Xu Cui

Undoubtedly some people are very successful in making money by developing a smartphone app. Back in 2012 I developed an app called “Handbook of Brain” which is a collected resources of brain anatomy, function and diseases. I put the app in Google’s app store (Google Play) and priced it as $1.99. I also tried to put it in Apple’s app store but they rejected because the app references wiki a lot.

Here is the app’s page in Google Play:

handbook of brain

3 years passed, how much money did I make? In total there are 10 purchases and the total revenue is $20.01 according to Google. So on average I made $6.7/year, or $0.5/month.

handbook of brain financial

Often you need to view the spatial pattern of activation as in the example below. plotTopoMap allows you to do that. It probably only works for Hitachi devices where the spatial relationship between channels are known.

plotTopoMap

In the above example, the activation pattern of a 24-channel patch is plotted. The white number indicates the channel number. Color indicates the signal intensity. This map is smoothed. You can immediately tell that what areas are activated. You can also rotate the patch in case the orientation is not correct. You can also hide the channel numbers.

Here is an example on how to use this function:

figure; plotTopoMap(randn(24,1),'4x4');

The 2nd parameter is the patch configuration. It can be ‘4×4′, ‘3×11′, ‘3×5′ or ‘3×3′.

And here is the source code of the function.
plotTopoMap.m. Type help plotTopoMap in MatLab to see how to use it.

Note. This script is adopted from the topo program made by Hitachi.

Racer

Ostrova

Zombie

In your AIR application, if you overwrite the application menu, you might find that the keyboard shortcuts (e.g. Cmd-C, V) doesn’t work under Mac. It seems the “Edit” menu in the default application is essential to these functions. So you should at least keep the “Edit” menu if you need to use your own menu.

First, your asdoc.exe should be in your system path

1. Open command window, cd to your project folder. In this folder, you should find src folder
2. Run command
   asdoc -source-path .\src -doc-sources .
3. Then a folder called “asdoc-output” will be generated

Adobe AIR 2 beta is out last night (Nov 16, 2009). It includes a number of highly expected features including launching native applications. It also improves CPU/memory usages. Some sample applications include:

http://labs.adobe.com/technologies/air2/samples/

File Tile

1. FileTile
   Open a document with system default application (e.g. doc by Word)
   USB drive mount/unmount detection
   get icons from a file
2. SearchCentral
   Call native applications (spotlight)
3. Microphone
   Record voice from local microphone directly
4. KeePIPE
   p2p application of file sharing in the same network
5. TouchTest
   Multi-touch

If your AIR application needs to do something (e.g. saving some settings) before quitting, you may listen to the Event.EXITING event, and then preventDefault(), then do something, and finally call NativeApplication.nativeApplication.exit() to quit. But, if you call NativeApplication.nativeApplication.exit() too quickly (e.g. call it right after preventDefault())), your application won’t exit. The solution is to wait some time (e.g. 100 ms) and call this function.

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
<mx:WindowedApplication xmlns:mx="http://www.adobe.com/2006/mxml" layout="absolute" applicationComplete="init();">
<mx:Script>
<![CDATA[
private function init():void
{
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.addEventListener(Event.EXITING, onExiting);
}
private function onExiting(e:Event):void
{
e.preventDefault();
var t:Timer = new Timer(100);
t.addEventListener(TimerEvent.TIMER, onTimer);
t.start();

}
private function onTimer(e:TimerEvent):void
{
NativeApplication.nativeApplication.exit();
}
]]>
</mx:Script>
</mx:WindowedApplication>

If you use mx:WindowedApplication, you won’t have this problem. If you use mx:Application, you may find your application is not visible after launching.

Solution:  open your application description file (xxxx-app.xml) and change visible property to true.

How to get a cert in the first place:

http://www.adobe.com/devnet/air/articles/signing_air_applications_print.html

If you encounter this error when signing your AIR application, do the following:

1. Download the Thawte Code Signing CA from www.thawte.com/roots
2. Extract the contents and find file “Thawte Code Signing CA.cer” in folder Thawte Roots\Thawte Code Signing\Code Signing CA\
3. Open “Internet Option” from control panel, click tab Content, then Certificate, then Intermediate Certification Authority. Then click on “Import certificate” button and import “Thawte Code Signing CA.cer”
4. Now go back to your original p12 certificate file. Double click and import your system (be sure to enter your password). Check the option “Mark this key as exportable”
5. After importing, go to Internet Options > Content > Certificates
6. Select your certificate and click export
7. Next
8. Yes, export the private key
9. Format: PKCS, (checked) Include all certificates in the… , (checked) Enable Strong protection, (unchecked) Delete the private key …
10. Next
11. Enter Password for the certificate
12. Next enter filename and export the file

It should be good.

Reference:

http://forums.adobe.com/thread/433530

You can get all applications from Adobe Marketplace

Beautiful Design

1. Employee Directory
   Elegant design. This application drives me to learn AIR.
2. Adobe Media Player
   Elegant design
3. Time 100 Desktop
   Nice design. Rotating globe, rotating pictures in 3D
4. Times Reader
   Great text layout (how they did that?!)
5. AOL Top 100 Videos
   Nice design, video play
6. Spreadtweet
   Interesting idea: an excel interface but indeed a twitter client
7. Acrobat.com for My Desktop
   Beautiful design. Buzzword is simply cool!
8. Finetune Desktop
   Beautiful style
9. Adobe Media Player
   Beautiful design
10. Sam’s Interactive Reader
    Cool

Useful functions

1. Colabolo
   Issue manager. Useful functions.
2. Adobe Developer Connection
   Useful functions
3. Icon Generator
   Generate icons, Very useful
4. ActionScript 3.0 Diagram Viewer
   it would be nice if it could be more interactive
5. Mockups For Desktop