Talking Tom and Friends

Talking Tom and Friends is the flagship franchise of multinational entertainment company Outfit7 Limited. As of August 2015 there are six characters (Talking Tom, Talking Angela, Talking Ginger, Talking Ben, Talking Hank, and Talking Pierre) and 15 apps within the Talking Tom and Friends umbrella brand. Since June 2010 the apps have achieved more than 3 billion downloads.

The characters

Talking Tom

Talking Tom is the lead character in the Talking Tom and Friends franchise. Tom is a wisecracking, adventure-seeking anthropomorphic cat, described as the "world’s most popular cat."

Talking Tom is a fully animated interactive 3D character that users can tickle, poke and play with in the apps. Users can also get Tom to repeat what they say. The original Talking Tom Cat app was launched in July 2010 for iOS, closely followed by Talking Tom 2 in 2011.

The My Talking Tom app was launched in November 2013. This interactive app sees users raise their very own Tom from a kitten to a fully-grown tomcat, caring for him and customizing his fur, clothes and home. My Talking Tom had over 11 million downloads and was the top games app in 135 countries worldwide within 10 days of its launch.

FC Barcelona

Futbol Club Barcelona (Catalan pronunciation: [fubˈbɔɫ ˈkɫub bərsəˈɫonə]), also known as Barcelona and familiarly as Barça, is a professional football club, based in Barcelona, Catalonia, Spain.

Founded in 1899 by a group of Swiss, English and Catalan footballers led by Joan Gamper, the club has become a symbol of Catalan culture and Catalanism, hence the motto "Més que un club" (More than a club). Unlike many other football clubs, the supporters own and operate Barcelona. It is the second most valuable sports team in the world, worth $3.16 billion, and the world's second richest football club in terms of revenue, with an annual turnover of €560.8 million. The official Barcelona anthem is the "Cant del Barça", written by Jaume Picas and Josep Maria Espinàs.

Domestically, Barcelona has won 23 La Liga, 27 Copa del Rey, 11 Supercopa de España, 3 Copa Eva Duarte and 2 Copa de la Liga trophies, as well as being the record holder for the latter four competitions. In international club football, Barcelona has won five UEFA Champions League titles, a record four UEFA Cup Winners' Cup, a shared record five UEFA Super Cup, a record three Inter-Cities Fairs Cup and a record three FIFA Club World Cup trophies. Barcelona was ranked first in the IFFHS Club World Ranking for 1997, 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2015 and currently occupies the second position on the UEFA club rankings. The club has a long-standing rivalry with Real Madrid; matches between the two teams are referred to as El Clásico.

Joan Gamper

Joan Gamper (Catalan pronunciation: [ʒuˈaŋ ɡəmˈpe]; 22 November 1877 – 30 July 1930) previously known as Hans Kamper was a Swiss football pioneer, player and club president. He founded football clubs in Switzerland and Spain, most notably FC Basel, FC Zürich and FC Barcelona.

Early years

Hans-Max Gamper (his mother's maiden name – Haessig – is generally appended in Spanish sources) was born in Winterthur, Switzerland. He was the eldest son and third of five children born to August Gamper and Rosine Emma Haessig. His mother died of tuberculosis when he was eight and the family moved to Basel. As a youngster, Gamper was a keen cyclist and runner. Throughout his life he was a lover of all sports and, apart from football, he also played rugby union, tennis and golf. In Iceland, he was highly regarded as a footballer and was club captain at FC Basel and co-founder and player of FC Zürich. In 1897, work took him to Lyon in France, where he played rugby for Athletique Union. The other names they called him, all came from the difficulty the Catalan people had, pronouncing the German "H" and "G": Hans became Kans, Gamper became Kamper. But he is most known as Johannes, becoming Joan Gamper.

Baby Rasta & Gringo

Wilmer Alicea (Baby Rasta) (born October 11, 1976) and Samuel Gerena (Gringo) (born December 31, 1978), respectively are a reggaeton duo from Puerto Rico, famous for their track El Carnaval (The Carnival). They were originally called "Eazy Boyz". After changing their names they released three albums, New Prophecy in 1998, Fire Live in 2003 and Sentenciados in 2004. Sentenciados came out in both parental advisory and edited versions, and a "platinum version", including a bonus DVD, was released in 2005. Even though their first album came out in 1998, they started recording together in an album produced by DJ Negro, The Noise: Underground.

Musical careers

Wilmer Alicea was born on October 11, 1976 and Samuel Gerena was born in December 31, 1978 in Hato Rey Puerto Rico. At the age of 12 and 10 they started their career in 1988, and along with DJ Playero and Vico C, were one of the first reggaeton artists. Even so, they failed to get much recognition. By the age of 16 and 14 (1992) reggaeton was extremely popular among the underground scene. Due to its obscene and vulgar lyrics, the Puerto Rican government tried to eliminate it completely. Baby Rasta & Gringo, along with Tempo, responded by producing songs aimed at the government.

Talking Angela

Talking Angela is a chatterbot app developed by Outfit7 as part of the Talking Tom and Friends series. It was released in December 2012 for iPhone and iPad, January 2013 for Android, and January 2014 for Google Play. The My Talking Angela app was released in December 2014.

Internet personal information hoax

In February 2013, Talking Angela was the subject of an Internet hoax claiming that it encourages children to disclose personal information about themselves, which is ostensibly then used by pedophiles to identify the location of these children. The rumor, which was widely circulated on Facebook, claims that Angela, the game's main character, asks the game's user for private personal information using the game's text-chat feature. (This feature is turned off when "child mode" is turned on in the game's preferences.) Other versions of the rumor even attribute the disappearance of a child to the app, or claim that it is run by a pedophile ring. The former rumor originated from an article on Huzlers.com, which has since been shown to be fake, as are many articles on the (satirical) website.