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Apple finally flips the switch on review responses
Along with the other slate of improvements that are in iOS 10.3, maybe one that'll make a real change (at least in terms of the App Store) in the ecosystem is the ability to converse with app developers. We knew that the feature was coming way back in January, but now it's actually here. Previously, as sister site TechCrunch notes, a developer would have to reverse engineer someone's UserID to get to their email if they wanted to ask about a bug the user experienced. Not anymore.
The Huawei Mate 9 stands out with long battery life and a little AI
Huawei needs new tricks to differentiate its products from the crowd of Chinese phones permeating the US market, and it's turning to artificial intelligence to set it apart. The Mate 9 is a new Android device that offers a "Machine Learning Algorithm" that purports to learn your habits over time and optimize performance so that the device is more responsive. The Mate 9, which is expected to arrive in the US soon (although the exact timing is unknown), also has one of the largest displays on the market. We don't yet know how much it'll cost in the US, but we expect the Mate 9 to sell for about the same as it does in Europe (€699), which would make it slightly more affordable than other leading big-screen flagships too. That, along with the promised performance boost and supposedly safer battery tech, might be reason enough to consider the Mate 9 as your next large-screen smartphone.
OnePlus 3T review: A satisfying update to a fairly new phone
Remember the OnePlus 3? It came out barely six months ago and was the best phone you could get for $400. Well, it's about to be replaced by a faster, slightly more expensive version of itself that the company is calling the OnePlus 3T. (The T doesn't stand for anything; it's a cheeky take on the typical "S" suffix denoting many flagship sequels.) The new $439 device uses the latest Snapdragon 821 processor to achieve even faster speeds, and packs a beefier battery and sharper front camera -- improvements in areas where the original sort of fell short. I say "sort of" because other than battery life, the OnePlus 3 didn't need much improving. But OnePlus made it better anyway, and now it's one of the best phones on the market, especially at this price.
LeEco's first phone for the US nails the basics but fails on software
LeEco is a name you've probably never heard of, but the Chinese electronics company has been popping up everywhere over the past year. It's well-known in China for its TVs and phones, and it also has subsidiaries in the music, film and even bicycle-making businesses. Like many other Chinese phone makers before it, LeEco is eyeing the US market, with its first offering being the Le Pro3. This $400 Android phone covers the basics, delivering excellent hardware, respectable performance and all-day battery life, though it misses the mark with its heavily skinned software.
Amazon bans reviews posted in exchange for free products
Amazon has banned "incentivized reviews" done in exchange for free products after a large study showed that they're biased. In a blog post, the retail giant said that it has updated its terms of service to ban the practice, while making an exception for its own Vine program.
Valve is changing how Steam reviews work
Valve is cracking down on Steam reviews in an effort to prevent developers from artificially inflating a game's review score on the service. Valve says that the fixation on review scores is driving some developers to use nefarious means to boost them, thus potentially driving sales higher.
We're updating our console reviews, starting with the Xbox One!
It's rare -- unprecedented, even -- that Engadget re-reviews the same product. But game consoles are a curious exception. Though the hardware stays the same, these machines receive myriad firmware updates, sometimes long after launch, that make them even more valuable. That's especially true of the Xbox One, whose interface became much, much easier to navigate after a major software update last year. With our coverage of the actual games still going strong, we thought it high time we revisit the devices themselves. As such, we'll be rewriting, re-scoring and even re-photographing our original write-ups of the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. (With news that the Wii U might not live past this year, an obituary might be more appropriate than a fresh review.)
UK regulator starts cracking down on fake online reviews
Online reviews, like those on Amazon, are typically a good way to judge the quality of a product or service before you decide to part with your money. They can also be huge indicators of the reputation of the retailer you're about to do business with. With profits on the line, some businesses have taken steps to ensure they're getting good reviews, a service which marketing companies are all too willing to provide. Last week, the Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) confirmed it had issued its first crackdown on the practice, after it caught UK company Total SEO & Marketing Ltd (Total SEO) posting over 800 fake reviews between 2014 and 2015.
Google rewards restaurant reviewers with 1TB storage
Did you know that Google has its own, homegrown rival to services like Yelp and TripAdvisor? You do now. The search engine is hoping to improve the quality of its offering by handing perks to its unpaid contributors that keep everything updated. Before, they'd simply be provided recognition for their efforts, but now the firm will hand out some pretty tasty bonuses to those who make the most effort. Every review that you write will earn you a point, as will uploading photos, adding new locations to the database, fixing old errors and answering people's questions.
