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Ubuntu App Developer Blog: Announcing the Ubuntu App Showdown winners Published Aug 7 2012 via RSS

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Votes are in and results are final: we are extremely proud to announce the winners of the Ubuntu App Showdown contest

Each and every one of the 133 apps that qualified for the contest were tested, reviewed and rated on Appearance, Stability, Platform Integration, Innovation and Scratching an Itch by our panel of 6 judges. Of these, only 3 of them made it to the shortlist and have won these awesome prizes, kindly sponsored by our friends at System76 and the Qt Project:

Gold Prize	Silver Prize	Bronze Prize
System76 Gazelle Professional laptop and Nokia N9 phone	System76 Lemur Ultra laptop and Nokia N9 phone	Nokia N9 phone

Presenting the Ubuntu App Showdown winners:

Gold prize: Lightread

Authors Jono Cooper and George Czabania about their app: “Lightread is a lightweight Google Reader client. Lightread works offline allowing you to get all your news and read it without an internet connection. With its stunning design and easy of use, Lightread is the best way to read news. It packs many of the features from Google Reader as well as Ubuntu specific features such as notifications and launcher integration.”

And it is a stunning app indeed. The astounding quality of the design, its functionality and integration with Unity were some of the key aspects that made Lightread the winner choice. For those of you who are technically-minded, Lightread also beautifully mixes HTML, CSS and Python code, in a way that shows the potential of apps created by Quickly and sets a new standard in application development in Ubuntu.

Silver prize: Fogger

Developer Owais Lone not only put a lot of effort in creating a really innovative application, but also careful thought and design on a robust and powerful backend. The result was Fogger, a piece of software that supercharges the Ubuntu desktop by blurring the line between local and global, enabling users to capture and use the web transparently, just as if it were another regular application.

Fogger ticked all boxed in terms of innovation and scratching an itch. Not only that, but it independently pioneered an alternative implementation of the technology that will power webapps in future releases of Ubuntu. The team behind the contest organization would like to encourage further collaboration with the webapps team, who will welcome Owais experience to provide input and contribution to the webapps API. Fogger was another application created with Quickly.

Bronze prize: Picsaw

Who said that with a simple idea you could not be innovative?. Author Robert Ancell, well known for his contributions in GNOME and Ubuntu, set up to demostrate just that with Picsaw: an app to create jigsaw puzzles with your favourite pictures.

Those of you who like jigsaw puzzles won’t get enough of Picsaw: it will surely join the ranks of the top games you first install in Ubuntu. Simplicity, coupled with a beautiful design and flow, show again the power that the Ubuntu platform puts in the hands of app developers.

A big thanks to all participants and the ARB

We’d like to extend the congratulations not only to winners, but also to all participants in the contest. We were blown away by the passion and skill that you put in converting your idea to a fully functional app in just 3 weeks. Not only the results were amazing, but each one of you made the first ever edition of the Ubuntu App Showdown a resounding success. You truly rock.

We would like to correspond this effort by making every participant a winner: as announced, all authors from qualified apps will get an Ubuntu T-shirt as a prize. Stay tuned for the details – we will get in touch with you soon!

A special mention goes to the Ubuntu App Review Board (ARB) and all other contributors that have helped doing the technical reviews, implemented fixes and made it possible to publish apps in the Ubuntu Software Centre. This is often hard work that despite its importance does not always get the credit it deserves. The Ubuntu Community team would like to extend the thanks to these awesome individuals, without whom the contest would have not been possible. Here’s to you!

But there’s more!

We’re not done with prizes yet! All apps (excluding winners of the Gold, Silver and Bronze prizes) are automatically classified for the next round: the community vote. As a user, everyone will now be able to vote on the contest apps, and the 3 new winners will each take  a Nokia N9 smartphone home.

Again, stay tuned to this blog and the Ubuntu App Developer social media channels for the exact details and the announcement of the community vote start date.

Really excited to see the growing interest and progress made in app development in Ubuntu!

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