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Announcing the Chilli X giveaway winners!
We started taking entries for a giveaway last week, with 10 copies of Chilli X's Playlist Alarm Clock up for grabs. If you missed the initial coverage, Playlist Alarm Clock is the iPhone app that lets you build custom playlists for falling asleep and waking up. We asked for your custom playlists and heard from a lot of people with musical tastes ranging from Beethoven to System of a Down. Here are the 10 randomly-selected winners! iGO (comment #46) jack bauer (comment #37) ddelgmac (comment #69) Ian (comment #22) jsemtp2005 (comment #35) Dorv (comment #49) psn (comment #39) Samer (comment #71) +. (comment #67) Tinez (comment #38) Chilli X will be contacting the winners directly with the promo codes. Congratulations!
wowtwitter giving away a FigurePrint for a screenshot contest
We've talked about wowtwitter here on the site before -- they're the ones who created a whole other Twitter-like service just for your WoW characters (and that featured verification of your toons, so that no one else could claim or tweet as them). The site is definitely growing, but they wanted to give it that extra oomph, and so they're giving away a free FigurePrint to someone who joins up and posts a special screenshot. If you want a chance at the prize, what you've got to do is log in to the site and verify your character (as we said last time, it requires that you remove a piece of gear and then log out so the Armory can see the change), and then use their new screenshot uploading tool to post a screenshot with "wowtwitter" somewhere in the picture. Then they'll take the screenshots with the top three "like" totals (other users on the site can approve of your uploads), and the one they choose will win a real-life 3D sculpture of their character from FigurePrints.Seem like a lot of work? It does to us, too, but FigurePrints are still $130, so if you want a representation of your character but don't want to cough up the cash, this is probably easier. So good luck to everyone who enters -- the contest runs through July 31st, so you've got a little bit of time to get your picture in and get it voted up somehow.
BlizzPlanet is giving away some BlizzCon tix
Our good friends at BlizzPlanet have obtained a ticket to the happiest place on Earth (BlizzCon, of course -- right next to some dump called Disneyland), and they're giving it away over on their site. There are a few hoops to jump through, but then again, how much do you want to go to BlizzCon? They will have you hunting around their archives for a few things, running over to the Mountain Dew website to earn some points and take a screenshot, and even checking out some comic books over at DC (their contest is probably part of the official fansite program, which would explain why you'll be visiting lots of Blizzard's licensing partners). Do all that stuff by June 9th, and be one of the lucky winners, and you'll pick yourself up one of three shiny tickets to Blizzard's big event in Anaheim. It looks like airfare and hotel might be on your own, but no worries -- you can eBay the goodie bag stuff and use that money to put yourself up in Anaheim for both nights. Everybody wins! Good luck -- if you end up being chosen as the winner, be sure to come say hi to us while you're there.
March Guild of the Month: The Holy Crusade of Bleeding Hollow
We are, unfortunately, late in awarding our first ever Guild of the Month winner, but we've got a good reason: when we contacted Nytrok, the guildmaster, he was away in France for the 60th anniversary of NATO, and as an Air Force Corporal in the Canadian Forces, was meeting with the Prime Minister and Chief of Defense Staff. Very impressive! But fortunately, he found the time to send us some information about the guild, and we're glad to award him and | The Holy Crusade | of Bleeding Hollow our first Guild of the Month.For winning, they'll recieve not only a profile right here in this post (check after the break to see why we chose them as winners this month), but also a raid pack from Swagdog.com, which includes a big stack of custom-made guild apparel for them to distribute among their guildies and officers as they see fit. If you didn't win but still want to show some guild pride, Swagdog has hats and t-shirts that can be emblazoned with your guild's name and tabard, as well as your character's name and class logo. Huge thanks to them for sponsoring our content.And of course we're now opening up nominations for the April Guild of the Month. To enter, send us an email (no more than 200 words please) to guildofthemonth@gmail.com stating why your guild deserves to win. Please note that you must be from the US or Canada (excluding Quebec) and age 18 or older, as them's the legal rules, and also note that even if you sent us an email last month, you must re-nominate your guild if you want to be considered again. You can send us the same message if you want (there were a lot of good guilds that we had to pass up because there was only one winner), but we've got to keep everything current, so please re-send. Official rules are still here, and this month's deadline will be midnight on May 7th.
