Microsoft launches Windows Phone ad blitz with Jessica Alba, Gwen Stefani

In an attempt to use the power of celebrity endorsements to promote the Windows Phone, Microsoft has rolled out new ads featuring prominent women.

Taking an aggressive approach with the promotion of the Windows Phone platform, Microsoft has launched two new advertisements starring actress Jessica Alba and No Doubt musician Gwen Stefani. Airing during primetime television tonight on commercial breaks within ABC’s Modern Family and NBC’s The Voice as well as late night talk show Jimmy Kimmel Live, the two advertisements highlight different ways that the Windows Phone platform has changed their daily life. The 33-second spot with Jessica Alba features the Nokia Lumia 920 and is co-branded with AT&T. However, the 32-second Gwen Stefani advertisement features the 8X by HTC and splashes the Verizon Wireless logo on the screen.

During the Jessica Alba spot, Microsoft is attempting to promote the use of the Kid’s Corner feature since young children like to play games on their parent’s smartphones. Similar to Netflix’s Just for Kids section, Kids Corner on the Windows Phone acts as a parental filter.

After Kid’s Corner is launched, it’s impossible for a child to access text messages, emails or other important areas of the phone without a password. In addition, parents can populate the Kids Corner with approved applications such as entertaining games, learning programs or other fun apps for young children. Kids can also listen to approved music through the Kids Corner interface as well as personalize the background. 

Alternatively, Microsoft is trying to highlight the usefulness of the Windows Phone platform for busy working women during the Gwen Stefani ad. Since early adopters of smartphones tend to be both men and women these days, Microsoft is clearly going after the female demographic for the opening round of Windows Phone ads. Ads featuring male celebrities are in the works though. According to Ad Age, two more advertisements will follow later in November featuring Saturday Night Live alum Andy Samberg as well as Carolina Panthers quarterback Cam Newton. 

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

China’s Wingsuit Flying World Championship

Jumping off a cliff 4,593 above sea level is all a part of the game for the men and women participating in this year’s Wingsuit Flying World Championship in Zhangjiajie, China.

Using only a special jumpsuit called a wingsuit as a flying mechanism, fifteen of the world’s best competed in the championships over the past two days, jumping from the Tianmen Mountain in central China’s Hunan Province.

The suits have fabric between the arms and legs to increase the surface area and make gliding possible. A parachute is also attached to the suit, but may only be used for landing.

The participants were required to complete a looping flight in the valley and glide across a designated area before deploying their parachutes and landing at the finish line. The competitor with the fastest time took home the prize.

This year, South African flyer Julian Boulle won first place with a world record of 23.41 seconds. A Norwegian, Espen Fadnes, came in a close second at 23.55 seconds and British competitor James Boole took third place with a time of 23.84 seconds.

Wingsuit flying is one of the most challenging of the world’s extreme sports. Eight flyers participated in the final day of the World Championships today and no more than 20 wingsuit flyers are qualified to participate in the competition worldwide, according to the Associated Press.

Source : abcnews[dot]go[dot]com

Xbox from Mars, iPhone 5 from Venus: 60% of mobile gamers are women

While PC and console gamers are almost evenly split along gender lines, a significant majority of mobile gamers are women.

Talk to the indie game maker, and he’ll tell you that the place to find an audience is on mobile devices like the iPhone 5. Talk to the video game publisher, and he’ll tell you the same thing, because there’s no revenue model quite so promising as that of the free-to-play, microtransaction supported mobile game. Both of them will agree that it’s tough to get your game in front of people. Only a few video games release at retail each week, but literal hundreds hit app stores on a daily basis. Marketing a mobile game isn’t easy, but at least game makers and publishers alike know which audience they should target: Women.

EEDAR, a video game industry research group, published the findings of a recent survey breaking down mobile gaming demographics on Friday. Women now represent the majority of the mobile market.

Of the 2,491 mobile gamers between 15- and 64-years-old interviewed for the survey, 60 percent were women.

“What we are finding is tapping into that female client is more important than ever before,” EEDAR’s Jesse Divinch told USA Today, “It really is changing the face of gaming.”

According to the ESA, the split between men and women in the overall video game market, including PCs and consoles alongside mobile devices, is 53 percent to 47 percent. With the shift towards touch based devices, social games based on constant interaction with friends, as well as games that require less time investment, women have become a dominant force in mobile.

