Achieving the Perfect Selfie

By Larry "The Blackspot" Hester
Anyone who’s tried to take a decent photo with an iPhone knows the drill: tap the app and wait longer than usual for it to open, fiddle around with the settings to make sure the flash is activated, awkwardly hold the phone (along with your breath) and finally, repeatedly tap the screen to take the shot. If luck is on your side, you’ll have a photo that doesn’t look like a typical Bigfoot sighting.

The Snappgrip is a device that aims to take all that fuss out of shooting iPhone pics. It’s a phone case that gives users an added benefit of physical buttons so there’s no need to struggle with the on-screen functions. Taking a photo, shooting video, zooming, toggling the flash and switching between landscape and portrait modes are all handled by the Snappgrip.

The button layout on the Snappgrip is just like any other camera. There’s a dial to switch modes and a shutter button for zooming and taking shots. The device is super light and curved perfectly for comfort. What’s even cooler is that the button and dial section detaches, leaving you with a phone case. That’s a sure plus for those who hate having to take their phone out of the case just to put on an accessory.

The Snappgrip is available now at the bitemyapple.co website for $70. You also get a tripod mount (for the truly obsessed iPhone photographer), wrist strap, charging cable and carrying case (that you’d probably never use anyway). As far as colors, your choice is only between the obligatory black or white, but who cares? It makes creating the next Instagram buzz a lot easier.

Could a Kanye West video game rival Kim Kardashian's?

Kanye West is working on a video game. You read that right. The rap star, who’s branched out into other fields like fashion, is now developing a video game.

West dropped the news in a radio interview with “The Breakfast Club” where he was discussing his new song with Paul McCartney, “Only One.” The song is about his late mother, Donda West, who died following a surgical procedure in 2007. 

The video game will feature his mother trying to get to heaven. Little is known about the game other than that. Yahoo Finance reached out to Glu Mobile (GLUU), the app developer behind Kim Kardashian West’s successful app “Hollywood,” to find out if they were working with West but did not hear back.

But West’s revelation got us thinking about all of the other successful stars who’ve tried their hand at games.

Kim Kardashian

West may have been inspired by the success of his wife, Kim Kardashian. She’s one of the most recent high profile celebrities to get into the world of games. She released an app “Hollywood” that has users try and gain fans and work their way into the A list.

Related: Kim Kardashian's app won't make near $200 million as popularity fades

Early estimates said the app was wildly successful and set to make $200 million. It hasn’t been quite that blockbuster yet; the app earned $45 million in the third quarter of 2014. But it’s still a big win for Kardashian – she takes home 45% of revenue.

View gallery

.

Just days after Katy Perry performed at the Super Bowl, Glu Mobile announced they would develop a game with the …

Katy Perry

Glu Mobile has also tapped Katy Perry for a video game. The game was announced just days after Perry performed the half-time show at this year’s Super Bowl. There are no details about the game yet, but it’s safe to say it will encompass Perry’s unique style, one that’s famous for including cotton candy and other confections.

This isn’t Perry’s first foray into games; Sims created a Katy Perry game: The Sweet Treat. The game allowed players to “Sweeten your Sims' lives with delicious, Katy Perry-inspired items from a cupcake-themed guitar and candy playground equipment, to luscious cotton candy trees” for just $24.99.

Kate Upton

Supermodel Kate Upton is taking a different approach to the gaming world. Instead of launching her own game, she’s signed on to become the face of “Game of War: Fire Age,” developed by a fairly unknown app-maker Machine Zone.

Like Perry, Upton made a splash during the Super Bowl when she appeared in an ad for the game (price tag: $4.5 million). Upton appears in the game as well, offering users paid upgrades and often wearing sultry period costumes. She even spends some time in a bathtub, though we’re sure it’s for plot purposes.

Details of Upton’s pay package are confidential, but we know the company has set aside $40 millionto advertise the game, an earmark that’s believed to include Upton’s salary.

View gallery

.

Oscar-winner Kevin Spacey stars in Activision's Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare. Image via Call of Duty.

Kevin Spacey

Lest you think starring in a video game is a lady’s game, you’d do well to remember Kevin Spacey. He’s the star of “Call of Duty: Advanced Warfare.” Unlike some of the above games that are newer developments for mobile, Activision's (ATVI) Call of Duty is kind of like the Godfather of games. It’s holds the Guinness World Record for " best-selling first-person shooter videogame series." It’s also won numerous fan polls.

In 2014, Spacey signed on to the game’s latest iteration, playing a private military contractor with dreams of world domination. He took the challenge of acting in a video game seriously, commenting in a New York Times profile about the potential he sees in the craft.

Again, details about Spacey’s pay don’t exist, but Call of Duty has topped $1 billion in sales for about the past five years so chances are he’s not doing the game just for the sake of the art.

Other Stars

If West does make a game, he will join a long list of other stars. In addition to those profiled above, many other musicians and actors have played in the gaming space (pun intended.) Lindsay Lohan's answer to Kardashian was largely panned as being overly simplistic at best. In 2002, Britney Spears released a video game “Dance Beat.” Before that, Mark “Marky Mark” Wahlberg partnered with Sega on “Make My Video.” Even the Beatles had their own version of “Rock Band.” On the acting side, Jack Black became enough of a video game star that he was part of a 2009 lawsuit between Activision and Electronic Arts (EA) over the development of a game he starred in.

