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Round 1 of the 2nd Android Developers Challenge kicked off without a bang and ended the same way. The new element of “user testing/voting” didn’t seem to generate the level of interest some anticipated, but perhaps Round 2 will be different. Google has sent out an Email to 200 developers who have successfully made it to the 2nd and final Round of ADC2.
Why do I think Round 2 will make a bigger splash? Because there are a finite number of applications which can be individually identified. If you’re interested in Android Applications, you could easily spend some time reading the list, testing out some apps and seeing what you think. Round 1 had an open-ended nature with an unknown quantity of apps that couldn’t be identified until it was time to test it out. Not only that, but with ANYONE having access to Round 1 there were a lot of nonsense apps dilluting the quality. With this Top 200 can you can be pretty sure each one has something to offer and is held to SOME kind of standard… right?
You want the list of the Top 200… don’t you? I took the list that Google posted and categorized them as I thought it would help you find what interests you most:
Arcade:
- 4 Player Reactor (ADC)
- Atmosphere: Trainer
- Atomic Blaster
- Bazooka Rabbit Demo For ADC
- FRG
- GangWars
- Graviturn 1.0
- Head To Head Racing
- JumpyBall 3D
- Light Racer 3D Trial
- Moto X Mayhem
- PhotoShoot – The Duel (ADC)
- ProjectINF ADC
- Radiant
- Runes MMORPG – Alpha release
- Space STG – Galactic Wars
- Speed Forge 3D
- Spheremare
- Stroids – ADC2
- Subzero Challenge
Casual
- Blink
- Blockx 3D Pro (ADC2)
- Comeks Microphone Hero
- Decades
- Flick It!
- Jelix
- KUMPA
- Lucid ADC2
- Mazeness
- mPuzzle
- N. American Conquest (ADC)
- Nintaii
- Pobs
- Pocoro
- Seek ’n Spell
- Sketch Online
- Sudoku Camera
- Totemo
- UrbanGolf light
- What the Doodle!? (ADC2)
Education
- Botanica
- Celeste
- Complete Memorization
- Detexify: LaTeX Recognizer
- EarthTime
- Flash of Genius: SAT Vocab
- Flu Tracker
- FUN2Learn
- Kanji with Picture
- Learn!
- Manchego!
- mobilematics
- mobiProfessor
- MultiLex English Explanatory
- Plink Art
- Robotic Guitarist (ADC2)
- Trippo
- Voicetrans (ADC)
- Word Puzzle
- Zenith
Entertainment
- A World Of Photo
- A.D.A.M
- Daisy Garden
- DroidSpray
- Entertain Me
- Fun Buzz Widget
- g-tar
- Golfuls
- iLomo
- JAM session
- midNite movie
- Nebudroid
- SFR Postcard
- SingSong
- Solo – ADC2
- SongDNA
- Sonorox (ADC2)
- Taps Of Fire
- Who’s Calling
- Yuilop
Lifestyle
- AirPainter
- Album Art Grabber for ADC2
- AMon (adc2 version)
- aShadow Finder
- Digital Recipe Sidekick
- DJ’it
- FoxyRing ADC2
- FriendBook
- Gigbox
- InTrouble
- Mom’s shopping list
- Mover
- NetDroid
- Rhythmatics™ Alpha
- Smart Alarm Clock
- SpecTrek
- SweetDreams
- Todoroo
- Web Clip Widget
- Xeeku Photo Journal
Misc
- aLock
- Andrometer 1.0
- AndShowtime
- Animal Compass
- AnyWidget
- Calton Hill GPSCaddy
- Decaf: EC2 on your Android
- Dialify
- Executive Assistant
- FlyScreen
- KAN-BAN WORLD
- medAssist.me
- Missing Children ADC
- Office Exercise
- Open Gesture
- Personal Finance
- Rhythm Guitar
- Scribtor
- TapDialer
- WebWidget
Multimedia
- aPortaDrum
- Buzz Deck beta
- ChordBot
- Citizenside
- FxCamera (for ADC2)
- Grooveshark Mobile
- How-To Videos from Howcast.com
- Mediafly Mobile ADC Edition
- MicroJam
- Mowsic Midi-Over-Wireless
- musikCube
- Photo BURST ADC2
- PocketDJ
- PrivateMedia
- SPB TV for ADC
- Spectral Audio Analyzer ADC2
- Tesla – PC Remote Control
- Time-Lapse Trial
- TuneMagic
- Uloops
Productivity
- Alex Digital Secretary
- AppManager (ADC2-edition)
- Apps Organizer Adc
- CubeWorks
- Drocap
- Eclosion
- Event Flow
- FlingTap Done
- Fusion WebServer – Phone2Web
- Handcent Messaging
- Handy Poll ADC
- Hoccer ADC2
- Mobisle Notes
- NewsRoom
- Screebl
- Tasker
- taskTopia
- Thinking-Space
- Tracklet
- WaveSecure
Social
- A-GLOBAL-MIND
- Agile Messenger IM
- Appshare
- Bambuser ADC2
- Books-EX
- Cartoon Gang
- Ce:real – Everyday trends
- ClapCard
- Friend or Foe
- GeoNotes
- Locale Ping.fm Plug-In
- MeetByChance.me
- Phonebook Sharing
- Scribble
- SocialMuse
