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CBS greenlights another James Corden show... on Snapchat
James Corden's viral-friendly Carpool Karaoke videos have given The Late Late Show exposure well beyond it's timeslot. Now CBS wants to squeeze out a little more of Corden's magic by giving the singing Brit his own (fictional) competitive reality show called James Corden's Next James Corden, in which fake contestants compete to (eventually) take Corden's job. But the show won't be on CBS or All Access when it arrives this fall -- instead, James Corden's Next James Corden will be headed straight for Snapchat Discover.
VR's latest victim: 'live' standup comedy
Comedy Living Room started in 2012 as a way for emerging stand-ups to try out gags in the safety of a friend's living room. Now, the event is embracing virtual reality, enabling everyone to watch a low-fi comedy gig in someone else's living room while you're sitting in your own... living room.
Mars astronauts could use VR to remind them of home
To put it mildly, Mars astronauts are likely to feel isolation on a level that even the most daring space explorers can't understand. How do you feel connected when Earth is just a dot in the sky? NASA, Smart Information Flow Technologies and 8i might help. They're researching the prospect of using virtual and augmented reality experiences to fight the "sensory and social monotony" of a Mars mission. The aim would be to create a library of inspirational messages that remind astronauts why they're on the Red Planet, and connect them to family -- a bit like the video messages in 2001, only more immersive.
Wevr: The virtual reality studio you need to know
It's pronounced "weaver." And you might not be familiar with it now, but the LA-based virtual reality outfit is quietly positioning itself as the backbone of the industry. With one foot firmly planted in the production side of the business (the studio's recent slate includes Sports Illustrated's swimsuit issue) and the other in distribution, Wevr is primed for the impending mainstreamification of virtual reality. So when the public eventually goes gaga over VR goggles, Wevr will be right there, ready to deliver that content.
Reggie Watts made a weird comedy just for VR
Reggie Watts is no stranger to pushing the boundaries of both technology and humor, and he just found a way to do both at once. He recently produced Waves, a mind-melting comedy (it involves joining a cult, among other things) that's tailor-made for virtual reality. And it's not just the camera angles or attention-grabbing visuals, either. Watts tells Wired that the relatively distraction-free VR environment allows for subtle laughs that wouldn't fly in movies or TV, where you're more likely to miss them.
Keezy updates allow for multiple soundboards, give users free Reggie Watts-made boards for fun
Keezy, the best free color-coded soundboard creator on iOS, has been updated with two much-needed additions that will bring even more joy and cheer to your life. For the first time, users can save and reload their soundboards, meaning you won't have to choose between recording new sounds and deleting your adorable cousins' clips from Thanksgiving. To celebrate this new addition, the update gifts you a few free demo boards created by comedian/beatbox Reggie Watts and Francis and the Lights. You don't even need to provide your own sounds anymore. Right out the box, you've got the ability to beatbox like Watts in the palm of your hand. Why are you not already downloading this app? Do you hate fun? The menu has also been updated to replace the text with new icons. It's a subtle change that is dramatically overshadowed by how much fun I've been having playing with the included soundboards today. Developer Elepath also announced in the notes of its iTunes update that it is aware its fans are eager for the ability to loop, share and export songs. This isn't a promise on its part, but at least the developer is listening. You can find the complete release notes below. Head over to iTunes to snag a download before these guys figure out they should be charging a dollar for this. As a treat, our friends REGGIE WATTS and FRANCIS AND THE LIGHTS made a few demo boards for you to play with! Tell us what you think! @keezy on twitter or keezy@elepath.com on email. Also new in 1.2: - Icons instead of text in the menu Things we know you want: * Looping * Sharing * Export a song * Bieber Happy Keezing! Pasquale and Jarod
The Engadget Show 46: Expand NY with LeVar Burton, Reggie Watts, Rachel Haot and more!
It's true, we're still beaming - which is saying a lot for a Monday morning coming off of little to no sleep. And while we'd have been slightly grumpy working through the weekend in nearly any other scenario, we just spent three days with 10,000 or so friends, colleagues and tech superstars, so we can't really complain too much. It's tough to pick a favorite moment from the inaugural Engadget Expand New York. Maybe it was watching LeVar Burton engage in a discussion with Timothy Jordan from the Google Glass team. It may well have been seeing Reggie Watts talk wearables with Pebble CEO Eric Migicovsky or witnessing Spike Lee get scanned with 3D Systems' new Sense handheld. Granted, we've only done this twice, but we think we can safely say that something magical happens when you put a lot of smart, creative types in a room for a couple of days. Between the giant robotic leg, Raspberry Pi competition, 3D printers, Occulus Rifts and two days packed with all-star panels, it was heck of a weekend. We realize not everyone could join us, of course, so hopefully this latest episode of The Engadget Show will serve as some consolation. At the very least, you'll get to see a robotic snake and at least one editor riding around on an electric skateboard. Surely that's worth at least 11 minutes of your time. Oh, and stay tuned tomorrow, for yet another episode of the show from the floor of Expand!