Victoria's Secret Angels are leaving the brand in droves

Bryan Bedder/Stringer Model Doutzen Kroes is leaving Victoria's Secret. Victoria's Secret has lost two key Angels. 

Newcomer Karlie Kloss and veteran Doutzen Kroes are leaving the brand. 

It's rumored more Angels could follow, according to Stephanie Smith at Page Six. 

Modeling for Victoria's Secret is notoriously demanding, and led to former Angel Miranda Kerr leaving to work on other projects. 

Kloss is leaving to study at NYU, while Kroes reportedly has lucrative opportunities in Europe.

Page Six suggests that Victoria's Secret doesn't pay models as much as it used to. 

"Older contracts like Alessandra Ambrosio were in the millions, now they’re like $100,000," Stephanie Smith writes. 

Victoria's Secret hires about 10 models to act as "Angels" that represent the brand. The spots are coveted because they offer unprecedented exposure in the industry. 

Angel Miranda Kerr left the brand in 2013 amid reports that the lingerie brand was too demanding. 

Earning a spot walking in the Victoria's Secret Fashion show is a highly complicated and political process. 

Victoria's Secret executives rely on one specific quality to sell underwear, Richard Habberley at DNA Model Management told Women's Wear Daily: 

"The merchants drive the decisions on the Angels. They [Victoria’s Secret] try the girls out, and certain girls sell product. They’re women that appeal to other women. And they’re special because they never appear in men’s magazines. Once you start to do that, they become threatening [to potential female customers]," said Habberley.

In other words, it's imperative that Victoria's Secret customers like the models it features. 

It also sheds insight into why the retailer famously rejected Kate Upton. Her constant sexy pictorials and commercials are threatening to other women and would turn off potential customers. 

Being a Victoria's Secret Angel pays off. Eight of the top 10 highest-paid models in the world have worked for the retailer. 

"Becoming an Angel significantly increases a model’s earning potential due to their visibility around the world,” Habberly told WWD. “It changes the girls’ careers completely."

Apple is aiming to get an electric car rolling on the streets in five years, according to the latest report.
Although it hasn’t officially announced its intentions to build and market an electric vehicle, the iPhone maker is pushing its development team to have the car ready for production as early as 2020, Bloomberg reported Thursday, citing unidentified sources described as having knowledge of the matter. The team, which is said to have about 200 employees, has been growing in recent months and now includes experts in technologies such as batteries and robotics. Apple did not respond to a request for comment. The report is the latest bit of mounting evidence suggesting Apple intends to produce an electric car, perhaps one that will be self-driving, to take on Tesla and others. Rumors started swirling last week that the company is creating a team charged with designing the vehicle. Reported recent hires include Johann Jungwirth, who was CEO of Mercedes-Benz Research & Development North America until this past September. Further evidence emerged earlier this month in the form of a lawsuit filed by a maker of batteries for electric cars. Massachusetts-based A123 Systems, which says it specializes in “advanced energy storage for electric-drive vehicles,” accused Apple of poaching a handful of top engineers to work for a new battery division and said in its complaint that “Apple is currently developing a large-scale battery division to compete in the very same field as A123.” Hints of Apple’s alleged automotive ambitions have emerged before. Last year, reports surfaced suggesting that Apple had held talks to acquire Tesla. The company’s CEO and founder, Elon Musk, has acknowledged holding meetings with Apple, but he stopped short of saying that their discussions involved a possible acquisition. He has also noted that Tesla isn’t for sale. And while Tesla claims to have hired more Apple employees than workers from any other company, Apple has succeeded in getting “very few” of Tesla’s, Musk told Bloomberg earlier this month. Apple has been interested in the automotive industry for years, though CEO Tim Cook only recently said the company’s iOS-based, in-car platform CarPlay is a “key to our future.” CarPlay, which lets users do everything from access iTunes tracks to answer messages, is part of a growing tech industry focus on all things automotive, including assisted driving. Last year Morgan Stanley’s Adam Jonas predicted autonomous vehicles will be used everywhere and anywhere by 2026 as the industry works through issues related to liability, infrastructure and consumer acceptance. "Autonomous cars are no longer just the realm of science fiction," Jonas wrote in a research note to clients. “They are real and will be on roads sooner than you think.”

As messaging apps proliferate, one service aims to power them all

Layer launches to the public and releases an open source design library, Atlas

We live in a world where messaging apps command $20 billion valuations, but amidst that embarrassment of riches is a major pain for users: each massively successful new service is another siloed channel you need to manage. You like WhatsApp, but your best friend prefers Facebook Messenger; your little brother is on Snapchat, and your mom sticks to iMessage. A simple conversation can get tangled up in a slew of different apps.

