Day 5 of Engadget's Five Days of Holiday Giveaways: Convince us to give you an HTC Universal
posted December 16th 2005 2:15PM
It's the day you've been waiting for all week. On
day one we gave away a bunch of cellphones;
day two we loosed just one very nice phone by way of the
Podcast; day three we gave away a ton of Xbox prizes;
day four's mystery prize has yet to be unveiled, but
today's the day we're holding back the tears, sucking it up, and giving away the ultimate gadget of 2005. The winner of
the last day of Engadget's Five Days of Holiday Giveaways goes home with the mother of all handhelds, a freaking
unlocked HTC Universal. Seriously. We love
our readers that much.
And all you have to do is convince us why we should give it to you.
Here's how it works: you email us at engadget at gmail dot com with the subject
"Holiday Universal contest" (no quotes) with something to convince us to give you an HTC Universal. It
can be a short movie, a picture, a poem, a public display of your affection for Engadget or the HTC Universal, a song
you wrote — whatever!
The only rules are: you can only enter once (as always, we'll be checking), your entry must be in by
11:59PM EST, Sunday, December 18th, and whatever you do to convince us to give you this thing must be original.
Original not only as in you thought of / did / recorded / whatevered this thing into creation, but that it's
original original. We can pretty much tell you that the "I really want a Universal but I'm a broke college
student!" shtick ain't gonna win you this thing. Nor is the guilt card. Winner will be chosen by Engadget's staff. Be
creative, have fun, good luck, and happy nondenominationalmas to everybody!
UPDATE: Not sure how much more clear we can make this: TELLING US YOUR SOB STORY WON'T HELP YOU WIN. We need to see some creativity.
wooooooooo
Well, I really just want to put it on ebay.
I'm having my first born in march and can use the money. So my plan would be to ebay, get all the baby stuff i need, and use the rest for an HTC Wiz!
So what do you say???
what carriers here in the US could you use this on?
oh please oh please oh please oh pleaseoh pleaseoh pleaseoh pleaseoh pleaseoh pleaseoh pleaseoh please oh please oh please oh pleaseoh please....
Hey u guys really are the best! Thats y u guys are getting the moblog award!
i never owned a cell phone and im 25, i'd love to make this my first one. thank you
ooh oooh pick me. im so broke this christmas. wahhh
This is such a cool prize.
I know my little entry wasn't terribly creative, so good luck to who ever wins this puppy!
every day i visit engadget
and i see all the goodies i shall never have
being over 50 years old and poor and not especially tech savvy
engadget is a wondrous toy store that is oh so ever out of reach
i patiently wait as my dial up loads the pictures on my pentium one with the anticipation of a child at Christmas
nose pressed against a window looking in and reading the comments posted by those more fortunate to own the latest new fangled toy
mean not to cry poor
just want to have a chance at owning the dream
The Only Reason I Need To Give is...
Gimme gimme gimme!
(but i still entered properly by email( ^_^ )
It's been almost 5 years since I've got a new phone, which happened to drown in the washing machine :( Now I'm on my second hand me down phone. It's a combination of things why I didn't get a new one yet. A) I don't want to get locked into another contract B) I've been holding out for a smart phone. C) I've been holding out for a 3G phone; Rogers Wireless will release their 3G network here in 2006. I love gadgets and technology, as you can gather by my posting a comment here. It's sad for me to watch all my friends play with their laptops and other gadgets. Not to say that I don't have my fair share of tech, but I can't get enough ;) I have the oldest cell phone of anyone I know and the kicker is that I actually work for a company that sells phones. Please help. Besides, my girl friend would crucify me if I ever tried to purchase something like this. Thanks for your help.
P.s. I'm trying to get up the nerve to call in to the Engadget Podcast (love those) but I don't have a cool voice like Peter and Ryan
P.p.s
It would be nice if this site had some more Canadian content. I get all giddy when I see info from up here. Also please come to Toronto for a reader meet up. It would be great to see you here.
I want to start using PCs.. baby steps :p
----------------- click my name --------------^
'Cause I can't play Bejeweled whilst working! Not to mention the fact that only the headset works -- no speakerphone, no earpiece.
How 'bout it?
if i hear one more joke from people in my office about my sidekick being "so kiddish" i may pull a colin ferguson and lirr the entire office..
on the other hand if i can walk into work with the motherload which is the htc universal..i may have finally gained the upperhand and recive that promotion ive been so deserving of..
also the skies might just open up and create a second genesis..
[jedi-mind-trick]I have convinced you that i am the winner[/jedi-mind-trick]
To be honest, I really don't especially deserve this (does anyone?), for a specific reason, but I do think it'd be a very fun device to play around with, as well as a nice replacement for my (now less than stupendous) cellphone. So, I think I should win just because of my own selfish wants, but isn't that what engadget is all about?
my sister needs a phone,
i wish i could give her a loan.
since i dont have any money,
getting a new phone seems a bit funny.
all i ask is that you help her out,
please engadget... do i have to shout!?!?
