Well, folks, this is it. Lloyd has returned from all of his exhilarating adventures and has lived to tell the tales. You guys took him everywhere and he told me he had the best time of his life! Adventures included multiple theme parks, hiking some of the coolest places on earth like islands and volcanoes, spelunking in caves, swimming in lakes and oceans, frolicking on the beach, visiting long lost family members, and seeing a ton of far off places on all continents of the globe. Lloyd was treated to soccer and baseball games, concerts, and visits to the doctor and dentist. He even took rides on planes, trains, automobiles, boats, weather balloons, motorcycles ... you name it, Lloyd was on it.
With just under 300 entries, it was super hard for Lloyd to narrow down his favorites. He wanted to give everyone a prize, but unfortunately that's not possible. We did decide to add prizes for runners up so on top of the four grand prize winners who will each get a Samsung Galaxy S III, we have 12 runners-up who will each receive a $25 gift certificate to ShopAndroid.com. So, without further ado, let's announce the winners!
Grand Prize Winners (in no particular order)
Craig Isakson
My name is Craig. I am the Mobile Development Team Lead for Sundog Interactive. I love developing for Android and really like to do different kinds of experiments. One such experiment was SpaceTracker. Back in November I used the app I created to send my Android phone to near space to get some pictures and posted the store to my company's blog. When I saw the SGS3 contest I was excited to try again and this time include Lloyd on the journey.
Long story short, I built a box to take pictures of Lloyd on the journey and sent him up in a weather balloon. While my first experiment was a success and I was able to recover my phone, so far this time around I did not have the same success. After the launch my cell phone never regained signal so we were unable to see where he eventually landed. I am fairly confident that someone will find the box and return the my phone and camera but for now it is lost. If/when I retrieve the phone back, I will be sure to send in the pictures I received. Until then all I can do is show you what the pictures look like from some test shots I had of Lloyd before the flight.
Debarati Chatterjee
I took Lloyd skydiving 2 miles above the Hamptons in New York! Look how happy he is! We're all making the same face haha (hard to see behind the glasses, sorry!). The best part was that my instructor was totally on board with the whole idea -- he said he started out with an iPhone, progressed to a Samsung Captivate, and now has a Galaxy Note! What a great thing to know before I trust this man with my life!
Painted Fam
We are Painted Fam, and we represent two Elements of Hip-Hop - Graffiti and Emceeing. We also dig electronics of the Google Android and Samsung variety! So, this contest was the perfect opportunity for us to express our love for both Hip-Hop and Android. In the pic, from left to right, you have: Noir, A-Void, X, and (me) M.O. Oh and as for Android Central - best Android news feed ever! Peace.
Ronaldo Pace
When I read about it I happen to be going to this awesome rock festival in France (www.hellfest.fr) and I thought, I'm sure Lloyd would like to come see Motley Crue, Lynyrd Skynard and Hank III. It's a really shame that it started to rain during Ozzy and Lloyd completely melted, I can guarantee you he was enjoying until the last minute and died painlessly.
Runners-Up (in no particular order)
Louis Alston
I was so excited about the contest that I packed up my family in Atlanta and flew to Phoenix and drove 1900 miles to the Grand Canyon, Hoover Damn, Las Vegas, Death Valley, Hollywood, the Pacific Coast Highway to San Francisco, Napa Valley, the Petrified Forest and finally Silicon Valley to take Lloyd home. These pictures are at end of our 1900 mile trek to Googleplex. These are some of my favorite. I have 400+ photo of my family and Lloyd taken with my HTC. My family loves Lloyd now, but hates me!
Victor
Attached is my picture for the contest. It is Lloyd and I at the aft portion of the flight deck within the Space Shuttle Crew Compartment Trainer. As you can see, Lloyd is situated so he can either work the controls to help the Shuttle dock with the International Space Station or move equipment using the Shuttle's arm in the vehicle's payload bay.
Erin Semmens
I recently took Lloyd on an adventure underground into the Buchan Caves near the town of Buchan, in East Gippsland which is located in the south east corner of Australia. I am pictured with Lloyd in the Royal Cave which was discovered in 1910 by Frederick Wilson.
Mike Vega
I decided to take Lloyd and his family on a tropical Miami beach vacation. The kids splashed around in the water, while Lloyd and his wife soaked in the summer sun.
Brian Thompson
I'm a high school science teacher from NC. This week I've been participating in a NASA workshop in Wallops Island Flight Facility in northeastern Virginia near Chincoteague Island. Today we had exclusive access to the closest vantage point for the launching of a Terrier-Orion rocket! Only some education-types and a couple media were allowed to witness from the actual launch site. I printed and colored Lloyd, then mounted him to my clipboard so he could share VIP access to this awesome event!
Ray Toth
I took this picture while flying low level over the Very Large Array, one of the world's premier astronomical radio observatories, which consists of 27 radio antennas in a Y-shaped configuration on the Plains of San Agustin 50 miles west of Socorro, New Mexico. Each antenna is 25 meters (82 feet) in diameter. If you look in the center of the photo near my head, you'll see one of the antenna from the array. Lloyd had a great time at the beginning and really loved seeing the VLA, but unfortunately filled up two barf bags toward the end of the flight - apparently he's not cut out for low-level flying in a fighter aircraft.
David Ham
Lloyd and I on a special tour of NASA's Johnson Space Center inside the Crew Cabin Trainer (CCT). Lloyd's my commander, I'm the pilot, and we're ready to fly this bird!!
AndroidJunkie
I obviously couldn't print Lloyd out for this shot, but hopefully you like what I did instead. It would've looked more accurate with less waves. Done using ~$80 in quarters, and no goggles.
Britt Rothove
We put sweat and tears into giving Lloyd a great time and we hope that you enjoy these moments as much as Lloyd did!
Elie Sfeir
I took Lloyd with me to Ecuador, my first stop of my tour in South America. So I took Lloyd to “Mitad Del Mundo” (middle of the world) the place from which Ecuador has its name because the equator passes through the country. The big monument in the photo indicates where the line of the equator passes, and in the photo I am putting Lloyd on top of the globe of this monument, on top of the middle of the world.
Steven Crisostomo
I took Lloyd to Universal Studios Hollywood with me. Lloyd got a little wet on Jurassic Park The Ride but kept his composure.
Joey Wollenburg
Our adventure starts with Lloyd getting suited up to go to the waterfalls. He needs a wet suit! After he was dressed, we asked Lloyd which state park he would like to see and Minneopa it was! Sadly we didn't catch any fish, but we did manage to carve Lloyd into the rocks for all to see!!! Even though our time at the park has ended for today, know that we won't forget you. We love you Lloyd!
So there you have it, folks. Thanks to everyone that entered! All of the adventures and pictures were awesome. Winners, you'll be contacted throughout the week for your prizes. Congratulations!
