Making Money With Options

It's that time again where everyone starts making those promises to themselves.  Next year, I'll lose 25 pounds.  Or quit smoking.  Or manage my money better. Or get back in church. Or... whatever. With the new year comes new resolutions.  This time, stick to it longer than a week why don't you?  This year, arm yourself with a few Android apps to keep you on track.  We've put together a list of titles we think you should consider installing on your phone to keep you adhering to your 2011 resolution.  Some may not be available in your country or through your respective carrier however there are probably great alternatives.  Most of these are free, but a few are available in paid versions as well.  We're big on supporting developers for paid apps we value, therefore we feel comfortable recommending these to Android users.

Of course, as awesome as this list is, we know we're missing more than a few.  That's where you come in.  Hit the comments and share your favorite apps to help ring in the new year.  The more you share, the better for the rest of us!

I resolve to read more...

• Nook for Android by B&N - A must have for NOOK owners with plenty of customization options to suit to taste.  Access to more than 2 million titles doesn't hurt either. FREE


• Kindle for Android - Gets better every single update.  Read from 100+ newspapers and magazines and more than 750,000 electronic books. Amazon's Whispersync automatically syncs last page read, bookmarks, notes, and more across multiple devices. FREE


• Aldiko Book Reader - One of the first Android ebook reader apps worth a look, landed ahead of Kindle, Nook, and others.  Like a good book, easy to pick up and hard to put down.  Available in free (ad subsidized) and paid ($2.99) versions.


• Google Books - Build a library of cloud-based books with Google's foray into the space.  Select from nearly 3 million free ebooks and sync up between phone and PC. FREE


• Kobo - User defined options include adjustable text, automatic bookmarking, and various reading modes.  Access to 1.9 million free books and counting! FREE

I resolve to lose weight...

• Calorie Counter - Get the calorie and nutrition information for store brands, restaurants, and more.  Food diary, calendar, and weight tracker keep an eye on your daily progress, showing where you've been. FREE


• South Beach Diet - Access to tons of recipes and diet tips.  Get healthy cooking advice from the pros as well as other dieters.  Fitness routines and lifestyle advice make sure you're doing more than just eating the right foods. FREE


• Fitness Club & Gym Finder - Find real-time locations to many popular gyms and clubs including 24 Hour Fitness, Gold's Gym, Bally's, Pilates,Yoga,YMCA, and YWCA.  Still missing a few but definitely worth having when traveling out of town. FREE


• Cardio Trainer - Works indoor and outdoor and tracks calories, GPS, pedometer and more.  Recent update includes feature to set New Year's Resolutions and hold yourself accountable. FREE


• Diet & Food Tracker - Track your food calories across more than 1 million foods.  Fitness tracker keeps an eye on calories burned and while the weigh in tools keep your progress in easy to digest reports.  Recent changes allow for tracking strength exercises, copying meals from day to day, and animated demos for exercises. FREE

I resolve to eat healthier...

• Epicurious - Complements official website with gorgeous app full of recipes and reviews from magazines and top sources.  Access more than 28,000 professionally tested and created recipes and search with your voice!  Desktop widget puts daily recipe front and center. FREE


• Healthy Recipes - SparkRecipes -Browse the expansive library of recipes by categories such as occasion, course, dietary needs, and calories.  Community-based recipes with easy to follow directions, nutritional content, and more. FREE


• Diet Points Calculator - Since there is no official way to get a Weight Watchers calculator without signing up for the service, this "diet points" app works just a well.  No frills or fancy graphics, but that does not matter when you want to find out whether you have enough points left to eat that Fast Break candy bar. FREE


• BigOven - Search more than 170,000 recipes and really nail down the right concoction for that homemade stuffing.  The Leftover Wizard lets users enter three ingredients into the app to result in recipes that incorporate each.  FREE

I resolve to get back into church...

• SermonAudio Android Edition - Browse the massive library of MP3 sermons from thousands of different speakers for free.  Find churches in nearby areas using the "Local Church Finder" FREE


• Bible Promises - 500 popular passages to read across various topics, including anger, courage, addiction, belief, and more. 99¢


• Bible - Share passages and verses from multiple versions of The Bible (NIV, ESV, MSG, NKJV, NLT, KJV) over twitter and Facebook.  Features 44 Bibles in 22 different languages. FREE

I resolve to manage my finances better...

