How To Make Money Developing Mobile Apps

iPad, iPhone, iPod

From Tod.fm:

Do you want to make money developing applications for iPhones, iPads, and other mobile devices? I went from almost zero experience to earning a regular income from my apps in a few short months. Let me show you how I did it.

This is a long article (6,217 words). I will go through some important aspects of writing successful apps, from finding and choosing the right ideas to develop, to a very important money saving tip. Although I’m writing from the perspective of an iOS developer, the general ideas apply to other platforms like Android. Whether you develop for Apple’s devices or not, you can still benefit from the article.

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My Comment: A rather long article, but an interesting read.

This Is Weird

A game character from Love Plus is superimposed over a cellphone photo of Kanji Nagasawa, the owner of a Korean barbecue restaurant in Atami, Japan, holding a specialty dish created for the game's fans. Akiko Fujita

Only In Japan, Real Men Go To A Hotel With Virtual Girlfriends -- Wall Street Journal

Dating-Simulation Game a Last Resort For Honeymoon Town and Its Lonely Guests.

ATAMI, Japan—This resort town, once popular with honeymooners, is turning to a new breed of romance seekers—virtual sweethearts.

Since the marriage rate among Japan's shrinking population is falling and with many of the country's remaining lovebirds heading for Hawaii or Australia's Gold Coast, Atami had to do something. It is trying to attract single men—and their handheld devices.

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What Is Consciousness?

From Think Big:

What does it mean to be conscious? It's a question that philosophers and scientists have puzzled over perhaps since there have been philosophers and scientists.

In his book "Consciousness Explained," Tufts University philosopher Daniel Dennett calls human consciousness "just about the last surviving mystery," explaining that a mystery is something that people don't yet know how to think about. "We do not yet have all the answers to any of the questions of cosmology and particle physics, molecular genetics and evolutionary theory, but we do know how to think about them," writes Dennett. "With consciousness, however, we are still in a terrible muddle. Consciousness stands alone today as a topic that often leaves even the most sophisticated thinkers tongue-tied and confused. And, as with all of the earlier mysteries, there are many who insist—and hope—that there will never be a demystification of consciousness."

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Second Super-Fast Flip Of Earth's Poles Found

On the flip, in record time (Image: G.Glatzmaier/Los Alamos National Laboratory/P.Roberts/UCLA/SPL)

From The New Scientist:

SOME 16 million years ago, north became south in a matter of years. Such fast flips are impossible, according to models of the Earth's core, but this is now the second time that evidence has been found.

The magnetic poles swap every 300,000 years, a process that normally takes up to 5000 years. In 1995 an ancient lava flow with an unusual magnetic pattern was discovered in Oregon. It suggested that the field at the time was moving by 6 degrees a day - at least 10,000 times faster than usual. "Not many people believed it," says Scott Bogue of Occidental College in Los Angeles.

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They Crawl, They Bite, They Baffle Scientists

THE ICK FACTOR The lab of Stephen A. Kells, a University of Minnesota entomologist. Bedbugs are not known to transmit disease. Allen Brisson-Smith for The New York Times

From The New York Times:

Don’t be too quick to dismiss the common bedbug as merely a pestiferous six-legged blood-sucker.

Think of it, rather, as Cimex lectularius, international arthropod of mystery.

In comparison to other insects that bite man, or even only walk across man’s food, nibble man’s crops or bite man’s farm animals, very little is known about the creature whose Latin name means — go figure — “bug of the bed.” Only a handful of entomologists specialize in it, and until recently it has been low on the government’s research agenda because it does not transmit disease. Most study grants come from the pesticide industry and ask only one question: What kills it?

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What Created This Smooth, 200-Mile-Long Trench On Mars?

Orcus Patera ESA

From Popular Science:

The European Space Agency has released a series of new images of Orcus Patera, a long crater near Mars's Mons Olympus whose rim rises some 6,000 feet. But the images, taken by the Mars Express craft, only deepen the mystery of the crater's origin.

The ESA says "the most likely explanation is that it was made in an oblique impact, when a small body struck the surface at a very shallow angle." Sounds almost definitely like aliens.

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How the 105-mph Fastball Tests The Limits Of The Human Body

Pitcher Aroldis Chapman #51 of the Louisville Bats throws a pitch during a game on May 14, 2010 against the Rochester Red Wings at Frontier Field in Rochester, New York. Gregory Cammett/Diamond Images/Getty Images

From Popular Mechanics:

A Triple-A pitcher shocked the baseball world with a pitch clocked at an insanely fast 105 mph. Here's why we won't see pitchers throw it much faster than this—ever.

Last Friday was a mixed bag for fans of the fastball. Early in the day, the Washington Nationals announced that phenom Stephen Strasburg, who hurled a 101-mph pitch in his debut in June, would likely require Tommy John surgery for his injured elbow; a procedure that could sideline him for up to 18 months. But later that night Aroldis Chapman, a 22-year-old Cuban defector pitching for the Cincinnati Reds' triple-A affiliate in Louisville, captured baseball fans' attention when he threw a pitch clocked at 105 mph.

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Apple Ping Network Slammed With Spam

Apple Ping is having some spam problems. Lots of them. So is Ping finished? Probably not. Newscom

From Christian Science Monitor:

Earlier this week, Apple launched a platform called Ping, which is built into the latest iteration of iTunes. Ping is a sort of Facebook or MySpace for iTunes people: You can use the service to share your favorite songs and videos, suggest content to friends, and search for concerts and events in your area. But Ping has gotten off to a rocky start.

