Sep 06

Nokia wants you to create its next iconic ringtone, if you have what it takes

Posted in: contest, mobilepostmini, nokia, Today's Chili, video
On the streets, in crowded restaurants, and even in movies, you’ve likely heard the same song ad nauseam for the last seventeen years: the rockin’ default ringtone used on virtually every Nokia device since 1994. And while it’s evolved over the years, Espoo’s always taken upon itself to choose the next version of the iconic tune. For the next iteration, however, the company is leaving it up to you to be the creative genius, and is offering a reward of $10,000 for the best one. Five submissions will be chosen as runner-ups, each getting their entry offered in the Ovi store as well as a smaller cash prize for their efforts. So if you’ve always wanted to hear your own creation blasting out of millions of phones each and every day, now’s your chance — you have until October 2nd to get that spark of musical innovation.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Continue reading Nokia wants you to create its next iconic ringtone, if you have what it takes

Nokia wants you to create its next iconic ringtone, if you have what it takes originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 06 Sep 2011 08:37:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  sourceAudioDraft, Nokia  | Email this | Comments

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Aug 11

HTC Mazaa’s awarded in dev contest, winners promptly splay (and auction) them to world

Posted in: contest, developer, developers, HTC, mango, Microsoft, qualcomm, smartphone, Smartphones, snapdragon, Today's Chili, windows phone, WindowsPhone, Wp7
What would you do if you’d won an unannounced smartphone that sported Windows Phone Mango? Naturally, we hope you’d first send us the dirt, but what if you were a college student and knew the weekend was rapidly approaching? Undergrad winners of Microsoft’s WPAppitUp competition are facing this smartphone / cheap beer conundrum, as they’re now holding HTC Mazaas as prizes, yet many are selling them for cash instead.

If you’d like to adopt an orphan, the phones come with Qualcomm’s MSM8655 SoC — the same as the Thunderbolt and Droid Incredible 2 — which supports (but may not feature) dual mode GSM / CDMA for world roaming. A 1GHz Scorpion CPU and the Adreno 205 GPU are in the mix, and while the over-sized earpiece seems to indicate that this is the same 12-megapixel monster previously shown off by Eldar Murtazin, one of the contest winners, Heedeok Lee, informed us that the camera is actually of 5 megapixel resolution only. Frankly, it’s unclear whether the Mazaa is heading for retail shelves at all, but if you’re wanting an early taste of Mango, you should consider befriending a thirsty student developer.

Gallery: HTC Mazaa

HTC Mazaa’s awarded in dev contest, winners promptly splay (and auction) them to world originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 11 Aug 2011 06:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink Windows Phone Sauce  |  sourcexda-developers, @heedeok (Twitter)  | Email this | Comments

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Jul 05

Google slides Prizes into beta, helps you get real paid

Posted in: game, Google, Today's Chili

Come on down! You can be the next contestant on the Prizes site. That was overkill, we know, but it’s a necessary introduction into a new world of online solution-based social gaming pioneered by the Slide team. Acquired by the Goog back in 2010, the low profile entertainment-driven app developer has been hard at work making the web ‘more social’ and filling its Big Daddy’s pockets. Debuting in classic Google beta form, Prizes takes your Twitter or Facebook accounts and signs you up for cash prize-winning, user-created contest shenanigans. In case you missed that fine point, we’ll reiterate — users design the challenges, you post a solution (or vice versa). Like the $40 “Give my Dad a makeover!” competition we’re completely unqualified to enter, or the $30 “Comprehensive ‘get healthy’ plan for living in a large, polluted city” game we’re sure Al Gore could win in his sleep. It’s a kooky idea, but we can definitely see the service having widespread appeal. Let’s be frank here: Google + social gaming + prize money = solid user gold.

Google slides Prizes into beta, helps you get real paid originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jul 2011 03:11:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink TechCrunch  |  sourcePrizes  | Email this | Comments

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Nov 17

Contest: Make a Toy-Repair Manual and Win a Tool Kit

Posted in: Hacks, Mods and DIY, Today's Chili, Toys and Games


Instead of buying the kids in your life some cheap plastic junk this holiday, why not make them something awesome?

Better yet, take a classic toy, fix it up, and give it a bad-ass custom paint job. What six-year-old wouldn’t want a working Easy-Bake oven with orange flames and racing stripes? Or a pink, Barbie-themed Tonka truck? Beats the pants off this all-plastic Squinkies Cupcake Surprize Bake Shop that doesn’t actually bake anything.

To help you refurbish those old toys, open-source gadget manual site iFixit is recruiting people to create toy repair manuals. And they’re doing it with a contest. Write a toy-repair manual, and you could win a prize from iFixit.

It’s similar to the teardown contest iFixit and Gadget Lab cosponsored last year. And like last year’s contest, Gadget Lab staff will help judge the winners of this contest.

The contest begins today and runs through December 12.

Ifixit’s goal is to build a useful repair manual for each of 40 classic toys, from the Atari 2600 and Barbie doll to the View-Master and yo-yo. But if you have another toy you’d like to write up, go for it.

The prizes include a few cool tool kits for cracking open and fixing consumer electronics, and they’ll be awarded to the three individuals who contribute the most to the toy repair manual overall.

