagram with the #coolcapture hashtag, and your pic might be featured on the POPSUGAR Tech homepage. And don't forget to follow @popsugartech on Instagram!

In an extremely candid interview with Charlie Rose on 60 Minutes this week, Microsoft founder and chairman Bill Gates got teary-eyed as he spoke about his one-time rival, Apple founder Steve Jobs. The two tech icons, whose birthdays are only six months apart, "grew up together," said Gates, having accomplished "every fantasy we had about creating products" during their respective tenures.

In this 60 Minutes Overtime clip, editor Ann Silvio talks with Charlie Rose about Bill Gates' emotional recollection of his last visit with Steve Jobs.

In the revealing interview, Bill spoke very openly about what he admired most about Steve. "I wish I had his sense of design . . . design can lead you in a good direction and phenomenal [Apple] products came out of it," Bill confessed.

But the most touching moment of the 60 Minutes feature actually came from Steve. At a 2007 All Things D panel with both tech executives, Steve explained his relationship with the Microsoft chairman this way: "I think of most things in life as a Bob Dylan or Beatles song and there's one line in a Beatle song that sticks out . . . 'You and I have memories longer than the road that stretches out ahead' — and that's clearly true here."

Although their companies competed against each other for technology, talent, and market share, there's no denying that Bill Gates and Steve Jobs highly respected each other and had an extremely unique camaraderie. Very few men knew the Apple founder so well, and it's evident that Steve's presence in the industry is missed, a sentiment current Apple CEO Tim Cook echoed earlier this year.

Find out other tidbits you may not know about Bill and watch the full 60 Minutes episode of Bill Gates 2.0 to learn more about the tech executive's new career: philanthropy.

Is it odd to be "over the moon" while looking at a sunset? Filter or no filter, this scene is vivid, vibrant, and vivacious! Instagram user casjumbo really hit a home run with this picture, which was submitted using the #coolcapture hashtag.

Have you been testing out your photography skills and snapped a shot you want to share? Submit your pics to our Cool Capture group or to Instagram with the #coolcapture hashtag, and your pic might be featured on the POPSUGAR Tech homepage. And don't forget to follow @popsugartech on Instagram!