Apple Thoughts - News & Reviews on all things Apple

"Top app maker CJApps has launched a brand new contest to promote the hit game Finger Maniac 1.1, available on the iPhone and iPod touch devices. In the latest update of the game, players are invited to try the 1Million point challenge. Between the dates of 3/1 and 5/1, players will be able to play this challenging mode and the first to reach 1 million points will win a brand new Apple iPad!"

Basically you get 90 seconds to type out as many 10-letter words, as fast as you can. Once you complete this you get rewarded with points. First person to reach 1 million points is the winner! Contest runs until 5/1 so best get going if you want to be in the running, they are already into day 11 of the contest.

The Gomadic chargers are very slick, and we recently did a Quick Look on the 2-in-1 Charger pictured above. If you aren't familiar, the system uses what they call "Tip Exchange" so all you need is one cable and a tip for each device, instead of having to carry around separate charging cables. They pretty much cover every device know to man, or at least it seems that way (the brand list is here).

Now the folks at Gomadic are being generous enough to give away four (4) of their 2-in-1 Charging cables as well as two tips to be chosen by each winner. Since Gomadic has such wide coverage on devices, this is a network-wide contest. To win, all you have to do is go to the Tip Exchange page and pick two of the charging tips you want to go with your 2-in-1 Charger. Post the two numbers along with a reply to this post and you are entered. You MUST post the two tip numbers in your reply or your entry won't be counted.

One post per person, and the contest closes on Friday the 19th of March at 12pm Pacific time, GMT -7. This contest is world-wide with Gomadic providing the shipping. Remember that all first posts in our system are held in moderation, so if this contest entry is your first post, please wait up to 48 hours before getting concerned if your post hasn't shown up yet - it will. Winners will be contacted via private forum message, so have email notifications turned on. Winners will have 72 hours to claim their prize.

"When Steve Jobs personally called Woodstock, Georgia native Louie Sulcer to tell him he'd won Apple's iTunes Store 10 Billion Song Sold contest, Sulcer first thought was that he was being pranked. "He called me and said, ‘This is Steve Jobs from Apple.' I said, ‘Yeah right,' " Sulcer tells Rolling Stone."

I don't blame him, I think I'd be a little hesitant to believe that Steve Jobs was calling me. Fitting choice for winning though, as the winner picked a Johnny Cash song called "Guess Things Happen That Way."

"Enter to Win a Custom-Color MacBook Pro and Office 2008 for Mac. Microsoft Office for Mac loved the Mac community since way back when. What's the perfect gift for a long-term commitment?"

Pretty simple rules, just follow them on Twitter, or ReTweet @OfficeforMac and include the hashtag #officeformac. The contest ends on February 25th, 2010 and is only open to US and Canadian residents. You can go here to get all the information. Oh, you also get a copy of Office 2008 along with the 2.53GHz MacBook Pro.

PixyMe is a fun little application for the iPod Touch or iPhone, that lets you modify various photos within the program. If what you find isn't what you need, you can use own photo library to create greetings that you can either email, post on Facebook or send via US Mail. If you have ever wanted to add some comments to a photo and send a special greeting, this may be just what you need.

Read more...

"Apple today unveiled a "Countdown to 10 Billion Songs" promotion via the iTunes Store, offering the contest winner a prize of a $10,000 iTunes gift card. A counter on the main iTunes Store page and Apple's home page currently displays in excess of 9.8 billion downloads."

You can check out the rules here, but basically you can make up to 25 entries per day by purchasing/downloading songs from the iTunes store, or by filling out an entry form on Apple's web site. The contest ends once the 10 billionth song has been purchased/downloaded. It was in 2006 that they held the One Billion Song contest and so in approximately four years to achieve this level is pretty amazing.

"Today Google is kicking off its third installment of Doodle for Google, a yearly nationwide art contest for students in grades K-12. Eligible students can submit their own "Google Doodles," and the winning Doodle will appear on Google's homepage for one day. Plus the winner and his or her school will receive money and scholarships."

