Author: Mario Armstrong

Google Trends and the Emmy Awards

by Mario Armstrong

If you have any interest in television or award shows, then you’re probably aware that the 65th Annual Emmy Awards took place last night.  Maybe you care, maybe you don’t.

Personally, I do care! I mean, I kinda have to I’m in the business! And I was fortunate to win an Emmy (here’s my Emmy nite story and acceptance speech video)

Back to last night, I personally wish that I had enough time to watch some of these shows—barring 30 Rock, I don’t know that I have seen any of them. Damn that reminds me, I need to hurry and clean up more space on my DVR for this season!

Whether you were into the Emmy’s or not last night, Google was busy doing something that you very well may find interesting.  Google has a Google Trends Top Charts Page where you can see what is trending on Google.  You can pick between different categories and topics to see what topics or phrases are trending based on search volume.  Last night they actually had the 2013 Emmys as a category where you could see which actors and shows were trending in real-time, and what position they were in leading up to the show and then again afterwards.  If you are into statistics, you might find this even more interesting than the actual show.  The only show and or actor/actress that held strong in first place from the red carpet to post-show and actually won the Emmy Award in its category was Breaking Bad.

I have listed Google’s Pre-Red Carpet and Post show trends below. Read More

HLN: Looking at Grand Theft Auto V’s record breaking sales

by Mario Armstrong

Grand Theft Auto V sales have set a first day sales record of more than $800 million in sales on Tuesday—which was its first day on the shelves. That’s more than 13 million copies sold in a single day!

Not only were those sales numbers were the biggest for the series, they also broke the previous first day sales record held by “Call of Duty: Black Ops 2” at $500 million.

Grand Theft Auto is one of the longer-running series of video games, with the first installment was released 16 years ago. An awful lot has changed in that time and the series has adapted with it. Originally a top-down 2D game with a fixed map and pre-set missions to follow, the games have steadily grown in scope to become huge, open-world games where you can either play to move the story along or just play by exploring the world and seeing what situation you run into.

Recently, the video game industry has taken a hit due to the growing popularity of online and mobile games—which are generally either free or low cost. But big-budget games that go on to become best-sellers have continued to buck that trend. Just take a look at the best selling video game of ALL tim, Call of Duty: Black Ops, which has sold 28 million copies since 2010! The next game in that series, The Call Of Duty: Ghosts, is just around the corner as well and is due to come out in November. Read More

TODAY: Using tech to keep in touch with your kids

by Mario Armstrong

So the kids have headed off to college! Are you an empty nester now or just feeling blue as you look into that empty room that was once a sea of clothes and dirty dishes? Well, fret no more! We have some fun ways for you to stay connected to your kids while they are away—and you don’t have to “friend” them either!

Google + Hangouts

This is a FREE service offered by Google. Hangouts is a fun and easy way to connect with your kids that are away at school or anywhere else for that matter. All you need is a Google account. Once you sign up for Google +, you can find the Hangout frame and begin. The service allows you to choose from either doing a texting chat or a video chat. Every kid is different—some may feel much more comfortable connecting with you via text chat and others may love to see their parents or caregivers! So video chat would be a fun solution for them. You can invite up to 10 people to hangout in your chat, so if you have other kids, grandparents, aunts and uncles and they want to join, they can! It allows you to share photos and YouTube videos as well. They also have a fun effects feature where you can add silly hats, glasses and other wacky items that can make the whole experience more enjoyable for everyone. Read the rest of this post on TODAY.com.

HLN: The Best Football Apps to Check Out This Season

by Mario Armstrong

Are you ready??? It’s Football season again and you want to be prepared. So get out your smartphone and grab some of the best apps out there to stay on top of your teams, your fantasy football league, to learn more about the game, and even one for all of you who bleed purple like me to stay on top of the world’s greatest team, THE RAVENS.

NFL Mobile – FREE for basic and $5 a month Premium
Available for Android, Apple, Blackberry, and Windows Phones

This app contains everything you could want to know about the NFL this season. Scores, standings, news, schedules, a link to NFL.com fantasy football, and video highlights. It has custom team alerts. So you can get an alert on everything RAVENS—scores, injuries, highlights, etc. All information tailored to your favorite team. For HUGE Football fans that cannot go without there is a premium upgrade. If you are a Verizon customer, you can upgrade to premium features for access to NFL RedZone which lets you watch games live on Thursdays, Sundays and Mondays. This also gives you access to the NFL Network 24/7.
The Premium upgrade costs $5 per month. Read More

The Best Tech to Prepare for Severe Weather

by Mario Armstrong

September is National Preparedness Month, and on my blog we’ll be taking a look at all the different ways you can leverage tech to stay safe and protect yourself and your family. One thing you should always be prepared for is severe weather, especially if you live somewhere that’s prone to regular flooding, hurricanes, earthquakes or tornados. However, even if your location isn’t disaster prone, there are steps you should take to be prepared in case of any kind of emergency!

While there’s plenty of tech you should already have available just in case (things like hand-crank operated radios, extra batteries, duct tape), today I’m going to take a look at a few great pieces of tech you probably haven’t thought of but will definitely come in handy should the big storm hit your home this year.

Read More

FUSE News: A look at Next Big Sound, the so-called “Moneyball of music”

by Mario Armstrong

What is Next Big Sound?

Next Big Sound is a new company tracking our every like, download, share, tweet and more as they relate to our music listening, shopping, and purchases. Called the “Moneyball of music” by Forbes, Next Big Sound is putting all that data to work—by analyzing the way we find and acquire music and they discover new insights to help musicians from the indies up to the majors to find new ways to market their music to fans.

Read More

TODAY: How to score savings on hot back to school tech!

by Mario Armstrong

School is expensive — there is no doubt about that! Whether you are paying tuition or not, it has really become pricey just to buy the supplies. So, I have put together a few tips on how you can possibly save a little this back-to-school season.

Tip #1: Buy refurbished. This is a great way to save a lot of money by buying previously owned equipment. Now I know when you hear the word “refurbished” you might immediately think old or used, maybe even beat-up. That is truly not the case. First of all — and most importantly — always buy your refurbished devices directly from the manufacturer, and if you are a worry wart, you can increase your warranty protection.

For example, consider the way Apple backs its refurb program:

“Before we put a refurbished Mac, iPod, iPad, or Apple TV up for sale in Special Deals, it undergoes a rigorous refurbishment process to make sure it’s up to Apple’s tough quality standards. We back it with our standard one-year limited warranty. And you have the option of purchasing an AppleCare Protection Plan for it to extend your warranty.”

That’s one reason why you should buy from the manufacturer. Another is that refurbished doesn’t necessarily mean that the item is bad or old. Sometimes people will receive a laptop or a computer, use it for two or three weeks and then turn it in because they didn’t like it. These items also are considered refurbished, so you basically can get a new computer for a large discount. Read more on TODAY.com.

TODAY: Medical apps, sites to keep your family healthy

by Mario Armstrong

This week I had the pleasure of working on a segment with Dr. Keri Peterson, Internal Medicine and contributor to Women’s Health Magazine!  We discussed some incredible medical apps and sites that we feel people should really consider for their own benefit. Oh, and I was joined on-air by Al Roker and none other than Brooke Shields!

Read More