[URL="http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/4/3452890/entertainment-weekly-cw-ad-smartphone-teardown"]Teardown reveals Android smartphone inside Entertainment Weekly's print ad | The Verge[/URL]
Holy fuck they're doing this now? :shock:
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The latest print edition of Entertainment Weekly includes an interactive ad for the CW network, replete with an embedded LCD that displays [URL="http://www.theverge.com/2012/10/2/3442506/entertainment-weekly-print-live-twitter"]live tweets and video[/URL]. Turns out, there's a smartphone inside, too.
Mashable this week [URL="http://mashable.com/2012/10/02/ew-has-smartphone-inside/"]conducted a thorough teardown[/URL] of the ad to uncover a dated, yet fully functional 3G handset nestled between two thick pages. The extraction, detailed in the video below, revealed all of the phone's basic components: a standard battery, T-Mobile 3G card, camera, speaker, and mini USB port. The device even features a QWERTY keyboard, covered with black tape.
[video=youtube;FQm7k4riCoE]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FQm7k4riCoE[/video]
Upon removing the device from its plastic cover, Mashable successfully accessed its Android home menu, and even managed to place a call. The handset's motherboard indicates that it was manufactured by Foxconn, confirming earlier statements from Rick Haskins, the CW's executive vice president of marketing, who had revealed that the ad was powered by an Android-based device built in China.
Further analysis from Mashable Senior Tech Analyst Christine Warren suggests that the device's components are identical to an old QWERTY smartphone from ABO, which[URL="http://www.bluelans.com/new-abo-3g-qwerty-google-android-os-smart-phone-with-gps-p-9990.html"]currently retails for $86[/URL]. This discovery could open the door for some interesting hacks, though resources will be in scarce supply; the ad is included in just 1,000 issues of the October 5th print edition, which is only available on newsstands in New York and Los Angeles.