5 ways to make money with your phone
By Kim KomandoPublished March 15, 2015The Kim Komando Show
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File photo. (REUTERS/Gustau Nacarino)
You don't like to think about it, but between the up-front cost and the monthly contract payments, your phone costs you a fair bit of money. What you might not realize is that it can make you money, too.
You won’t get rich, but you can pay for a few trips to Starbucks. Here’s how to get started
1. Sell your photos
I've talked in the past about making money with microstock photography, but it involves taking pictures, moving them to a computer, cleaning them up, finding a good site to upload them and then promoting them. It would be nice if you could trim down the process.
Foap is an app (Android, Apple; Free) that does just that. Simply take pictures with your smartphone's camera and your favorite photo app, and then add them to Foap.
Just about any kind of image can sell if a company thinks it will work for it. That means that cute pet picture, vacation photos, even photos of food if you have those.
There are no limits on how many photos you can upload, and for every sale you get $5. If you want to make more, Foap offers photo missions where big brands pay hundreds or thousands to get specific photos.
2. Do tiny tasks for big payoffs
If you don't mind getting out and about, you can take small jobs around your city. These are things like verifying that a display stand has been put up in a store, or the arrangements of products on a shelf. If you don't like to travel, some tasks can even be done from your living room.
Just grab the Field Agent app (Android, Apple; Free) and create a profile. Then do a few fast "screener" jobs that open up certain types of work. It could be taking pictures of your pet or the kind of beer you drink.
Once you're approved, you'll be able to take real jobs. These pay from $2 to $12 a task, which might not sound like much, but if you're already at the store or it's something you can do at home, it's no big deal.
Payments are sent though PayPal or Dwolla, so you will need a free account with one of them. Field Agent says it's paid out over $4.5 million to agents so far. Some of that could be yours if you get going now.
3. Get cash back for shopping
Shopping is something you have to do, so why not get some money back on products you've purchased? No, I'm not talking about mail-in rebates, which take forever and can be hit or miss.
The Ibotta app (Android, Apple; Free) gives you instant rebates on items you buy. You can use it at stores like Walmart, Target, Kroger, Safeway, Costco, Sam's Club and many more. Plus, it works for online stores like Amazon and many retailers' online shops. You can even use it on top of other coupons, promo codes and discounts for extra savings.
The money you get back from Ibotta can transfer to your bank account as cash via PayPal or Venmo. Or you can turn it into gift cards for Best Buy, Starbucks, iTunes, Amazon and more online places you or your family like to shop.
It might sound too good to be true, but it works. In fact, Ibotta says it's the 16th most-used app in the U.S. Plus, it's free, so you have nothing to lose.
4. Get your expenses reimbursed
For frequent business travelers, or for freelance and contract workers, expenses are a big deal. You're spending your money and trusting that your company or the client is going to pay you back (or you're hoping the money you spent on the company's dime doesn't get taken out of your pocket). If your paperwork isn't ship-shape, you could end up losing big.
You need a foolproof and easy way to prove to the company or client that you actually spent the money, and that's usually a receipt. But who wants to collect and carry around a stack of receipts?
The Expensify app (Android, Apple, Windows Phone; Free) is the answer. It automatically creates reports right from the photo of a receipt. You can track the hours you worked with a tap, and it also tracks mileage using GPS or with a picture of the car's odometer.
Expensify will link up with your bank account or credit card to pull transactions that don't have a receipt. It can even generate IRS-guaranteed eReceipts. Finally, it's compatible with major accounting software for easy report submission, or you can create a PDF to submit.
5. Give your opinion and get money
Whether it's a product, brand, movie, TV show, government policy or something else, I'm sure you have an opinion on something. Now you can get rewarded for sharing that opinion.
The market-research company Ipsos operates a service called i-Say. After you sign up, it will send you surveys about a wide range of topics. The average user gets about eight surveys per month.
You can sign up to get email notifications, or you can occasionally check the website. To access and fill out surveys, you can log in to the i-Say site on your computer, smartphone or tablet.
Every complete survey gives you reward points you can use to exchange for gift cards or products at major retailers. Plus, every survey you finish gets you an entry into a drawing for prizes like overseas vacations, TVs, iPads, gift cards and more.
Ipsos is very clear that you won't get rich with i-Say, but it is good for a little extra spending money. You might also be a lucky winner and get a gift card or that gadget you were saving up for.
Saturday 13 June 2015
Saturday 25 August 2012
Apple Vs Samsung
Playing monopoly: an Apple conference in San Francisco. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images
A home-town jury has given Apple the world, or at least the United States, in its campaign to control the smart phone and tablet markets.
Samsung, which decisively lost the highest-profile case to date in Apple's sue-everywhere strategy against theAndroid operating system, will surely appeal the verdict handed down the San Jose, California, federal court on Friday afternoon. And even if Samsung ultimately has to pay the $1bn judgement, the company can afford it.
