RE: hedgecore -
I hate that, losing a response due to some glitch. Sometimes one can recover with the back button, but not always. Not sure how/why.

I don't envy the judges either. It will be interesting to see what happens next.

I saw these angles: Daily use, geek use
Current user / aspiring user
Creative / General highlight / Tech detail / Mixed
Story line / Impromptu
In front of camera / creative drawings + narrated / creative photo work + narration / slide show with computer voice
Hyper / good flow / less flow / no flow
Brief / regular / longwinded
More polished / less polished

I'm sure there's more. Some are interrelated. Just some things off the top of my head; thinking back at the other entries; after I finished my upload. Fortunately didn't have any issues with Youtube. I feared a third iMovie crash and some youtube issue in the final hours. New registration, first upload kind of thing.

There were a few things that I wanted to do (better) but iMovie didn't let me. Note, I'm not complaining or seeking some sympathy ... just stating from the creation aspect I felt a little limited. At the same I don't want to overdo things (like you'd see ppt slideshow with continuous transitions, lots of flash, colors, ...) Couple things needed another recording for it to work better, if I was going to include, but the time wasn't there ... and you don't really want a 8 - 10 minute, let alone 20 minute video. Plus, one really could spend two whole weeks working on a story, recording, selecting, tweaking, etc. ... and literally drive oneself crazy on the details. I know what it is to want to do something and feel good about it. I have that bit of compulsiveness or whatever too. For me keeping it brief is a hard thing. There's so much stuff I would want to pack in. So I tried to find a balance of things in general with a few little dashes thrown in.

Like you said, people around the world are very passionate about these little tablet things. I know I've grown attached to mine in the short time I've owned it. I liken it to when I first started using a Mac full time (which was shortly after I bought one, when OS X came around) and felt so liberated. So, it comes natural that current owners would like to upgrade. Others see the same things in these devices and want to join in. Though they may not have experienced some of the limitations. In the videos we point out the good things obviously and the things that work. I can't listen to my favorite internet radio station for instance as it is in a windows format. Little things like that which hopefully will get resolved with future software updates and increased hardware capabilities. Anyway.

I've secretly hoped that Nokia would take notice of this contest and sponsor an N810 for the 5 finalists. There is just so much deserving work out there. I think it is going to be a bear for whomever is second ... as the entries are so well created, that I think they're going to be just fractions apart.

The olympic spirit is what matters. I spent more time on this than any other creative thing in a long while (besides working on iBlog 2, but that's a whole different animal) and it is just so much fun to look at youtube and know that's your little movie.

The other thing is; I have a few dozen dv tapes on the shelf and probably 30k images sitting around - but I never really done anything with it. Capture it, watch it once, then tapes are just gathering dust. Digital images I go through sometimes on the hunt for a specific memory. Back to this little video. It may get me in gear to start doing something with some of the things I've captured over the years. Revisit and recreate some memories. Maybe take the digicam along with my photo camera.

Well, this is getting to be one long reply. And that's the other thing. I do think this little contest has brought the contestants together and sparked more conversation about the product. The little desire to maybe win the bugger (since we're not in the developer program). See how other people use their tablet around the world. I think that was actually a neat thing. We got to see other users in their little corner of the world.