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frethop's Avatar
frethop is offline frethop
05-24-2007 , 10:31 PM
Posts: 274 | Thanked: 47 times | Joined on Nov 2005 @ It's dark in here. I hear laughing.
#1
The June issue of Popular Science is now in circulation. This means that the list of "The Nokia-PopSci Challenge" winners is complete. The winners were announced via Nokia advertisements in each Popular Science issue. The May winner was M. Kangas whose application idea was called the "HotSpotter". This application "would find Wi-Fi hot spots within range and uses the N800's Internet radio feature to audibly tell you where the hot spot is located." The June winner was M. Cabot whose application was a "GPS Home Finder". This idea suggested that "GPS technology is utilized to let the Nokia N800 search for and identify real estate listings that meet your desired criteria right on the screen." The fact that the contest winners were announced with an ad for the N800 means that we did not get any more information on the contest. Things like judging criteria and runner up application ideas were bypassed for notes about how "smart" the N800 is. But congratulations are in order to these winners, who each received an N800.
Read the full article.
 
zerojay's Avatar
zerojay is offline zerojay
05-24-2007 , 11:23 PM
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#2
Wow... completely useless.
 
Karel Jansens's Avatar
Karel Jansens is offline Karel Jansens
05-25-2007 , 07:29 AM
Posts: 3,220 | Thanked: 259 times | Joined on Oct 2005 @ "Almost there!" (Monte Christo, Count of)
#3
Originally Posted by zerojay View Post
Wow... completely useless.
You know -- I can't but agree completely. The only possible use these "winning" "applications" could have, is that they help wear out CF cards ever so slightly faster, thus increasing sales of CF cards marginally.

The "hotspotter" is moronically useless: The whole idea of WiFi being that you don't have to know where the transmitter is, only that it's available.

And that "GPS home finder"... oh dear. The fact that it won't do anything at all on a stock N800 without the purchase of additional hardware, was obviously no impediment for the Nokia drones to elect it.

Another opportunity to create useful software for the N800 lost to the lobotomized marketing ghouls that run Nokia these days. And they still haven't released that Nokia phone with marshmallow toaster...
 
frethop's Avatar
frethop is offline frethop
05-25-2007 , 09:42 AM
Posts: 274 | Thanked: 47 times | Joined on Nov 2005 @ It's dark in here. I hear laughing.
#4
Well...I couldn't say this in the news blurb, but I agree big time with with you folks. No offense to Kangas and Cabot, but Nokia's choice to "announce" these winners through an advertisement means they (Nokia and the announcement) lost a lot of integrity. Where was Popular Science's participation -- a free ad?

How many entries were there? What were some of the other good ones? What was the criteria?

I know there were other great ideas posted (I submitted one ). You can probably look for these in future products.

On the whole, this was a great opportunity -- for Nokia and the FOSS community -- lost. Bummer.

-F
 
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james.bottomtooth is offline james.bottomtooth
05-25-2007 , 10:49 AM
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#5
PopSci and Nokia collaboration, was nothing but advertisement.
in fact even though i get the issue every month, the magazine itself is nothing but a huge ad catalog. it rarely has any scientific articles, a few unrealistic projections about flying cars and next futuristic weapon, the rest are just ads for products, with listed prices and websites. even most of the how-to articles are ads for one or the other web-store...
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testerj is offline testerj
05-26-2007 , 05:14 PM
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#6
Where can I find this Hotspotter Application ? I haven't been able to locate it anywhere or is it in development.

Not really the "best" application but it may help if you have low connectivity to better place your device for optimal results.

I would like to test it out before I make any judgements on it, it's nice to see the constructive feedback.. what do you think was more deserving? and why?
 
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james.bottomtooth is offline james.bottomtooth
05-26-2007 , 06:11 PM
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#7
Originally Posted by testerj View Post
Where can I find this Hotspotter Application ? I haven't been able to locate it anywhere or is it in development.
i think the contest was just for "suggestion" for the best application.
the feeling i got is that it doesn't mean it was, is or ever will be in development.
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testerj is offline testerj
06-01-2007 , 08:26 PM
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#8
That is almost like a car without gas... don't you think?
 
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