Back in 2009, we wrote a story on crack mobile developer Larva Labs lamenting its inability to make a living off top-rated games in the Android Market. Well, to put it lightly, it ain’t 2009 anymore: the Android ecosystem has expanded exponentially in every conceivable direction, the Market has taken on tens of thousands of additional apps, and — according to one research firm, anyway — Android has now overtaken BlackBerry to become the most prolific smartphone platform in the US.

To that end, Spacetime Studios — the company behind mobile MMORPG Pocket Legends, which brings in revenue through in-app purchases — was shocked to discover that it’s making some 30 to 50 percent more from its Android users than its iOS ones. Furthermore, they’re spending more time playing and downloading the app with far greater frequency, which might be a testament to the fact that really great apps still stand out in the Market better than they do in the more mature (and more populated) App Store. The in-app purchase disparity is a little more difficult to explain, though — especially since iOS has a slick, integrated purchase mechanism that Google won’t be rolling out in Android for a little while yet. At any rate, the online mobile economy — regardless of platform — clearly still has some growing, maturing, and stabilizing to do.

[Thanks, Michael]

Profit shocker! Android brings home more bacon than iOS for Pocket Legends developer originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Mar 2011 03:59:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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InfoUplink App: apps.facebook.com MMOs I play (both still in beta) www.globalagendagame.com http Music: Pascal Pearce – Disko Bizkit www.facebook.com

By Andrew Liszewski

Thanks to a fake but convincing package design, Bacon Baby, which is supposedly bacon flavored instant baby formula, looks like you just might find it on supermarket shelves next to that boring flavored Gerber stuff. In fact, were it not for the outlandish claims on the J&D’s website, I’d probably try and order some for myself. I mean the great taste of bacon without all that exhausting chewing? It’s win win!

The results were absolutely impressive. By the age of 4 months, our test subject started to exhibit some amazing abilities including walking and talking. By 6 months of age, she could read and memorize her early stage children’s books and showed an extreme level of coordination and balance – so much so that she was enrolled in gymnastics and ballet with children 5 years older than she was! At two years old, she read her first 300 page book, memorized the Declaration of Independence and (this is absolutely true) began composing her first symphony.

Even though I’m sure this was an April Fool’s Day prank of some sort, I think we can all agree that bacon, which for some reason still isn’t considered its own food group, is just the thing a growing newborn needs. So here’s to hoping that J&D, aka Justin and Dave, come to their senses and try and find a way to make this product a reality. It happened with ThinkGeek’s Tauntaun sleeping bag, and that doesn’t even smell like bacon!

[ J&D's Bacon Baby Formula ] VIA [ FAIL Blog ]

Like the owner of a Hattori Hanzō sword, should the Hardees/Carl’s Jr. Grilled Cheese Bacon Thickburger encounter God, God will enjoy a nice burger. Now you, too, can enjoy a nice burger and – seriously – a Hardee’s Slanket.

So anyway, here’s what’s going on. Hardee’s wrote: “We’d like to offer one of your lucky readers the opportunity to win a limited edition Hardee’s Happy Star Slanket, as well as some free Grilled Cheese Bacon Thickburger coupons” and I’m like “Lucky?” But I’ll bite, and I’m sure you will too if you win such a wonderful prize. How do you win? Comment below. One lucky commenter gets some coupons and the Slanket. This is so freaking random that I don’t have anything else to say. I’ll pick a winner on Thursday.

Warning: The little animals curse a little.

This cute little video is literally what we go through on a daily basis with PR people. It basically recounts our daily conversations with strangers that go something like this:

PR Person: “We have big news! But you guys don’t sign embargoes.”
Me: “Fine, we’ll sign an embargo.”
PR Person: “Sign this in duplicate and fax a copy to Nepal then Fedex a copy to our CEO.”
Me: “Done. What is it.”
PR Person: “It’s a new sandwich. With bacon!”

Steve O’Hear created this Howl-esque video showing the Catch-22 of embargoes and how PR companies basically use embargoes to put up a velvet rope in front of a mound of manure. It is so true to life I have goose bumps. If you wonder why we get so worked up all the time about this topic, it’s because of exchanges like these.

via BB

We did a little roast beast this year on Christmas, and although it turned out great, there was a huge amount of consternation involving variations in oven temperature, at what intervals to re-baste, and that sort of thing. If only there were a precision cooking instrument in which I could put a vacuum-packed hunk of meat and have it suspended in a perfect mass of temperature-controlled water — oh, there is?

The SousVide Supreme Water Oven is a slow-cooker’s fantasy, and as long as your food doesn’t need to get too much past 200°F. The vacuum sealing is, of course, terribly eco-unfriendly, but it does make the meat, or apples, or whatever you put in there, stew in nothing but its own juices.

One caveat: without a hot pan, grill, or oven, and with the food basting itself, there is a side effect. According to a New York Times review:

Although amazing flavor infusion can take place inside the bag (a skirt steak I sealed with bacon fat, then cooked for two days, was memorable), the food emerges unnervingly pale and soft.

Very appetizing! Well, the proof of the pudding is in the taste, they say, and apparently the taste is insanely good. Too bad this thing costs $449 and you’ll need a vacuum sealer to do the job correctly as well.

[via RedFerret]