International CES doesn't start officially until Tuesday, but that doesn't mean there's nothing to do in Vegas. We're here at the AT&T Developer Summit at the Palms, where six new AT&T LTE Android phones pretty much stole the show.
The news wasn't all Android today, though. On Sunday, app developers gathered from around the world to compete in AT&T's Hackathon, utilizing new HTML5 API's developed by AT&T. Developers used the API's to quickly add complex features of their applications in a short amount of time. After working mere hours building an application from scratch, three finalists were selected to do a live pitch to the assembled audience at the summit's keynote. After the pitch, it was the audience voting by text message that would decide the winner.
Out of the three, two of the app finalists chose to develop their applications using the BlackBerry PlayBook. Staring into the faces of the hundreds assembled for the keynote, Demian Borba gave a quick presentation of his Action X-Ray application on the PlayBook. After only 7 hours, Demain and his Action Creations partner Doug Saisho created the app in Adobe Air.
Providing a way to keep track of (and show off) your wounds and injuries, the app also recommends products using you might like to buy - from right inside the app. Cleverly, the app might suggest you purchase a helmet before sustaining another head injury.
For being coded in such as short amount of time, I thought the app was fairly impressive; and the audience agreed. Demian and Doug won the Hackathon challenge along with $20,000, a backstage pass to tonight's Nickleback concert, and will be featured in an upcoming AT&T television commercial. Now that's what I call a win!