This has surprised mobile and social game makers, especially as they’ve turned to real money gambling games in the past 18 months. “If you are building for mobile and you want to scale to the broadest possible audience of purchasers, you do need to absolutely focus on [women,]” said Big Fish Games CEO Paul Thelen. Big Fish opened its very first real money mobile casino on iOS this past August, “You would think Texas Hold ‘Em would skew [towards men[, but we are seeing 65 percent of the revenue coming from [women.]”

The importance of women will likely force a number of publishers previously focused on the console and PC markets to reconsider their mobile businesses. Activision Blizzard, for example, is only now growing its internal mobile game development. Its new Leeds-based studio The Blast Furnace is making mobile titles based on older games like Pitfall and they’re rumored to be taking over Call of Duty for mobile devices, not exactly games built with women in mind.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Awkward: Minnesota bar offers pregnancy test vending machine

As part of a "Think Before You Drink" initiative for a Minnesota nonprofit, a bar has outfitted a pregnancy test dispenser to help women check if it's appropriate for them to be drinking.

Alcohol consumption while you are pregnant is a definite no-no in modern society — but what if you didn’t realize you were expecting? If you’re in the vicinity of this Minnesota bar, there’s no excuse: Pub 500 of Mankota, MN has installed a pregnancy test vending machine so you can get your results before ordering a drink.

It’s certainly an odd idea with some logical sense. The dispenser is located in the women’s bathroom of Pub 500, and sells pregnancy test kits in a manner similar to public restrooms that offer sanitary towels, pads, or Tylenol for purchase. Unlike these dated machines, this new vending machine will only accept debit or credit cards, and is outfitted with NFC technology for those taking advantage of mobile payment apps. The kit costs $3 a pop and takes roughly 10 minutes before yielding the results.

The project is part of Mankota’s local nonprofit, Healthy Brains for Children, and its “Think Before You Drink” initiative which aims to promote alcohol-related birth defect awareness. Pub 500 co-owner Tom Frederick says the bar is a supporter of the cause, and simply gave the nonprofit wall space with proceeds going directly to the organization.

“This initiative is taking the pregnancy test out of the stores and into locations where they can be best used to prevent drinking by an unexpecting mother-to-be,” Healthy Brains for Children writes. “This is a worldwide movement to include testing before drinking as a responsible drinking component.”

Local customers were, at first, confused by the addition to the bar but quickly became supportive once they understood the mission.

“If you can buy condoms and whatnot at a bar, it’s logical to buy a pregnancy test. It’s less embarrassing than going to the drug store,” Theresa Carlberg, a Pub 500 customer, told Minneapolis local news KARE. “I hope other restaurants and establishments in our community do the same thing, it’s important.” Healthy Brains for Children plans on installing at least one hundred dispensers across the city in the upcoming months.

Of course, there are some speculations that this might be a step too invasive in women’s personal lives, and that some studies say a glass of wine during pregnancy would be harmless to your unborn child. I’m not personally offended by it but it would be pretty strange to find in a bar’s bathroom. As if taking a pregnancy test isn’t awkward enough, taking one then waiting in a social facility for your results is an even more uncomfortable situation. This is a private matter that should be done in your own time and place — not spontaneously before a night out at the pub.

What do you think of pregnant test dispensers in bars? Do you believe it raises a positive awareness, or is too strange for comfort?

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

DT Daily: YouTube censors anti-Islam video, iPhone 5 pre-orders sell out

Tweet

September 14, 2012

• DT Daily Syndication

YouTube censors an anti-Islam video, iPhone pre-orders begin to sell out, women love Pinterest, Anonymous arrest is caught on video, and Google adds a Six Degrees to Kevin Bacon search feature.

Related Links:

• YouTube blocks video inciting violence in Mid East
• ‘Innocence of Muslims’ Trailer [HD] – Egypt Protest Film
• How to find an iPhone 5 (Update: Apple.com sells out of day 1 orders)
• Study: Women love Pinterest
• AntiSec leaks ‘Feds’ credit cards’ after Barrett Brown cuffed
• Barrett Brown Raid on sept. 12 2012
• Google really wants you to play ‘Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon’
• Logitech | Google TV and Kevin Bacon Commercial

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Gamescom 2012: Hitman: Absolution “Saints” content changed in wake of controversy

After the "Saints" trailer came under fire for depicting wanton violence against women, IO Interactive confirms it's changing Hitman.