- SpotMessage for ADC2
- Swift Twitter App (ADC2)
- TextEZFast
- TweetAssist
- Xeeku Twitter
Travel
- Always Prompt
- AnyStop: The Transit Companion
- BabelSnap! (Trial)
- Car Locator
- Drive – AR Navigation System
- Food Canary in a Restaurant
- GPS Toolbox ADC2
- HotelsByMe: Hotel Reservations
- iNap: Arrival Alert (ADC2)
- LawLocale
- Maverick
- MoVue
- MyPosition
- PhoneHotel
- PhotSpot(ADC2ver)
- PickYouUp
- Sign Translation
- Sports Trek
- TopoDroid
- Trip Journal
Winners of Round 2 – which is the final round – will be determined by a combination of user voting and Google selected judges. When does the voting conclude and when are the winners announced? Google left that open-ended, saying they’ll decide when a sufficient number of user votes have been collected. I’m guessing that’s a nod to low participation levels in Round 1 so HEY YOU – download the application and start submitting your votes! You can do so by scanning the code to your left with your Android Phone Barcode Scanner.
I got kind of frustrated with the force closes and whatnot in round 1 apps, leading me to limited participation. But I’m eager to start judging Round 2. I’m wondering though – Android 2.0 was just released and I’ll be testing with my Motorola Droid – is it fair that these apps weren’t made with 2.0 in mind and may get negative scores since many will be judging from their Droids? Is Google taking this into consideration?
If you want to talk to others about the Apps in the contest, head on over to the ADC2 Forum!
[Via ADB]
Can’t find the app in Market on Droid phone. Not the first thing that is unavailable for Droid and Eclair.
Search Android Market for “Challenge” and it will come up.
I completed it already yesterday in under 3 hrs and kept around 70 apps
My app Chess Walk (http://androidchess.appspot.com) didn’t made it to ADC2, they only sent me a mail that it was in the top 50%. I quite expected that (I had been developing the app for only a month when I submited it). I took part in ADC2 because I thought it was a good way to advertise Chess Walk, I was wrong though :)
BTW how can I promote my app in other way than posting about it on forums like I am doing right now?
@Franta
keep updating it with new contents regularly and people will start noticing it in the “recently added” appps
@Maj
Thanks! I did’t know about this (I don’t have an Android phone yet).
ADC2 is having horrible force close issues. Check the comments in the market. I personally have tried reinstalling it 4 times now with no luck. My symptoms:
I install ADC2.
I get the notification of a new app to review.
I hit Install to install it.
It goes back to home screen but doesn’t install.
I open ADC2 and hit Install Manually.
It switches to what looks like the market and then com.android.vending force closes.
*FRUSTRATED*
The ADC2 app is not compatible with 2.0, which is very silly.
Its expected that is not compatible with 2.0, when would of the developes had any chance to upgrade there apps.
Meh.
Lots of boring non-original apps so far…
Wondering why there are so many apps on the list that are just copies of existing apps out there,
Seriously, where is the judging app? I’m using the Droid, I’ve searched for “challenge”, “Challenge” and tried using the barcodes (which end result in pname:com.google.android.challenge searches), and it doesn’t find anything???
@RoryD
Look like the judging app is not available for the Droid (Android 2.0). Personally, I’m very happy Google did this, as Android 2.0 broke my entry (Head To Head Racing), as the graphics initialization changed in Android 2.0.
I’m having the same Force Close issues. The strange thing is that days later I’ll receive notice that the app installed. This, however, is after I already said ‘skip’ to the app, to see if another one would install, so I can’t actually rate the app. I think it also means that I now got the app for free, which seems kinda shady. Good think I’m the type of person to actually buy apps if I like them…
Same force close for me as well. Interesting that the ADC2 app has 3.5 stars average with all the 1 star ratings. Something smells rotten in Mountain View.