Grammy Nominations 2015 - Record of the Year & More Noms Announced, Big nominees include Taylor Swift!

Grammy Nominations 2015 - Record of the Year & More Noms Announced, Big nominees include Taylor Swift!

The 2015 Grammy Awards aren’t until February 8, 2015, but the first round of nominees were just announced and we have the list!

Big nominees include Taylor Swift, Meghan Trainor, Ed Sheeran, and Ariana Grande. Keep checking back all day as new nominees are going to be revealed every hour with the bulk of the nominations coming late tonight!

Check out the first nominees below:

Record of the Year:
Iggy Azalea ft. Charli XCX, “Fancy”
Sia, “Chandelier”
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)”
Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Meghan Trainor, “All About That Bass”

Best New Artist
Bastille
Iggy Azalea
Brandy Clark
HAIM
Sam Smith

Song of the Year
Meghan Trainor – “All About That Bass”
Sia – “Chandelier”
Taylor Swift – “Shake It Off”
Sam Smith – “Stay With Me (Darkchild Version)”
Hozier – “Take Me to Church”

Best Pop Vocal Album
Coldplay, Ghost Stories
Miley Cyrus, Bangerz
Ariana Grande, My Everything
Katy Perry, Prism
Ed Sheeran, x
Sam Smith, In the Lonely Hour

Best Pop Solo Performance
John Legend, “All of Me (Live Version)”
Sia, “Chandelier”
Sam Smith, “Stay With Me”
Taylor Swift, “Shake It Off”
Pharrell Williams, “Happy”

Best Pop Duo/Group Performance
Iggy Azalea feat. Charli XCX, “Fancy”
Coldplay, “A Sky Full of Stars”
A Great Big World and Christina Aguilera, “Say Something”
Jessie J, Ariana Grande, and Nicki Minaj, “Bang Bang”
Katy Perry feat. Juicy J, “Dark Horse”

Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album
Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga, Cheek to Cheek
Annie Lennox, Nostalgia
Barry Manilow, Night Songs
Johnny Mathis, Sending You a Little Christmas
Barbra Streisand, Partners

Best Country Album:
Dierks Bentley, Riser 
Eric Church, The Outsiders
Lee Ann Womack, The Way I’m Living
Brandy Clark, 12 Stories
Miranda Lambert, Platinum

Best Country Song
Kenny Chesney, “American Kids”
Miranda Lambert, “Automatic”
Eric Church, “Give Me Back My Hometown”
Glen Campbell, “I’m Not Gonna Miss You”
Tim McGraw feat. Faith Hill, “Meanwhile Back at Mama’s”

Best Urban Contemporary Album:
Jhene Aiko, Sail Out
Beyonce, Beyonce
Chris Brown, X
Mali Music, Mail Is
Pharrell Williams, G I R L

Best Rock Song
Paramore, “Ain’t It Fun”
Beck, “Blue Moon”
The Black Keys, “Fever”
Ryan Adams, “Gimme Something Good”
Jack White, “Lazaretto”

Best Rock Album
Ryan Adams, Ryan Adam
Beck, Morning Phase
The Black Keys, Turn Blue
Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, Hypnotic Eye
U2, Songs of Innocence

Best Rap Solo Performance
Childish Gambino – “3005″
Drake – “0 to 100/The Catch Up”
Eminem – “Rap God”
Kendrick Lamar “i”
Lecrae – “All I Need Is You”

Best Reggae Album
Ziggy Marley, Fly Rasta
Lee ‘Scratch Perry, Back on the Controls
Sean Paul, Full Frequency
Shaggy, Out of Many, One Music
Sly & Robbie & Spicy Chocolate, The Reggae Power
Soja, Amid the Noise and the Haste

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Disney's Live Action "Cinderella" Movie Will Arrive In Theaters In March 2015

WALT DISNEY PICTURES

What a magical day! Disney has released the movie trailer for the upcoming live-action adaptation of the "Cinderella" fairytale! The movie seems like an exact replica of the animated movie, however it includes some fabulous actors who make this version totally unique!

