The winners of Engadget's Five Days of Holiday giveaways!
By Ryan Block 
posted Dec 22nd 2005 5:35PM
posted Dec 22nd 2005 5:35PM
Day 1: We'll help you switch wireless carriers
Samsung A680 from Sprint - SebS's nightmarish tale of number porting and missing SMSs. Yikes, we feel your pain, man.
LG VX8100 from Verizon - NitroNeo friend to the community and rural volunteer firefighter's gonna get a phone upgrade so he can save lives
Unlocked Motorola RAZR V3 - Georgia's take on The Night Before Christmas is rather amazing
Day 2: Listen to the Podcast to win an i-mate SP5m
Rich S. emailed in within ten minutes of our podcast airing! Well done, old boy.
Day 3: Xbox 360 E3 faceplates, Kameo, and a bunch of Live subscriptions!
Grand prize - Maurizio L.
Second place - Rob L.
Runners up - Adam K., Cameron C., Chris C., Matt D., Jesse D., Justin G.
Day 4: Guess what we're giving away!
Traver R. guessed it correctly, it was a Sidekick II Mr. Cartoon Edition
Day 5: Convince us to give you an HTC Universal
This is the one that held us up -- you guys submitted an unreal amount of entries to day 5's contest. So many were just downright amazing (and we'll be rolling a highlights reel very soon), but we had to pick a winner and anchorman Kirk Yuhnke managed to completely convince us to give him the HTC Universal. You positively must download his video, it's really that good. [WMV, 3MB]
Thanks again to everyone who entered, and happy holidays!
Hilarious video! Congrats, and well-deserved!
i knew i shouldn't have done haiku. now i feel super-awkward for sending that to engadget.
Congrats to all!!!! Especially you Kirk Yuhnke!! Hey you especially deserve it man! Incredible idea!!
(just wish i thought of it!!!)
very well done, definately well-deserved!
I don't think God himself could have wanted the HTC more Kirk Yuhnke.
What's up with the WMV? Windows Media Player doesn't work on my Mac :(
In response to your choices for the cell phones-
Georgia said she wanted a RAZR V3 the most, but you gave her the LG VX8100. And then Neo, the volunteer firefighter, stated that he needed a new Verizon phone, and that no other carrier worked in his area- but you awarded him with a Razr V3?!?! Where's the logic in that?
Yep, when I try to watch it, it stops at 36 seconds. God, I hate WMP.
Haha! Great video. Well-deserved, indeeed.
i wish i had won but this is much better than the crappy picture i photoshopped in 5 minutes. congrats.
chuck, chill out, there was a lot of data to parse for that post and the two got mixed up, ok? Fixed now, thanks.
Best, Ryan
I wrote a poem and didn't win! The shame of it!
sure its easy to win if you have a few million dollars or video equipment and the backing of disney corp. NOTE- he is a real reporter using ABC 12's real news set and equipment. PS greetings from Flint MI.
that video was amazing, super professional, definitely well deserved, congrats.
for people on mac having trouble viewing this just use vlc or get the flip4mac plugin for quicktime.
Wow Kirk Yuhnke is from my local news station! ABC 12! He is not a fake reporter, he is from Flint Michigan and works at ABC 12! Spoke to him on many occasions! Funny guy.
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=bios&id=3298205
Bravo! That video was impressive...
BTW, my first comment was a joke.
Great vid.
"13. Wow Kirk Yuhnke is from my local news station! ABC 12! He is not a fake reporter, he is from Flint Michigan and works at ABC 12! Spoke to him on many occasions! Funny guy.
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=bios&id=3298205
Posted at 6:24PM on Dec 22nd 2005 by Ryan Everson"
Actually not that creative now that I know he does the news for a living.
Kind of lame actually.
ABC News Reporter? ...ugh.
Can we have a secondary prize for those people who didn't have the backing of a professional camera and editing crew?
16: agreed.
hey i used to work in the local news and the effort that was put into that is awesome...thing hard thing was probably getting his news director to let him do all that with the company equipment.....and the squirrel is classic
Not as creative knowing that's his profession, but still creative all the same. Well deserved.
