Windows Phone Central Vacation Giveaway

No... Windows Phone Central isn't giving away a vacation getaway but rather I'm on vacation and getting away for a few days. To celebrate, we thought it was a good idea to giveaway a few things.
We have the Otterbox Defender, Otterbox Communter and Amzer Shellster that was reviewed last month just lying around collecting dust. All three are fitted for the Nokia Lumia 900 and we're giving them away. All you need to do is go to this WPCentral Forums discussion and guess where the picture above was taken.
You need to guess the City and State.  "United States", "Alabama" and "on a street corner" won't count.
And you need not worry if you don't carry a Lumia 900. In your guess, just note your choice of Windows Phone and you'll get a Gift Certificate to the Accessory Store so you can pick out a case for your Windows Phone of choice. Oh... and feel free to add your favorite vacation picture to the discussion.
You'll have until August 9th at 5:00pm PST to submit your guesses. After that, we will randomly pick our winners from the correct answers. You will need to register to participate, which can be done here and make sure to note what Windows Phone you are currently using.
Good luck everyone!

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Posted in: Central,Giveaway,Phone,Vacation,Windows

DirecTV and Viacom deal brings MTV, Comedy Central, Nickelodeon and the rest back on the air

DIRECTV and Viacom Reach Agreement to Renew Carriage of Viacom's Networks

All 26 Viacom Networks, Including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, CMT, Logo, Spike,
TV Land, MTV2, VH1, VH1 Classic, Palladia, Nick Jr., Nicktoons, TeenNick, Tr3s and Centric,
to Return to DIRECTV Immediately

New York, NY – July 20, 2012 -Viacom (NASDAQ: VIA, VIAB) today announced that the company has reached a long-term agreement to renew carriage with DIRECTV.

All 26 Viacom networks, including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, CMT, Logo, Spike, TV Land, MTV2, VH1, VH1 Classic, Palladia, Nick Jr., Nicktoons, TeenNick, Tr3s and Centric, will return to DIRECTV's channel lineup immediately. As part of the overall carriage agreement, DIRECTV has an option to add the EPIX service to its entertainment offerings.

Viacom is extremely pleased to bring its programming back to DIRECTV subscribers, and thanks everyone affected by the disruption for their patience and understanding during this challenging period.

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DIRECTV and Viacom Reach Agreement for Return of Viacom's 17 Channels Including Extensive New Digital Rights for DIRECTV Customers

EL SEGUNDO, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)-- DIRECTV has reached a new long-term agreement with Viacom to restore 17 channels (including Nickelodeon, Comedy Central, MTV, BET, Spike, CMT, TV Land and ten other channels) that Viacom had taken away from DIRECTV customers on July 10. Viacom has returned all affected networks.

Financial terms were not disclosed.

In addition to the channels' return, DIRECTV customers will also gain the ability to see Viacom programming on tablets, laptops, handhelds and other personal devices via the DIRECTV Everywhere platform. Carriage of the EPIX movie channel is not required as part of the new agreement.

"We are very pleased to be able to restore the channels to our customers and thank them for their unprecedented patience and support," said Derek Chang, executive vice president of Content Strategy and Development for DIRECTV. "It's unfortunate that Viacom took the channels away from customers to try to gain leverage, but in the end, it's clear our customers recognized that tactic for what it was."

Chang added, "The attention surrounding this unnecessary and ill-advised blackout by Viacom has accomplished one key thing: it serves notice to all media companies that bullying TV providers and their customers with blackouts won't get them a better deal. It's high time programmers ended these anti-consumer blackouts once and for all and prove our industry is about enabling people to connect to their favorite programs rather than denying them access."

The dispute helped generate significant public support from hundreds of thousands of customers and also, surprisingly enough, many high-profile DIRECTV competitors. The 850 small and independently owned local cable systems that make up the American Cable Association joined the anti-blackout chorus, as did Cox Communications, Time Warner Cable and Mediacom.

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Posted in: brings,Central,Comedy,DirecTV,Nickelodeon,Viacom

Windows Phone Central Ringtone Contest Winners! (Updated)

While we had hoped to announce the winners of the Windows Phone Central Ringtone Contest yesterday, judging proved to be more difficult than expected. We had a lot of quality entries submitted over in our Forums Discussion.  Nonetheless, after listening to all the entries our Ringtone Contest Winners are:

All have won a Nokia Play 360! We are dispatching emails to get everyone's shipping information and will get the Nokia Play headed their way shortly.

We would also like to extend our congratulations to Elvis7 and Kyle H for being randomly selected for our weekly prizes, WPCentral Accessory Store gift card, during the contest period.

Thanks to everyone who participated in the contest and if you didn't win, don't give up hope. We've got a few more contests up our sleeves for next month.

Update: It has come to our attention that one of the entries selected as a winning entry may not be original content, which was a requirement.  That entry is under review and we will update the post shortly.

Update II: Okay... we've review things and the ringtone in question was not original content and disqualified.  We've looked over the entries that and have chosen our third winner.  Congrats to all.

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Posted in: Central,Contest,Phone,Ringtone,Updated,Windows,Winners