Stars in the live-action "Cinderella" include:

• Cate Blanchett
• Lily James
• Richard Madden
• Helena Bonham Carter
• And More

Walt Disney Pictures' live-action "Cinderella" film will arrive in theaters on March 13, 2015.

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Messaging App Viber Takes A Step Into Social Networking With New Public Chats Feature

Messaging App Viber Takes A Step Into Social Networking With New Public Chats Feature

A lot of messaging apps have been highlighting how their services are a great way for people to directly communicate with their friends directly, in opposition to the bare-all nature of social networks like Facebook. But today Viber, the messaging app with 209 million users, is taking a different approach: it is launching Public Chats, giving users a way of using its direct messaging and voice services app to broadcast to the world at large.

Public Chats will see the introduction of live conversation streams — from celebrities, or as CEO Talmon Marco told me, other interesting people “like taxi drivers!” — that will be open for any follower to see, but not necessarily participate in. Users will only be able to jump in and talk in Public Chats if the account in question is in their contacts. 

(And then, those comments will become a part of the public stream.) 

It gives Viber, which was acquired by Japan’s Rakuten earlier this year for $900 million, a little social media spin, and at the same time helps differentiate it from the rest of the crowded messaging app pack, which is led by the likes of Facebook (Messenger: 500m users; WhatsApp: 600m); but also includes a number of other very popular apps like WeChat (600m users); Line; and many more.

Public Chats is launching with a list of “global celebrities” signed up, including Perez Hilton, YouTube sensation Tyler Oakley, singer-songwriter Pixie Lott, international DJ Paul van Dyk, digital fashion innovators Next Model Management, European football channel COPA90. 

Speaking while in New York for one of the two events that Viber organised to announce this news (in NYC and London), Marco tells me that it’s been optimised first for Android devices but will work on other native Viber apps, versions 5.0 or higher. You select the Public Chats bar from the main menu, then the “compass” icon to find a list of available Public Chats to follow, then you follow them.

Marco would not comment directly on whether any of Public Chats’ early adopters are getting paid to be on the service but the process at least made it sound like some of them were signing up as another way of extending their social media reach to those who opt to use Viber as their communications platform of choice. 

“We spoke with a bunch of people and some offered to participate,” he said. “Generally we are looking for those who can create interesting chats — not just celebs but others like taxi drivers or bloggers, people whose conversations we feel would be interesting.” And, presumably, okay with having their conversations, or a part of them, made public for 209 million people to see. 

Right now, there is no option for everyone to enable their streams to become part of the public mix but those who feel their chats are Public Chat-worthy can email [email protected] and “We’ll take a look at it,” he says. “Our intention is to open the service more after it is rolled out. As a beta product we want to have greater control at first.” 

For Viber, the motivation for doing this is two-fold. It’s about using popular people to bring more engagement to Viber, and more new users to the platform. But it’s also about differentiating itself from the mass of other messaging services out there.

“This is not Twitter,” he says. “The idea is that if you know Pixie Lott, she can add her to your Public Chat and the world can see” what you say to her, and what she says back to you.

To be clear, this is not about Viber finding ways of serving ads, Marco insists. Unlike Snapchat, which is pushing ahead on its advertising services, “We are not,” he says. “This is just additional content on Viber. There will be no ads in in Public Chats.”

Interestingly, that doesn’t preclude deals that brands might cut directly with Public Chatters, similar to what happens in Instagram or Twitter with certain stars using their feeds to promote certain products. “Of course, you can put in an ad if you want for, say, Coca-Cola. But it’s your content, your chat, and we are never going to introduce things like that ourselves.”

By Ingrid Lunden

TechCrunch 

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 Taylor Swift,to Perform at New Year's Rockin' Eve, Join One Direction, Meghan Trainor and More!

