They told us, but we did not believe them: The Oct. 5 print edition of Entertainment Weekly, which features a one-of-a-kind digital ad running video and live tweets, actually has a smartphone inside of it. A real, full-sized 3G cellphone inside a print magazine.
The digital ad is designed to promote the CW network's fresh lineup of action shows (The Arrow and Emily Owens, M.D.) and, when you open the magazine to the ad, the small LCD screen shows short clips of the two shows and then switches to live tweets from CW's Twitter account.
When we spoke to CW representatives earlier this week, they did tell us that "the ad is powered by a custom-built, smartphone-like Android device with an LED screen and 3G connectivity; it was manufactured in China." This is all true, though the device is far more than just "smartphone-like."
During our teardown, we discovered a smartphone-sized battery, a full QWERTY keyboard hidden under black plastic tape, a T-Mobile 3G card, a camera, speaker and a live USB port that will accept a mini USB cable, which you can then plug into a computer and recharge the phone. We could also see from the motherboard that the smartphone was built by Foxconn. You may have heard of it.
Once we extracted the phone from its clear plastic housing (which was sandwiched between two rather thick card-stock pages), we were able to use a screw driver to close the open contacts on the touch pad and access the on-screen Android menu, which has a full complement of apps. It wasn't easy, but we even made a phone call.
That's right, there's nothing wrong with this phone, other than it being old, under powered and partially in Chinese. Oh, yes, and the fact that it's jammed inside a print magazine.
Mashable Senior Tech Analyst Christina Warren, who assisted in our teardown, did some research (including using the number on the motherboard) and is now fairly certain that guts come from this $86 ABO smartphone. Don't worry, it's unlikely that it cost the CW anywhere near that much.
Entertainment Weekly is only producing 1,000 of these digital advertising-enhanced issues, so if you want a nearly free smartphone that, with a good deal of nudging, actually works, you better run, not walk, to your nearest newsstand.
In the meantime, we'll keep playing with the phone to see if we can make it perform other tricks, like calling the phone number we desire and crafting our own tweets. We did finally get the camera working, but without a lens over it, the images are a blurry mess. More challenges for what I'm officially naming our Entertainment Weekly Digital Ad/Smartphone Print Insert Hackathon!
If you get one of these phones, please tell us what you managed to do with it in the comments below.
Notice the big, blue battery.
It feels just like a smartphone--with all its skin torn off.
Here's a better look at the phone screen.
Just like any good Android phone, this guy has apps. We're still trying to figure out how to make the camera work.
There's the Android robot.
Okay, so typing and dialing on this phone might be a problem -- at least for our English-speaking readers.
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