Celebrities

Celebrity culture—love it or hate it—is an ingrained part of our technological age, and there’s no getting around it. When people land magazine covers because of how many Instagram followers they’ve amassed (hello Selena & Kendall), then you know that we’ve reached a point of celebrity and media saturation.

But if you want to take a break from the people who are famous for being famous, check out these stars and their websites that show there’s still a little bit of talent, good will or even hilarity out in the golden echelons of elite Hollywood society.

Russell Brand

Russell Brand may not be your style of comedian, but despite whether or not you think he’s funny, he’s become an incredibly outspoken activist since hitting the limelight, and that’s something he definitely needs to get more airtime for.

From his legitimate book club (he’s currently reading Destiny Disrupted: A History of the World Through Islamic Eyes) to his videos on taking part in your local politics (because they matter!), he’s gone from being Hollywood Bad Boy #1 to taking his 15 minutes of fame and turning it into a message for good. You should take a couple notes from his attention to the global politics, and especially if you’re English, I suggest you get in on his discussions and share your opinions—it’s a great way to get as involved as he is.

Gwyneth Paltrow

Pause the eye rolls please, because if nothing else, Gwyneth Paltrow and Goop.com is the inspirational guide that drives people (whether they like to admit it or not) to the elite level of life. Her infamous week of grocery shopping is proof not just that she’s out of touch, but how far away from her lifestyle the rest of us truly lead—and instead of hating on her, shouldn’t we aspire to a higher level?

Whether you agree with her and her $200 white t-shirt is irrelevant. At the end of the day, everyone looks at her lifestyle blog and is angry because they hate admitting that they’d like to be her. And don’t you remember your mom telling you that bullying was a strong sign of flattery?

Serena Williams

SerenaWilliams.com is an all-purpose site for the kind of all-purpose amazing woman that Serena is. Part blog, part tennis schedule, part philanthropic hub, Serena’s got it all up and running, and it’s as efficient, streamlined and positive as she is.

If you’re perusing, take a stop at her trophy case for an under the radar mention of how incredibly talented she is as a tennis player, and then take a click around her SW fund tab to uncover all of the organizations she’s an advocate for. From UNICEF to Build Africa Schools, this woman has her heart in the right place even while she’s kicking the tennis world’s butt. And if you’ve got some spare time, definitely check out her videos, she’s all about body positivity, staying healthy and learning how to be the best you. Can we just give her superhero status already?

Usain Bolt

The first thing you’ll read on Usain’s site is his athletic prowess: “11 time world champion,” quickly followed by this: “6 time Olympic champion,” and then this: “world’s fastest man.” Now, I’m not a regular runner, but I’ve got to give it to Usain—this is the kind of thing that gets me out from behind my computer and out in the park sweating up a storm.

While this is mostly a promotional site outlying again and again what an incredible athlete Bolt is—because let’s face it, he’s probably the best on the planet—it’s very useful if you’re trying to inspire yourself to get off the couch and cross off some of your New Year’s resolutions. But even if that’s your game, don’t forget to check out his foundation because he’s using his money and influence to have happier children on the planet, and I can’t think of anything more inspiring than that.

Beyoncé

Queen B really needs no explanation as far as I’m concerned—when you rule the world, of course you have the best website around. But between Beyoncé’s particular type of celebrity—the refined, not prone to oversharing style that harkens back to the star behavior of the Golden Era—and the incredible audio and visuals that hit you as soon as you tap in, you can scroll her tour dates, check out a sneak peak of her latest project with HBO and also surf through her Ivy Park collection (that pays homage to how hard she’s worked for queen status).

And while you may be put off by her perfection, I can’t think of anything better than seeing another person make it to inspire you that you can to. All you have to do is ask yourself one question: what would Beyoncé do?

Are there any inspirational celeb websites that you can’t just get off your mind? What about a vlog, blog or social media takeover? Leave your faves in the comments below, and we’ll check them out. If you’re always on the move for new inspiration, you’ll never get bored!

