The application used a Flash video player to play the amateur videos and included a thumbs up / down rating system. The video with the highest overall ranking won. The application also included a comment wall for user comments and discussion, and was localized for five European countries:

• United Kingdom
• France
• Germany
• Spain
• Italy

The application was coded by myself using PHP, MySQL and JavaScript in the space of one week. The application made use of social functionality including newsfeed when watching, rating or commenting videos. The Winter Challenge application was also built using Facebook Connect and feature on the EuroSports Website. The application replicated the fan page functionality but used Facebook Connect for social functionality.

Multitasking and the ability to keep applications running constantly is definitely what the iPhone is missing. I was able to run Twitter, GTalk and other applications in the background, so I was always up to date on the latest.

Although the applications available from the Market are limited (compared to the iPhone), most of the applications available are free. There aren’t a lot of official applications available but I was able to easily find substitutes for my main iPhone apps:

• Seesmic for Twitter
• LondonTube for Tube Status Updates
• wpToGo for WordPress Blogging

The GNO comes pre-installed with many useful applications including both email and Gmail clients, GTalk client, Calendar app, Calculator, Maps and more.

One of the biggest disadvantages was the lack of multi-touch for maps, browsing and other applications. This is presumably due to patent issues with Apple. After a while of use, you don’t really miss the functionality. Even after being a iPhone user for the past few years, the GNO has one me over, and more importantly so has Android.

The Editor’s Highlight and Features widget uses RSS feeds to pull in real-time content from the Economist website. The search widget lets users search for articles on the Economist website. The Covers widget shows the latest issue of Economist in the US, UK, Europe and Asia.

I also built a custom tab called “Articles“, which include a larger version of the widgets on the Boxes tab. These again use RSS to pull in real-time content from The Economist. A excerpt of the articles are shown on the tab, with a link to the full article on The Economist. The user can also share the articles straight to their newsfeed.

Visit the Economist Fan Page.

If the user is still alive after completing the five levels, the game starts again, but the score continues. However, the game gets harder with each level. On completing the game, the player’s score is added to the Leaderboard and the user received a “Acting” rank and “Action” rank.

After the US launch of the movie, the application was updated and localized to four additional languages for the European launch. Towards the end of the campaign, the application had over 70,000 users.

The game itself was developed in Flash. The remainder of the application, flash integration and leaderboard components were build in PHP. There were some technical challenges in connecting PHP and Flash within Facebook, as there was no Facebook API available in Flash during the development phase.

Video content, images and information are pulled in through a XML feed managed by MySpace UK. The application was originally built using PHP and MySpace’s REST API but was later rewritten to use JavaScript.

The application can be found here.

Three RSS applications were also build to bring in official content. This included the latest jobs and new articles from the MediaMonkey and OrganGrinder blogs. You can see all the application on MediaGuardian’s Facebook Fan Page.

The iGoogle Gadget for HSBC Premier was the first implementation of Facebook Connect within iGoogle. The Facebook Connect functionality was only a few weeks old when I worked on integrating it into the application. Unfortunately, the application never went live.

The application was launched in Jone 2008 and allowed users to listen to the uploaded tracks and vote for their favourite ones. Four winners were chosen at the end of the campaign. The application used a flash based music player. I did the PHP/MySQL coding to handle file upload and recording of statistics. The top tracks received over 10,00 votes each.

After the campaign, the applications on both Facebook and Bebo were taken offline.

The application worked much like twitter and a microsite was also built integrating Facebook Connect. Users could login using either the microsite or facebook application. Users were able to vote on comments, awarding ‘goals’ or ‘red cards’. Users could also reply to comments and follow users they find interesting.

The winner for the competition would be someone with many ‘goals’, a low number of ‘red cards’, and someone with lots of followers. Unfortunately, the application never launched due to the client pulling out due to UEFA regulations.

Bands were rated in five areas, which was used to determine which of the two bands win in challenges. These were:

• Rock
• Rhythm
• Cool
• Romance
• Sex Appeal

Winning challenges also allowed the winner to swap gear with one member from the losing band. The animations and shop were implemented in flash. The remainder of the application was built in PHP. A complex algorithm was written using PHP and MySQL to determine the winner of a challenge.

PHP was also used to communicate with the flash widget, acting as a intermediate layer between the interface and the database.

The application is now running unsupported since the original campaign began. You can access it here.