• Mint.com - The official client for Mint, it provides access to all of your accounts in one clean app.  Lets users set budgets, see where money is being spent, and personalized savings.  FREE


• PageOnce -Organizes and tracks your money and bills. View banks, credit cards, bills and and more in one simple place. Real-time alerts and reminders keep you in the loop as things happen. Also able to track frequent flyer miles and rewards as well as mobile minutes, text and data usage. FREE and paid versions


• Toshl - Dirt simple way of tracking expenses and habits.  Tag and sort by date, export to CSV, Excel, and PDF.  Allows for multiple types of currencies from around the world. FREE


• Ask Dave Ramsey - Advice from one of the biggest names in debt relief, financial freedom, and money management.  Listen to hundreds of archived calls, read transcripts, and share stories with friends.  FREE

I resolve to stop smoking...

• StopSmoking- Helps those who want to go cold turkey or with a gradual decline.  Displays time between cigarettes, money saved, and average times per day.


• QuitNow! - Track the money you've saved by not smoking, count the days since the last cigarette, and more.  Helpful widget keeps the app front and center and on your mind all the time.  Scare yourself straight with the facts about snuff. FREE

Other self-improvement and general lifestyle apps to help with resolutions...

• Catch Notes - Notepad application that lets users capture text, voice, images, and locations, with the option to sync and backup online at Catch.com. Passcode protection, reminders, sharing, and tagging help organize your notes. FREE


• Evernote - Handy desktop widget makes it a breeze to add notes, images, and recordings to database of things worth keeping.  Easy to sync up with Evernote's website and browser plugins.  Save websites and images from Chrome or Firefox and see them on your phone right away. FREE


• AK Notepad - Also tied with Catch.com, allows for reminders, tags, import/export, back-up, and themes. Pin notes to home screen to keep your important stuff front and center.FREE


• Remember the Milk - Add notes, sort by time, location, date, and more.  Latest update allows for push sync from website to handset.  While the app is free, it does require a Pro RTM account at $25 per year.


• OpenLoopz - Location-aware task manager and to-do list inspired by Getting Things Done (GTD) by David Allen.  App is smart enough to recognize where you are and recommend things to do automatically. FREE and paid ($4.72 US)


• Pocket Informant 3.1 Beta - Exhaustive list of features, looks and acts like the PIM we have been asking for since the days of Palm Pilots.  Based on GTD principles, the developers could easily charge a couple of bucks for the customization and personalization.


• Got To Do - Sync with online task website ToodleDo, organize by folders, tags, and more. Desktop widget with configuration options puts tasks where you need them, in your face. Also allows for filtering, searching, alarms, and sub-tasks (Pro version). FREE and ($3.16 US) paid versions.

Counterfeiting is an arm’s race to nowhere. An endless struggle, with both sides trying to out-wit the other. While treasuries all around the world try to find new ways to make counterfeiters sweat, and ultimately unable to make fake money, the counterfeiters in the world just need to figure out how those individuals are making new money, and copy it. There have been plenty of options in the past, like watermarks, ink that never dries, holograms, and colors that can’t be copied. But, they’ve all been figured out in one way or another. But now, thanks to thin-film transistors, it may be almost impossible for counterfeiters to get the job done.

The new technology, which is still being fleshed out, is designed to literally wrap around paper money. The thin-film transistors are made out of gold, organic molecules, and aluminum oxide. The transistors are then set into a patterned mask, and laid on top of the money. How would merchants be able to tell if it’s the real deal? Once the film is in place, there would be about 100 different organic and invisible transistors on each side of the paper note. Thanks to a small 3 volt current, the note would seem to turn “on and off.”

So instead of having to use a special marker, a person would just pass the bill over a sensor, and if it manages to generate the required voltage, the bill is real, and they can buy whatever it is they intended on purchasing. There’s no doubt that this seems like a huge step to fight counterfeiting, but let’s face it: it’s necessary. Will it solve the problem? We can probably hope it does for a long time, but it’s probably not a permanent fix.

[via TG Daily]

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