Dealing with the Heartbleed exploit: You need to change ALL of your passwords soon

For years we’ve assumed that the lock icon in your browser and the letters “HTTPS” mean your Internet traffic is safe from any potential spies or snoops.

Unfortunately, with the public announcement of a new website vulnerability, known as Heartbleed, this may not necessarily have been the case for the past few years.

The end result of this is that you need to change every single one of your passwords, though perhaps not right this second. Keep reading to learn what this all means and exactly what you can do about it to stay safe.

Read More

Google Now available for your computer via Google Chrome

Google’s intelligent personal assistant, called Google Now, has been available exclusively for Android and iOS users so far. On Android especially, Google Now integrates deep into the operating system and offer you information before you know you need it.

Today, Google is extending Now’s functionality to those on their personal computers with a new version that works with their Chrome browser. Keep reading to check out some of the best features of Google Now to learn why this is a big deal.

Read More

5 Things You Need to Know About Amazon Fire TV

In Seattle today, Amazon launched their streaming TV solution, called Fire TV. Going head-to-head with Apple, Google and Roku for control of your living room, Amazon is promising a future about more than just streaming TV and movies!

Because the Fire TV runs a modified version of Android (just like Amazon’s Kindle Fire tablets) you’ll be able to use apps, get voice recognition through the remote, and even play games on the big screen.

Before you rush over to Amazon and hand over $99 to get one, here’s 5 things you need to know about the Fire TV.

Read More

In hours, they can skim or skipe your credit card and wipe your bank account! Here’s what you need to know

Sometimes, skimming can be a good thing. The word means “removing something”: so if you take the whipped cream off of the top of hot chocolate, you’re skimming it!

When someone skims your credit card, it means they’ve removed the information (like card number, expiration date, your name) and they’re about to wipe you out. That’s not a good thing at all. Here’s what you need to know.

Read More

Entitle: a new app trying to be the “Netflix for eBooks”

This is a guest post contributed by Shy Mukerjee, the Managing and Online Editor of Mario Armstrong Media

As an avid reader, I want a Netflix for eBooks more than any other app. I want a service that’s low-cost, has a huge and deep library, and allows me to binge on books the same way Netflix helps you lose an entire weekend watching TV episodes back-to-back-to-back.

In that search I’ve tried Oyster’s $9.99/month plan which let’s you read an unlimited number of books from their collection of 200,000 eBooks. I’ve also tried Byliner which doesn’t have books, exactly, but instead a seemingly-endless supply long(er) magazine articles.

A new entrant, called Entitle, is trying a new approach: for $9.99 a month, you get two eBooks. While at first glance, this seems like worse deal than Oyster, there’s a very cool catch: you get to keep the books.

Read More

Celebrating 30 Years of TED Talks: My, How Things Have Changed!

This is a guest post contributed by Shy Mukerjee, the Managing and Online Editor of Mario Armstrong Media

Starting in 1984, the first TED (Technology, Entertainment, Design) conference was originally meant to be a one-off event. In fact, the second TED didn’t happen until 1990. But the TED we know today, mostly from their supremely high-quality talks that often went viral in the early days of YouTube, has grown to become one of the most prestigious and influential speaking series in world.

Read More

Celebrating 25 years of the World Wide Web (TODAY)

The #WorldWideWeb turns 25 years old today, and we’re celebrating on the TODAY show by highlighting some of the greatest inventions in the history of the web. While top honors go to Google.com for completely revolutionizing how we find and access information online, I give a big shout out to some other super creative sites, including WordPress and Double Dutchery.

Want to know what else we talk about? Check out the segment embedded above!

Three cloud apps to help you work more efficiently

The cloud is more than just a name for a new type of service. It’s a whole new way of doing business. Cloud apps help us to work smarter, do more remotely, without losing track of files no matter what device you or your co-workers are using. Here are three of my favorite cloud apps:

1. Associate

I got my start in media on the radio where the golden rule is that you can never have “dead air,” which means you’re never broadcasting silence. That can be a hard rule to follow sometimes where you’re actually in a studio where equipment can fail, guests who call in can lose their connection, or someone in the studio changes the levels on the music so nothing happens when you hit “play”.

Read More

Next-gen sports data finds a home in the new Baseball viewing experience

One of my favorite sports movies of all time is Moneyball. If you haven’t seen it, the film is based on the true story of how Oakland A’s general manager Billy Beane helped revolutionize the modern game of Baseball in the early 2000’s by applying statistical analysis to the problem of putting together a winning team on a shoestring budget.

That kind of data analysis, generally referred to as sabermetrics, has had wide-reaching effects on not just baseball, but a wide variety of industries. You might know former sabermetrician Nate Silver who has used his FiveThirtyEight blog to predict election results with startling accuracy.

But data isn’t just for professional election watchers and baseball insiders, and the success of Moneyball is a strong sign that even casual fans are interested in how data changes their favorite games. That’s why I’m excited to see the next generation tracking systems in Major League Baseball which will give you, the viewer, tons of data to soak in while you watch the game. Check the video below to see it in action.

Read More