Harmonix caught posting five-star 'Rock Band 4' reviews on Amazon
When is it a good idea for employees to post reviews of their own company's game? Most people would probably say "never," but that didn't stop Harmonix employees working on Rock Band 4 from doing it. A suspicious Reddit user found at least seven 5-star reviews by Harmonix employees, including from one user who said she was a "new fan," but is actually the company's "legal and music coordinator." Others including a project manager, consultant and senior designer also gave it top marks. Amazon ratings are crucial for such a family-oriented game, given that the online retailer may be the only place casual buyers will look for them.
Bell Canada gets slapped for fake App Store reviews
Bell Canada has been handed down a $1.25 million CAD ($970,719) fine by Canada's competition bureau after its employees posted fake reviews of Bell apps. According to the regulator, the carrier "encouraged" staff members to post glowing testimonials of the MyBell Mobile and Virgin My Account apps on the App Store and Google Play. Unfortunately, these overenthusiastic write-ups neglected to mention that they were written by people on Bell's dollar. Oops.
OnePlus 2 review: a worthy sequel, flaws and all
I don't envy the team at OnePlus. After shipping a smartphone that made us rethink what we could get -- nay, what we deserved -- for $299, it was tasked with building an even better follow-up. If this were some schlocky '80s, teen coming-of-age film, it'd be time for a montage, but here we are a year later with a more confident, experienced startup and a new device that still promises to "never settle." At $329 for the basic 16GB model (or $389 for the 64GB version), the new OnePlus 2 isn't quite as wallet-friendly as the phone we got last year, and more than a few rivals have since come out with low-cost, high-power phones of their own. So, did OnePlus do the impossible again? Did it actually create a worthy sequel to a fan-favorite device, amid crazy competition in the world of cheap, fantastic unlocked phones? Well, yes, but it's not without its flaws.
LG Watch Urbane review: a premium watch that falls short of greatness
There are only a few companies out there with as much experience making Android Wear watches as LG. After all, the platform's only been part of the public consciousness for a year and yet this Korean giant has already made three of them. Its first sequel -- the G Watch R -- was a marked improvement over its dull, plastic predecessor, but the progress isn't quite as clear with the new Watch Urbane. Sure, it's running a fresh version of the Wear operating system, with some neat new features that haven't yet trickled down to the rest of Google's wearable ecosystem. Hell, it's even got a look that's meant to rival the Patek Philippes in your collection. All that said, after over a week of testing, I still couldn't help but want more out of the Urbane, and you probably will too.
HBO switches to streaming-only review policy starting right now
HBO is trying super hard to dislodge Game of Thrones' crown as the "most pirated TV show" of modern times. It recently launched HBO Now, a non-cable-based streaming service, and today the company announced it would stop providing reviewers with DVDs containing episodes of its shows prior to their air dates. Instead, HBO will give reviewers early access to these episodes via a secure streaming service. The streaming policy starts this week with three new episodes of Veep, but it was spurred by a recent Thronesian leak: In April, four unaired Game of Thrones episodes found their way online, all of them reportedly linked to a review DVD. "Amazingly enough, it wasn't until just recently that a DVD was leaked online," HBO EVP of Corporate Communications Quentin Schaffer said in an email to reviewers.
Google hopes Yelp-like perks will get you to review more local spots
It's pretty easy to find local restaurants using Google Maps, but figuring out if they're any good or not? Most folks turn to Yelp or TripAdvisor, which have larger, more hardcore user communities. But Google has just done a makeover on its City Experts service, by switching the name to Local Guides and making it a lot more like Yelp's Elite Squad. The idea is still to encourage local reviewers to sign on, but there are now four expert levels instead of one. As soon as you hit 50 reviews, you'll also get a badge and be highlighted as a top reviewer on Google Maps for Android and iOS.
Joystiq isn't scoring reviews anymore, and here's why
Ever since we started publishing reviews here at Joystiq, we've striven to deliver the most timely and definitive critiques we can. The word "definitive" is important in this conversation, because things don't get much more definitive than a review score. The very purpose of a score is to define something entirely nebulous and subjective – fun – as narrowly as possible. The problem is that narrowing down something as broad and fluid as a video game isn't truly useful, especially in today's industry. Between pre-release reviews, post-release patching, online connectivity, server stability and myriad other unforeseeable possibilities, attaching a concrete score to a new game just isn't practical. More importantly, it's not helpful to our readers. For that reason, above all others, we've decided that Joystiq will no longer score its reviews. Don't worry, we'll still give you a reason to scroll past the review before actually reading it (it's okay, we all do it), but the information you'll find will be more helpful and meaningful than a handful of stars. I've been mulling over this decision for several months and, after discussing it with the rest of the Joystiq staff, we decided that the new year was the perfect time to flip the switch. For a rundown of why 2014 was the year that broke the critic's back, and exactly how our new system will work, read on.