Here are the rules in summary:

  • Take apart a toy.
  • Post photos of the repair process using iFixit’s guide editor.
  • Add the tag ‘fixatoy’ to your guide.
  • The teardowns will be judged by the entire iFixit staff (during our annual Christmas party), with some help from Gadget Lab staff.
  • Contest ends Sunday, December 11 at 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

Check these links for more information:

iFixit Toy Repair Manual Contest Announcement

How to write a repair guide on iFixit

Photo courtesy iFixit


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Sep 17

Best of Show: iTunes Icons Redesigned by Wired Readers

Posted in: itunes, Miscellaneous, Today's Chili

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iTunes Digital Redux


Winner of our contest, submitted by designer Ian Houser.
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Wired.com readers weren’t kidding when they complained that they didn’t like Apple’s new iTunes icon. We received over 100 submissions for our “Redesign Apple’s Ugly iTunes Icon” contest, with a ton of impressive mockups.

We also asked readers to vote for their top picks, and the crowd favorite comes from Ian Houser, whose icon “iTunes Digital Redux” received nearly 1,200 votes. His icon, featured above, incorporates a waveform: ”since the reasoning behind the new icon was that iTunes is powering the digital revolution, and CD’s aren’t part of that anymore,” he explains. Congrats, Ian! You’re getting a new iPod Shuffle.

Want to replace your ugly iTunes icon with Ian’s beautiful creation? Unzip the .zip file containing Ian’s icon and follow these steps:

  1. Remove iTunes from Dock.
  2. Right click the iTunes software and select “get package contents” from submenu.
  3. Open (contents > Resources) folder and copy the new iTunes.ico file into the folder. (Back up the old one if you might want to revert to it.)
  4. Add iTunes shortcut back to your dock.

Many of you designed some great stuff, and we’re featuring 15 other icons that received the most votes, along with some of our personal favorites. Enjoy, and thanks to everyone who participated and voted.

See Also:


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Sep 14

Enter Wired’s Smartphone Photography Contest

Posted in: Android, Apple, iPhone, photography, Smartphones, Today's Chili

Think your phone takes pretty good photos? Submit your best smartphone shots to Wired’s smartphone photo contest and show the world!

Smartphones may lack the big sensors and low-light capabilities of more serious cameras, but they’re portable, unobtrusive and let you apply some remarkably sophisticated post-processing effects on the fly.

That has inspired a subculture of photographers who limit themselves to using smartphones — usually iPhones. Several “iPhoneography” blogs and photo groups have cropped up in major cities including London and New York, where smartphone shooters post artistic photos of their local communities. And we’ve highlighted some cool shots made by artsy iPhoneographers.

Now it’s your turn. Upload your photos to a website or photo-sharing service such as Flickr, then add their URLs to the form below.

Please submit only photos that have been shot and edited exclusively with a smartphone (any model).

We’ll feature the top photos in a future gallery on Wired.com, and we’ll feature the number one photo in the sidebar of Gadget Lab right here.

Submit your best smartphone photos and vote on your favorites.

hot | new | top-rated or submit your own photo

Submit a photo

While you can submit as many pics as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.

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Sep 08

Wired.com Contest: Redesign Apple’s Ugly iTunes Icon

Posted in: Apple, itunes, Media Players, Today's Chili

Apple dazzled customers with an armful of shiny new iPods during a press conference last week, but a number of fans groaned at a less pleasing sight: the new iTunes 10 icon (above).

Gone is the legendary icon of a compact disc, replaced by a blue bubble containing a music note. A Wired.com reader even sent an e-mail to Steve Jobs saying the iTunes 10 icon “sucks,” to which Jobs replied, “We disagree.”

Peeved Apple fans will just have to agree to disagree with the steadfast CEO. But it’s your computer desktop, so why not design your own icon to replace Apple’s? In the past week we’ve actually seen a bunch of really neat alternative iTunes icons made by independent designers.

Wired.com invites readers to redesign the iTunes 10 icon for a chance to win an iPod Shuffle ($50). Submit your mockup in the Reddit widget below, then vote on your favorites. Your votes will determine the standout submissions, and Wired.com editors will make the final call on a winner.

Directions: In the “Image URL” field paste a direct link to the location of the image. In “Image link” just paste a link to your website, if you have one; if not, no big deal. We entered an iTunes icon made by “Toffeenut” as an example.

The contest will close at 9 p.m. PT on Sunday. One winner gets the prize, and we’ll feature the top 10 icons next week in a photo gallery.

What are you waiting for? Get photoshopping!

Submit and vote on your favorite redesigned iTunes icon.

Submit an iTunes icon

While you can submit as many icons as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. No HTML allowed.

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Aug 04

55 Examples of Modern Gadgets in Early-90’s Pop Culture [PhotoshopContest]

Posted in: feature, photoshop, Today's Chili, top

For this week’s Photoshop Contest, I asked you to stick some of today’s gadgets into the glorious days of the early 90’s. And you delivered! If only my 11-year-old self could see this stuff, he’d totally flip out. More »

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Jul 28

165 More Photoshopped Publicity Photos for BP [PhotoshopContest]

Posted in: feature, photoshop, Today's Chili, top

Last week, I asked you to help BP out with Photoshopping their publicity photos, something they clearly were having a hard time with. And wow, you delivered a deluge of images, each one more embarrassing for BP than the last. More »

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Jul 14

17 Ways Sports Could Be Spiced Up with Tech [PhotoshopContest]

Posted in: feature, photoshop, Sports, Today's Chili, top

Sports are exciting and all, but wouldn’t they be a lot more exciting with the addition of, say, jetpacks and lightsabers? Yeah, I thought so. More »

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