This year's theme is "If I Could Do Anything, I Would..." The idea, obviously, is to get those kids dreaming about what they would do or want to do in their future. You can get all the details at the official site and the school registration deadline is March 17th, with a deadline of submissions on March 31st, 2010. Cool contest.

Image Credit: dianechamberlain.com

The four contest winners of the iPhone program "Space Time" [contest link] are in no particular order: Dyvim, mwfielder, ironguy and deslock. Congrats and redeem your codes (sent via mail to your forum email box) soon as there is an expiration date on them.

Congrats to HueMan, andrew_lee, txa1265 and dlindman, our winners in the XO Skins contest. Their products shipped out last week so depending on where you are, you should see something in your mailbox this week. Again, congrats and thanks for entering! 

"SPB Software begins the year with announcing a contest for the worshippers of SPB Quads - one of the most addictive games in our portfolio."

The folks over at SPB have a contest for you if you play their new game, Quads . There is more info at their website, but the basics are as follows: To participate, any owner of an iPhone or a Windows Mobile touchscreen version has to play the game in "Time Trial" mode and publish his/her result on our website through Online Highscore tab inside the app. Please, mind that the contest is time limited and will last from 12:00 PM GMT January 20th 2010 till 12:00 PM GMT February 8th 2010 .

You can get more info at the site they have set up for it here, and the app itself is $0.99 USD.

I have 3 codes available for a copy of the iPhone application Scanner Pro. I have a review of the program I'm posting tomorrow, but the codes are time sensitive (they expire in 3 days) so wanted to get this out as soon as possible. The first THREE replies to this post are the ones that will get the code, its a $4.99 USD program and it really is a slick application!

Just a reminder, it isn't too late to enter the XO Skins contest so head on over to the forum thread to get in on the action! Contest ends January 1st 2010. Replies to this message do NOT count as an entry, you must reply to the forum thread located here.

Now that Christmas has passed, I'm sure that some of you were on the nice list, and may have even been given a new white UniBody MacBook. If that is the case, then this is the contest for you!

The generous folks at Speck have given us two cases to give away, and to enter all you have to do is post a message in the discussion thread. The first winner, chosen randomly from the messages, will get his or her choice of the clear or the red Speck SeeThru case, designed specifically for the white MacBook Unibody. Obviously, the 2nd winner will get the remaining one. Just so you know, the clear case has been opened as I used that for my review posted earlier today, however everything that came with the case is intact. The contest closes on January 11th, 2010 at 12pm, which is UTC/GMT -8. Winners will be contacted via private message in the forum and will have 72 hours to claim their prize from time of notification. Good luck, and if this is your first post, it may take up to 72 hours for it to show in the thread.

I just posted a review of the XO Skin for the iPhone over at Apple Thoughts, and the kind folks from XO Skin decided to give away some of their products to our lucky readers! They cover a wide variety of products, from Apple MacBooks to Dell Laptops to Palm to Blackberry to, well, you get the idea. Since they do cover a wide variety of products, we are going to make this a network-wide contest, four winners total! So, all you have to do to enter is post a message in the discussion thread telling us what type of device you would cover with an XO Skin. One skin per person (your choice of what skin you want) and the contest closes at 12pm on January 1st, 2010, which is UTC/GMT -8. This contest is world-wide. Winners will be contacted via private message in the forum and will have 72 hours to claim their prize from time of notification. Good luck!

UPDATE: There is only one contest thread, so if it is your first post, it may take up to 72 hours for it to show up.

We've got another great contest for you, and this time because it's an accessory that works with so many different products, it's a network-wide contest. The prizes? I'm giving away three pairs of SHURE SE210 Earphones (MSRP $179.99 USD), courtesy of the generous folks at Shure. Our very own David Tucker reviewed this earphones back in September, and he loved them - so I'm sure the three winners will as well. The SE210's feature a noise-isolating sleeves that block 90 percent of the ambient noise, and the more noise you can block out, the more you can enjoy your tunes.