Times are changing; the stars we look up to and are inspired by are no longer trapped inside the big screen at the cinema. The next generation of celebrities—as we have already seen—are becoming so from the comfort of their own home. Social media is cutting out the middleman and putting the stars of tomorrow right onto our computer screens. We can interact, get to know and understand these people like never before. YouTube celebrities have become a massive deal in recent years as the likes of Zoella, PewDiePie and The Fine Bros have shot to notoriety using only the platform.

Now, as we move into 2016, a whole new generation of YouTube stars are on the rise. Whether it’s makeup tutorials, game commentary or sketched comedy, there’s so much potential talent to tap into that it’s sometimes hard to find the very best. Fortunately, this list covers five of the very best YouTube channels that are definitely going to be ones to watch over the coming year.

1. Bretman Rock

Beauty Vlogs have become extremely common practice on YouTube, and I’m sure it’s not just me who thinks the market is starting to become somewhat oversaturated. Fortunately, Bretman Rock is a unique and refreshing addition to the mix that will leave you in stitches while still teaching you to do the perfect winged liner.

After rising to fame via his “How to Contour” video, which took the world by storm with it’s quick and quirky jokes and flamboyant delivery, Bretman has gone on to produce a number of different beauty videos covering all aspects of makeup skills, alongside a few talking vlogs, all in his wonderfully fabulous and unique style.

With over 600,000 subscribers and many other followers on other platforms such as Instagram and Twitter, his charming style has truly captured the hearts of many and that only seems to increase over the course of the coming year. Whether you love makeup, or are just watching for the entertainment, Bretman Rock is definitely a YouTube all rounder who is well, and truly, sickening!

2. Justin Flom

 Alongside the vlogs and hauls and beauty tips, YouTube has begun to nurture another type of star. Many, many talented performers have found the platform instrumental in sharing their skills with the world. It allows singers, dancers, musicians and artists—and in this case, magicians—to show just how good they are at doing what they love.

Justin Flom has been growing in popularity since his appearance on Ellen just over three years ago catapulted him into the public eye. His truly individual, and occasionally grotesque, tricks bring magic to a whole new level and give most professional performers a run for their money.

His videos are a selection of performances to the camera and the reactions of stunned crowds in street shows, and his charismatic ways and perfected sleight of hand will leave any viewer stunned. It’s clear that Justin is going to carry on doing great and spectacular things, so subscribe to him now and wait eagerly for all that is to come!

3. High On Life

Another ever increasingly popular sub-genre on YouTube is the travel section. The High On Life crew are a perfect example of how, with enough funding, the sky is your limit. If it’s awesome and you’re not sure that you’d be able to afford it, they’ve probably done it.

However, despite their high-tech video equipment and apparent endless supply of money for gas, plane tickets and ropes to throw themselves off things with, the message of the videos continue to ring true: it’s about the experience. The sleek production quality, beautiful videography, epic locations and uncountable back-somersaults make for endless inspirational posts about how the only thing that really matters is living your life.

The group even address how money isn’t important in order to travel and enjoy yourself and their poetic explanations of how to seek happiness are enough to make anyone want to jet off and never come back. These guys are doing big things already, so who knows what the next 365 days could bring.

4. TheThirdPew

Another comedy king is upon us in the form of Nathan Zed A.K.A. TheThirdPew. His hilarious social commentaries hit on real issues, and his friendly, moral and down to earth views make him easily one of the most likeable guys on the platform.

His rise to fame came from a video response he did to the notorious Nash Grier video “What Guys Look for in Girls.” Thankfully, Nathan put the fellow YouTuber firmly in his place, pointing out that his comments were not only derogatory, but also extremely contradictory and insulting to the majority of his fan base.

Since then he’s released many, many amusing summaries on topics that we can all understand and appreciate. He prides himself on quirky and relatable content, and it’s most certainly true that viewers can’t get enough of him! A true online personality and YouTube star, we predict that this guy’s just going to keep getting bigger and bigger.