Reggie Watts admits he's an impulse tech buyer, but it's those digital interfaces that still need work
When Reggie Watts took to the Expand stage, he was wearing a Pebble. The performer said that he's obsessed with the wearables and picked up multiples of the smartwatch during those early adopter deal days. "If it's something I'm curious about, [something} that provides a service or that I'm interested in," then he makes the purchase. These early adoptions have to survive a very narrow success rate. "About 80 percent of these might not get integrated into my life -- and those go to my friends." How about Pebble? "It's great to not look at my phone to see SMS messages," Watts said, adding that he hated the disconnect that happens when people are talking and those smartphone notifications pull one half of the conversation away. Touching on what Watts outlined during a recent episode of Peripheral Vision, he said that technology was a means of expressing creativity -- and he's been obsessed with most things tech since he was little. "I used to lick batteries a lot. I thought licking a 9-volt battery would give me super powers." From there, it went in a safer and arguably more productive direction, as deconstructed X-Wing toys, Casio keyboards and music began to dovetail, quite neatly, into that obsession. Does technology inform his music? To an extent: "It inspires me to add layers, project them in a complex way." Most of the times, as displayed in his quick set at the end of the session, he's layering over himself, adding and enriching his own vocal and beatbox lines. When it comes to his performances, Watts explained that his equipment has to fit into his bag, and as such he's always looking for ways to shrink that volume down. He's involved himself with littleBits' synth kit collaboration with Korg, -- which seems pretty on target. However, he doesn't expect his equipment to unify into a tablet or smartphone controller any time soon. To begin with, there's a lack of tactile sensation that you can only get from IRL dials and switches. That's not to say he hasn't done a smartphone-only performance in the past -- he has -- but Watts added that now "inputting the information, the interface ... is the problem." "[At the moment] we're still like cavemen."
Peripheral Vision 004: Reggie Watts on using technology to make art, pterodactyls
You don't have to ask Reggie Watts to make music. He just does. As he fumbles around for cords and components in the drawers and bookshelves of his Brooklyn apartment, everything that falls within eyeshot becomes a song. Spending a few minutes in his presence, you get the feeling that Watts would have been doing this in some form or other, no matter what career path he'd ultimately settled on, making a name for himself as the singing lawyer or beat boxing chef. But the stars aligned for the musician / comedian, aided in no small part by the increasing availability of cheap, affordable technology. "I grew up in what i like to call 'the perfect technology curve,' " explains Watts. "When I was a kid, I had organic instruments. There wasn't super high tech stuff. All the super high tech stuff would have been way too expensive. The idea of owning a synthesizer in 1980 was insane for a kid. I [eventually owned] Casio keyboard. That was awesome. I got to experiment with that and make it do things it wasn't designed to do." The technology now forms the backbone of Watts' improvisational music making, inhibited only by the constraints of his knapsack. "Everything fits in my backpack," he says. "That's my setup, that's my rule. If anything else comes along, it would have to fit in my backpack."
Don't miss Reggie Watts, Mark Frauenfelder, Sparkfun, Techdirt and Sol Design Lab at Expand NY!
With every subsequent post, our excitement for Expand New York grows -- and this is a particularly good one. We might go so far as saying that this is our most exciting speaker post yet, but we'll leave that for you to decide. Improvisational musician / comedian Reggie Watts will be on stage discussing and demoing his sampling setup. We'll also be joined once again by Boing Boing founder and Make Magazine editor-in-chief Mark Frauenfelder, along with Sol Design Lab founder Beth Ferguson, Techdirt CEO Mike Masnick and Sparkfun's educational outreach coordinator, Jeff Branson. And, of course, we've already announced a number of folks who will be joining us on November 9th and 10th, including LeVar Burton, Ben Heck, Peter Molyneux, Ben Huh and folks from companies like Google, Sony, Pebble, Adafruit and The Electronic Frontier Foundation -- and we've still got plenty to come. Check out the full list below.
Found Footage: Reggie Watts and his iPhone rock Sirius XM
Comedian/musician/mad genius Reggie Watts found himself sans equipment (seems to be going around) when he was being interviewed on Sirius XM radio, but that didn't slow him down one bit. He pulled out his iPhone 4, and using a looping app (possibly Everyday Looper, $5.99) he improvised a number that absolutely wowed host Ron Bennington and the rest of the folks in the studio. Be sure to listen for Bennington's final line. Seeing this, you wonder: are the rest of us really getting the maximum utility out of these ridiculously powerful miniature computers disguised as phones? [via CrunchGear, hat tip to C.K. Sample III]