Quote:
18. hey i used to work in the local news and the effort that was put into that is awesome...thing hard thing was probably getting his news director to let him do all that with the company equipment.....and the squirrel is classic
Posted at 7:06PM on Dec 22nd 2005 by tgrove
Ok, the fact that he had to CONVINCE someone to let him do it is not a big deal. Who cares? He still has a tv crew, editors, effects, pro cameras, etc at his disposal. Whaere is the creative force there? HE DOES THIS FOR A LIVING...not that hard to pull off.
Would you say a stipper would be CREATIVE for doing a strip tease to win? Or would a recording artist be creative for singing a song to win? NO! Because it is what they do!
I think there was no creativity other than the writing of the script, and even that was not that great. So, whatever. He won, we didn't...even if it was lame and non creative, who cares? It won't make a difference anyway.
Oh, and to Tony...the #17 post...thanks. It is nice to see someone understands my point.
P.S. Watch out...the guys from Engadget are going to post something on the Engadget site! OOOO!!! We have hit a new level of creativity!
And I hear Bill Gates is thinking of getting into computers! WHAT!!?? Talk about a creative genius!
Jeez!
Awww, nuts! My flash animated rap didn't win....
"Wow Kirk Yuhnke is from my local news station! ABC 12! He is not a fake reporter, he is from Flint Michigan and works at ABC 12! Spoke to him on many occasions! Funny guy.
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=bios&id=3298205"
You beat me to it. I recognized his name and then realized that's the reporter guy from abc12. Then I saw that they reffered to him as "fake" anchorman/reporter hahahaha. whatever. I wonder why they (engadget) concluded that he was a "fake" reporter. hmmmmmm. Did Yuhnke lie to you guys? If so then I think you should give that HTC Universal to me....just to teach Yuhnke a lesson.
Kirk did a report on his i-mate K-JAM (HTC Wizard) that he bought from MadMonkeyBoy.com not too long ago. Check out his ABC News Morning Report on it:
http://www.beyondthetech.com/downloads/videos/K-JAMandMadMonkeyBoy-ABC12.wmv
Look, he used every material at his disposial and won, fair and square. Even if he does do that for a living, it dosen't matter. Just because he has a crew and all that it dosent matter. I bet someone that did a movie probably used some advanced editing software, on an expensive machine, but do you get mad at them if they win? You never know, he might have not even used a crew and all that, he might have done it from his home computer...
Oh wait, he's a professional? Booooo!
Just kidding. It was a good submission. Not *amazing*, but pretty good.
I submitted. Mine was pretty lame. http://www.mlik.org/videos/hook_a_brother_up.mov
#20, here's a gadget just for you:
http://www.therainiervalley.com/queen_anne_news.html
"24. Look, he used every material at his disposial and won, fair and square. Even if he does do that for a living, it dosen't matter. Just because he has a crew and all that it dosent matter. I bet someone that did a movie probably used some advanced editing software, on an expensive machine, but do you get mad at them if they win? You never know, he might have not even used a crew and all that, he might have done it from his home computer..."
He did it on the set of abc 12 and taped it outside of the studio. And Mr. McGlashen the visual guy did all the video editing. Wasn't a home done job, used his whole crew to do it.
What's strange is that I watch the same news that has Kirk on it. It's the same guy, same news theme intro (ABC 12). Good old Flint - always good for a drive-by. In this case, involving a phone. Obviously, it should be mine...
FYI, here was my entry. It was just a funny poem with a picture of a Universal. Put it together in about 15 minutes.
http://www.beyondthetech.com/images2/fun/odetotheuniversal_beyondthetech.jpg
HA HA #26....Very funny. I did not know incestuous pedophiles had that kind of wit!
Look, he is a professional in the video/television field. The entire idea is just unfair to those who actually HAD TO TRY and make something cool. This guy had all the stuff laid out for him already. Not cool.
And to your little statement:
"I bet someone that did a movie probably used some advanced editing software, on an expensive machine, but do you get mad at them if they win?"
No, I would not be mad...IF they did it themselves. This guy obviously did not. That is the unfair advantage.
Creativity was the key.
CREATIVITY!
Using a tv crew when you are a tv professional is not creative, it is cheap.
And as for your little picture....I am not bitching, or whining about not winning. I have an HTC Universal, you dumbass. I am upset because this guy is on tv every night...he can afford to buy one himself. There some creative people out there who got screwed, plain and simple.
