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  • Ask Massively: Why tpyos matter

    by 
    Bree Royce
    Bree Royce
    11.29.2012

    Whenever you sit down to read an article -- let's say it's an article about MMOs on your favorite MMO blog -- the author has a hidden persuasive advantage. Readers are inclined to believe what they read unless they have a compelling reason not to because believing is easier than not believing. In fact, humans have a hard time mentally readjusting if they hear a lie about a topic before they hear the truth, especially when the lie confirms comforting pre-existing beliefs. And like it or not, we grant a measure of authority to published articles, to what we see in print from people we presume are professionals. But even a lowly games writer squanders that "authoritativeness bonus" when he can't even be arsed to press the darn spellcheck button.

  • Hands-on with ZTE Engage and Alcatel Authority for Cricket

    by 
    Joseph Volpe
    Joseph Volpe
    09.20.2012

    With September's spate of big smartphone reveals now safely out of the way, it's time for the smaller carriers to trot out their new mobile wares. And here at Pepcom's event in New York City, Cricket's showing off two newly announced phones -- both from OEMs that haven't quite achieved household name recognition. The powerfully named devices -- ZTE Engage and Alcatel Authority -- are actually rather modest in the spec department. ZTE's handset sport a 4-inch WVGA display, an 8-megapixel rear camera and runs a vanilla version of Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich atop a single-core CPU clocked at 1.4GHz. As you might imagine, there's a definite lag when navigating through the homescreens and even when accessing the app drawer, but that's simply par for the course with a phone of this low-end caliber. Alcatel's 4.3-incher is actually the nicer looking of the duo, oufitted with the same 800 x 480 resolution and processor, but that's where the similarities stop. Like that other ZTE phone we just spent time with, this handset ships with Gingerbread onboard, so it's certainly no screamer. We're still waiting on official pricing and release dates for both devices, but you can likely count on an October retail bow. In the meantime, check out the gallery below for some extra shots.%Gallery-166210% %Gallery-166211%