As developers for tablets and smartphones we like to keep abreast of the latest mobile technology developments . This is a daily digest of mobile development and related technology news gathered from the BBC, the New York Times, New Scientist and the Globe and Mail to name a few. We scour the web for articles concerning, iPhone, iPad and android development, iOS and android operating systems as well as general articles on advances in mobile technology. We hope you find this useful and that it helps to keep you up to date with the latest technology developments.
Blue introduces Mikey Digital for Lightning-based iOS devices
A little less than two years after it introduced its first digital 30-pin attachable microphone for the iPhone and other iOS devices, Blue Microphones is finally bringing out a Lightning-based version that works natively with the iPhone 5 and later models such as the iPhone 5s and Retina iPad mini. The new Mikey Digital includes two condenser microphones — identical to the ones used in its popular Yeti and Snowball microphones — and thanks to its reversible Lightning connector is now able to pointed either forwards or backwards.
Briefly: Wooden iPhone amplifier, SmartScore NoteReader app
A new acoustic amplifier has been released for iPhone, composed of a natural wood construction. The Eight is hand sanded and hand oiled, making the wood structure the center of the design. Made of walnut and Birdseye maple, the iPhone dock features a built-in microphone, and its speakers are inspired by the shape of an ear, with conically-shaped chambers that produce aesthetically pleasing sound. The iPhone is accessible for use while in the dock, and its built-in slot includes a Lightning cable that can charge an iPhone 5 and iPhone 5s. Priced at $300, the Eight wooden dock is available inter
Microsoft Layoffs Expected Thursday
SEATTLE — Last week, Microsoft’s chief executive hinted in a long company memo that big organizational changes were coming soon. That time has arrived.
Reaching Gen Y-Fi: Tween Girls and the Power of YouTube
My 11-year-old daughter and her posse of upcoming middle schoolers are more social media savvy than many of the professional mavens who get paid to reach them. With an iPhone in her hands more often than I want to admit, my daughter intuitively understands what her followers will respond to and what will get shared.
Every Instagram photo she posts is critically analyzed, edited and enhanced. She agonizes over each caption and hashtag. Posts come down if they aren’t getting enough “likes.” Using a host of apps like Pic Collage, Frame Magic and After Light, she creates surprisingly arty music videos and montages. And she’s not alone.
If a 5th grader can create such highly-produced content with the technology she’s carrying in her palm, the rest of the advertising and marketing world may have to work harder to keep up with an increasingly astute generation of sophisticated consumers. And staying relevant with Gen Y-Fi, weaned on social media, is more important than ever.
There are 20 million children between the ages of 9 and 13 who are responsible for more than $200 billion in sales a year, according to the Global Association for Marketing and Retail. More than 70 percent have cell phones or smartphones by the time they are 17 years old. About 60 percent of kids receive their first cell phone between the ages of 10 and 11 years old. Today’s tweens raised on technology may be too young to even wear braces, but they know the difference between good and bad content, hard selling and friendly sharing. In fact, they are their own individual brand producers, curating their feeds and cultivating their online persona. Posts are deliberate and reflect their emerging identity.
They aren’t on Facebook because they are too young — 13 years old is the minimum age to join. But these kids are avid Instagram and Snap Chat users documenting the minutiae of their days and sharing their clothes, purchases and passions with a growing universe of “friends.”
Long gone are the days when a TV commercial got my daughter to ask me to buy the latest Barbie house. These days, my daughter and her friends are most influenced by the growing sisterhood of YouTube stars. Fourteen-year-old Amanda Steele’s “Makeup by Mandy” YouTube show boasts 1.2 million followers. Steele also has an active presence of Vine, Pinterest and Instagram. This year, the bubbly, blue-eyed brunette from Southern California sent me to the mall more times than all of the catalogues and commercials ever have, simply because my daughter wanted to emulate Mandy’s style.
