Tag Archives: Contest

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Top 5 Show Us Your Hack Contest Winners

For the past seven weeks, fans far and wide have been submitting their coolest inventions and hacks for the chance to win a free Sphero as part of the Show Us Your Hack contest. We kicked things off with a smartphone controlled blender here in our office, and you showed us your creativity with everything from Preston’s awesome underwater robot to Muchen’s LEGO Cyborg. Check out a roundup of the winners below. Congratulations again, and thank you to all who participated!

1. Charlie’s Sphero Egg Trick: It’s not news that pranking your friends with Sphero is a blast. But putting Sphero inside an edible Easter egg? A whole new level of surprise!

2. Alex’s Rube Goldberg Machine: Easily our most time consuming hack, Alex turned his bedroom into the ultimate obstacle course for Sphero. Watch to find out what you can do with a little elbow grease and some dominoes.

3. Cole’s Homemade Stylus Pen: Sometimes, all you need to be an engineer is a sponge and a paper clip. Cole showed us how it’s done with a homemade stylus pen and Sphero.

4. Andrico’s Javascript Hack: We’re glad this hack isn’t permanent. Watch as Andrico changes our website with only a few keystrokes. Good thing he’s a true fan!

5. Rose Rolls’ Hardware Hack: This class went above and beyond. They are the first engineers to take advantage of Sphero’s open source hardware to build an autonomous, following Sphero. Watch the video to see how it works, and learn how impressive the hack really is.

Just because this contest has come to a close doesn’t mean the hacking ends here. Send us your creations for a chance to be featured, and stay posted on our Facebook page and Twitter for what we come up with next. You never know – it just might be a lawn mower controlled ceiling fan.

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Show Us Your Hack and We’ll Show You Ours [VIDEO]

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Here at Orbotix, we like to geek out. Our developers and engineers are constantly coming up with fun hacks, from a Sphero chariot that carries beer to a supercharged potato gun. Running on a charge of Red Bull and fueled by each other’s antics, there’s never a dull moment in the office. And now it’s your turn to get involved.

Show us your hack, and we’ll show you ours! Send in photos or video of your coolest invention every week via Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram and we’ll pick our favorite to win a free Sphero*. Your hacks don’t have to be related to Sphero (bonus points if they are), and can have anything to do with inventions and  gadgetry in general. Got a souped-up alarm clock? A tricked out trike? We want to see your coolest creations and modifications, no matter what it is you hacked. Check out our Smartphone Controlled Blender hack in the video below.

Go ahead. Embrace your geekiness. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter to see the entries roll in, and stay posted for more Orbotix hacks and nerdy inspiration in the weeks to come by subscribing to our YouTube channel. *Note that we’ll only give away a Sphero to entries that really impress us or make us laugh, so if nothing comes in that gets our whole team excited then you’ll have to try harder!

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Sphero Nyan Cat SpaceParty: Contest Winner

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For the past three weeks, ballers worldwide have been sending in their best action shots of the Sphero app, Nyan Cat SpaceParty. The swag at stake? A Nyan Cat plush toy, a box of PopTarts, and a custom hand painted Sphero valued at over $350. We saw bacon, bumble bees, and nearly every other character the seven-level game has to offer. For every lollipop collected, there were just as many votes coming in the forms of “likes” on Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. While every submission showed some serious party, the swag goes to Sumeet who rounded up 393 likes. All our balls are belong to him. Shout out to our runner up, Kayla, who actually beat the game (see below)!

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 Thank you to all the fans who submitted their coolest gameplay photos. You all form an elite league of space ballers who can not only shoot bacon and dodge hazards, but also manage to take a screenshot at the same time. The fun isn’t over yet! Check back for more contests as we ramp up for a spring hacking extravaganza. All we can say now is, you’re going to want to start brainstorming.

Missed the contest? There’s still time to check out the app.

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Win a Custom Nyan Cat Sphero: SpaceParty Contest

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Space is in right now. Everyone’s getting on board – err, ship. NASA is building robots that will drill for water on the moon, and others are designing 3D lunar bases complete with builder bots that can actually make it happen. Guess what other robot is getting involved? That’s right. Sphero.

