You loved it last year. Now get ready for more free love from the editors of iLounge.
Last November, we released the iLounge Buyers’ Guide 2004 – the world’s first magazine-style guide to iPods and iPod accessories. Completely free to all our readers, the digital PDF-format Guide was a huge success, with more than 300,000 direct downloads from our site, and untold thousands more through peer-to-peer and other transfer methods. The Guide achieved worldwide fame for its impartial, independent content, and was even reprinted in South Asia (with permission) by Apple Computer as a tool to educate local iPod resellers.
Now iLounge is proud to officially announce the release date of our newest Buyers’ Guide: March 28, 2005. With dramatically enhanced content and a fully updated guide to iPods and iPod accessories, our new Guide is sure to be even more exciting than the last one.
To kick off our countdown to the new Guide, we have two new contests for you, our readers: the New Buyers’ Guide Cover Contest and The 100-Word iPod Story Contest. Like last time, one is an art contest, one is a writing contest, and both have even more cool prizes than before.
Contests are now closed for judging. Winners will be announced in the 2005 Buyers’ Guide on March 28, 2005. Thank you to everyone who participated.
New Buyers’ Guide Cover Contest – CLOSED
Submit the winning front cover image for the iLounge 2005 Buyers’ Guide and you’ll win two awesome prizes: a pair of Shure E5c deluxe earphones (value: $499.99), courtesy of Earphonesolutions.com, and a TEN Technology naviPlay Bluetooth portable wireless transmitter/receiver set (value: $199.95), courtesy of TEN. A second place winner will win a free one-year subscription to Audible (value: $263.40), courtesy of Audible, and a new TEN Technology naviPro EX remote control system (value: $49.95), courtesy of TEN.
(If you haven’t submitted your cover contest entry yet for the 2005 Buyers’ Guide, and are still looking for inspiration, here are a couple of links that might interest you.
Universal Everything
The Designers Republic
We’re big fans. Prior to the 3D>2D book by TDR, those guys were virtual design gods. See their site’s old photos of Powergen and the Wipeout games, amongst others.
Universal Everything includes 75% of the better concepts from the best days of TDR. Transition Studios and the Freeform Sound Toy on the UE site are particularly cool.)
Again, the rules are simple. You must create a 7” (wide) x 10” (tall), high-resolution (300DPI) color or black and white image without text overlays, and without the iLounge name or logo. It can be a photograph, work of graphic art, three-dimensional rendering, or whatever you choose – so long as it’s your entirely original work. Leave the text part to us. You may include an extra 3/8” on all sides, but this is not required. Include your name, e-mail address, city, and state with your entry. We will pick our favorite image and a runner up from all entries submitted. For a sense of what may qualify as a winner, search for winners of iLounge’s previous photo and art contests, as well as last year’s Buyers’ Guide. Use good taste, and if you’re in doubt, skew conservative.
Maximum four entries per person, total. Our favorite entries will appear in a special Cover Contest Gallery section of the Buyers’ Guide. In fairness to our other readers, previous winner (and iLounge favorite) Mark Kempken is not eligible for this Buyers’ Guide contest.
The 100-Word iPod Story Contest – CLOSED
If you’re not artistically or photographically inclined, you can enter our writing contest instead: the 100-Word iPod Story Contest. Again, the rules are simple: submit a real story about how the iPod made a difference in your life. You have a maximum of 100 words for your story, and we will choose our favorite two as the grand prize and second prize winners. No profane or offensive language is permitted. Stories will be judged on grammar, spelling, and punctuation – be careful. We will publish the best entries in the iPod Story section of the Buyers’ Guide, so you must include your name, city, and state/province of residence with your entry. One entry per person, so make your first entry count.
This contest’s grand prize winner will receive a pair of Shure E5c deluxe earphones (value: $499.99), courtesy of Earphonesolutions.com, and a Griffin Technology radioSHARK radio recording system (value: $69.99), courtesy of Griffin.