The tween set, a highly impressionable cohort of girls living somewhere between pre-pubescence and puberty have fallen hard for these relatable influencers, girls who could be their pretty older sister, neighbor or friend. It’s the authentic way in which they share, reporting from their bedrooms or living rooms, that make these YouTube sensations feel trusted to their young fans. Many of the so-called stars are still wearing braces themselves. They admit their own imperfections and share strategies on how to hide pimples or overcome awkward moments and that is part of their charm. It’s an accessorized Judy Blume on YouTube.
The challenge with this audience of tween girls is that they are fickle and fleeting. They don’t yet have brand loyalty, which may be why many brands just choose to ignore them. At 9 years old, they are shopping at Justice, and at 11, it’s Delia’s and Forever 21. Trends blow through faster than you can say “Rainbow Loom” and brands need to stay ahead of it. Their quickly changing bodies mean that what works one year, doesn’t work the next.
Nevertheless, this audience is driving the spending at home. Unlike shopping for boys of the same age, where moms direct most purchases, the shopping of female tweens is driven largely by the girls themselves. These savvy girls know what the latest combat boots are at Urban Outfitters, the cardigan at Brandy Melville and the bathing suit at Delia’s. The online sorority of influencers leads the girls to the latest trends.
Brands need to show their love to this audience because the girls will love you back, even if it’s briefly. Real, authentic, relatable with a dose of cool — that’s what Gen Y-Fi tweens want to see and that’s what will make their moms go shopping.
British cyber-jihadist jailed in US
UK computer expert Babar Ahmad, who admitted providing material to support the Taliban, is sentenced in a US court to 12-and-a-half years in prison.
Never Seconds
Two years ago, a nine-year old girl in Scotland told her father she wanted to be a journalist. She didn’t want to wait. So her father suggested a blog about her school lunches. Together they figured out how to set one up, and called it Never Seconds, because someone had already claimed Oliver Twist’s “More Please.”
Her father suggested a Latin pen name: Veritas Ex Gusto. She preferred a humble, Anglo-Saxon moniker: Veg. One blunt syllable. So, with permission from teachers, Martha Payne started taking photographs of school lunches at Lochgilphead primary school, a two-hour drive west from Glasgow. She posted them, with ratings on how good, or bad, they were, and reviewed the meals in simple terms: “I would have preferred more than one croquette.” Alongside her stark shots of measly portions of frequently fried, often processed-looking food, she ranked them on a number of different gradients. Some were so precise they were funny, such as “pieces of hair” and “number of mouthfuls.” (Her blog could have been called Never Hair, since the food on her prison-style tray was generally hair-free.) The response was astonishing. Within a week her site had drawn more than 100,000 visitors, as school kids from around the world began sending her photographs of their own institutional meals. She posted them as well. It became a kind of crowd-sourced watchdog group to improve school nutrition standards. She argued, correctly, that improved nutrition would sharpen minds and improve health.
When her posts were getting 50,000 views per day, she decided to partner with her grandfather, who supported a program in Africa called Mary’s Meals. The charity was founded in 2002 by Magnus MacFarlane-Barrow, who lives near Martha in Argyll, Scotland. As of last year, it was feeding more than 600,000 children in 16 countries, including Malawi, Liberia, Kenya and Haiti. The reasoning was simple: offer meals to poor children in Malawi in exchange for their attendance in school. Result: healthier and smarter kids in places where they are needed most. She began to promote the program and donations came in: only £2,000, but enough money to feed 300 African kids for an entire year.
It seemed this shy, blue-eyed girl had become, almost simultaneously, an Internet sensation, a philanthropist, and an investigative journalist. Encouraged by the response, she doggedly kept documenting the nutrition her school was doling out to students . . . until it became a threat to the people who ran the school. It wasn’t her fault, actually.