And to Engadget...please stop kissing Kevin Pereira's a*s. He is not THAT cool.
I'm sorry Engadget bloggers, you know I hold you in the highest regard and really love your weblog, but giving away the HTC Universal to Kirk Yuhnke was really one of the worst decision I've seen made by you guys. Just to recap for you what you did: you gave it away to a professional newsman, who pretends not to be one, and it seems like he LIED to you about being one, while having his "film" produced by a professional news crew. Are you seeing the problem this presents? What's so original about pretending to be a newsman when YOU ARE A PROFESSIONAL NEWSMAN or making a short movie so perfect when it was made BY A PROFESSIONAL NEWS CREW, USING PROFESSIONAL EQUIPMENT AND PROBABLY A SCRIPT WRITTEN BY A PROFESSIONAL as well. Yes, its funny, I'll grant you that much, but again, what's ORIGINAL about it if it was made by a team of PROFESSIONALS.
Sorry Engadget bloggers, you know I love your site, but you seriously screwed up giving away the HTC Universal to Kirk-the-newsman. Either you weren't really searching for originallity or somebody didn't do their homework. Didn't you at least bother to GOOGLE (http://www.google.com/search?q=kirk+yuhnke&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official) the man?
So, yeah, I AM PISSED!
It would have been really cool had the guy been an amateur and had made the film himself, using his own equipment and doing the editing, publishing, etc on his computer. But its not.
I regret having to rant, but this is really inexcusable!
Regards,
Adrian.
Dade, it's okay man, get a grip on life. I know a lot of people who suck and they're doing just fine.
DUDE! #32 gets it!
Finally, someone with a brain!
Thank you!
I agree with Dade and a few others.
A professional in the tv field should not have won this. It shows no creativity at all.
Engadget screwed this one up. You guys basically let him cheat. Why are so many peopl ekissing his ass, too? Do they think he will send them the HTC if they suck up enough?
It was not fair. Period.
Hmm
Well
Sorry, Engadget.
And to all the Engadget worshippers who refuse to believe that Engadget can mess up, I apologize as well.
But you guys messed this one up bad.
You let a professional media personality with a full crew and sudio at his idposal win this thing with THAT submission, which clearly was done by professional(s)?
Not cool not fair, not right.
YUP!
Sucks.
Engadget ripped off the people who played fair.
Great video. Looked totally professional. Just wish he included footage of jiggy =-)
typo... jiggy= ziggy.
"39. Great video. Looked totally professional. Just wish he included footage of jiggy =-)"
Wonder why it looked professional??? Could it be because he had a professional set, crew, training, equipment, etc? Totally unfair to ever average joe who entered the contest with a good home made entry not some professionally done one.
Kirk Yuhnke should be stripped of his prize. It's like doping in the Olympics.
so not fair:
http://abclocal.go.com/wjrt/story?section=bios&id=3298205
Translation from most of previous commenters:
wwhhhaaaaaaaaaaa *sniffle* whaaaaaaaaaaa
/whine but MY entry was MORE creative
Shaddup whiners. The guy used the resources he had available. It was funny, get over it. Never ceases to amaze the amount of whining some people will will do for free stuff.
Well, #44 only serves to prove the point that he is a moron and should have been aborted.
Look, no one is whining about their submission being more creative. NOT ONE person has said that.
So you obviously cannot read, cannot comprehend, or are too busy molesting a platypus to stop and think before yo type some dumb ass comment like you did.
Everyone is simply ststing that it was unfair...period.
Now shut up.
There should be news segment every night on new and exciting gadgets, and focus on engadget.com as the main source for that information.
Wonder why engadget has commented on this issue yet??
Hmm. Is it really creative for a newscaster to do a mock newscast? Didn't the engadget guys whine for us not to whine & sob but be creative, like really, really creative? I don't know, man, this somehow just doesn't seem RIGHT to me... anyone with me here?
Oh, and congrats to the Kent Brockman clone, well done. Say, is "stone-hair" covered by newscaster health-plans? ;)
Oh, come on Dade. YES, it's unfair and unoriginal what kirk did. But don't you think you've done enough? I mean, giving out the guy's email addresses?! That's going too far. I think most of us agree with what you've said in your previous posts. But I don't agree with this. It's like you're violating his privacy now.