Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle

Buzz Corps, the company that’s behind some of the amazing giveaways I participate in, like 31 Days of the Dragon and the HP Magic Giveaway, are changing their name. As a result they need a new logo for the new company. They could have hired a designer to do the new logo, but instead they are reaching out to the community that supports them to look for a great design. As they put it:

“We have always been amazed at the level of talent, smarts and expertise that come from engaging with passionate people. In fact, communities and influencers convinced us to start Buzz Corps (our old name) and helped name us and create our first logo. So, in keeping with our business model and our philosophy the only logical thing for us was to once again work with the influencers and their communities to develop our new mark.”

I’ve seen other logo design contests in the past, but most of them are small potatoes when compared to this. The winning designer gets $2500. There are also some great prizes for 2nd and 3rd place. Entry deadline is June 12, which should be plenty of time to create an awesome new logo. Complete Details are available from Ivy Worldwide (the new name for Buzz Corps).

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Somewhere in the midst of all the excitement around having a new baby arrive, I missed the memo that I was supposed to be announcing another giveaway yesterday. This time around the giveaway is a brand new Pantech Matrix Pro cell phone (pictured below) paired with a $100 gift card to ATT Wireless, which happens to be the carrier associated with the phone. If you live outside the U.S., you’ll likely want to skip this one, since the phone is locked and the gift card won’t be particularly useful to you either.

I’ve had a review unit of the Pantech Matrix Pro at my house for a couple of months and found the dual slide keyboard to be quite handy. The Matrix Pro does not have a touch screen, but I honestly didn’t miss it, which could be due to my years of using other Windows Mobile phones. I definitely find it easier to enter phone numbers (especially alphanumeric ones) on a traditional telephone keypad rather than attempting to dial from a QWERTY keyboard.

How to enter the giveaway? I’ll keep this one simple – all you have to do is be a fan of my Facebook page (which is different than being a friend on Facebook). I’m doing a talk on Facebook for businesses on May 15 and this will help me with some additional research. The recipient of the phone will be selected at random from all fans (which are listed in the sidebar on the Facebook page) who live in the United States. Be a fan to qualify.

I was originally supposed to announce the conclusion of the giveaway on 1 May 2009, but I’m extending it by 24 hours since I got a late start. You have until 7pm Pacific on 2 May 2009 to qualify. The lucky person who gets the phone will be announced on Facebook, on my blog, on Twitter and in my email newsletter shortly after that.

If you aren’t lucky enough to get the Pantech Matrix Pro I’m giving away, Smart Phone Thoughts, Mobility Minded, The Gadgeteer, Geekzone, Techie Diva, Boston Pocket PC, Gear Diary, MobilitySite, Absolute Windows, Mobilejaw, Experience Mobility, Hack College, and Gear Live will be announcing a new contest each day (in that order) starting today as well.

As part of the promotion, there’s also some special pricing on a Jabra BT4051 headset package not available anywhere else.

UPDATE: Katie Yang was announced to all Facebook fan participants on May 2, 2009

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As I indicated in my newsletter earlier this month, I’m giving away one Kindle 2 at the end of April. I try to come up with creative ways to give away these various hardware devices and this time is no exception. There are two requirements to participate:

1) You must be subscribed to my newsletter on 1 May 2009 when I announce the recipient of the Kindle 2.

2) Between now and 30 April 2009, you need to write about your favorite worthy cause in a blog post or some other public way. Talk about what the cause is and why they need help. Be sure to link to the Website of your cause. Many non-profit organizations are suffering during the economic downturn we’re going through. Raising awareness will make a difference. After writing about your cause, email me a link to where you wrote about it. The cause you choose is entirely up to you. It may be a fund raiser for a school in your community through Donor’s Choose; you might promote clean water for a community somewhere; you may raise awareness about a program to help people get food and medical care they need; or you may opt to promote something else entirely. If you do not have an online space like a blog, facebook or myspace page, or somewhere else to promote your cause, you can write about it in the comments below (comments will close 30 April 2009).

The recipient of the Kindle 2 will be announced in the 1 May 2009 issue of the newsletter.

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It’s great to see that you are part of a very generous group. The people who entered the HP Magic Giveaway shared extremely generous suggestions for what they would do with all the gear if selected. It’s come down to that time where selecting the recipient of all this great gear is necessary. I’d love to give to everyone of you who entered, but of course I only have on bundle of HP computers and accessories to give. For this giveaway, that lucky person is Elaine Jordan from Denver, CO. You can read Elaine’s entry and all the other entries here.