The local paper published a photograph to show little Martha standing beside a cook who was sautéing something over flames with the headline: “Time to Fire the Dinner Ladies.” That awkward pun changed everything. Martha was told to shut down her blog. The school was feeling too much heat. She wrote a regretful farewell post.
The international response was swift and overwhelming. Thousands of protesting emails swamped her father’s inbox. The media from around Britain and elsewhere overwhelmed the telephone switchboard where her mother worked attempting to interview her. The school backed down; the blog went back up. Donations increased by a factor of 100. People were outraged that she wouldn’t be able to raise enough money for Mary’s Meals to build a new kitchen in Malawi, which was her goal: she wanted to get to £7,000. After she started posting again, donations soared to £130,000.
Though her blog is languishing now, it has drawn an astonishing 10 million visitors. She and her father published a book last year, Never Seconds, telling the story of her journey. Each copy sold will provide 25 school dinners in Malawi.
Anything this soft-spoken little girl does next will be fascinating, though maybe she just wants to be a schoolgirl again for a while. Her story is immensely encouraging and inspiring, and yet if you watch her on Vimeo, you’ll see a little girl so stricken with stage fright that she buries her face in her father’s arm and lets him read her speech for her.
It’s touching to see the power of this child’s honesty and initiative coupled with the genuine vulnerability of a child her age. The goodness within her drove her to overcome the limitations of her role as a kid in a remote town, and, in her own way, she changed a small part of the world, with incalculable results. It’s hard not to choke up when you see her father look down at her, mid-way through the talk, to say, off microphone, “I’m just so proud.”
Peter Georgescu is the author of The Constant Choice.
Cannes 2014 #Shingerview: Yin Rani, Campbell's Soup Company
“The challenge is how do you stay iconic, because too quickly you can go from being iconic to old-fashioned. I think you have to be really clear about what made you iconic to start with, be really true to that, and just use all the tools at your disposal to continue to tell that story in ways that are relevant.
Yin Rani, VP of Integrated Marketing at Campbell’s Soup Company, spent some time with me at Cannes to talk about her new role at the CPG giant. Having joinied Campbell in December, Yin is responsible for establishing the strategic direction for Campbell advertising, media, global design and digital marketing and social media.
Watch as she talks me through how Campbell keeps up with the ever-changing CPG consumer, how they keep the brand iconic, and why she loves integrated marketing.
Manuel Noriega Sues Activision Over 'Call Of Duty: Black Ops II' Portrayal
By Andrew Chung
(Reuters) – Former dictator Manuel Noriega may be serving time in a Panamanian prison for the killing of political opponents, but that doesn’t mean he likes being portrayed in a video game as a murderer.
Noriega, 80, has filed a lawsuit against video game publisher Activision Blizzard Inc, saying the company is using his image in its wildly popular “Call of Duty: Black Ops II” game without his permission, in an effort to “increase the popularity and revenue” from the title.
The lawsuit was filed Tuesday in Los Angeles Superior Court.
In the complaint, Noriega said he had been damaged by Activision’s portrayal of him as “the culprit of numerous fictional heinous crimes,” including kidnapping and murder, adding that Activision was using his likeness to heighten the game’s realism and increase sales.
Noriega is seeking unspecified restitution as well as lost profits.
“Call of Duty” is one of the video game industry’s biggest successes, racking up more than $1 billion in sales just 15 days after its release in 2012.
Neither Noriega’s attorneys nor a representative of Activision were immediately available for comment.
Noriega was military dictator of Panama from 1983 to 1989. He was an informant for the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency, according to historical accounts.
He also worked with Colombian drug cartels and was eventually indicted in the United States on drug and racketeering charges. A U.S. military invasion in 1989 ended his rule and brought him to the United States.
Noriega was convicted in the United States in 1992 and served a prison sentence until 2010, when he was extradited to France to serve a sentence there. France then sent him to Panama, where he remains in jail for crimes committed during his rule.
Noriega is not the only public figure to sue video game makers for the use of their image.