But we're likely to see a ban on many mobile devices from Samsung and other manufacturers in the wake of this case, as an emboldened Apple tries to create an unprecedented monopoly. If so, the ultimate loser will be competition in the technology marketplace, with even more power accruing to a company that already has too much.
Need a mansion?
America has 40 million McMansions that no one wants
Americans, especially generations X and Y, want shorter commutes, walkability and a car-free existence. Which means that around 40 million large-lot exurban McMansions, built primarily during the housing boom, might never find occupants.
Only 43 percent of Americans prefer big suburban homes, says Chris Nelson, head of the Metropolitan Research Center at the University of Utah. That mean demand for “large-lot” homes is currently 40 million short of the available stock — and not only that, but the U.S. is short 10 million attached homes and 30 million small homes, which are what people really want.
Cloned Baby Goat; the outcome!
Cloned baby goat is a super-adorable terrifying monster of science
The Kashmir region of south Asia is economically dependent on cashmere (the homophonic name is not a coincidence). But populations of pashmina goats, which produce the expensive wool, have been dwindling. So scientists at Sher-i-Kashmir University decided to hurry the process along, cloninga pashmina goat named Noori with little more than a microscope and crossed fingers.
Noori is the first cloned pashmina goat in the world (though she’s hardly the first cloned animal), and the researchers don’t think she will be the last. The process they used, called “handmade” cloning, is comparatively cheap, requiring almost no specialized equipment. It’s fairly simple, too, as these things go – scientists basically just slice cells carefully under a microscope, then stick them together with other cells using electrical current. The Chandigarh Tribune isreporting that the researchers think they could make Noori a sister within six months.
It may seem a little ethically iffy to make lab-grown animals just to shore up a flagging economy. But on the other hand, we’re also talking about repopulating a dwindling species. Handmade cloning could be a relatively cheap way for scientists in less-developed countries to help pull critically endangered native animals back from the brink of extinction. It’s not exactly natural — but neither are the threats many species face.
It is probably best that we start with goats and sheep and whatnot, though. Let’s get the whole “hideous progeny turning evil and/or destroying us for our scientific hubris” potential problem worked out with ruminants, before we move on to leopards and wolverines.
Neil Armstrong, the first Astronaut to walk the Moon is Dead!
Neil Armstrong, the astronaut who became first to walk on the moon as commander of Apollo 11, has died. He was 82 years old.
Armstrong had heart surgery several weeks ago, and a statement from his family said he died following complications resulting from cardiovascular procedures.
"Neil Armstrong was also a reluctant American hero who always believed he was just doing his job," his family said. "He served his Nation proudly, as a navy fighter pilot, test pilot, and astronaut. ... He remained an advocate of aviation and exploration throughout his life and never lost his boyhood wonder of these pursuits."
On July 20, 1969, half a billion people -- a sixth of the world's population at the time -- watched a ghostly black-and-white television image as Armstrong backed down the ladder of the lunar landing ship Eagle, planted his left foot on the moon's surface, and said, "That's one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind."
Twenty minutes later his crewmate, Buzz Aldrin, joined him, and the world watched as the men spent the next two hours bounding around in the moon's light gravity, taking rock samples, setting up experiments, and taking now-iconic photographs.
"Isn't this fun?" Armstrong said over his radio link to Aldrin. The third member of the Apollo 11 crew, Michael L. Collins, orbited 60 miles overhead in the mission's command ship, Columbia. President Richard Nixon called their eight-day trip to the moon "the greatest week in the history of the world since the Creation."
NASA
Astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander of Apollo... View Full Size
Apollo 11: Celebrating the Giant Leap Watch Video
Armstrong Reads Plaque Dedicated to Mission Watch Video
Liftoff for Apollo 11 Watch Video
'I Believe That This Nation Should Commit Itself....'
Armstrong's step fulfilled a challenge laid down by an earlier president, John F. Kennedy, in May 1961. Struggling in his first months in the White House, Kennedy addressed a joint session of Congress:
"I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the moon and returning him safely to the earth," he said. "No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish."
Armstrong was a 30-year-old test pilot at the time of Kennedy's challenge, flying the X-15 rocket plane for a new government agency called NASA. He had served as a Naval aviator in the Korean War, flying 78 missions, and had an engineering degree from Purdue University. A native of the small town of Wapakoneta, Ohio, he was married to the former Jan Shearon and living near Edwards Air Force Base in the high desert of California.
NASA already had seven astronauts, flying its Mercuryspace capsule. In 1962 it sent out word that it was looking for more, and Armstrong was one of the nine it selected.