Those of you who didn’t win still have many chances to enter one of the HP Magic Giveaways still going on. HackCollege and The Gadgeteer will announce winners tomorrow. Techie Diva, Notebooks.com, and Geek.com all started new giveaways today. And we haven’t even reached the halfway mark yet. So if you’re looking for some awesome upgrades, now is a great chance to visit these other sites and share in the HP Magic.

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Update #2 (6 December 2008): 4pm has passed and the selection process is underway. It may take a bit to validate the hundreds of entries to make sure they have all followed the rules put forth below.

Update (6 December 2008): I’m starting to get emails from people asking when the giveaway announcement will be made today. Expect an announcement at approximately 4pm Pacific time.

Several great contests have already been announced in the HP Magic Giveaway. November 28 Contests started at Gear Live, Bleeping Computer, and Windows Connected. November 29 saw contests launched by Thoughts on Poetics & Tech and Morningside Mom. Today Neowin and Boston Pocket PC join me in announcing HP Magic Giveaway contests.

In case you missed the original announcement about this giveaway, each of 50 sites are giving away a $6000 hardware package that includes 4 HP computers and a bunch of other great peripherals. The package also includes a number of software offerings from Microsoft and their Windows Live team. You can see complete details of the hardware and software included on the official HP Magic Giveaway site.

One common thread among the HP Magic Giveaway contests is the idea that this huge prize deserves to be shared. Most of us don’t really need 4 computers at home, but we all know a person or an organization who could really use some help. For my giveaway, I’m asking you to tell me about who you would share some of this great hardware and software with and why. The winner will be selected randomly because it’s too difficult to judge the merit of one person’s reasons for sharing against another. As long as it’s feasible, I’ll be delivering the hardware to the selected winner in person. As a bonus, I’m donating an hour of my time to either help you set up this new gear or solving some existing computer frustration.

Contest rules:

1) You must be subscribed to Jake Ludington’s Digital Lifestyle newsletter on 6 December 2008 when the winner is announced. If you’re not already subscribed, you can subscribe here.

2) You must post a comment to the official contest announcement (this page) about who (person or organization) you would share the prize with and why. Include city, state, and country in the body of your comment. Your real name and the same email address you subscribe to the newsletter with must be used in the comment entry form so that you can be contacted if you are selected.

3) You may receive up to two additional entries by doing the following:
Additional entry #1: Follow me on Twitter, link to the contest page in a tweet by using this link: http://bit.ly/JLHPMagic and #JLHPMagic somewhere in your tweet. Send me an email from your subscribed email address notifying me of your Twitter username.
Additional entry #2: The second way to get an additional entry is to link to this contest page from your blog, Myspace, Facebook, site, or other online presence using the code below. Send me an email from your subscribed email address notifying me of the location of your link.

<a href=”http://www.jakeludington.com/life/2008/official-hp-magic-giveaway-announcement/”>Jake Ludington’s HP Magic Giveaway</a>

The winner will be selected at random from those people who meet the entry requirements. The winner will be announced on 6 December 2008. If the winner is from the United States, I will deliver the prize to your door and provide an hour of free computer help barring any unforeseen circumstances. If the winner lives outside the United States, the prize will be shipped to your doorstep minus me and the computer help. I’m footing the bill for the travel (not HP or Microsoft), and while I’d love to roundtrip to somewhere more exotic than 100 miles outside Albuquerque, it’s just not feasible this month.

Go forth and share the magic.

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If your idea of magic is an unbelievably awesome package of hardware, HP is definitely delivering a magical experience this holiday season. As I indicated earlier this month, I have a huge giveaway in the works. I’m participating in the HP Magic Giveaway, which is happening across 50 different blogs. Each of the 50 participating sites is giving away a massive package of HP hardware including:

HP TouchSmart IQ816 PC
HP HDX 18 series Premium Notebook PC
HP Pavilion dv4 series Entertainment Notebook PC (with Windows Live)
HP Mini 1000 (with XP)
HP MediaSmart Connect

Yes, that is one huge touch screen computer, two notebook PCs, and an HP Mini just like the one I purchased for traveling. Oh, and a Media Center Extender so you can easily access your media from your home theater. All that’s missing is the partridge in a pear tree. The rest of the package includes:

HP Photosmart C6380 Wireless AIO (printer)
HP 564 Photo Value Pak
Microsoft Office Home and Student Edition 2007 (Student-Teacher Edition) – 1 DVD with 3 licenses
Microsoft Windows Live
Corel VideoStudio X
Kung Fu Panda (2 widescreen DVDs; 1 widescreen Blu-Ray)

One lucky person will be awarded the entire package given away here. There will be a recipient at each of the other 49 sites as well. I can’t announce the particulars of how you get a chance at acquiring this sweet package yet, but one small component of the giveaway will be enticing you to pay it forward.

