Congratulations to our Hidden Gems winners and we're starting our second segment today!

A few weeks ago, Windows Phone Central and Microsoft started a Hidden Gems campaign to highlight interesting and underappreciated apps for Windows and Windows Phone. The series also is also a chance to reward our community by letting users win prizes for their participation, namely giving constructive feedback about the game or app highlighted.

Today, we are announcing those winners and starting our second segment, which focuses on some new hardware and connected technologies. Once again, there is an opportunity for you to win if you leave a comment!

Winners

Hidden Gems

The contest was simple: leave a constructive comment about the app or game being discussed. The competition was open worldwide, and although we were not grading comments, we were verifying that they were substantive i.e. they at least had sentence structure.

What was the prize? Your choice of a new Lumia 930 or Dell Venue 8 Pro tablet.

The bonus? We upped the ante and decided to pick TWO winners from each article, bringing the total to 18. Therefore, without further ado, here is who won:

  • Mcheiron (TRAINR)
  • Gautam Kabiraj (TRAINR)
  • Diego Rico (Hotel Tonight)
  • Koen Geerts (Hotel Tonight)
  • WDavis4692 (How to Cook Everything)
  • Wizbit (How to Cook Everything)
  • Jason Papapanagiotakis (Super Why!)
  • vincelac (Super Why!)
  • KMF79 (Baby Connect)
  • Imranjazib (Baby Connect)
  • GelvinGSM (PicsArt)
  • Toan Le (PicsArt)
  • Elitelibra (Interactive Touch Books)
  • Carlosrdd (Interactive Touch Books)
  • yellowspark007 (Levitagram)
  • Lalith Prabhudev (Levitagram)
  • Orlando Grillo (Toca Kitchen and Hair Salon)
  • Ken Xia (Toca Kitchen and Hair Salon)

We will be in contact with the winners later today from our contest coordinator Michelle, so look for those emails later this afternoon!

Hidden Gems 2 – Hardware!

Today, we are starting a brief four-day focus on new hardware and connected technologies for Windows or Windows Phone. Some of these we have reported on but this time we have some high-quality video reviews to see the items in action.

First up later today is Insteon, the home automation system. Insteon has teamed up with Microsoft to sell the Insteon kits at their Microsoft Store, and there are apps for Windows and Windows Phone. We will show you how it all works and you can decide if it is something you want for your abode.

New contest, new chance to win!

For the next four days, we are bringing you new Hidden Gems starting with today's Insteon. The contest is the same: leave a comment about the gizmo we are reviewing. Comments do not need to praiseworthy; just tell us your honest thoughts about the item (we are not judging your opinions, just looking for something that took you some thought).

What can you win? How about the hardware we are reviewing! Hence, for Insteon, you can win yourself an Insteon Home Kit ($299 value). For the other contests, you have to wait and see.

We will once again pick TWO winners from each article, so make sure you participate!

Missed our previous Hidden Gems? Jump to our super page to catch up!

Daniel Rubino
Editor-in-chief

Daniel Rubino is the Editor-in-chief of Windows Central. He is also the head reviewer, podcast co-host, and analyst. He has been covering Microsoft since 2007, when this site was called WMExperts (and later Windows Phone Central). His interests include Windows, laptops, next-gen computing, and watches. He has been reviewing laptops since 2015 and is particularly fond of 2-in-1 convertibles, ARM processors, new form factors, and thin-and-light PCs. Before all this tech stuff, he worked on a Ph.D. in linguistics, watched people sleep (for medical purposes!), and ran the projectors at movie theaters because it was fun.