Here’s the deal: in order to celebrate the non-release of the gPhone, we’re asking you, our dear readers, to offer up some potential applications for the Android platform. They can be silly, smart, or stupid.
Take this one, for example:
Here’s an idea for an open source Gphone application that could make you a little cash: Turn your cell phone into a traffic camera. As you are out for your daily commute, and you notice an accident, traffic jam, or just a bit of bad weather, whip out your Gphone and take a snapshot. The phone will automatically triangulate your position (or use your phone’s built-in GPS, if you have one), and send the photo with coordinates to the Gtraffic server. The server then interprets your photo, and adds it to a real-time database of traffic information. It will send out alerts to other Gtraffic users, offering alternate routes if necessary. If your photo gets added to the database, you get a few cents added to your paypal account (or other, google-related online account). Extend the application into the lucrative field of bounty-hunting, and you could get a percentage of the reward if you snap a pic of a wanted felon!
Cool, right?
Heres how to enter.
1. Go to CG BFF and post your best potential open source application for a smartphone. The sky’s the limit here, people, so it can be anything from a toaster oven remote control to a program that gives worms to ex-girlfriends. The goal is to amuse and enlighten us with your software engineering prowess and descriptive skills. Add video, images, and flowcharts. Have fun.
2. Email us at contest@crunchgear.com with the subject line “GPHONE IDEA” and include a link to your BFF post. This ensures that we actually see it.
3. Have your friends and neighbors vote for your idea.
4. Next Monday, November 12, we will tally the votes and announce two winners. Wait until then.
5. Repeat.
You can enter multiple times with multiple potential applications but register with your real email address so we can contact you if you win. Popularity is based on number of votes, average of stars received, and number of comments. This means that if your friends running a VT100 greenscreen terminal can still vote with their comments. Get cracking.
Special thanks to Nokia for supplying the phones and this in no way suggests that Symbian is a bad mobile OS — I’d say its the best out there right now, aside from the iPhone’s.