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Gadget Lab Podcast: iPods, Apple TV and Samsung's Galaxy Tab

India To Build World's Largest Solar Telescope

Photo: Currently, the world's largest solar telescope is the McMath-Pierce Solar Telescope, with a diameter of 1.6 metres in Kitt Peak National Observatory at Arizona in the US.

From Space Daily:

India is inching closer towards building the world's largest solar telescope in Ladakh on the foothills of the Himalayas that aims to study the sun's microscopic structure.

The National Large Solar Telescope (NLST) project has gathered momentum with a global tender floated for technical and financial bidding by the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of Astrophysics (IIA).

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Health Checkup: Who Needs Organic Food?

Foodpix / Getty Images
Organic food comes with real health benefits and significant costs. TIME looks at both sides of the debate

From Time Magazine:

Looking for a quick way to feel lousy about yourself? Then forget the idea of a healthy diet and just eat what your body wants you to eat. Your body wants meat; your body wants fat; your body wants salt and sugar. Your body will put up with fruits and vegetables if it must, but only after all the meat, fat, salt and sugar are gone. And as for the question of where your food comes from — whether it's locally grown, sustainably raised, grass-fed, free range or pesticide-free? Your body doesn't give a hoot.

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Yet Another Human Job Is Replaced By A Robot

EMILY To the Rescue: An Automated Lifeguard -- The Economist

Yet another human job is replaced by a robot.

BIG crowds, strong surf and powerful rip currents are only a few of the obstacles that lifeguards must overcome to keep swimmers safe. Strong winds can pull many bathers out to sea simultaneously, overwhelming the guards if there are only a few of them. And, since average swimming speed is about 3kph (2mph) even a single rescue mission can take more than half an hour.

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Stephen Hawking: Ten Pearls Of Wisdom

Professor Stephen Hawking Photo: DISCOVERY CHANNEL

From The Telegraph:

After Professor Stephen Hawking apparently rubbished the idea of a God, claiming the Big Bang was an inevitable result of physics, here are ten of our favourite quotes.

Stephen Hawking on why the universe exists:

"If we find the answer to that, it would be the ultimate triumph of human reason – for then we would know the mind of God."

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Kepler Probe Ffinds Two Saturn-Sized Planets Orbiting A Single Star 2,000 Light Years Away

An artist's impression of the two Saturn-sized planets as they orbit the same star

From The Daily Mail:

Two giant Saturn-sized planets have been spotted passing in front of the same star, Nasa scientists announced today.

It is the first time more than one planet has ever been discovered 'transiting' a single star.

The two planets were discovered by the space telescope Kepler and will give scientists vital information about how planets were formed and how they interact with each other.

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Scientists Figure Out Magical 'Banana' Free Kick

From The CBC:

Thirteen years after Roberto Carlos stunned onlookers with his amazing "banana" free kick that seemed to defy the law of physics, scientists have finally worked out how he did it.

In what many people regard as the best free kick ever, the Brazil defender struck the ball with the outside of his left foot 35 yards out, bending it around the outside of France's three-man wall during a friendly tournament in Lyon in 1997.

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Water in Earth's Mantle Key To Survival Of Oldest Continents

This is an image of a sample of cratonic mantle root from Kimberley, South Africa. The rock consists of dark green olivine, whitish-green enstatite, emerald green diopside and purple garnet. (Credit: David R. Bell / ASU)

From Science Daily:

ScienceDaily (Sep. 2, 2010) — Earth today is one of the most active planets in the Solar System, and was probably even more so during the early stages of its life. Thanks to the plate tectonics that continue to shape our planet's surface, remnants of crust from Earth's formative years are rare, but not impossible to find. A paper published in Nature Sept. 2 examines how some ancient rocks have resisted being recycled into Earth's convecting interior.

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High-Tech Effort Underway to Protect Magna Carta

One of four existing copies of the 1297 Magna Carta. Credit: National Archives & Records Administration

From Live Science:

The Magna Carta helped form the foundation for modern English and U.S. law. Now one of two copies known to exist outside England is headed for a special new case to preserve it.

The very first Magna Carta dates to 1215, when English barons forced King John to write down the traditional rights and liberties of the country's free persons. A copy of the Magna Carta signed by King Edward I in 1297 currently resides within a helium-filled casement at the National Archives Building in Washington. But the medieval document is scheduled for a temporary removal in 2011 so it can be re-measured for a new case filled with argon.

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NASA Flies First Drone Over Hurricane

From Wired Science:

Hurricane Earl is waning as it moves northward up the east coast of the United States. Some of the first researchers to notice the weakening had front row seats, watching the eye of the hurricane via drone flights.

In addition to the usual cadre of satellites, NASA is using a small fleet of unmanned aircraft into, over and around the hurricane as it tracks north from the Caribbean. While flying into a hurricane is nothing new, Earl is the first hurricane that NASA has observed using their unmanned Global Hawk observation aircraft (pictured above).

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Canadian To Command Space Station In 2013

From Space Daily:

Astronaut Chris Hadfield in 2013 will become the first Canadian to command the International Space Station (ISS), the Canadian Space Agency announced Thursday.

Hadfield, 51, will rocket on his third trip into space aboard a Russian Soyuz spacecraft in December 2012 and assume command of the station during the second part of a six-month mission.

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Why Do Heavy Drinkers Outlive Nondrinkers?

Jodi Cobb / National Geographic Creative / Getty Image

From Time Magazine:

One of the most contentious issues in the vast literature about alcohol consumption has been the consistent finding that those who don't drink tend to die sooner than those who do. The standard Alcoholics Anonymous explanation for this finding is that many of those who show up as abstainers in such research are actually former hard-core drunks who had already incurred health problems associated with drinking.

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My Comment: I am convinced .... and yes .... I need a drink.