ATTC, ATSC, other HD makers blessed with Emmy awards
We already caught Panasonic gloating about its H.264 / MPEG-4 AVC-related Emmy earlier this year, but now the full list of award winners are getting their moment in the spotlight. TV Technology is reporting that a number of entities, outfits and agencies responsible for fostering growth in the high-def arena are set to accept Emmy awards on the eve of CES 2009. Some of the big winners are the Advisory Committee on Advanced Television Service, Advanced Television Systems Committee, the Advanced Television Test Center and the Advanced Television Evaluation Laboratory, all of which helped in "devising the standardization of the ATSC Digital System." Also of note, the Metropolitan Opera was gifted with an award for its achievement in HD "cinema-casting," and awards are headed to Toshiba, Sony, Panasonic, Hitachi, Philips, Molex, Japan Aviation Electronics and Intel (among others) for their work on HDMI. Glasses up to the victors!
A BlizzCon-ticket winning piece of fan fiction
A couple of weeks ago we wrote about Pixelated Executioner's little fanfic contest, in which he was giving away a BlizzCon ticket (sans goodie bag) to someone who sent in the best piece of WotLK fan fiction, and here's the payoff: he's now posted the winning piece on his website. I have to say that I'm not usually a huge fan of fan fiction (mostly because it's not usually any good -- PE does mention that there were plenty of Mary and Gary Sues in the mix, and technically the winning piece features another one), but any story that adds a little personality to the spider-people of Azjol-Nerub, not to mention throws in an appearance by the Explorers' League, is a winner in my book.Plus, it worked out well for everyone -- PE decided that he would give away the goodie bag to the winner, and apparently she submitted the story for her brother, so they could go to BlizzCon together. Very nice. Of course they (and everyone else at BlizzCon) are formally invited to come say hi to us at the to-be-announced WoW Insider reader meetup. Very nice story, Anujaresh, glad to see the BlizzCon ticket found its way into some worthy hands.
SteelSeries and Blizzard partners offer BlizzCon Sweepstakes
A few of Blizzard's partners (including Jinx, Upper Deck, and SteelSeries) have all teamed up to offer you what for many, Blizzard couldn't: two tickets to BlizzCon in October. Yes, in the first of what we're sure will be many contests and sweepstakes for BlizzCon tickets, these guys have set up a giveaway to hook up one lucky winner with passes for two to the event that's a Blizzard fan's dream.All you've got to do to enter is put your info in over on their site -- the Grand Prize winner will pick up an all expenses paid trip to BlizzCon, and ten other winners will get some WoW-related gear from the contest's sponsors (SteelSeries makes the Zboard, and apparently they're releasing one for Wrath, so you might get one of those as well). There is a checklist that you can leave unchecked to supposedly keep the sponsors from contacting you, so even if you don't want your info opt-ed in, it looks like you're in the clear.If you do enter, good luck! (And if you win, we'll see you at BlizzCon!) There are bound to be a few more of these contests showing up before the big event, so even if you don't walk away with a trip from this one, stay tuned.
Charter sends contest winner two smaller TVs, plays "miscommunication" card
Maybe we're just sticklers for getting things right, but the "outcome" of this fiasco still isn't sitting well with us. If you'll recall, earlier this month Charter failed to deliver a 65-inch HDTV to a contest winner, and instead, it shipped a box large enough for a 19-inch TV (which the recipient refused). After being pelted with angry cries from the media, the carrier finally bit the bullet and sent over a 42-inch HDTV alongside a 19-incher (which was probably the same one originally refused). The family seems fairly content with the resolution, but the man is still owed a 65-inch HDTV in our eyes. Oh, and if you couldn't guess, a company employee told the winner that all of this spawned from a simple "miscommunication at the office." Uh, you think that's a bit of an understatement, or what?[Image courtesy of ZMETravel]
Charter fails to deliver 65-inch HDTV to contest winner, sends 19-inch box instead
We're tempted to chalk this one up to miscommunication, but something just reeks of wrongdoing. As the story goes, one particular winner of a Charter Father's Day contest was promised a 65-inch HDTV as well as free Charter services for an entire year. The only requirement was to pay sales tax on the winnings -- fair enough, right? After receiving a phone call and email confirmation from the carrier, the winning dad sat down with his jubilant daughter and unsuccessfully tried to fax in his W-9. Afterwards, he decided to mail it in, and after a bit of rigmarole, a Charter associate contacted him with news that it couldn't deliver the promised set; instead, it would "try" to get him a 42-incher, though a 19-inch TV was likely in his future. After a few more days of nothing, a box arrived at his door "large enough to hold a 19-inch television," which the "winner" promptly refused. Can't make this stuff up, folks.[Image courtesy of ZMETravel]
Cinemassively: This American Hero
We're subbing in for our regular machinima blogger, Moo Money, who is AFK for the next little while. Today for Cinemassively, we're bringing you a video we stumbled across recently and really enjoyed. For those who are fans of the Chicago Public Radio show This American Life, this machinima made by SuperZuck took elements from both TAL and City of Heroes and presented (the beginning of) a day in the life of an old-school hero turned filmmaker. Tasty shades of meta. While this is only part one of the work, we are definitely interested in seeing more machinima of this nature! Paragon City holds many heroes, each with a different story, and reasons all their own. Excellent work, SuperZuck, and congrats on your first-place win in Molotov Alva's "Your Virtual Life" machinima contest! We look forward to the rest of this "episode."