The performance lineup for Dick Clark's New Year's Rockin' Eve with Ryan Seacrest has been announced! The program will begin at 8pm ET/PT on ABC, and will be filming live from New York City's Times Square.

Here are the stars set to take the stage during the New Year's Eve event:

• One Direction (with four performances from the Billboard Hollywood Party)
• Meghan Trainor (from the Billboard Hollywood Party)
• Charli XCX (from the Billboard Hollywood Party)
• Fergie (from the Billboard Hollywood Party)
• Taylor Swift (from Times Square)
• Gavin DeGraw (from Nashville)
• Lady Antebellum (from Nashville)

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There's An Incredible Meteor Shower Happening This Week

There's An Incredible Meteor Shower Happening This Week

Jessica Orwig

Business Insider 

November is the time of year to watch one of the most brilliant meteor showers of the year: the Leonid meteor shower, also known as the Leonids.
The Leonids became famous during the 17th century for their impressive show of shooting stars. In 1833, for example, the most stunning part of the meteor shower displayed up to 100 thousand meteor per hour.


This year's Leonid meteor shower will not be as spectacular as the one in 1833, but reports suggest that it will still be a site worth seeing. Also, the Leonids are one of the last meteor showers of the year. The Geminids meteor shower will follow in December.
The best time to see the Leonids this year will be Nov. 17 and 18 between the hours of midnight and dawn. During those hours, observers can expect to see about 15 meteors per hour, or about one every 4 minutes. The best way to see a meteor shower is to get far away from city lights where you can clearly see the stars.

To view the Leonids, astronomers suggest that viewers look at the part of the sky between the East horizon and the point right above to view the Leonids.
Below is a map from AccuWeather indicating where in the US that the weather is expected to provide clear skies for the best viewing.

When Earth passes through the tail of comet Tempel-Tuttle, the dust and debris the comet leaves behind is swept up by Earth's gravity. As a result, the debris strikes the Earth's atmosphere at incredible speeds — for the Leonids it's about 44 miles per second.


At these speeds, the debris of the comet and the molecules in Earth's atmosphere rub against each other creating tremendous friction. It's this friction that generates heat and light that we then see as a "shooting star".

Each meteor shower is named for the constellation from which the falling meteors appear to emerge. The Leonids are named for the constellation Leo, which is Latin for lion.
If you're not in a good place to view the Leonids, you can still watch the show because the live online observatory, Slooh, will be streaming the event live (feed below) starting tomorrow, Monday, at 8 pm EST (5 pm PST).

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Hilary Duff Shows Off Her Top Knot Hairstyle On The Set Of "Younger"

INSTAGRAM

Hilary Duff is about to return to TV with a brand new show titled Younger. The series will air on TV Land and also stars the following actors:

• Sutton Foster
• Debi Mazar
• Miriam Shor

The show is based on the novel "Younger" by Pamela Redmon Satran, and follows a single mom trying to get back into the working world. The woman runs into a guy who convinces her to lie about her age to find the perfect job.

Hilary shared the photo above from the set of the show. We are loving her top knot hairstyle! 

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Shailene Woodley Reveals Her Biggest Fear

THE LATE LATE SHOW WITH CRAIG FERGUSON

Actress Shailene Woodley from The Fault In Our Stars and Divergent appeared on The Late Late Show With Craig Ferguson and spoke about her biggest fear. While Shailene has to travel in the air a lot for work, her fear of flying keeps getting worse and worse - oh no!

Shailene spilled to Craig that she always thinks the plane is going to go down during her trips - such a scary thought! However, Craig was quick to assure Shailene that her fear is irrational as statistically speaking flying is very safe!

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Ashley Argota Shocked By Taylor Swift's "1989" Album!

Ashley Argota, who currently stars on ABC Family's "The Fosters," is a big supporter of her fellow celebrities! Any new movie, TV show or album that comes out Ashley is sure to check out and share her thoughts, so it's no surprise that she was quick to tell her Twitter followers what she thinks ofTaylor Swift's latest CD "1989."