TRYING TO CRAFT A COMMON STANDARD

A year and a half ago, a new startup called Layer launched with the goal of creating a common standard: a new messaging protocol that would let any app to communicate with another. It was a continuation of a dream they had pushed during the instant messaging era with the creation of XMPP, better known as Jabber. In mobile messaging, that unified world is still largely a fantasy, but Layer has signed up 1,500 customers during its private beta, with a waiting list of 8,500 more. Today it’s launching to the public and debuting Atlas, an open source design library to help integrate its messaging capabilities into company’s mobile offerings.

The sales pitch for Layer was that any app could add messaging with just 10 lines of code. For startups who haven’t launched, Layer is free. But Layer charges its larger clients — leading apps in the dating, games, and sports categories who clock in at more than a million monthly users. "We make it easy for the smaller teams to get started using Layer, allowing them to focus on creating a great experience for their users, and hopefully to become a massive success down the road," says Ron Palmeri, the company’s founder and CEO.

HELPING SMALL STARTUPS IN THE HOPES THEY WILL BECOME BIG CUSTOMERS

The offering has won big praise for accelerating the time to get from idea to app. "The craziest thing about that experience was how fast it went," says Ryan Freitas, a designer who used Layer while working on mobile products for About.me. "We went from loose mockups to a fully functional product in less than two weeks. Given that we don’t have anyone here who is a messaging expert, that normally would have taken us five to six months."

The biggest complaint from companies trying to use Layer, on the other hand, was that they didn’t know how to create the design or interaction around the messages. It was great to add messaging to an app, but it was hell when that functionality introduced bugs or errors. Atlas is an attempt to solve that. "It gives you a toolkit to easily craft a great messaging interface," says Palmeri. "And importantly, to make sure that what you have looks distinct from other folks who are using us."

CONNECTING CONSTELLATIONS OF APPS WITH A SINGLE OWNER

Layer is hoping that it can become a lynchpin of the booming app ecosystem. "Like Stripe or Mapbox, we want to be the back end that delivers a core function of mobile software," says Palmeri. They haven’t yet created a federated universe of apps from different companies that talk with one another, but Layer says it is seeing crosstalk between disparate apps with a single owner.

As tech investor Fred Wilson wrote last year, titans like Google, Yahoo, and most recently Microsoft are acquiring top mobile services at a rapid pace, leading to interesting constellations of apps. These clusters create an opportunity for Layer, which can open up channels of communication. "We have lots of requests from companies that want to make this network of apps capable of talking to one another, and to enable a single sign-on, so you can sync or share contacts and messaging history," says Palmeri. "It’s a little bit of our vision starting to unfold."

Toyota rejects CarPlay and Android Auto… for now

Apple and Google are racing to provide the software that powers your dashboard infotainment system, but not all car-makers are interested in giving up control. Toyota recently told The New York Times that it plans to keep its own infotainment system, at least for now, rather than adopt CarPlayor Android Auto.

“We may all eventually wind up there, but right now we prefer to use our in-house proprietary platforms for those kinds of functions,” Toyota exec John Hanson told The New York Times. He added that, while the company met regularly with both Google and Apple, it’s not ready to adopt either operating system. Meanwhile, other car-makers seem more eager to make the jump.

Ford plans to offer Android Auto and CarPlay in some of its cars by the end of the year. By 2016, every vehicle the company sells in the U.S. will support the new software. Meanwhile, Chrysler is also set to support both Apple and Google’s dashboard operating systems.

Overall, the new software should be a big upgrade over the in-house systems we’re used to seeing. Most car companies are still pretty lacking when it comes to user interface design, giving Apple and Google an opportunity to expand their reach into another new market. Hopefully it won’t be long before Toyota comes around to the new platforms as well.

Here's what you'd get if Michael Bay made a gritty Power Rangers movie

Remember how Mighty Morphin' Power Rangers starred a cast of plucky "teenagers with attitude" pulled into a zany war with a space witch and an evil emperor with no skin? What if you took that core concept and transformed those same teens into costumed child soldiers dragged into a bloody intergalactic war they had no real part in?

That's what producer Adi Shankar has done with his latest over-the-top short Power/Rangers, and, despite looking like a Michael Bay movie, it somehow manages to set a high bar for the upcoming Power Rangers film.

Power/Rangers stars Battlestar Galactica's Katee Sackhoff as former Pink Ranger Kimberly Hart and Dawson's Creek's James Van Der Beek as former Red Ranger you completely forgot Rocky DeSantos. Set in a dark future after the Machine Empire took over the planet, Rocky has since betrayed his former teammates to join forces with the machines. The 14-minute short shows what became of all the rangers in the years since the takeover, and their future is an extremely violent and tragic one, as even their incredible powers and Zords can't save them. Sure, it's a little cheesy, but it's the kind of nostalgia trip fans might love.

WHO CAN DEFEAT THE MACHINE EMPIRE?

Filmed by "Blank Space" director Joseph Kahn, the movie falls into Shankar's ever-growing Bootleg universe, which by now includes Venom: Truth in Journalismand The Punisher: Dirty Laundry. The producer also released Judge Dredd: Superfiendlast fall, an unofficial sequel series taking place after 2012's Dredd. Shankar insists the movie isn't a pitch, but given how well it does at subverting the source material, Lionsgate might want to take a few notes for its own adaptation.