Arena Tournament Phase 2 begins
I'm actually a little excited. Phase 2 of the 2008 World of Warcraft Arena Tournament has begun! Start your engines and speculations now, folks -- which comps will make it to the top this time? Are we going to see a winner that looks like Frag Dominant? Or will the new Phase 2 winners basically be the same as Phase 1's winners? Vhairi's been tracking the performance of classes in the tournament so far. For the last week or two, this round's competitors have been honing strategies, experimenting with comps, and switching things around a lot. Now that the dust has settled, teams are what they are. As a result, the data should be fairly meaningful again pretty quickly, and hopefully Vhairi will put out another update. I can't wait to see how the class performance distribution will look in Phase 2 -- it might teach us something more about what to expect in WotLK for class balance. I don't think Phase 2 will be much different from Phase 1 however -- a lack of holy Pallies, scarcity of Hunters and Mages, and so on.
PWN 2 OWN over: MacBook Air gets seized in 2 minutes flat
And just think -- last year you were singing Dino Dai Zovi's praises for taking control of a MacBook Pro in nine whole hours. This year, the PWN 2 OWN hacking competition at CanSecWest was over nearly as quickly as the second day started, as famed iPhone hacker Charlie Miller showed the MacBook Air on display who its father really was. Apparently Mr. Miller visited a website which contained his exploit code (presumably via a crossover cable connected to a nearby MacBook), which then "allowed him to seize control of the computer, as about 20 onlookers [read: unashamed nerds] cheered him on." Of note, contestants could only use software that came pre-loaded on the OS, so obviously it was Safari that fell victim here. Nevertheless, he was forced to sign a nondisclosure agreement that'll keep him quiet until "TippingPoint can notify the vendor," but at least he'll have $10,000 and a new laptop to cuddle with during his silent spell.
PS3 clone is a genuine 'Winner'
Understandably, you've likely gotten tired of hearing about the Chintendo Vii and now yearn for a truly next-gen knockoff. Allow us to bestow that description upon the Phony "Winner," a marvelous new device which not only (and poorly) apes the PlayStation 3's aesthetics, but the Vii's motion-sensing gimmickry -- itself nothing more than Wii mimicry. The repetitive sequence of effortless cloning culminates in a $120 - $150 package offering photo viewing, karaoke, media storage and, amazingly enough, both 2-D and 3-D games.With so many astonishing features, a winner is you if a Winner is what you get. [Via Engadget]
Console wars are over: here is the Winner
The Vii now has some real competition in the knockoffware market. ENG Electric Co., a Taiwanese company, plans to introduce a new console called the Winner, which combines the best aspects of both the PlayStation 3 and the Wii in a package that is less expensive than either. That is, if the best aspect of the PS3 is the shape of the console, and the best aspect of the Wii is the shape of the controller. The Winner boasts karaoke and media-playing functions, and includes an SDHC slot for media storage. Apparently it also features motion-sensing in its Winnermote, and online gameplay capabilities. "Best" of all, ENG plans to push this console in the American and Japanese markets, at a price between $120 and $150. Look for it at mall kiosks soon![Via NeoGAF; Thanks, Anonymouse! ]
Winner: Vii meets the PS3 and a new legacy is born
An eager tipster sent in a pic and some info on what appears to be some sort of PS3 clone called "Winner" – think Vii meets PS3. While the Vii concentrated on mimicking (horribly, but still) the Wii's feature set, the Winner is all about mimicking the PS3's myriad media functionalities. That means a photo player, karaoke functions, SDHC for media storage. But it's all about the (really crappy) games, right? Winner is going to be packing 2D and 3D graphics with online and motion sensing features (note the totally not-a-Wiimote controller). How much would you expect to pay for the privilege? Did you say $600? No! Did you say $400? No! How does $120-150 sound? At that bargain basement price, these things are really going to go fast; good thing they're promising 3 million consoles for the Japanese and North American markets.