Earlier this month, actress Lindsay Lohan sued the makers of “Grand Theft Auto V” in New York Supreme Court. And Electronic Arts in May reached a $40 million settlement in a suit that contended it improperly used the images of U.S. college football and basketball players.
(Reporting by Andrew Chung; Editing by Ted Botha and Leslie Adler)
The 10 Smartest Celebrities On Twitter, According To Time Magazine
Leonardo DiCaprio is the smartest celebrity on Twitter, according to a recent analysis released by Time Magazine.
The “Wolf of Wall Street” star’s tweets rank at an average reading level of grade 7.5. Time speculates that, as an environmental activist, DiCaprio often tweets about ocean conservation and global warming, which most likely helped him earn the top spot.
For their study, Time used a popular reading comprehension test known as Simple Measure Of Gobbledygook (SMOG) and analyzed the reading levels of the tweets produced by the 500 most-followed celebrities on Twitter. The SMOG test measures the number of three-syllable words used in the text of a tweet to calculate the years of education required to understand it.
Here are the top 10 smartest celebrities on Twitter, according to Time. We’ve included unrelated sample tweets from each celebrity, because of course:
Leonardo DiCaprio
#Didyouknow the ocean is the #1 protein source for over 1 billion people worldwide? #OurOcean2014 http://t.co/o4EdAoLqLk
— Leonardo DiCaprio (@LeoDiCaprio) June 16, 2014
Pattie Mallette
Dear Sweet Beliebers, Please stop telling me my son makes you horny. Its NOT something a mom wants to hear. Love Mom #ThingsYouDontTellMom
— Pattie Mallette (@pattiemallette) July 12, 2014
Jimmy Kimmel
Are hamsters recyclable?
— Jimmy Kimmel (@jimmykimmel) July 4, 2014
Ludacris
Lovin this UFC fight right now!!!
— Ludacris (@Ludacris) July 6, 2014
Green Day
EAST BAY: By the Punx, For the Punx, About the Punx. http://t.co/fOnHLXnQgF #eastbaypunk #punk pic.twitter.com/9aF5nf0oL9
— Green Day (@GreenDay) June 3, 2014
Samuel L. Jackson
HAPPY FATHERS DAY to all the MEN that are Positively engaged in the lives of their kids!! U sperm donors need not apply!
— Samuel L. Jackson (@SamuelLJackson) June 15, 2014
Usher
.@shakira Seems like @adamlevine just couldn’t let you have all the fun #BlondeMoment pic.twitter.com/56rhr55RXJ
— Usher Raymond IV (@Usher) May 8, 2014
JWoww
LOL tonight’s #MarriageBootCamp is drama & I’m hoping I don’t go into labor watching it lmao I’m live-tweeting the craziness… you ready!?
— JWOWW (@JENNIWOWW) July 12, 2014
Wyclef Jean
You fail only when you stop questioning yourself and your talent #ClefWords
— Wyclef Jean (@wyclef) June 3, 2014
Jessie J
Me: “Mum do you want a peppermint tea? Mum: “No thanks, can I have a hot water. #Turnup
— Jessie J (@JessieJ) July 4, 2014
Not impressed? In another analysis of more than 1 million tweets, Time found that the average Twitter user tweets at a fourth-grade reading level. You can test your own Twitter grade level or any other Twitter user’s here.
Killer Robot Remix
Eric Schechter’s recent opinion piece in the Wall Street Journal, In Defense of Killer Robots, presents a reprise of some frequently debated positions on the place of robotic, lethal decision-making.
As is often the case in such opinion pieces, technological veracity takes a back seat, unfortunately. Yes, it is easy to paint those who wish to ban autonomous robotic killing as technologically ignorant — after all they may be stopping research progress before we invent the next, greatly ethical killing machine. But this attitude is far from the truth: the roboticists dedicated to barring robotic killing aren’t shutting down research; they are helping to formulate policy precisely because they understand the technical details of robotic machines in real detail.
