Posts tagged ‘nexus one’

Short story: I received a free Nexus One (HTC) from Google for having an application on the android market with over 5000 downloads and a rating above 3.5 (For Counter-Strike 1.6 soundboard)

Nexus One unpacked, note the awesome android logo on the pouch

Back Story

Got a questionable email from Google (02/03/2010 23:47):

Subject: Device Seeding Program for Top Android Market Developers
From: android-market-seeding@google.com

Due to your contribution to the success of Android Market, we would like to present you with a brand new Android device as part of our developer device seeding program. You are receiving this message because you’re one of the top developers in Android Market with one or more of your applications having a 3.5 star or higher rating and more than 5,000 unique downloads.

In order to receive this device, you must click through to this site, read the terms and conditions of the offer and fill out the registration form to give us your current mailing address so that we can ship your device.

You will receive either a Verizon Droid by Motorola or a Nexus One. Developers with mailing addresses in the US will receive either a Droid or Nexus one, based on random distribution. Developers from Canada, EU, and the EEA states (Norway, Lichtenstein), Switzerland, Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Singapore will receive a Nexus One. Developers with mailing addresses in countries not listed above will not receive a phone since these phones are not certified to be used in other countries.

We hope that you will enjoy your new device and continue to build more insanely popular apps for Android!

Thanks,
Eric Chu
Android Mobile Platform

Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheater Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

NOTE: You have received this mandatory email to notify you about an important update to the status of your Android account.

Initially I thought this was a scam, and searched the internet to check. Thankfully I came across a thread in Google forums of other people also sceptical about this email however it turned out to be legitimate (also confirmed by romainguy and others on twitter)

I then got a confirmation (06/03/2010):

Subject:Android Market Device Seeding Program Confirmation
From: Android Market Device Seeding Program

Dear Matthew,
We’ve received your information for the Android Market Device Seeding Program and have successfully validated the Google Order Number from your developer account.
Your information will now be sent to our shipping partner for order processing. Just to confirm, the information we received from you was:
Matthew Rollings

If you need to make any changes to your information above, please contact us at android-market-seeding@google.com as soon as possible. Otherwise, you should receive your phone in 2-4 weeks!
On behalf of the Android team,
Thanks, and happy coding!
Google, Inc.
1600 Amphitheater Parkway
Mountain View, CA 94043

I then received phone the phone on 29/04/2010 ~11:10. This is a lot later (3 weeks and 6 days) than the 2-4 weeks estimated for delivery, however this is believed to have been the fault of the shipping company Google were using.

Photos

Google device seeding nexus one letter

Nexus One box

Nexus One box with lid off

Nexus One, appologies for terrible photography skills

Nexus One handsfree earphones with logo

Note: I will probably update this post with better photos and photos of the phone in action, or possibly even give a review of how awesome the phone is (and also how to get the internet working on o2 UK).