Hitman: Absolution has been in the works for a long time, so long that the its predecessors are now considered retro. The series it’s born of is fondly remembered, but the rose-colored glasses of nostalgia can cause problems. Truth is the Hitman games were always exploitive, as violent and dumb as a Mickey Spillane novel. Its cerebral, improvisational challenges were sophisticated but that didn’t change the fact that you were still a murderer working for a secret order spouting absurd dialogue. The pre-E3 2012 trailer for Absolution that showed Agent 47 gunning down a squad of lingerie-wearing nun soldiers wasn’t a new low for the series. It was the same old low.

The only thing different is the audience, whose outrage over that trailer’s brazen misogyny has actually spurred developer IO Interactive to change the content of its game. Speaking with Eurogamer at Gamescom 2012, director Tore Blystad said that the level that trailer was based on had to be altered in the wake of this spring’s controversy.

“The Saints trailer is based on a level within the game. One way to go about that level is to in all guns blazing but of course, it’s not the smartest way. We learned from the trailer that we really needed to give these characters some context and some back story,” said Blystad, “We’re working within the game—within that level—to build these characters up before you meet them. That way you know what you’re getting and you aren’t put off by them.”

Know your sexy nun before you fight her, player!

Blystad explained that he was surprised by people’s reaction to the game. “The game is inspired by Grindhouse-style movies, so for us the trailer was a natural way to deal with that subject matter,” said the director, “We’ve been trying to find out, y’know, how could we not see this happening? If we knew it would get such a negative reaction we would have done it in a different way.”

He shouldn’t have to though. There is room in video games for the exploitive, for the grindhouse. There’s room for dirty subjects, just like there is in books, movies, music, painting, literally every form of human expression. Hitman is a grindhouse game, and that’s just fine.

Hitman: Absolution though is coming out at a time when the people of the world are, after thirty years, sick and tired of 99 percent of all video games being grindhouse games. They’re almost all exploitive, all exaggeratedly male. There’s just not enough balance.

Changing the sexy nuns won’t help IO Interactive because sexy nuns aren’t the problem. The problem is that the majority of big-budget video games are made for 15-year-old white boys and are built around their tastes. It just so happens that Blystad’s game was the right target at the right time for the audience’s ire.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com

Researchers discover compound for potential male oral contraceptive

The new compound JQ1 might be the key ingredient in developing oral contraceptives for men.

The new Obamacare laws that went into effect this month is helping many women nationwide rejoice for free or low-cost birth control. Could you envision the same happening for men? In a matter of one year, the scenario may just be possible now that scientists have discovered a new compound that could potentially be developed into a male version of oral contraception.

Researchers at Baylor College of Medicine published in the journal Cell today about the compound JQ1 that acts as an inhibitor to making sperm cells mature. The compound is able to disrupt the sperm production process by binding the BRDT protein required to make sperm cells fertile.

“Our findings demonstrate that, when given to rodents, this compound produces a rapid and reversible decrease in sperm count and mobility with profound effects on fertility,” said Dr. James Bradner, the paper’s senior author. Basically speaking, JQ1 will help men produce less sperm, and the ones that are produced won’t be as mobile, therefore unlikely to successfully impregnate a female egg cell. The process is also reportedly reversible; when JQ1 is no longer introduced to the body, males should revert back to producing viable sperm cells.

Possible side effects of the JQ1-laced male contraceptive are minimal for now. Scientists say the only significant outcome is mild weight loss, which might not necessarily be a negative impact for most men. Sex drive is also unaffected as the tested mice did not show signs of reduced testosteron levels.

“These findings suggest that a reversible, oral male contraceptive may be possible,” Dr. Bradner said. “While we will be conducting more research to see if we can build on our current findings, JQ1 shows initial promise as a lead compound for male contraception.”

The male oral contraceptive with the JQ1 compound still has a lot of researches to go before scientists can develop a formula fit to test on human. Possible forms of intake can include edible pills or injection. Researchers anticipate that within a year, human trials may be underway, paving a new form of contraceptive fit for the gender-equal world. The question now is whether or not men will actually remember to take the pills in a timely fashion.

Watch Dr. Bradner discuss his findings in the video below.

Source : digitaltrends[dot]com