Hasta La Gadget!

Apple recently told the media that its “holiday lineup is set,” meaning there will be no new Apple products for the rest of the year. That means for the next few months, Apple fanatics have nothing better to do but speculate, trade rumors and argue among themselves while they wait for the Cupertino, California, company to deliver a touchscreen tablet, rumored for an early 2010 release.

Why not pass the time with some creative fun? A few impressive mock-up illustrations of the fabled Apple tablet have surfaced on the web (like the one above), and we’d love to see even better ones. That’s why we’re hosting a contest inviting Wired.com readers to produce their own illustrations of the highly anticipated Apple tablet.

We’re handing out swanky JAYS V-Jays headphones ($100 value) to the winners of either one of two categories: Most Realistic Mock-Up, for anyone who can create the most realistic, convincing illustration of an Apple tablet based on the consensus of various rumor reports; and Most Creative Mock-Up, for anyone who can dream up the Apple tablet that we all really want.

A few notes: Even though many anonymous sources have described Apple’s tablet as a “larger iPhone,” you’re unlikely to win if all you do is re-size a photo of an iPhone. That would be yawn-inducing. Challenge yourselves artistically, have some fun and make a compelling device worthy of all the hype.

The image must be your own, and by submitting it you are giving us permission to use it on Wired.com and in Wired magazine. In the Reddit widget below, please submit images that are relatively large (ideal size: 800 to 1200 pixels or larger on the longest side).

We don’t host the photos, so you’ll have to upload it somewhere else and submit a link to it. If you’re using Flickr, Picasa or another photo-sharing site to host your image, please provide a link to the image directly and not just to the photo page where it’s displayed. Using an online photo service that requires a login will not work. If your photo doesn’t show up, it’s because the URL you have entered is incorrect. Check it and make sure it ends with the image file name (XXXXXX.jpg).

If all else fails, send your submissions to itabletcontest [at] gmail [dot] com and be sure to include a description; we’ll do what we can to get your mailed submissions into the form below.

You have until 12:01 a.m. Pacific time on Monday, Nov. 2. The Gadget Lab team will judge the images and our choices will determine the two winners, although the top popular vote-getter will get bragging rights and, perhaps, a consolation prize from the stacks of swag here at Wired HQ. Photoshop your hearts out!

Illustration of an Apple tablet: Photo Giddy/Flickr

To enter the contest, submit your iTablet mock-ups in the form below. Then vote on your favorites!

Submit your mock-up

Submit an iTablet mock-up

While you can submit as many illustrations as you want, you can only submit one every 30 minutes. Images must be your own. No HTML allowed.

Back to top

Have a Sony gadget lying around, like a broken, original PlayStation or a neglected DVD player? You might as well rip it apart for a chance to win a brand new PSP Go or a PS3 Slim.

Wired.com and hardware repair company iFixit are hosting a contest. All you have to do to participate is take apart any Sony product and snap photos of the teardown process. Post your photos using iFixit’s teardown gallery tool, along with your observations about the teardown process or the gadget’s insides, and you’re good to go.

Trust us, it’ll be a blast! We’re not asking you to pull a MacGyver and turn a ripped up CD player into a remote-controlled boomerang. (Although, that would be kind of cool.) Just impress us with some neat photos and clever analysis.

A panel of five Wired.com staff members will judge your submissions. You can win one of two prizes. The winner of “Most Creative Teardown” will get a PSP Go (along with a T-shirt). And the winner of “Best Overall Teardown” will receive a PS3 Slim (plus a T-shirt). We want you to be imaginative, so we’re not going to list any strict guidelines. Just have some fun and learn a little about hardware while you’re at it.

iFixit will be taking submissions for two weeks, meaning the deadline is Oct. 23, 11:59 p.m. Pacific. Here are the rules in summary:

1. Take apart a Sony product.
2. Post photos of the process, and your impressions of the device, using iFixit’s teardown editor.
3. The teardowns will be judged by the Wired.com staff.
4. Contest ends Oct. 23, 11:59 p.m. Pacific time.

We’ll post pictures from the winning teardowns, plus any notable honorable mentions, right here on Gadget Lab.

Need ideas for what makes a neat teardown? Here are some examples:

• Just last month, iFixit disassembled the new iPod Touch and found a hole that could have been used for a camera. Strange, because Steve Jobs said Apple intentionally left a camera out of the iPod Touch so the device could focus on gaming! Also, iFixit found an 802.11N chip — an even faster module than the Wi-Fi chip in the new iPhone 3GS. No clue why that’s in there yet, but that’s interesting.
• When iFixit ripped apart the iPod Touch in September 2008, the company discovered a hidden Bluetooth module. This was a pleasant surprise, as Bluetooth was not unlocked by Apple until the release of iPhone OS 3.0 just four months ago. This illustrates how teardowns can reveal technology’s fascinating secrets. Who knows what else is out there that we haven’t discovered yet?

Also, iFixit provides instructions for how to write a teardown, and plenty of examples of teardowns for your reference.

For more on the bizarre culture of gadget abuse, check out our previous feature piece “If You Love Your Gadgets, Tear Them Apart.”

What are you waiting for? Dig up your old Sony junk and start ripping!

Photo: iFixit

For this week’s Photoshop Contest, I asked you to invent some completely unportable portable gaming devices in honor of the PSPgo. As usual, your minds are more demented than I’d even imagined.

First Place

Second Place

Third Place

Filed under: Announcements

Don’t forget to enter Engadget’s back to school giveaway, part one! originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 02 Sep 2009 14:32:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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For this week’s Photoshop contest, we asked you to create images showing the fabled Apple Tablet being used in day-to-day life. And there’s a clear line between those craving the tablet and those mocking it. I prefer the latter.