What do you have to do to win? Simply post a message in this discussion thread telling me which type of device (or devices) you'd use the headphones with. A Windows Mobile smartphone? A Zune? An iPod? An iPhone? A netbook or laptop? That's it - one post per person, and the contest closes on Tuesday the 15th of December at 12pm GMT -7. This contest is world-wide; I'll be shipping you the prizes myself.

Remember that all first posts in our system are held in moderation, so if this contest entry is your first post, please wait up to 48 hours before getting concerned if your post hasn't shown up yet - it will. Winners will be contacted via private forum message, so ensure that you have email notifications turned on. Winners will have 72 hours to claim their prize.

Let's see those entries!

UPDATE:The contest is now closed, and the three winners are GqSkrub, webguy248, and deenoo. Thanks to everyone for entering - it was great to see so many entries! And big thanks to SHURE for donating the prizes!

"SPB Software, world's leading mobile software developer, invites all mobile users to participate in its sixth annual SPB Survey. The SPB Survey is a questionnaire that captures user preferences and builds up a combined report that identifies the changing user profiles, mobile device expectations and the handset use cases. This report is expected to be released in early December 2009."

You can go here to take the survey, and be entered in their contest. A few random participants will receive prizes, the top one being a mobile device of your choice as long as the price is under $1,000.00 USD. 2nd place winner will receive $100.00 USD of smartphone accessories from Smartphone Experts and 3rd place will receive $100.00 USD of software from SPB.

All you have to do is subscribe to Matt's Macintosh YouTube video channel and you are entered, but only two days remaining so act fast if you want a chance to win a Magic Mouse.

"iSkin has posted their Ultimate Back-to-School contest on their website today, where one person could win an awesome prize package worth $2,500. Entries will be accepted till 11:59 PM EST on September 15, 2009."  

The contest has started, so if you live in Canada or the Continental US, head over to their contest site to get all the details and to enter. The grand prize winner will receive quite a bundle of gifts including a MacBook, an iPod Touch and a Mighty Mouse, along with a variety of iSkin covers. They also will be giving out a $50.00 USD iSkin gift card to 10 lucky 2nd place winners. As a bonus, anyone entering will get 50 free music downloads from emusic. 

SBSH has very graciously offered us two copies of SafeWallet to give away to you all!

Yesterday I posted my review of SBSH SafeWallet and I was very impressed with it. Now it's your turn to get yourself a free copy of both the iPhone / iPod Touch app and the accompanying Windows Companion (which also includes importing, so if you're moving from one of the other applications out there or migrating from a Windows Mobile device, this will probably be a big relief for you!) all for leaving a comment on this post!

In your comment tell us A: what you're going to protect, or B: what app you're migrating from (and if it's another platform, note it so we can all share in your indoctrination into the cult!). Winners will be chosen randomly from all the submissions. Unfortunately because of Apple's system, you have to be a US App Store user to use the promo codes if you win, but if you've found a way around that, that's your business!

There you have it. The rules are simple. We'll end this contest at 11:00pm Eastern Time Friday July 31st and the winners will be announced on Monday (but I'll be in touch over the weekend to get some details for you to send you your respective codes).

Good luck and a special thanks to our friends at SBSH for providing the copies for the giveaway!

Don't forget about our contest for Codesparq's Aspects, the exceptional Aspect Ratio Calculator for the iPhone and iPod Touch. All it takes is a comment here on what you plan to use it for and that's it. 3 winners will be chosen at random and get a free copy of the app!

Note: the comment must be about what you're going to do with the app. General discussion on the app itself is fine in that thread, but it won't count as a contest entry.

Good luck, and as I said earlier, there are plenty more contests on the way so keep reading!

We're going to pick a winner on Wednesday of next week.