Google’s second annual Android Developer Challenge just revealed its winner, netting its developers a cool $250,000 first prize. Which app scooped top marks to waltz off with all that lovely lolly? Read on, and we’ll tell you!
SweetDreams, an app that manages your late night phone settings, scooped the top prize. It works by letting you to alter your phone’s settings for certain times, so as you’re not woken by late night calls or texts.
It’s a genius little idea, and executed well. It also helps to save the battery from running our by turning off unnecessary functions, like WiFi, at night. SweetDreams beat What the Doodle!? a multiplayer Pictionary-style app, and Wave Secure, a security app, to the top prize.
Over 26,000 Android users, as well as an expert panel of judges, consisting mainly of Google boffins, chose the winner from an initial field of 200. Total prize money of over $1.5million was awarded to the top three developers in 10 different categories including entertainment, education and reference, casual gaming and lifestyle.
Eric Chu, from Google’s Android mobile platform team has been singing Android developers’ praises, stating: “We received many interesting and high-quality applications. We were particularly pleased to see submissions from many smaller and independent developers.”
Other notable winners include Celeste, an augmented reality app that displays the sun, moon, planets and their paths through the sky whenever you point an Android phone’s camera at the heavens, as well as A World of Photo, a global multiplayer game inspired by spin the bottle – how bizarre.
See the full list of winners here.
[...] has announced the latest release to Android – 2.0.1. It may be just a minor update, but it makes the Motorola Droid all that more desirable. [...]
This contest was a great idea for Google since it really encouraged a lot of developers to take a shot at developing for the android platform, rather than the iphone!