Despite claims that the Smoked challenge at the Microsoft Store retail locations has ended, the contest is actually still ongoing on a week-by-week basis.

See, the contest is set to end each week on Thursday (hence why other tech sites pronounced April 12^th as the end date), but Microsoft just keeps renewing it and renewing it each week. It has now been renewed until the 3^rd of May, but something tells me, that when the 4^th comes, we will see it renewed again and again.

The contest, as if anyone needs a refresher at this point, pits Windows Phone against competitor’s phones at doing an everyday task such as posting a picture to Facebook or translating text into another language. If the competitor wins they receive a $1000 gift card, but even if they lose they receive a $25 gift card.

So think about it: why would Microsoft want to end a perfect opportunity to get people to shop at their stores, as well as a chance to inform people of the strengths of Windows Phone? Something tells me the Smoked challenge will be a permanent fixture at the stores for some time to come…

Note: If you have taken the Smoked challenge in the past for the free phone offer you are no longer eligible for the contest.

Source: http://content.microsoftstore.com/store/smokedbywindowsphone

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It’s the promotion that just won’t end! Microsoft has extended its Smoked challenge at their retail stores for another week, albeit with a change.

The challenge is the same: Windows Phone vs. customer’s smartphone, complete 1 task out 6, picked at random. The change now, however, is that if you win you get a $1000 gift card instead of a laptop (not much of a change since the laptop was worth a little more than $1000 anyway), and if you don’t win, instead of exchanging your POS phone for a cost-free contract-free Windows phone, you only get a $25 gift card, limited to the first 250 people per day.

Still an easy way of getting a $25 gift card that you can use to buy a case or some Microsoft Points, but who else thinks they’ve already milked this idea for all it’s worth?

Oh, and before you ask, NO, you cannot use Microsoft Store gift cards at their online store at this time.

Thanks William for the tip.

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Two days before the Windows Phone challenge at the Microsoft Stores was set to end, Microsoft has now extended the deal to April 8^th, albeit with a change.

Because customer demand has been so high and because customers have pretty much been coming in just to LOSE and get a phone (they don’t care about the challenge), the stores will no longer be doing the challenge and instead, if you bring in any old smartphone and recycle it at the store, they will give you from $50 to $300 in credit towards a new Windows Phone, free of cost, contract and activation. The reason they’re doing the credit instead of giving you the phone right away is because many (if not all?) stores are literally out of stock of phones at the moment, and they will be slowly fulfilling the phones as they get new stock.

This is the perfect opportunity to get the Radar, Lumia 710, and Focus Flash for free (those phones are under $300), or a nice $300 discount on all of the other phones at the store.

FYI: Microsoft Stores are also taking pre-orders for the Lumia 900.

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From now until March 29 at all fourteen Microsoft Stores, Microsoft will be challenging users of other smartphones to their #SmokedByWindowsPhone challenge and offering awesome prizes, whether you got smoked or not.

As you may remember, #SmokedByWindowsPhone is a campaign started by Ben Rudolph the PC Guy at CES 2012 where he challenged users of the iPhone, Android, etc. to complete everyday tasks on their smartphone, showing them how fast Windows Phone is at these tasks because of its built-in functionality. Unsurprisingly Windows Phone has had a huge success rate, and since then Microsoft has taken the challenge to other locations, and has promoted it on the web and very soon possibly on TV.

For the challenge happening at the Microsoft Stores, Microsoft is offering a limited-edition Hunger Games HP Folio 13 laptop valued at $1,049.00 for those who win the challenge. However, even for those who lose the challenge, Microsoft will offer, free of charge, any Windows Phone of their choosing (excluding the Nokia Lumia 800 bundle) either contract-free (given that they give up their current phone) or on a new two-year contract (no need to give up their current phone).

The #SmokedByWindowsPhone challenges are:

Pocket-to-Picture-to-Post

Real-Time Information with Live Tiles

Using the People Hub to Stay in Touch with the People You Care About Most

Updating Your Status Across Multiple Social Networks

and

Local Scout

Most of us on here wouldn’t be eligible for the challenge given that we already have Windows Phones, but this is the perfect opportunity to get your family and friends to switch over to Windows Phone free of charge (plus tax). So if you live anywhere close to a Microsoft Store from now until the end of the month, be sure to take advantage of this awesome offer!

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The wait is finally over for those who have been waiting for a competitive, Mango-optimized, cross-platform fitness tracking application. Sports Tracker today announced the availability of their Windows Phone application, which you can download here or using the QR Code below. Although Sports Tracker is using the Nokia Lumia phones to market it, the app is available for ALL Windows Phone devices; Windows Phone 7.5 is required. It is available in English, Finnish and Swedish.

This application can track your fitness in the following activities:

• Walking
• Running
• Cycling
• Skiing
• Mountain biking
• Hiking
• Roller skating
• Downhill skiing
• Paddling
• Rowing
• Golf
• Indoor

plus a couple of ‘other’ fields that you can customize with other workouts such as swimming or snowboarding. The application features a Diary that will show you a rundown of all your tracked activities, viewable by week or in total. It also takes advantage of Windows Phone 7.5′s fast app switching.

As part of their marketing effort, and as mentioned before, Sports Tracker is promoting the application with the Nokia Lumia 710 and 800 devices, and they are giving away a Lumia 800 on their Facebook page.

A complete review of Sports Tracker, as well as a roundup of other fitness tracking applications (i.e. RunKeeper, Marathon, RunSat, etc.) will be forthcoming.

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