What if WoW had Easy Mode and Hard Mode?
I was just casually wandering about the Internet yesterday, when I stumbled upon one of those random new MMORPG advertisements that you see popping up on a number of the WoW-related websites nowadays. It's for a game called Shaiya, which (like all the others), I'll probably never play, but a quick glance through it's game features revealed an interesting design choice. Without splitting up the playerbase, they've nonetheless created different "modes" to the game, each with its own advantages and disadvantages. There's an "Easy Mode," which lets you advance more quickly, but also limits you a great deal. There's also a "Normal Mode," a "Hard Mode," and even an "Ultimate Mode" for the most hardcore of players. It got me thinking about how such a system might work if transplanted into WoW:Easy Mode: This is basically just a tutorial. Not many experience points are needed to advance from level to level, but you can only reach a maximum of level 30. You cannot create or join a guild, and you get no access to any Talent points. You also are limited to Common and Uncommon items -- you cannot use any Rare, Epic, or Legendary items.Normal Mode: This is where most players will start off. You need an average amount of experience points to advance (something like what we have today). You can create and join guilds normally, and you also get Talent points. In addition, you also get access to Rare items.
Fanswag: A big ol' bundle of VC games, all for ...
The name of another lucky winner floated across our prize desk this morning, from out of the teeming mass of entries in our VC Fanswag contest, and this time, the games go out to: Michael K. in comment 1071, who said he would give away Sin & Punishment. We're so proud. Lucky Michael walks away with five awesome titles on the Virtual Console, thanks to the new gifting feature. As for everyone else? Stick around, as we're sure to get another contest underway soon!
DS Fanswag: The Thanksgiving three-pack goes to ....
Another DS Fanboy contest has come to a tragic (for all except one entrant) end, and it's time to announce the winner. This time around, it's commenter Dexxx, who had better be prepared to share, considering the subject of the winning comment: Dexxx said...I'm thankful that my friend reminded me to enter one last time.Congratulations, Dexxx! And to everyone who didn't win, we'll have another giveaway for you soon -- keep your eyes on this space!
Winners of the Hallow's End Costume contest
Micah T sent us this picture of Indiana Jane, which actually won him the costume contest he attended over on Ravenholdt. And Jane (and her fear of snakes) has beguiled the WoW Insider staff as well-- Micah is our ingame costume contest winner, and gets all the trick-or-treat loot from Manaprincess (who also kindly did a little co-judging for our contest). Congrats, Micah, and great costume.But while the prizes may end there, the recognition does not, because holy moly we got a lot of great entries. I was expecting just a few, but you readers are some creative geniuses. Everything from superheroes to sushi chefs are after the break. Honorable mentions are all after the break, and every single one of them rocks-- I wish we had prizes to give you all.Update: Have a gallery! Even if you've already browsed through the thread, our gallery has all the fullsize shots, so check that out too, yo.%Gallery-9805%
Grats to the winner of our Spectral Tiger Mount
We have to give a big shout out of "Grats!" to Keane, commenter #2329 and random winner of our ginormous Spectral Tiger Mount contest. We sincerely thank all 5920 of you who entered (!), but we only had one mount to give away, and Keane (above) got it. He says he can't run through Ironforge now without getting bombarded by "OMG WHERE U GET THAT" whispers. I have to say: even I'm jealous. Looks awesome.Thanks again to all the folks at Upper Deck for helping us out with the mount-- don't forget that the actual STM card is a loot card in the new Fires of Outland booster packs, which release on August 22nd, but which you'll be able to get your hands on at the sneak preview tourneys, held all over the country August 11-12th. And of course we'll have more contests coming soon, so keep watching.Grats to Keane, you lucky, lucky, Spectral Tiger-riding commenter, you.
