Functional smartphone embedded in EW magazine

[Fairportfan]

Fully functional Android phone embedded in Entertainment Weekly

The world around us is rapidly adapting to the knowledge that our smartphones can serve as advertisement delivery systems. It seems like you can’t walk down the street now without seeing a QRcode or a Microsoft Tag for something, to say nothing of the “download our app” images in every magazine and commercial. You’d have to do something extra crazy to stick out in a magazine these days, even if that meant embedding a small screen in your magazine ad to offer information in real time. In fact, that’s exactly what The CW accomplished when they embedded a smartphone into this week’s Entertainment Weekly.



The ABO 810 is a pretty basic Android phone. For about $40 you can order one online, and receive an Android 2.2 smartphone with a 2.3″ screen. Compared to modern Android phones, it’s not much. If you remove all of the plastic, pop off that keyboard, and slide the battery over to the left a bit, you’ve got a pretty thin phone. Thin enough, in fact, to setup an inexpensive monitor to show off commercials for your upcoming television shows.

Flipping to this page in special versions of this week’s EW will offer you commercials of The Arrow and Emily Owens, M.D. which are due to air later this week. Once the commercials are over, you are taken to the CW Twitter page, where you can see tweets show up in real time.



If you manage to get your hands on one of the 1,000 copies of the magazine that include this “enhanced advertisement,” you will have a 3G capable Android phone with a T-Mobile SIM card that is likely prepaid for a small amount of data. The microUSB port is still accessible, so you could recharge your new phone and use it for whatever you like. Sure, the OS is partially Chinese and there’s no keyboard or trackball for this underpowered little phone, but for any tinkerer out there this advertisement is just screaming “challenge accepted.”

Long time readers of Entertainment Weekly will be right to point out this isn’t the first time the magazine has dabbled with embedded tech. Back in 2009 the September 18 issue of the mag included a small video display.

[Leak]

Am I the only one majorly underwhelmed here? If they had managed to bring the cost down enough to put that into a million copies without bankrupting themselves I'd be impressed (but still really miffed about the waste of ultimately throwaway electronics) - but that? Pointless publicity stunt galore...

What's next? Functional EW magazine embedded in smartphone? Oh wait, that's called an eBook...

[Atomic]

Once upon a time, Scratch-and-Sniff was the magazine wonder to behold. At the grocery, you could smell Vogue and Mademoiselle from all the way over in Produce!

Ah, those were the days. Now, Everything needs batteries. Sigh.

Hey! Get off my lawn!

[Dave]

Once upon a time, Scratch-and-Sniff was the magazine wonder to behold. At the grocery, you could smell Vogue and Mademoiselle from all the way over in Produce!

Gaah. Scented magazines and newspaper-advertising inserts are the bane of my existence. I'm allergic to most of the perfumes they stick in those things - my throat closes up and I get a headache. I've had to throw out more than one thing that I'd paid for and wanted to read, because I couldn't stand to stay in the same room with it.

[Mark N]

Once upon a time, Scratch-and-Sniff was the magazine wonder to behold. At the grocery, you could smell Vogue and Mademoiselle from all the way over in Produce!

Ah, those were the days. Now, Everything needs batteries. Sigh.

Hey! Get off my lawn!

I'm waiting for the day that I find a new kind of battery that says "batteries not included"

What horrifies me right now is remembering all of the childhood toys I had that did not need batteries, and those days seem so far away.


Hey, wanna share my land mines to keep the kids off our lawns?????

[DinkyInky]

I'm waiting for the day that I find a new kind of battery that says "batteries not included"

What horrifies me right now is remembering all of the childhood toys I had that did not need batteries, and those days seem so far away.


Hey, wanna share my land mines to keep the kids off our lawns?????

I think what Jon Arbuckle says at about 53 seconds sums it all up.

[Yamara]

I'm waiting for the day that I find a new kind of battery that says "batteries not included"

What horrifies me right now is remembering all of the childhood toys I had that did not need batteries, and those days seem so far away.


Hey, wanna share my land mines to keep the kids off our lawns?????

I think what Jon Arbuckle says at about 53 seconds sums it all up.

Board and card games are still going strong. Some reap millions on Kickstarter, from and for all age groups.

Our phones have always needed electric power. No one is alive who remembers a time without telephones, so that shouldn't seem weird.

The pathetic part is an ad for a tv network in a magazine trying to contain the internet. So. Full. Of Fail.