In case you’ve been living under a rock, you’ve noticed that Sphero’s throwing a party in space, and you’re invited. We’ve partnered with the popular Internet meme Nyan Cat to release the ultimate controller app – Sphero Nyan Cat SpaceParty (video here). Use Sphero as a handheld controller to fly your Poptart cat through seven levels of space, shooting bacon at enemies and dodging satellites to collect lollipops. And to sweeten the power-ups, we’re offering some serious swag to the baller who can get the coolest action shot of their gameplay. The gear includes a plushie Nyan Cat, a limited edition t-shirt, a box of Poptarts, and a custom Nyan Sphero valued at over $350!

partyaction2All you need to do is take your best screenshot of SpaceParty gameplay within the next three weeks and post to Facebook, Twitter, or Instagram with the hashtag #SpaceParty and get your friends to like, comment, and share. The coolest shot (example above) with the most engagement at the end of the contest wins. Extra points are awarded for backwards bacon-shooting and high levels. The app is available for iOS and Android for $.99, so get partying today and show us your skills! Entries are due March 13th and the winner will be announced shortly thereafter.

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Winner, Winner, Bacon Dinner! Show Us Your Balls Results.

Winner, winner, bacon dinner! The votes for the Show Us Your Balls contest have been counted and four lucky winners are about to be stocked up with a month’s supply of bacon and some serious #spheroSWAG. For the past month and a half, we asked fans to submit your best Sphero videos for the chance to win a sweet swag bag filled with a custom Sphero, a case of BAWLS Guarana energy drinks, a hypercolor t-shirt, limited edition ramps signed by Sphero’s co-founders, a Sphero gumball machine, a Sphero bean bag chair, and a month’s supply of bacon. We offered contestants four different categories to choose from to create the most ballin’ video that would bring in votes from friends and fans on Facebook. The result? A ton of awesome footage. Drumroll, please!

The first category that was sure to have everyone rolling on the floor laughing was to use Sphero to prank friends, family, classmates, or coworkers. With almost 400 votes, we congratulate Nick Stauffer with The Sphero Cats for pranking his furry family members and actually tricking a kitteh into jumping into a bathtub filled with water. Nick, your kittehs were great sports and definitely won over the hearts of Sphero fans around the globe. We think they deserve some bacon crumbles in their next meal.

Our second category tested our ballers’ building skills and Sphero’s agility by having contenders build and play on a racecourse, golf course, or obstacle course for Sphero. By tackling the ocean current and rolling through seaweed and seashells, Thomas Regny takes home the prize with Sphero at the Beach. Fans undeniably dug your beach obstacle course, Thomas. Extra kudos for filming Sphero underwater!

We were really excited to see how people could trick out their Spheros, so for the third category we asked contestants to personalize their ball with custom skins, accessories, or water gear. Robert Morris transformed his Sphero into the coolest kitteh toy ever in Sphero and Sphynxquebec Kitty and collected over 1,000 votes. Our team and supporters worldwide clearly loved watching your hairless kittehs have a ball with Sphero, Robert.

Finally, for all those who didn’t have a Sphero or just wanted to ball out, we told them to just get crazy and show us why they needed to win. Carlton Mackall duked it out in Sphero Arcade for the “get crazy” category. Taking first place can really power a person up, Carlton! Congrats. For those who haven’t yet seen the epic 3D effects in Carlton’s video, check it out below.

Santa will be delivering a big bag of #spheroSWAG to our winners this holiday season. Send us a direct message on Facebook with your shipping addresses and phone numbers and we’ll attempt to coordinate global bacon domination in time for Christmas. Thank you to everyone else who submitted videos for the Show Us Your Balls contest! It was incredibly hard to pick just four winners, and we truly enjoyed everyone’s creativity and enthusiasm. Happy holidays from Sphero & the Orbotix team, and stay posted for more ways to win #spheroSWAG next year.