Free Devices

[thepedestrian]

I hear about a lot of developers getting free devices such as phones and tablets and I'm wondering how you actually get them. I would love to get a free phone or a tablet on which I can do development but I'm one of the unlucky ones it seems.

So have you gotten a free device and if so, what type of device and for what purpose. And also what channels can be pursed to getting free devices for development?

[hanst99]

When you're hired by someone who wants you to develop something on an affordable machine they'll probably give you one or more of them. But I didn't hear anything about bailouts (which would be pretty silly considering the sheer number of devs of various kinds).

[thepedestrian]

I guess my question is ambiguous but what I meant was something like Nokia giving out free Lumia's to developers to entice them to develop for Windows Phone. Any developer programs where one might have a favorable chance of getting free stuff.

[hanst99]

Well, MSDNAA gives free microsoft products to students (similar to their DreamSpark program), but I never heard of free hardware.