Schechter makes several arguments that require some technical calibration, and so let’s dive into with a technical eye. His first substantive argument is that humans already depend on machinery, so why not let the machines act autonomously in the easy cases?
Autonomous weapons systems of the near future will be assigned the easy targets. They will pick off enemy fighter jets, warships and tanks — platforms that usually operate at a distance from civilians — or they will return fire when being shot at.
Easy targets in war are, in reality, something of an oxymoron, and the concept that jets and tanks are far from civilians is an absurd comment when we pause to consider modern, urban warfare: just visualize Syria and Iraq, for starters. Indeed, the reason pilots and machines work together is because they benefit from the particular strengths of each — the judgment of humans combined with control loops that only technology can provide. The fact that such coupled systems work does no service to the argument that we ought to subtract the human from the system for even better performance. If you wish for more detail about human-robot systems, I heartily recommend reading P.W. Singer’s Wired for War.
Schechter’s second argument is a fairly common restatement of the “Ethical programming” trope advanced in the media:
The machine then goes out and identifies targets; and right before lethal engagement, a separate software package called the “ethical governor” measures the proposed action against the rules of engagement and international humanitarian law. If the action is illegal, the robot won’t fire.
If you are technically interested, I encourage you to read Ron Arkin’s book, Governing Lethal Behavior in Autonomous Robots for the real details. For those of you not about to read the computer code — this solution proposes, among other things, a guilt value in the robot.
Every time it kills civilians, we add to guilt, like a bank account. And as time passes, guilt decays and reduces in value (especially if the robot kills bad guys). Now here’s the governor bit: whenever guilt is above a value — say, 100 — then the robot formulaically becomes less willing to shoot.
This is what happens when we reduce human decision-making to mathematics that can be programmed in Java. Technically, ethical programming is a rhetorical device. It is like performance art, meant to broaden one’s perspectives. It is not a technical solution to the problem of making robots ethical, for real. Schechter’s writing is unintentionally mixing an aspirational metaphor with real-world engineering, and that is a disservice to the readership.
Then there is the third and last argument that I will engage — a classical example of value hierarchy from the study rhetoric. Schechter points out the war is terrible and evil:
But why is raining bombs down on someone from 20,000 feet any better?
His point is, simply put, that war sucks. People are unethical. Killing is already rampant. And therefore robots might be better, even if they’re not perfect. This sets up a false argument in favor of robot killing, simply by distracting you with the horror of non-robot killing. I remember the CEO of a robot manipulator company years ago justifying the unemployment caused by assembly line automation by stating, “Far more jobs are lost to outsourcing than to automation with our robot arm.” Yes, that’s irrelevant to the ethics of his product. But it is a rhetorically useful effort in distraction.
In the end, even a primitive level of lethal decision-making, done well, would require robots to understand social culture, to perceive the world at least as well as we humans and to understand, deeply, the ramifications of their actions. Those are problems that Artificial Intelligence researchers continue to work on to realize their dreams of truly intelligent machines.
The goal is many, many decades away; and banning killer robots will not impede this research in the least. Schechter’s choice is a false one: the ban on killer robots is rational, humanitarian and, on balance, the far better option.
eBay earnings beat expectations
Online retailer eBay reports profits of $676m during the period from March to June, beating analyst expectations after a ‘challenging quarter’.
Here's How To Get HBO Without Paying For Cable
Still holding on to your cable TV so you can keep HBO? Already cut the cord and regretting it knowing you can’t watch “The Leftovers”? Did your ex’s roommate’s dad change his HBO Go login that you were (secretly) using?
We feel your pain, but we also have some incredibly good news. There is now a way you can still have HBO (legally!) without paying a ridiculous cable bill or borrowing logins. According the the Wall Street Journal, a handful of cable and Internet providers have package deals that allow you to get HBO and Internet only, but they’re kind of secret. Here’s what you need to ask for:
Comcast offers “Internet Plus”, which is Internet with 10+ channels, HBO and HBO Go.