Taylor's album arrived late last night, and Ashley posted shortly after its arrival

"omg every single song on Taylor Swift's new album is so freaking good what even is this."

Congratulations to Taylor on yet another successful album release!

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Splot Review: Splot-On Platforming

Splot Review: Splot-On Platforming

Gamezebo

by Jillian Werner 

Splot is the first mobile-focused release from developer Frozenbyte, best known for their action-puzzle series, Trine. Although more condensed in scale than its character-swapping epic older brother, Splot brings plenty of clever ideas to the touch screen, presented through bite-sized bursts of platforming challenges that utterly ooze charm.
Splot begins after your eponymous alien creature crashes into the spaceship of the “Blob Kings,” marooning both sets of aliens on a planet populated by Birdlings. The Blob Kings decide to make the most of a bad situation and eat the succulent baby Birdlings. The Splots, feeling largely responsible for the imminent demise and protection of the young duck-likes, begin rounding them up before the Blob Kings can devour them.

Each stage is built on this premise, pitting the player-controlled Splot against a rampaging Blob King as you each try to reach the Birdlings first. The small bubble-bound birds are scattered about levels the way coins would be in most platformers, with a large batch of birds at the end of the stage acting as the goal and primary victory condition.
The Blob King has no effect on Splot and performs almost like a race ghost during each run, passing by without harming or interrupting your one-eyed alien’s trajectory. Meanwhile, Splot can use a variety of power-ups to interfere with the King, such as temporarily freezing him or using a vacuum to steal birds back that the King snatched first

This head-to-head competition creates a fast-paced rush to the finish (and all of the birds along the way) without the added annoyance of having to protect your Splot from impending doom. Even if the Blob King passes you by and snags some birds first, you can still win the level by beating him to the finish line. The format is reminiscent of the Gourmet Race from Kirby Super Star, although your control of Splot is vastly different.
That control is critical to making Splot an enjoyable mobile experience. In lieu of any virtual controls, Splot utilizes single-tap movement and an entirely jump-based action economy. Tapping on the left side of the screen will make Splot jump left, and tapping on the right makes him jump right. Holding your finger in place after a jump will extend his range or increase falling speed if he sticks to a wall. Levels are built almost entirely around constant jumps and slides, making Splot just as much a wall-jumping platformer as a standard runner.

Most levels are organized so you merely have to jump the correct direction and distance to collect birds and progress. Timing your wall jumps tightly is important, but lower difficulties offer a large window of forgiveness before the Blob King catches up. The exception to this rule is in open areas where Splot is free-gliding, such as underwater or mid-air after hitting a trampoline.
In these instances, you have to guide Splot by dragging your finger along the middle of the screen, but his movement is floaty and often unpredictable. It’s at strong odds with the precise controls of the jump sequences throughout the rest of the level and interrupts game flow every time you have to switch to the drag control scheme. Unfortunately, mastering the awkward glide controls is critical to not only three-starring many levels, but simply completing others, such as the space station where Splot is trapped between deadly lasers within zero gravity.

Thankfully, even with such patience-trying moments, Splot is fairly forgiving. Its three difficulty levels—Bronze, Silver, and Gold—offer a nice scale in challenge. While stages’ layouts remain the same across all three, other changes affect the difficulty: the Blob King moves faster, Birdlings are positioned in slightly different (and harder-to-reach) locations, and Splot-slaying hazards such as spikes are more prevalent.
All stages are extremely short, with longer levels taking no more than a minute to complete, which means even complete failure won’t set you back much. The power-ups available to Splot have a modest cool-down period of a few stages, but this can be removed by leveling up and upgrading his abilities—for instance, our freeze ability previously had a three-stage cooldown, but at max upgrade it can be used every time we play.

