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Samsung hands out $200,000 to devs in Galaxy Note S Pen App Challenge

As part of the Samsung Galaxy Note S Pen App Challenge, the company handed out $200,000 in cash prizes to mobile developers in the United States. The awards went to apps that made particular good use of the Galaxy Note’s S Pen stylus. The best overall app and grand prize of $100,000 went to “Monkey Write * Learn Chinese” by Chiu-ki Chan (Square Island LLC).

Other winners include second place best overall app “Maze Racer” with developer SmartyPantsGaming taking home $50,000, and third place best overall app “Drawing Pad” grabbing $25,000.

Popular Choice app went to SignDoc Mobile. It received $2,000 along with the rest of the honorable mention winners below:

Honorable Mention – $2,000 and a Galaxy Note

  • Games – “Speed Draw” by Ferdouse Khaleque and Kabir Khaleque
  • Productivity – “Papyrus” by Andrew Hughes (Steadfast Innovation)
  • Media – “FlipaClip” by Visual Blasters team members Jonathan Meson and Tim Meson
  • Sports – “Playcall” by Sargon Benjamin
  • Entertainment – “Colors! For Galaxy Note” by Jens Andersson (Collecting Smiles)
  • Travel – “Map Note” by Base 2 Applications, LLC
  • Social – “Authorgraph” by Evan Jacobs (To the Reader, Inc)
  • Lifestyle – “Makeup Paint” Modiface Inc.
  • Education – “iAnatomy” by Anouk Stein, M.D.
  • Other – “bConnected @ Ball State for Galaxy Note” by Ball State University team members Kyle Parker, Valerie Morris, Ryan Bitzegaio, Brandon Smith, Ian Gibson and Brice Brenneman

The full press release from Samsung is below:

Samsung Mobile’s Developer Challenge Brings New Apps to Galaxy Note Users

Samsung awards Grand Prize to “Monkey Write * Learn Chinese” educational app optimized for the Galaxy Note’s S Pen

DALLAS – April 23, 2012 – Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile), the No. 1 mobile phone provider in the United States1, announced the winners of the Samsung Galaxy Note™ S Pen™ App Challenge.

“The goal of the Challenge was to tap the S Pen’s unlimited potential for content creation engagement with the ingenuity of the Android app developer community,” said Dale Sohn, president of Samsung Mobile. “The results exceeded our expectations, both in terms of quantity and quality. This challenge is just one example of our constant expansion of the S Pen integrated apps ecosystem.”

Entries were judged by a five-member panel of representatives from AndroidCentral.com, AT&T, BlueRun Ventures, Gameloft and Samsung Mobile. The judges evaluated the apps based on the quality of the idea, S Pen integration and overall user experience. The challenge included a “Popular Choice” category, which invited the public to vote on submissions online.

The winning submissions include:

Best Overall App – Grand Prize – $100,000

  • “Monkey Write * Learn Chinese” by Chiu-ki Chan (Square Island LLC): Learn to write Chinese with Monkey Write – a game that makes it fun to learn. Chinese characters are written in a specific order to give them structure. Follow the stroke numbers to learn to write each character.

Best Overall App – Second Prize – $50,000

  • “Maze Racer” by Roger Peters (SmartyPantsGaming) and David McCanless: Maze Racer is a simple maze inspired game where you draw a line from start to finish. In Maze Racer, you get rewarded stars based on how quickly you reach the finish. Maze Racer is optimized for precision from the S-Pen over traditional finger input.

Best Overall App – Third Prize – $25,000

  • “Drawing Pad” by Christopher Lott and Daren Murtha (Murtha Design): Drawing Pad is a mobile art studio with a beautiful user interface that puts the fun into creating art. Drawing Pad provides amazing realistic textured brushes with the pressure sensitivity data of the S Pen.

Popular Choice – $2,000 and a Galaxy Note

  • “SignDoc Mobile” by Softpro North America: Professionally capture user handwritten signature using pressure sensitivity of the S Pen

Honorable Mention – $2,000 and a Galaxy Note

  • Games – “Speed Draw” by Ferdouse Khaleque and Kabir Khaleque
  • Productivity – “Papyrus” by Andrew Hughes (Steadfast Innovation)
  • Media – “FlipaClip” by Visual Blasters team members Jonathan Meson and Tim Meson
  • Sports – “Playcall” by Sargon Benjamin
  • Entertainment – “Colors! For Galaxy Note” by Jens Andersson (Collecting Smiles)
  • Travel – “Map Note” by Base 2 Applications, LLC
  • Social – “Authorgraph” by Evan Jacobs (To the Reader, Inc)
  • Lifestyle – “Makeup Paint” Modiface Inc.
  • Education – “iAnatomy” by Anouk Stein, M.D.
  • Other – “bConnected @ Ball State for Galaxy Note” by Ball State University team members Kyle Parker, Valerie Morris, Ryan Bitzegaio, Brandon Smith, Ian Gibson and Brice Brenneman

Developers used the Samsung S Pen SDK to integrate S Pen functionality. Winners, app entries and more information on the Challenge can be found at http://galaxynotespenchallenge.com/. More information on the Samsung Galaxy Note, an all-in-one device that allows users to communicate in a unique, personal way, can be found at http://www.samsung.com/us/mobile/cell-phones/SGH-I717ZBAATT.

1 Number one mobile phone provider in the U.S. claim for Samsung Mobile based upon reported shipment data, according to Strategy Analytics, Q4 2011 U.S. Market Share Handset Shipments Reports.

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Avatar for Jordan Kahn Jordan Kahn

Jordan writes about all things Apple as Senior Editor of 9to5Mac, & contributes to 9to5Google, 9to5Toys, & Electrek.co. He also co-authors 9to5Mac’s weekly Logic Pros series and makes music as one half of Toronto-based Makamachine.


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