You should give me an HTC Universal because I don't have a cell phone. I lost mine on the roller coaster NITRO in Six Flags New Jersey. The worst part is that I livew in California :(. So, Help me get a new Cell phone, please?
Why to give me it?, well it's pretty easy to explain, Engadget and all your other blogs use up too much of my time, I can't keep away from checking the site nonstop each day. It is interfering with my work, but I still manage to keep it hidden from the others at work by putting Engadget on my dual screen, where it can hide and tell me all the wonders happening in the gadget world... YES! Engadget, you owe 35% of my everyday life... enjoy it, as I do ;)
Several years ago I was involved in a law suit with an unnamed wireless carrier. I lost all of my money, property, cloathing, even my dog left me, all to finance the suit. But I was fortunate enough to have won my suit and the one thing I now have is unlimited wireless service for free. No cash prize, just free service. Alas, along with cloathing, food, shelter and a new stylus for the DS I don't own, I have no cell phone because I can not afford it. And what is unlimited cell service without the hardware? The answer...nothing but more fabu radiation passing through me and not being used.
So while I may be wearing a loin-cloth made out of thrown out wrappers of your greasy big macks, and I may be wearing cardboard sandals (becaue tire sandals are too expensive), and while I may be a white dude with dread-locks (even though I don't want them, I am just that filthy) at least I can be all of these things with a bitchin' phone/ gizmo.
Clearly I can not send in photos or other more interesting entries, because...I haven't the means...All your pity is belong to us.
P.S. - And if you want to know how I even got on your site...lets just say 'stolen $100 laptop'.
wow with an htc universal i could conquer the evil gingivitis in my mouth by letting it remind me to use listerine
Heyyyyy....they said EMAIL US....if this continues this is going to be the longest Engadget thread ever....
Now im off to write them and email....
Since I am not going to win anyway, can you just tell me where I can buy one in the US?
Please don't give me another Universal as I already have one - its too big to fit two in my pocket :p
Forget it, guys. I've got this one sewn up.
MY prior post was just a general appeal to pity
I need this phone because i've been stuck with my 3390 for 5ever and all my friends have sidekicks, razrs, blackberrys and they all make fun of me! I need to get on their level but i cant afford anything fancy like them. HELP ME PLEASE
Acer Travelmate 8200 was announced for winning Gemany's IF design award for a short while and was removed from the the acer's global website.
The new flag ship laptop has the new carbon fibre cover and 1.3mp rotating camera building, there will be new kind of memory i think and dual core pentium m, and in very nice black, other details are unknown at the moment but i would wish for SATA HD with NCQ and maybe building 3G connection.
I would be very happy my company will get me this in the new year, then i might be able get a UTC universal myself and it would be a dopod variant since that's what we get in this area.
If get this UTC from you in nice silver/while then i guess i might be the only one with this colour in the country and give me enough money to get a nice sony ericsson p990i then it will complete for my mobile device software development, symbian, windows mobile, etc...
wish everyone has a nice x'mas and new year, i am sure there are people more in need for a nice UTC Universal... but there no harm to give a try
You should give it to me because December 19th (the day that you guys decide, I think) is my birthday. I'll be turning 18! Hahaha, well... it's worth a try.
Oh yeah... well, umm... yep.
I basically have no reason to even have that. I probably wouldn't even use it. Okay okay, so I would definitely use it.
Brian
Roses are red, violets are blue
Give me this cell phone, or I'll say **** you.
Oh, e-mail? I must've missed that part. Oh well. I don't really care enough to e-mail.
It's not like I'd get it anyway.
Brian
Wow that thing is sweet. Almost as sweet as Engadget.
Hi Engadget - have a good weekend.
It's obvious that #13 should get it. That was perfect.
I work for a PDA software company, and getting ahold of testing equipment requires:
a) buying it, which means spending about 1,000 USD on this as it would be an unlocked GSM phone
b) Relying on companies to give us testing versions of their hardware
c) Relying on Microsoft or Palm to give us loaner equipment that usually doesn't run retail versions of the OS / Hardware.
I do quite a lot of testing, and having retail hardware is always preferable to having something that isn't released yet / won't ever be released but is 'similar' to something else.
One thing we don't have but would very much like is a Pocket PC Phone running Windows Mobile 5 that is a complete retail device.
Also, if we got one, I'd be able to use it as my phone. I want a PDA phone. Enough said. *obligatory selfish part of justification*
So I can break this POS with a friggin judo chop!
EMAIL PEOPLE!
im not gonna lie.... im gonig to sell it an buy tons of beer
Last night I had a dream about engadget. In this dream, I used all of the awesome gadgets feature on the site (which I literally check multiple times per day, and sometimes per hour on very lonely nights) to defeat my archenemy, an antique salesman. Using all of the swiveling, sliding, bluetooth-ing, 1.3megapixel-ing cameras which I found at engadget.com, I converted the salesman into the modern era of new technologies, such as stuffed flash drives and paper-thin clocks. The salesman burned all of his antiques and gave up his ways of meticulously observing carves and strokes of 'art'. I woke up this morning sweating, and quickly jumped on my computer to check on my baby, engadget.com. After being fascinated by yet even more new inpiring ideas, I ate my breakfast with a huge smile and put on my home-made supersuit and prepared to battle off any anti-technology ideas, just like engadget would want me to.