5. Infinite Waters (Diving Deep)

There are many, many channels that live in the depth of YouTube that are truly unique and individual, and this is most definitely one of those. However, as the vegan YouTube culture has exploded with the likes of Freelee the Banana Girl and Deliciously Ella, Ralph Smart’s brilliant channel has also been brought into the limelight.

A proud vegan, although not a pushy one, Ralph combines his numerous talents as a psychologist, counselor, alchemist and cinematographer to create inspirational videos with a twist. While his roots are clearly deep into the spirituality and metaphysical realms, his comical and quirky delivery and sound advice make this channel a perfect stop for any YouTube fan. Before you know it you’ll be finding yourself “breathing in that good-ass prana” and asking “can I get a hello there?!”

Are there any other channels that you feel deserve to be on this list? Be sure to share and leave a comment below!

Following the footsteps of another global phenomenon, Adele takes her album off the availability list for Spotify. What does this mean for the industry that is trying to put a stop to illegal downloading?

The chart topping songstress took the Taylor Swift route, according to sources at Spotify, to make her album unavailable as part of the music streaming service. With two leading ladies taking a stand against the streaming service—plus a new outlet, Apple Music—the online music business may be in fear of losing listeners to illegal downloading.

With Adele’s first album in 4 years, 25 is expected to sell over 2.5 million copies its first week; the album’s single “Hello” has already been downloaded 1.1 million times, and it’s video, produced by French Canadian director Xavier Dolan, has been viewed on YouTube 400 million times.

Adele, and her company, Sony Corporation, mutually made the decision based on Adele’s wide demographic. Unlike most pop music artists, Adele caters to a very wide fan base, not just teenagers watching YouTube, but also adults who are likely to go out and buy an album rather than stream online. With music purchases producing more money for the artist than streaming plays, it’s hard to tell Adele that she’s making a bad decision.

And this isn’t the first time the singer has come up against Spotify. In 2011 with the release of 21, Adele pulled her album due to the fact that subscribers weren’t limited to the number of plays allowed. Swift’s position against the company was similar. That American fans be limited to their number of plays is another argument to add to the fire with Spotify, but with Adele, downloading a Virtual Private Network wouldn’t help you listen to her album. She’s all about cutting down on plays across the board.    

Adele’s not all restriction however. Unlike Spotify and Apple Music, Pandora Internet Radio, which follows different licensing rules than it’s rivals, will be streaming the album on its website a few days after its worldwide release. The singer also has a deal with Target, where customers who buy the album from the chain, selling at $13.99 on Target.com, will get 3 bonus songs over the $10.99 purchase on iTunes.

While it’s a huge uptick for the music industry—fondly called “the Adele Effect”—that albums be sold rather than accessed through streaming sites or repeated plays on an online playlist, there is revenue to be lost for the streaming services, who otherwise are a strong contender in the failing music industry. With the continued rise of illegal downloading, online streaming sites have managed to grow to be 10 percent of music industry revenue, attempting to bring back listeners from the land of piracy.

Big artists such as Adele and Beyonce are earning less per play than by album buy, but the growth of online streaming hasn’t put a stop to album sales as much, and artists can always make their music available to stream at a later date, after the initial release of their new album when record sales have dwindled.

According to research conducted by Rolling Stone, the actual numbers and money figures that come from music plays is a difficult equation. With most streaming services like Spotify, musicians earn $.09 cents for every 60 listens, for Pandora it’s around $.001 per song. For every $1.29 purchase on iTunes, around $.20 cents goes back to the artist, with $.09 cents for the songwriter. Record labels can also bank on an artist’s YouTube plays—$1 for every thousand plays, even if it’s not an official music video, but a fan made video that went viral—which can really bring in the revenue. And for straight album sales, an album that’s almost $18 can have as little as less than $2 go back to the artist. But don’t feel sorry for the artist’s yet, that’s just in music. Most mainstream pop musicians benefit much more from concert tickets, merchandise and sponsorships.

The jury may still be out on whether it’s a tactic that will benefit or hurt an artist, since no one has ever made the claim that online streaming has caused a decline of album sales. It’s almost guaranteed that for a top-charted artist like Adele, it doesn’t matter where the music comes from, the fans are going to find it.

