RunsOnSumatra (you know him as the guy that almost never updates his blog) pointed me to the
Tivo Developer Challenge for, go figure,
Tivo despite me having no television, much less, a Tivo. I found the
HME SDK relatively interesting though its not "there" yet. It seems a bit static and simplistic. Anyway, there's this challenge and everybody wants to think of something good,
Tivfabulator being the best idea but not supported (so far as we know) by the SDK because you can't overlay directly onto television shows. Instead the app has to be accessed through a menu option. They're working on expanding it though.
So since
Tivfabulator is out, its hard to come up with a convincing application that could win one of the
6 categories:
* Grand Prize. Best Overall application
o This prize will be awarded to the application that stands out as superior in multiple categories: broad appeal, elegant design, and ease of use.
o Winner will receive one (1) Grand Prize consisting of the following: one (1) Segway HT p series (total approximate retail value $3996).
* Best Music Application.
o This prize will be awarded to the application that provides the most fun, intuitive way to discover and play music from the living room TV.
o Winner will receive one (1) Prize consisting of the following: one (1) 40GB Apple iPod (total approximate retail value $400).
* Best Photo Application.
o This prize will be awarded to the application that provides the most fun, intuitive way to view digital photos from the living room TV.
o Winner will receive one (1) Prize consisting of the following: one (1) Nikon CoolPix 5200 (total approximate retail value $350).
* Best Information Application.
o This prize will be awarded to the best application that presents useful real-time information with a easy-to-read, simple-to-use interface.
o Winner will receive one (1) Prize consisting of the following: one (1) PalmOne Treo 650 (total approximate retail value $450 - also requires purchase of cell phone plan).
* Best Game Application.
o This prize will be awarded to the best game that can be enjoyed from the living room couch. We suggest multiplayer games, but all games will be considered.
o Winner will receive one (1) Prize consisting of the following: one (1) Nintendo DS (total approximate retail value $150).
* Most Creative Prize.
o This prize will be awarded to the most impressive app that doesn't fall into any of the above categories but demonstrates the value of a broadband-connected TiVo in an innovative way.
o Winner will receive one (1) Prize consisting of the following: one (1) RIM BlackBerry 7280 PDA Phone (total approximate retail value $300 - also requires purchase of cell phone plan).
However, I was checking up on
Gallery updates, as I do every weekend and I wondered if
Gallery and
Flickr might be used in tandem though they cover similar domains. From there I discovered that some kind soul has created
a Java implementation of the
Flickr API. So now I'm thinking, why not use the HME SDK and
flickrj to build a "Best Photo Application"? It's better than interfacing to Gallery because you could show not only your pictures, but any of the publicly available pictures on Flickr. Maybe you give it an
ipod photo interface? I dunno how complex it would be first shot. The deadline for the contest is May 1st so its not like there's a lot of time left to add tons of features. Frankly, I'm not saying *I'm* gonna do it. Just throwing the idea out there. Seems like a community-based web-enabled photo app on the tivo could be good for something. I say this not knowing the full capabilities of the already existing Tivo photo app nor Flickr. So get to work.