This simple upgrade scheme is one of many bonus treats built into Splot. Experience and levels are earned in relation to the number of stars you receive on a stage, with higher difficulties offering multiplied points. This means that going back and trying to perfect a stage for three stars provides additional rewards in the form of power-up enhancements. Every stage—and each difficulty of that stage—also contains a Splot skin that you can unlock and use in-game. Each star you receive on a stage, every time you play it, has the chance of containing a puzzle piece. Finding four puzzle pieces total on a stage will award you its Splot character. This is a fun collect-a-thon and way to personalize your Splot experience: we had a blast running levels with business suit-Splot, spaceman-Splot, and mime-Splot.
On top of all of these additions, there are also a ridiculous number of achievements to earn—which also award experience points and special Splots. The entire game is jam-packed with prizes beyond the basic gameplay, which is already a treat itself.

The biggest downside to Splot (besides its floaty controls during free-fall) is that even with over 150 types of Splots to play with, the experience is fairly repetitive. New obstacles—like poppable enemies and teleportation devices—are introduced regularly to provide some variation, but you’re still just jumping from floor to wall to wall to teleporter, and so on throughout the linear levels. The Gold difficulty shakes things up the most by requiring you to time every jump, slide, and fall perfectly to have even a chance at besting the Golden Blob King, but it’s still just a meticulously grueling version of what you’ve generally been doing for 100 other levels.
The result is simply that Splot is best experienced in short bursts of a few stages at a time, ideal for on-the-go mobile gaming but less fit for binge-playing. Those bursts are enticing, though, filled with fast-paced action, adorable characters, and oodles of rewards that scream “Thank you for playing. We love you,” in colorful alien gibberish

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Happy Birthday: See 16 Pics of Zac Efron's Total Style Transformation

OCT 18, 2014

Today marks a special day for Zac Efron: it's his 27th birthday! It seems like just yesterday we saw him star in High School Musical. Not only did his acting career skyrocket, his sense of style has also taken off. From his skinny jeans to his fashion forward dress suits, Zac's style evolution has transformed over the years, making him one of today's most stylish male stars.

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The Preppy Fall Shoe Trend That Matches Pretty Much Anything

The Preppy Fall Shoe Trend That Matches Pretty Much Anything

By Avery Matera 

Glamour

hether you own a car or don't even know how to drive, this flats trend is for you. Driving moccasins, sometimes called driving loafers, are structured enough to be office-appropriate but perfectly comfortable for your weekend activities

The rubber sole that extends upward along the heel of the shoe was originally meant to grip and wear well while driving (hence the name), but the trend quickly became popular for street-style stars everywhere.
My favorite driving moccasins tend to be suede, for their great richness in color, but there are awesome flats made of everything from soft and smooth leather to textured calf’s hair and structured patent

Are you a driving mocs fan? See our picks below

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Gmail for iOS now takes full advantage of your iPhone 6

Gmail for iOS now takes full advantage of your iPhone 6

Jon Fingas

Engadget

You haven't had many options for checking Gmail on the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus so far. Unless you're happy with Apple's stock email client, you've typically had to use blown-up versions of earlier apps. You won't have to face that dilemma any more, though; Google has released an update to its Gmail app for iOS that does justice to the higher display resolutions on new iPhones. It's a simple change, but it means that you can see more messages at once (and more of those messages) without sacrificing native Gmail features like labels and stars. Swing by the App Store if you've been jonesing for this upgrade over the past few weeks.
Source: App Store

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Trend-Spotting:Zendaya, Liam Payne & More of Your Fave Stars Are Loving Oversized Hats

Zendaya , Liam Payne
Credit:  Wire Image, Instagram

We officially declare the past few days the weekend of fashionable headgear! Wide-brimmed hats and statement fedoras are a huge trend, and celebs are wearing their styles in larger-than-life ways. Tons of cool guys like Liam Payne, Austin Mahone, and Cody Simpson all showed off their caps in fun new Instagram pics this weekend while stylish girls like Zendaya even brought the oversized hat trend to the red carpet in a totally dressy way!