You're probably asking yourself, what the hell does this have to do with winning a HTC Universal? The answer is simple: this awesome gadget has all of the sliding, typing, e-mailing, color-lcding, crime-fighting, technologically capable features which i desire in my life. My loyal phone (Samsung A-670) recently perished due to a fatal leap from my pocket. The doctors said that even with the most intesive treatment and care, she wouldn't even last the night. Her screen was torn from her lower body, and was simply irrepairable. Does this story make my sob?
Yes.
In fact, I just returned from an hour-long sobbing session in my bed which was caused by the vivid reliving on this terrible fate.
Do I tell you this to make you sob? Of course not. I clearly saw the above notice which evinces that "TELLING US YOUR SOB STORY WONT HELP YOU WIN." Why, then, am I sharing my desconsolate stories? Because, it is simply another reason for me to receive this gratious and generious gift to society from engadget.com.
When I think of the folks over at engadget, although I have never personally been in contact with any of them (civilians aren't allowed up Mount Olympus), I still have an ardent feeling within my gut because I care so much for these great people, who even on the rainiest of rainy days, feed me the technological information which I crave. If I were an alcoholic, engadget would be a bottle of GreyGoose. If I were a middle-aged, sexually-and-racially-confused singer, engadget would be the little boy who reads me bedtime stories. The fact is, I eat, drink, sleep, and breathe engadget (I would also feel engadget, but an inevitable restraining order would prevent me from entering a the necessary proximity). Without this HTC Universal, I will simply not be able to enlighten my cronies with my adventurous tales which I acquire while surfing the pages of engadget.com.
Please, consider myself when deciding on the most worthy recipient of this amazing gift. I now must part in order to refresh my homepage, engadget.com multiple times so that I don't miss out on any action in the world of technology.
I would love to win the HTC. I made a silly little video debasing myself before all but I see that there is no way to transfer it!
do I have to be a US citizen.
I live in Macedonia.
Would you let me in?
Because I can't read Engadget from my Blackberry. :)
You CAN buy the Universal now in the US. Without the carrier subsidy it is QUITE expensive...
(NOTE: All stories in this comment are true.)
STORY #1
So I work for a state agency, and we wanted to buy a Mac Mini from Apple for a new designer. We tried to go through Apple to get better pricing, and long story short, it took nearly a month to get it, despite the fact that the thing said 1-3 days to ship. It was ridiculous.
That's not the interesting part, though: what's interesting is that on a whim, I sent our mile-long e-mail trail to sjobs@apple.com (couldn't hurt, right?) complaining about the onerous process involved in giving Apple $600 via a state credit card. *And I got a call from an Apple VP the next day*.
Anyways, this VP said that everyone "up to Steve Jobs" had read my e-mail, and that they were going to fix their processes in the future. He said he understood my frustration, and he apologized. By this time the Mini had arrived and so the situation was semi-fixed; the only other thing he could do was acknowledge that their ordering procedure was broken, assure me that the right people knew it, and pledge to fix it, and he did that.
STORY #2
Go to http://www.consumerist.com/consumer/complaints/consumers-speak-covista-sneaking-money-out-of-customer-account-142560.php for the backstory, but to summarize, a long distance company continually failed to stop charging me for service over the last 10 months despite the fact that I had tried to cancel 4-5 times. I complained to the BBB and other places. I also then e-mailed their Board of Directors about it.
Well, I talked to them today, and they skipped the managers and went straight to a customer complaints person. This person confirmed that one of their execs had read the e-mail, and the exec got on the horn with their accounts dept. Another long story short(er), I'm cancelled and have basically gotten everything fixed; it was in fact fixed before I called back again today.
SO, TO SUMMARIZE:
I now have a history of directly contacting powerful people to get what I want. So if you don't give me the HTC Universal, so help me God I will sic Jason Calcanis on your asses, and THEN we'll see who's like texting people and stuff and who's broke and digging through the garbage for used analog phones. JUST A WARNING.
-Scott
well, during my next visit to zimbabwe, i need something to make the natives think i am their leader and magician, so i can rule the world and take over antarctica!!!
oh and wm5 is cool.
"ultimate in handhelds". looks like a piece of crap. Ive never even heard of it before. but sure i'll take it seeing as i dont have a psp or a ds. What games have come out for that thing yet. Looks like it has way too many buttons to learn. Oh well.
You want creativity huh , well to bad . I can barely spell the word .
What a piece of junk... I've played with one for a week, and no thanks... the keys on the keypad are so shiny that they are unusable in normal light, and at night as Tony Soprano might say "Fergedaboudit"
Ha.... you guys are coming WEAK!
Wait till you all here my "Tribute to Engadget" 16 bar verse over a strictly-microKorg-and-PSPKick_formulated beat.
The HTC Uni shall be mine... muahahahaha!
How could you guys sell that thing? Look how awesome it is! I wouldnt ever put it down.