Harry Shum Jr. is best known for his role as Mike on Glee and his new gig as a broke super hero on Caper, which just debuted on Hulu and YouTube. But if he weren’t acting, he says he’d likely be working in tech.
“On set I’m the go-to guy. ‘Oh, the iPad is messed up — let’s ask Harry.’ If I wasn’t doing this, I think I’d be in some kind of tech support. I love introducing people to tech.”
Running Late
When we met Shum at the USA TODAY offices here, he was stuck in such bad traffic that he shared in a real-time chart via the Waze app so we could track his whereabouts.
“When (people) are asking me, ‘Where’re you at?’ ‘What’s your ETA?’ you can say, ‘Here, you can see.’ People are a little afraid of privacy, but when you use it the right way, it just enhances your life.”
YouTube Trailers
Shum owns a Canon 7D DSLR, which he uses to produce videos that run on his iHarryShum YouTube channel. He shows dance steps and talks to fans about what’s going on in his life.
“I want to connect with the fans, and give them a behind-the-scenes of what I’m doing. We’re in a generation where everything has a two-way communication, so it’s important.”
On Set Time Killers
He chats with his 1 million fans on Twitter and produces silly six-second videos on Vine. “When I first got on it, I wasn’t sure what to do with it. It’s so simple and quick. I do some stupid funny ones.” (One recent Vine featured the cast of Caper eyeing half-eaten doughnuts.) “They’re a lot of fun to make, and you can shoot them on the phone.”
Favorite Apps
—Dumbstruck (free; Apple). The app that captures reactions is “like Snapchat, but instead of just sending pictures, you’re sending a reaction. I send it to my co-star (Glee’s Dianna Agron) and she reacts to it. It’s really cool, because human emotion is all about reaction.”
—Groopic (free; Apple, Android). The app lets you get a complete group photo by cleverly including the person shooting the image. “On trips with my friends, you want everyone in the picture. It’s hard when there’s no one around to take it, so (the app) kind of like Photoshops for you.”
Glass Explorer
Shum is one of the folks who paid $1,500 to Google to be an early adopter of Google Glass.
“I catch up on CNN; I answer e-mails on it, I capture things I want to capture without having to take the phone out. The coolest part is world translate. When I traveled to Spain and Paris, you could just look and it will just translate it right in front of you.”
Next Go-To Product
He backed Kreyos, a crowd-funded smartwatch scheduled for an April launch. It’s competitive with the Pebble watch that’s out now but promises more functions. “It minimizes you taking out your phone. I love (the old TV show) Knight Rider, so I want to have a little Kitt on my wrist.”
Jefferson Graham, USA TODAY