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Apr

A Hundred 5-Star Reviews For $150 (Or: How Cheaters Game The Android Play Store Using Mechanical Turk)

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Apps/Games, News

Way back in the day, if you wanted to know if a piece of software was safe, reliable, or usable before you opened the package, you were out of luck. Once you rip that shrink wrap, you're stuck with it. The app markets of today are, by comparison, a breath of fresh air. A litany of user reviews let you know up front if a piece of software is crap or not before you download. Unfortunately, sometimes developers, like Noosoft Games, abuse this system by, as an example, using the Mechanical Turk system from Amazon to pay for 5-star reviews.

What Is Mechanical Turk

For the uninitiated, here's a little background: Amazon's Mechanical Turk system (named after an 18th century chess-playing automaton) is a platform for businesses to farm out minor, tedious tasks (called HITs) without hiring full-time employees, and lets users perform those small tasks for a pittance.

Mar

[Review] CloudMagic Offers Lightning Fast Searches Of Gmail, Docs, Twitter, And More

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in App Reviews, Applications, Apps/Games, Reviews

Search has always been a big part of Android, and for many things, Google's built-in solution works fine. If you're looking for a better way to search through your data in the cloud, look no further than CloudMagic. The app does take a bit of setup, but once you're in, CloudMagic assists you in digging through your data in a very compelling way.

Setting Up CloudMagic

CloudMagic does not just exist on your phone. This is a service that you are granting access to your data, and it requires you to create an account to manage all those connections. After you get logged into CloudMagic itself, you have to add your services.

Mar

[Review] Temple Run (The Real One!) Finally Makes It To Android, Was Definitely Worth The Wait

Posted by John Thompson in Game Reviews, Games

After countless bad copies, the official Temple Run game has finally hit the Google Play store! Like the iOS version, it's available for free and contains no adverts anywhere in the game. You can, however, make in-app purchases of coins to help you buy various items from the store as you progress. We'll cover that in a bit more detail later on, but for now, let's jump right in to the review!

Gameplay

When you load Temple Run for the first time, you're thrown straight into a game with a few pointers that allow you to get to grips with the controls and the aims of the game.

Mar

[Review] Another World For Android Comes With Updated Graphics And Controls, Remains Just As Haunting As The Original

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Game Reviews, Games

Some of you out there may remember Another World, a cult classic video game that's seen life on a number of platforms since its 1991 debut. Well, the minds at DotEmu have brought Another World back again, this time to Android, and with HD graphics.

For those who aren't familiar with Another World, the game follows the story of Lester Knight Chaykin, a physicist who finds himself on a strange alien planet after a bolt of lightning hits his lab during a particle collision. Lester is soon enslaved by an alien race, and must escape with the help of another imprisoned alien.

Mar

[Review] iFrogz Boost Amplifies Your Phone's Audio, Claims To Be Powered By Magic, We're Inclined To Agree

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in Reviews

No one is more tired of hearing the word "magic" applied to gadgets than I am. For the iFrogz Boost, though, I'm willing to make an exception. This device promises to amplify the sound coming out of "nearly any smartphone or digital media device" sans wires, Bluetooth, setup, or syncing. For once, in a parade of lofty promises coming from every corner of the tech sphere, a device not only makes a grandiose guarantee of convenience and ease-of-use, but actually delivers.

The Setup (Or Lack Thereof)

Step one: ~~cut a hole in a box~~ remove the Boost from its box. Step two: either plug it into a wall via a Micro USB charger, or insert three AA batteries.

Mar

[Review] For A Budget Phone, The Pantech Burst Packs Plenty Of Bang For The Buck

Posted by Brandon Lancaster in Burst, Phone Reviews

While the rest of the world looks to the next super-spectacular smartphone with the latest technology, Pantech has decided to keep it simple and cheap with the Burst. This nice little smartphone comes in at a measly $49.99 with a new two-year contract through AT&T, and that makes it great for Android fans on a budget, those looking for a decent but cheap phone for their kids, or people who are new to the smartphone world and are looking to test the waters. I know you must be thinking (because I did, too) that overall quality must suffer greatly for Pantech to get to such a low price point, but that's where you (and I) would be wrong.

Mar

[Review] Jawbone Icon HD + The NERD: A Pretty Good Bluetooth Headset, As Long As You Ignore The Price

Posted by David Ruddock in Other Reviews

I remember my first Bluetooth headset review. I was skeptical. I felt like a giant asshole when I wore it. And I'll say this much - my opinion on them hasn't changed much. Wearing one outside of a moving vehicle or a closed office just strikes me as rude. Is it any way, shape, or form harming me when people do it? No, but neither are Crocs, and I think many of us have "feelings" about them.

Before I go on with that potentially never-ending rant, let's talk about the Icon HD. If you've ever purchased a Jawbone product before, you know the drill - it's a premium Bluetooth headset (with a large variety of fit options) that's very well-styled.

Mar

[Review] Incipio Feather, NGP, And Silicrylic Cases For The Galaxy Nexus

Posted by Cameron Summerson in Other Reviews

Last Updated: March 16th, 2012

I've been on some sort of Galaxy Nexus case-review-a-thon for the past several weeks, but there are so many options out there, it's hard to pick just one. And of course, if you're on a budget (and who isn't?) you probably don't want to buy ump-teen different cases to snag the perfect one. That's what we're here for, after all - to help you make the best purchase decision possible.

If you read any of my past case reviews, then you probably know that I was a big fan of the Seidio cases, and today we're going to take a look at some comparable cases from a company called Incipio: the Feather, NGP, and Silicrylic.

Mar

Fascinating: OnLive Unveils OnLive Desktop - A Free, Instantly Available Windows 7 Cloud Instance For Tablets, Complete With MS Office, Media Streaming, And More [Hands-On]

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in App Reviews, Applications, News, Tablets, Videos

OnLive, the company that has already revolutionized gaming is now gunning for making the same kind of splash in OS virtualization. And not just any OS virtualization, but Windows 7 in the cloud, for free - a set of words I never thought I'd write in the same sentence.

Something worth pointing out right off the bat is OnLive's "groundbreaking video compression technology" that is used to stream the Desktop cloud to your tablet. If there's one company that has figured out how to perfect streaming of full-screen media, it's definitely OnLive.

I was a bit skeptical at first, but after trying out every aspect of the app through a relatively slow, Spanish Vodafone HSPA+ hotspot here in Barcelona, I have to say I'm thoroughly impressed.

Feb

[Review] iDapt i4 Universal Charger Combines Practical Functionality With Sleek Design, Charges All Your Devices With Ease

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Other Reviews

If you're anything like me, you're not so good with keeping track of charging cables or their corresponding adapters. Either that, or every cord ends up together, looking like a bowl of spaghetti with no discernable beginning or end. Looking to end our charging cable woes, the folks at iDapt have created the iDapt i4 universal charger.

The charging station is actually one in a family of devices. iDapt also offers the i2+ which can charge up to three devices at once, and the i1 Eco which sports a totally different design, can charge two devices, and heavily touts the fact that it is "ecological," being made of recyclable materials.