Spotify commented saying: “We love and respect Adele, as do her 24m fans on Spotify. We hope that she will give those fans the opportunity to enjoy 25 on Spotify alongside 19 and 21 very soon.” But will it be enough to get the music up for listeners? It’s a time-tested fact that anytime Adele hits the public with a new set of songs from her one of a kind pipes, we all rush to listen, and this time is likely to be no different.

Only time, and the success of album sales, will tell.

Twitter grants us regular folks the unique opportunity to personally connect with some of our favorite celebrity idols. However, like on any other social media website, things are not always as they appear to be. Unfortunately, there are often crooks opening up social media accounts in attempts to pose as someone they’re not.

This can include posing as celebrities of all sorts, or even regular people (ever heard of a Catfish?). Sometimes these people are posing as actors online in attempts to persuade you into clicking on malicious links or sharing your personal information, though some may be posing as someone else simply for attention. Whatever the reason, you definitely don’t want to waste your time following these sorts of phonies on Twitter, as it can not only become a waste of your time but can also be somewhat dangerous.

Consider protecting your device with an security suite and a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN allows you to surf the web anonymously and securely, which helps to protect your identity on the internet and prevent malware. There are some added benefits to using a VPN as well, but most importantly, it can keep you safe while interacting with others online. On some sites, there really is no guarantee people are who they say they are.

So how can you ensure that your favorite actor’s Twitter account is legitimate? Luckily, there are a few key clues that will help you figure it out. Let’s take a look at some of the ways you can ensure you’re following who you intend to on Twitter!

Check the Actor’s Website

Often your favorite actor will have their own website with all of their social media pages listed on it. This is an easy way to find your favorite actor’s social media pages, but just make sure you’re visiting an official website instead of a fan-created one. It’s likely that their official website will appear to be very well made and list information about them, such as a biography, filmography and more.

Take a look at this screenshot of Tom Cruise’s official page in comparison to an unofficial Johnny Depp website.

As you can see, the difference in quality of each of these websites is huge, and the Johnny Depp one (which actually has the domain name www.johnnydepp.com) is unfortunately riddled with ads that could be malicious in nature.

Keep an eye out and pay attention to the small details, as they can save you from wasting time and money on a website that is only tricking you into believing it’s the real deal. Luckily, when you do come across an official website of an actor, you will typically be able to head over to their Twitter page directly from their site. And for the rest, who may not even have a website of their own, Twitter has implemented a feature that will help them protect their name on social media and also assist you out in figuring out whose page is legit and whose isn’t.

Are They Verified?

You may have already noticed a small blue badge with a white checkmark in the center of it on some of your favorite actors’ Twitter pages. This is actually a great sign, as that means you’re in the right place and the account is official. For those of you who have not noticed such a mark yet on Twitter, it’ll appear next to the person’s name. You can also find a similar symbol on Facebook.

Thankfully, Twitter has begun verifying accounts in an attempt to help out their users and prevent fake profiles from gaining too much attention on the site. Imposters can unfortunately sway users’ opinions about celebrities however they want, convincing them that the official page of the celeb is actually the fake, and of course negatively affect their reputation or even convince people to donate money.

Sometimes these false accounts even trick the media into believing they’re legitimate! Because of this, verification systems are really essential for social media websites, especially if they are interested in protecting their users. Overall, the verification badge on Twitter is the main way (and perhaps the safest) to tell whether or not your favorite actor’s account is legitimate, so you should always be looking out for the badge first whenever you’re looking at a celeb’s page.

Many actors, singers, reality TV stars, politicians, etc., are now verifying their accounts so the majority of them should already have the badge displayed on their Twitter page. And if they don’t, this of course isn’t a guarantee that they aren’t the real deal, but it’s definitely a wise idea to proceed with caution until you see the verification badge appear!

If you’d like to learn more about verified accounts and check out what the badge looks like, you can do so here. Remember that there’s likely to always be some phonies floating around the net (whether they choose to pose as an actor or something else), but at least Twitter is stepping up and giving everyone a way to distinguish them. Now let’s hope Instagram starts doing the same!