Gemini VIII
On March 16, 1966 he became the first American civilian to orbit the earth, commanding the two-man Gemini VIII mission with David R. Scott as his crewmate. On their fourth orbit, they made the first-ever docking in space with another spacecraft -- a maneuver the still-untested Apollo project would need to get astronauts to and from the lunar surface.
Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on the lunar surface.
Minutes later, though, the spacecraft began to tumble wildly out of control, apparently because of a broken maneuvering thruster. It was a dangerous moment -- a 6,000-pound ship, moving at 17,500 mph, spinning and turning end-over-end once a second. Armstrong ended the emergency by using a second set of thrusters. Mission Control ordered the astronauts to land as soon as possible, and after 10 hours of flight they splashed down safely in the Pacific.
The two astronauts were commended for keeping their cool in a difficult situation, and when Project Apollo began, Armstrong was assigned to command one of the first six flights. At the time this was not momentous news. NASA had a system for rotating its crews among flights -- one served as backup crew for a mission and then actually flew three flights later -- and nobody knew how many test flights would be needed before the first moon landing could be attempted.au
Thursday 9 August 2012
Kenyan sets new world record on Olympic track
On a night dominated by Usain Bolt, David Rudisha was determined to get a piece of the spotlight. The 23-year-old Kenyan ended up going one better.
He did what no one else, Bolt included, has been able to do: set aworld record on the London Olympic track.
Rudisha had told his rivals in the 800 meters to be ready for a world record, and he delivered on his word, winning Thursday's final in 1 minute, 40.91 seconds, one-tenth of a second off the mark he set in 2010.
"I know people love Bolt," Rudisha said, when asked about being overshadowed by the sport's biggest star. "I'm happy for him, and I'm happy for me."
After crossing the finish, he flung up both arms to celebrate, then draped himself in a Kenyan flag and posed for photographs near the timing clock with "NEW WR" on it. He has been the dominant 800-meter runner for the last three years, setting the world record three times and losing just once since 2009. This, though, topped all that.
"It's something special to break the world record at the Olympics," Rudisha said.
Sebastian Coe, a middle-distance running great and head of the London organizing committee, wasn't in much doubt.
"That was simply an unbelievable performance," Coe said. "David Rudisha showed supreme physical and mental confidence to run like that in an Olympic final.
"Instead of just doing enough to win the race, he wanted to do something extraordinary and go for the world record as well. Rudisha's run will go down in history as one of the greatest Olympic victories."
Less than an hour later, Bolt won the 200 meters to clinch a repeat double in the Olympic sprints, backing up his 100-200 winning double in Beijing with another one in London.
Bolt, however, fell short of his own world record when he eased up in the final strides.
In the 800, 18-year-old Nigel Amos took silver in a world junior record time of 1:41.73 to giveBotswana its first Olympic medal, and Timothy Kitum of Kenya got the bronze in 1:42.53.
Americans Duane Solomon and Nick Symmonds finished fourth and fifth, just ahead of 18-year-old Mohamed Aman of Ethiopia, the world indoor champion who handed Rudisha his only loss in three years last September.
Kitum, who finished more than 1 1/2 seconds behind his Kenyan teammate, said Rudisha had predicted a record.
"Yes, he's the greatest runner," Kitum said. "He told me he's going to run a world record today. He's the best."
Modest Weight Loss Can Reap Prolonged Health Benefits
Even modest weight loss can give overweight and obese people a decade's worth of important health benefits, according to a new study.
The study included 3,000 overweight people with impaired glucose tolerance -- a pre-diabetic condition -- who were shown how to change their behavior rather than being prescribed drugs.
The behavioral strategies used by the participants to help them lose weight included keeping track of everything they ate, reducing the amount of unhealthy food they kept in their home and increasing their amount of physical activity.
Even a modest weight loss -- an average of 14 pounds -- reduced the risk of developing type 2 diabetes by 58 percent. And the health benefits of this weight loss lasted up to 10 years, even if people regained the weight, said study author Rena Wing, professor of psychiatry and human behavior at Brown University in Providence, R.I.
The study was scheduled for presentation Thursday at the American Psychological Association annual meeting in Orlando, Fla.
"Helping people find ways to change their eating and activity behaviors and developing interventions other than medication to reinforce a healthy lifestyle have made a huge difference in preventing one of the major health problems in this country," Wing, who is also director of the Weight Control andDiabetes Research Center at the Miriam Hospital in Providence, said in an association news release.
"Weight losses of just 10 percent of a person's body weight ... have also been shown to have a long-term impact on sleep apnea, hypertension and quality of life, and to slow the decline in mobility that occurs as people age," she noted.
Wing is now leading a 13-year study of 5,000 people with type 2 diabetes to determine whether an intensive behavioral intervention can lower the risk of heart disease and heart attacks.
"We are trying to show that behavior changes not only make people healthier in terms of reducing heart disease risk factors but actually can make them live longer," she said.
So do not stop the struggle.
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