Time Warner Cable offers “Starter TV + HBO,” which includes 20+ channels with HBO and HBO Go. To get Internet though, you’ll need to add a separate plan.
Verizon FiOS offers Internet, HBO or Showtime and local channels with the package deal “50/25 Mbps + Local News and Sports + HBO (or Showtime).”
AT&T U-Verse offers “HBO Internet Plus,” which is just what it sounds like.
If your local company doesn’t offer any of these great plans then, well, we guess you’ll just have to move (anything for “Game of Thrones”).
[via Wall Street Journal]
DirecTV reveals digital-only NFL Sunday Ticket subscriptions
Satellite TV provider DirecTV has announced its first digital-only subscription plans for NFL Sunday Ticket. Subscribers will have to wait until September 7th for the first games, and will only be able to watch out-of-market events, but will have access to them on phones, tablets, computers, and/or consoles without also having to have a satellite or cable package. Costs begin at $200 for a subscription covering phones, tablets, and computers. A separate console-only plan is $240; the $330 Max plan covers all devices, and further includes access to the Red Zone channel and DirecTV’s new Fant
Yes, You Can Now Have A Drone Photograph Your Wedding
When it comes to wedding photography, the sky’s the limit — literally.
Iowa-based Picture Perfect Portrait and Design is offering a brand new service to brides and grooms looking for unique ways to capture their wedding: drone photography.
Owner and photographer Dale Stierman said the idea came to him after seeing drones used for real estate.
“I thought it was a great idea and just knew there was an angle for wedding photography,” he told The Huffington Post. “There are endless possibilities for camera angles that no other photographer can get.”
Stierman shot a wedding via drone recently at the Grand River Center in Dubuque, Iowa, which sits right on the Mississippi river. This was the result:
Photo courtesy of Picture Perfect Portrait & Design
According to Stierman, this is a normally impossible shot to get — “Airplanes can’t get low enough to do it.” Here’s another shot with the bridal party:
Photo courtesy of Picture Perfect Portrait & Design
Of course, it’s not an easy operation. “You can’t shoot a whole wedding with a drone, but you can shoot it for about 30 minutes,” Stierman said. That means everything has to be planned out before the Big Day.
“We plan it out about a week before the wedding, then we have the shots set up when it’s time to shoot,” he said.
In order to make sure each 30-minute session runs smoothly, Stierman communicates by two-way radio with a team on the ground, who directs the wedding party on where to go and what to do. He also has an expert flyer controlling the drone.
“The whole thing’s remarkable,” he said.
Couples can add a drone shoot to their photography package for about $400. The company has the capability to shoot all over the U.S.
What do you think — would you want a drone to photograph your wedding?
Keep in touch! Check out HuffPost Weddings on Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest. Sign up for our newsletter here.
Facebook Is Just Giving Away Free Internet To Some Teens
Facebook is giving students access to the Internet.
On Tuesday, the company announced a new pilot program to provide free Wi-Fi access to high school students in Forest City, North Carolina, a Facebook data center site. The company is working with a North Carolina-based nonprofit Internet provider called PANGAEA, Tech Crunch notes.
In recent months, Facebook was thought to be losing its appeal among teens, though a recent survey from Forrester Research found that younger people are using the site in greater numbers and with more frequency than other social networks. But Facebook once admitted during an earnings call last year that it was having trouble keeping young teens on the site.
Facebook is building off a previous initiative by Rutherford County Schools that provided more than 6,000 of the district’s middle and high school students with personal laptops. Administrative officials soon learned that nearly half of those students had no access to Wi-Fi at home, the statement said.
As of right now, Facebook says it is providing the service to 75-100 homes in neighborhoods surrounding a school. The company worked with the town to create and establish Wi-Fi end points that give the entire area coverage. Facebook says it hopes to expand the program if the trial is successful.