Austin Mahone

Credit:  Instagram

Cody Simpson

Credit:  Instagram

Alli Simpson

Credit:  Instagram

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National Coffee Day 7 Apps That Every Coffee Lover Needs

7 Apps That Every Coffee Lover Needs

Business Insider
Madeline Stone

Coffee addicts, rejoice. In honor of National Coffee Day on Monday, Sept. 29, we're rounding up the best apps you can use to get your coffee fix.

1. Starbucks, Free 

 The official app from the coffee giant has a wide variety of handy features. Find the store closest to you with the store locator, view nutrition information, and build your own drink.
You can even manage your Starbucks Card balance, track your Stars in the Starbucks Rewards program, and send an eGift to a friend.

2. CoffeeGuru, $1.99 
 If you love coffee but big chains aren't your thing, this app will make it easy to find independent coffee shops wherever you happen to be. CoffeeGuru lists more than 7,200 coffeehouses in the U.S., U.K., and Canada, so check this app before you travel to a new city.
Use the app's flavor wheel to impress your friends with your description of the coffee's taste. This app will also give you more info about Direct and Fair Trade roasting and which coffee shops roast their own beans.

3. Spro, $1.99 
Learn to make your favorite coffee drink at home with Spro, an app that provides step-by-step instructions for a ton of different caffeinated beverages. It also includes facts and proper pronunciation for coffee drinks.

4. Percolator, $2.99
 Love the bubbles on top of your coffee? This app makes them appear on your photos. Adjust the size and color of circles to turn your photos into coffee-inspired mosaic masterpieces. This app is only superficially about coffee, but it's still fun.

5. Art of Coffee, $2.99
 If you ever wondered how your local barista makes those artful foam designs on top of your morning latte, look no further. Art of Coffee teaches users how to make 30 different patterns out of foam, from a rosette to a heart.

6. New York: Coffee Guide, Free
Find reviews, ratings, and photos of independent coffee shops around New York City. This app saves time by only showing coffee shops that are open near you at the time of your search, and you can easily see which stores have free WiFi right from the search results.

7. CoffeeTalk, $0.99 
 Learn the lingo with CoffeeTalk, a dictionary of coffee terms like "affogato," "Americano," and "skinny moo."

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Is Katy Perry Planning Major Revenge on Taylor Swift

Taylor Swift and Katy Perry are only rumored to be sworn enemies, but these pop stars might be on the brink of a major public showdown! According to Heat magazine, the "Dark Horse" singer has a serious revenge plan for the 2014 MTV European Music Awards.

"She and her friends, including Rihanna, are planning on totally embarrassing her at the awards in front of the world. They've even said they're just going to talk all the way through her performance and make fun of her dance moves," their source said.

While that's totally rude, we don't think it would push the "Shake It Off" singer off her game toomuch. She readily jokes about her bad dancing, and has dealt with worse interruptions on stage. However, her nemesis allegedly wants to freeze her out in person too!

"If she does try to speak to them and pretend things are okay, they'll walk in the opposite direction, ruining any plans Taylor might have to make it look like it's all fine."

We don't think these rumors are true, especially because we doubt Katy would stir up serious drama at an awards show. It would just make her look bad! Still, we'll definitely have to watch out and see if these two interact at all.

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Red Carpet Report Score Major Denim Style Inspiration from Olivia Holt, Jennette McCurdy & More Stars

Who doesn't love a perfect pair of jeans or a casual-cool chambray shirt? Fabulous denim fashions of all kinds were honored at a fun Denim Awards event last night, and our fave celebs wowed us with the seriously creative ways they sported the look on the blue carpet. Olivia Holt, Jennette McCurdy, Peyton List, G. Hannelius and more stars showed off their fresh twists on the classic style. Even fashionistas  who didn't wear denim to the event still gave us majorly awesome fall style inspiration!

Olivia Holt

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Peyton List

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Jennette McCurdy

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Shenae Grimes

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Nikki Reed

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