Pixar’s “Finding Dory”: The Story So Far

Fans of Disney Pixar’s 2003 animated favorite “Finding Nemo” have been fervently begging for a sequel for a decade now. Their wishes were finally fulfilled on Tuesday when Pixar announced that a follow-up film, “Finding Dory,” will hit theaters in November 2015. Not many details have been confirmed yet but we do know that this film centers on Dory, the beloved blue tang fish whose short-term memory loss brought many laughs in the first film.           

Ellen DeGeneres announced via Twitter that she would reprise her role as Dory. She expressed a strong enthusiasm about returning to the film, stating, “The script is fantastic. It has everything I loved about the first one: a lot of heart, it's really funny, and the best part is it's got a lot more Dory.” Unfortunately for Alexander Gould, the original voice of actor of Nemo, he will be forced to hand over his role to a new voice actor as the now 17-year-old’s voice is too deep for Nemo.           

According to the Los Angeles Times, “Finding Dory” is set a year after the events of the ...

Music Festival Gets the Doctor’s Treatment: The Cu...

Lollapalooza has a lot to offer for music fans young and old this year. The annual music festival will take place from August 2 – 4 in Chicago’s Grant Park (it will be the festival’s 9th year here).  The festival’s headliners include The Killers, Mumford & Sons, Nine Inch Nails, Phoenix, The Postal Service, New Order, The National, and The Cure. Festival founder Perry Farrell is particularly excited for The Cure and recalled meeting the band’s frontman Robert Smith at a club in New York: “It was Halloween. I was dressed as myself and so was he.” 

Unfortunately for those who didn’t act quickly, festival passes – both three-day and single-day passes – are all sold out. Those who managed to snag three-day passes are sure to have an eclectic concert experience given the festival’s diverse group of performers. Just to name a few, this year’s festival includes West Coast rapper Kendrick Lamar, seasoned indie-rockers Grizzly Bear, and brooding pop internet-starlet Lana Del Rey. Day one of the festival will feature the return of Nine Inch Nails and a closing set by The Killers. Mumford & Sons will close off day ...

The Effectiveness of the recent AT&T ads

AT&T has recently released a set of commercials boasting its simplicity of use and widespread coverage. One of these commercials features a focus group of children in an elementary school classroom, sitting down at a minuscule table with an adult male reporter. The whole focus of the commercial is to convey the idea that doing two things at once is better, demonstrated by a little boy in the focus group when he spun his head around at the same time as he spun his hand around. AT&T is the only cell phone carrier that offers simultaneous cell and data usage—meaning you can browse the web and talk on the phone at the same time. This advertisement campaign is in direct competition with a recent Verizon campaign, which talks up Verizon’s wider area of coverage.

Does AT&T’s campaign do its job? On Twitter, most people who have responded to this advertisement have reacted in either a strong positive way or a strong negative way. Then again, the Twitterverse is filled with people who love to hate, so it’s impossible to tell. Well, bad press is better than no press, right? What do you think ...

Mozilla’s Role in the Low Cost Smart Phone Race

A hundred employees from the Silicon Valley based technology company Mozilla attended the Mobile World Congress. The Mozilla operating system was pitched to a number of large technology companies. Sony is considering adopting the new system and thus creating a low price smart phone option—which as of yet does not exist. A fairly new competitor in the smart phone game, Mozilla has to play some catch up if it wants to be a truly viable option for someone who may have never owned a smart phone previously.

Mozilla is targeting consumers in the developing world. This relatively untapped market segment is in dire need of a phone service that Mozilla could provide. Internet access has become a necessity and is even argued by some to be a universal human right up there with food and water. Mobile devices even have the capability of entirely replacing a laptop computer or a desktop. A smart phone offers a user Internet access which means more money freed up from no longer needing to pay for home internet service.

What we can Learn from Gangnam Style

Internet sensation, South Korean pop star Psy first released “Gangnam Style” in July of 2012. Unbeknownst to all, it would go on to viral like no video has gone viral before. How could a song with references very specific to Seoul culture later go on to become to most watched video in the world surpassing 1 billion views in December 2012. K-Pop has generally only been popular in its native country South Korea, but “Gangnam Style” has somehow broken the barrier and has gone above and beyond reaching Western countries and neighboring Asian countries alike. The K-Pop industry is not a new one; Psy’s song is not the first big K-Pop hit in South Korea. What steps did YG Entertainment and Psy take to create something that could be so universally appealing?

According to the Harvard Business Review, Psy did three things that set him apart. Make your product or brand more ownable.

Gangnam Style became such a significant cultural meme that its suffix “Style” could be easily rebranded and applied to different unrelated subjects. A grammar school in England made a similar video titled “Tad Gram Style”. Some felt compelled to create ...