“This program is still very early in its development,” Facebook’s Keven McCammon wrote in an announcement. “And we all have a lot of work to do to build out this network and ensure that it performs well for the students who need it.”
Finally! A Beautiful Piece of Wearable Tech
Over the past year, several wearables devices have emerged to give people an alternative to constantly checking their mobile phones for updates. However, there is only one device that has materialized at the intersection of couture and technology. Ringly makes smart jewelry and accessories that connect to users’ mobile phones via bluetooth to “put your phone away and your mind at ease.” Ringly’s debut product is a cocktail ring that comes in four different styles. Each ring lights up and vibrates when the user receives a new notification, and users can customize which notifications they receive by using the Ringly app.
“One of the reasons I started the company is I was missing things all of the time because I keep my phone in my purse,” said co-founder, Christina Mercando. “I wanted to solve that, but I also started to notice everyone around me always having to keep their phone out at the dinner table and it interrupting certain things. I love conversation and I love restaurants and eating and it’s just one of those things that bothered me that I wanted to help fix.”
Mercando and co-founder Logan Munroe worked on the launch of Ringly for a year. During that time, they went through seven product iterations and months of fundraising. They discuss their experience developing the product in this week’s Floating Point’s Podcast.
Nathan Fielder Says His Bizarre Bill Gates Impersonator Will Return To 'Nathan For You'
On the July 8 episode of “Nathan For You,” Nathan Fielder attempted to boost a struggling souvenir shop’s sales by staging a film shoot, inviting customers to be “Extras” and directing them to shop at the store.
While that may sound like a solid plan, Fielder ran into a catch: legally, he actually had to produce a movie. It was a challenge, but not only was he able to slap together enough footage to create his short film, “The Web,” but he also stumbled upon one of the best/worst Bill Gates impersonators of all time.
“You know, in comedy, when you see the same joke or see the same thing over and over, it becomes slightly less funny? He is maybe the only thing I’ve ever encountered where every time I watch him, it doesn’t get any less funny,” Fielder told The Huffington Post. “He’s a very interesting and strange man.”
As it turns out, Fielder’s Bill Gates was chosen after replying to a casting call (they put one out after discovering the industry’s most reputable Bill Gates impersonator was no longer in the biz). Fielder decided to take a chance on him with very little vetting, which ended up being a great decision.
“This guy responded, saying he was a professional Bill Gates impersonator,” Fielder explained. “It was kind of a last minute thing, so I didn’t have much time to talk to him before we brought him out. As soon as we started, it seemed like he only knew two facts about Bill Gates: That computers used to be bigger, and Bill Gates is somehow associated with Microsoft.”
If you were as enamored with the Gates impersonator’s performance as Fielder was, rest assured that he will return later on in season two.
“He actually comes back later in the season, in another episode. I found another way to use him and I think it’s just as good,” Fielder said. “The next time I talk to him, we have a bit of a personal conversation. We only show a little bit of it, but he had a very weird thing happen to him when he was younger.”
Oh, boy. We can only imagine what that “weird thing” could be, but based on previous “Nathan For You” stunts, it’s bound to be highly ridiculous.
“Nathan For You” airs Tuesday at 10:30 p.m. ET on Comedy Central.
These Brands Want Girls to Care About STEM
The latest trend of empowerment marketing has inundated us with positive messages for women. But some brands aren’t letting their message end with a campaign spot. Armed with statistics that girls are likely to be less interested in science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) after the early years of their education (and that only 24 percent of STEM employees are women) some brands have decided to try and do something about that.
Cutesy robot Asimo gets upgraded
Honda’s Asimo robot has grown up – its latest upgrade gives it enhanced intelligence, added dexterity and the ability to run 5.6mph.
Thanks for reading our digest. Opinions in the articles above are those of the authors and not necessarily those of Digital Workshed ltd.