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As those reading my newsletter know, I announced I was giving away a Toshiba Laptop in September. Due to a number of circumstances beyond my control I didn’t get a chance to announce the winner until today. If you weren’t subscribed to my newsletter, get subscribed so you have a shot at the iPod Touch I’m giving away on 31 October 2008. I’m making this one easy, the only requirement is to be a subscriber of the newsletter. On to the laptop giveaway…

Surprisingly few people sent me emails saying they’d completed the required steps for this month’s giveaway. Quite simply, you needed to be subscribed to the newsletter and link to jakeludington.com from somewhere (I suggested your blog, facebook, myspace, a forum, or someplace similar), then let me know where you linked from. By the time all the submissions were received, the people that did this had a better than 1 in 100 chance of being the new owner of the laptop. I’m assuming you all must already have too many computers. ;) The randomly selected winner is Wayne H., who does some pretty amazing handcrafted woodworking. Congrats to Wayne! Those of you who are subscribers to the newsletter will have a chance to be the recipient of the iPod Touch annouced on 31 October 2008.

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I promised to give away a Zune in June this year and for various reasons it didn’t happen. The Zune has been here the whole time waiting to be given away, but I never got around to announcing the giveaway. With August rapidly approaching, here’s the scoop:

To be eligible to win the Zune you need to be subscribed to my newsletter and/or RSS feed and you need to follow me on Twitter. On August 31 I’ll post a question in my Twitter feed with the answer being in the newsletter from the day before. The first person to respond reply on Twitter with the correct answer will get the Zune. (Trust me, it will make sense when you see it)

The Zune is a brand new, never opened 80GB black model, which include the “premium headphones”. They genuinely are the best sounding headphones I’ve gotten with any portable player because they fit in your ears instead of the ear buds that seem to sit in your ears. They aren’t Etymotic or Shure quality headphones, but they aren’t bad. The Zune is, well a Zune. If you haven’t already, sign up for the newsletter and follow me on Twitter.

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The final HP HDX Dragon giveaway is under way. GottaBeMobile.com is giving away their Dragon by requiring you to answer 5 simple questions.

1) Do you currently use a mobile computer ( Laptop, Tablet PC, UMPC, Ultra-Portable PC, etc)? If so, what brand(s) and what operating system(s) ?

2) When did you purchase the computer that you currently use the most and when do you plan on replacing it?

3) Will your next purchase be a mobile computer? If so, what kind and what brand(s) are you considering?

4) What technology leader would you most like to have lunch with and what would you want to discuss?

5) What can HP do to improve your mobile life?

See the GottaBeMobile official contest page to enter.

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More chances to get an HP HDX Dragon are available. First up, BleepingComputer. You can enter the BleepingComputer.com giveaway by signing up for their forums and reading the rules. I couldn’t see the rules without signing up and don’t want yet another login so you’re on your own for that one. Next we have hardwareGeeks call for a photo or video of your current workspace. When you post the photo to their contest page, you’re supposed to let them know how the HP HDX Dragon will benefit you. If you want to hack this contest, here’s my tip:

1) Dig out your old Pentium II computer from the basement or go snag a crusty computer from Craigslist.
2) Boot the computer and connect to Internet visiting hardwaregeeks.com.
3) Take photo of this pathetic setup then write about how the HP HDX Dragon will bring you current.

A variation on this hack would be to find a working TRS-80 or Commodore 64, connect to television (B&W is better than color for this), submit photo. Anyway, you get the idea – a weak system will standout amongst all the hardware tweakers who will be too proud not to show off their liquid-cooled, backlit beasts. GeekNewsCentral is the final contest I’ll announce today – Todd’s kicking things off with a read/listener/viewer survey (I just gave you a clue to one of the survey answers). 5 more chances to enter the GeekNewsCentral giveaway are coming, so check in every day to make sure you improve your shot at winning. And if you do take my advice and go with the “retro” setup for the hardwaregeeks.com giveaway, be sure to put a link in the comments here – I’d love to see it.

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