Have you ever come across a fake profile on Twitter? If so, what tipped you off that it was fake? Let us know in the comments below.

The Snapchat celebrity photo leak that saw over 500 photos of celebrities such as Kaley Cuoco, Mary Elizabeth Winstead, and Jennifer Lawrence made accessible to the public serves as a wakeup call if you use social media. This is an invasion of privacy, which could happen to you, and it probably already has though it only makes big news when it involves celebrities. However, while it may be a traumatizing experience for the persons involved, the hacking has some lessons that you could apply to protect yourself from becoming the next victim of such an incident.

Watch what you Save

While we cannot blame the victims of the hack, it is important that you take measures to ensure that you only save pictures or files that you would not mind if they leaked to the public. No messaging app is secure as it says it is as even Snapchat’s disposable picture messenger allows a recipient to take a snapshot of your image and save it for later use. A malicious recipient will simply take the screenshot and spread it to their network. Having pictures that may potentially embarrass you on the service is thus not advisable.

Always Encrypt Your Devices

It is important to encrypt your devices if you store any potentially embarrassing data or images on it. A good method of protecting yourself when online is through ensuring you only access websites that encrypt your session through the “https” protocol. One of the most effective server side protections is accessing your social media sites is using a Virtual Private Network (VPN). A VPN adds a layer of protection by encrypting your data and routing it through a secure offsite server, thus preventing unauthorized persons from having access to, or intercepting your data connection.

Have Strong Passwords

While initial investigations blamed the iCloud for the leaks, later information shows that hackers gained access through targeting usernames with weak security questions, and passwords. If you are like most people, your passwords will contain common and easily identifiable personal information that will be easy for a hacker to guess. It is important to ensure that you make passwords that are as secure as possible. Follow recommended tips for making a strong yet memorable password that hackers cannot crack with brute force attacks. Given that remembering passwords for multiple accounts may be impractical, I recommend you use password management programs such as Passwordsafe and LastPass that encrypt all your stored passwords. Lastly, use different usernames and passwords for all your accounts.

Make Use of Two Factor Authentication

Be sure to add two-factor authentication for any of your social media accounts that support the function. You need two-factor authentication since it adds an extra layer of security to your account given that access to the account needs a code retrieved from the phone in addition to the password. While a persistent hacker might crack your password, it is almost impossible for them to access the code that you receive on your phone. While, it may seem inconvenient when you implement it for the first time, the extra security is well worth it. Visit TwoFactorAuth.org, a website that provides the list of two factor procedures and compatibility for hundreds of sites that you may be using.

Take Charge of Your Account

Social media sites frequently change their privacy settings, which mean you, may have to monitor what persons have access to what you are sharing regularly. If you have added any third party apps recently, or frequently do so, always ensure that they are current and safe. Delete any apps that you have not used for a long time or that you do not remember giving access to. It is important to note that it was third party app “Snapsave” that is responsible for the hacking of Snapchat. Users gave unfettered access to the unsecure app making it easy to hack their accounts. Periodically check out your friends list and know your audience so that you can filter out any weird persons whose friend’s request you may have unknowingly accepted.

A good rule of thumb to protect yourself online is “the less information and images you share with your audience, the less the chance that your account will be subject to hacking.” Periodically Googling yourself is also an effective way of knowing how much information is presented when someone is searching for you.

Do not Sync Private Images to the Cloud

While many cloud services have enhanced their security practices since the Snapchat hack, it is important that you take into account that hackers are always looking for ways to counteract such measures. Moreover, no company’s security practices are 100% hack proof and hence it is up to you to take measures to protect your data. Always assume that any images you upload or sync to the cloud may be accessible to the public. Therefore do not rely on technology companies to protect your data since even the large companies such as Yahoo or Google are vulnerable to hacking. Lastly, read your company’s privacy policies regarding the data they collect about you and the access to your given to other persons sharing the same facilities before you subscribe to the service.