Yelp: the FTC won't penalize us for review complaints
Yelp maintains that it doesn't game the reviews on its site or try to extort businesses that refuse to pay for ads. In fact, it's just published a blog post to air that the Federal Trade Commission has finished a year-long deep inquiry into its business practices and has chosen not to take any action against the website. Yelp even claims this is the second time the FTC has investigated the company and finished without penalizing it in any way. Part of the blog post reads: The FTC looked into our recommendation software, what we say to businesses about it, what our salespeople say about our advertising programs, and how we ensure that our employees are not able to manipulate the ratings and reviews that we display on our platform. After nearly a year of scrutiny, the FTC decided to close its investigation without taking further action.
Bungie's COO thinks Destiny and games like it are hard to review
Bungie continues to hype its Destiny shooter post-launch, with the latest bit of messenging courtesy of COO Pete Parsons and an interview at GamesIndustry.biz. "The launch of Destiny was the starting line," Parsons says, before going on to explain how Bungie's Destiny operations center "looks like a NASA control room" and how "it's very difficult to sit down for nine hours, 11 hours, and write up a review of game like Destiny." Parsons takes that notion a step further and asks how similar titles will be reviewed in the future when game journos face "a nearly impossible challenge" due to an inability to experience PvP, the campaign, and endgame activities on a deadline.
The Audioengine B2 Bluetooth speaker has premium sound
There are oh so many Bluetooth speakers out there. Little plastic ones that sound tinny, larger battery-operated speakers that you can take with you and improve the sound quality. In a departure from the small and the portable is this new speaker from Audioengine (US$299.00). The company, which has impressed many audiophiles with monitor speakers like the A5+ and the A2+ systems, is getting into wireless speakers in a big way. This B2 speaker is a one-piece unit with similar internals to the A2+. No battery, no handle, just good clean sound from your iPhone or iPad. Design The Audioengine B2 is an attractive speaker available in a variety of colors and finishes. It weighs 10 pounds and features a 60W peak total amp (30W per channel). The single piece stereo array features two 2.75" Kevlar woofers and a pair of 34" Silk dome tweeters. It supports Bluetooth 4.0 audio and the aptX codec for higher quality sound (more about aptX later.) The packaging is first class. Accessories and the speakers are packed in plush cloth bags with a drawstring. Functionality Setting the speaker up is easy. Screw in the antenna, turn it on and the B2 is in pairing mode. Bring up your iPhone or any Bluetooth capable device and pair it to the B2. Sound Sound is subjective, but I found the Audioengine neutral with a solid low end. Range was good. Audioengine specifies 100 feet, and no matter where I moved in the house the signal stayed solid. The unit itself is noiseless, and with my ear up to the speaker with no input I could not hear any hum or hiss. The Audioengine bettered all the little Bluetooth speakers I have traveled with, and while my Bose Soundlink Bluetooth speaker sounds very good, I thought the AudioEngine bested it, but for a third more dollars. I listened to classical strings, some Miles Davis and the new soundtrack to the Interstellar movie which has some deep organ notes. Everything sounded clean and pleasant. The speaker doesn't have really extended highs, but generally most small speakers don't. The bass held up very well without getting muddy. Conclusion The Audioengine is not a portable travel speaker system. It it doesn't feature battery power, and is large enough that you won't pack it for travel. But its size is the good feature here, not a negative. It has a solid stereo sound that would be great for a bedroom or an office desk. It's very well built. I always test the volume controls on audio equipment to see if they feel solid, and the Audioengine is obviously a high quality unit. No spurious noises, a lovely finish and concise documentation make it a great package. The only negative is iOS itself. It only supports Bluetooth 4.0, while many Apple competitors support the higher quality aptX codec. Apple is behind here. Very much behind.
iPad Air 2 review roundup
iPad Air 2 reviews started making the rounds yesterday and, as one might expect, the reviews are overwhelmingly positive. Below is a quick roundup from some of the more notable hands-on reviews. Brad Molen of Engadget: Strap on your seat belts, kids -- the iPad Air 2 is speedy. The irony is not lost on me as I say it, given that we seem to say the same thing with every new iPad. Indeed, the Air 2 fits that bill perfectly: It's predictably more powerful than its predecessor, thanks to the A8X chipset inside, but there's a bit more to the tablet's oomph this time around. Apple's making a jump from a dual-core processor to one with three cores; the CPU is clocked at 1.5GHz, a 100MHz bump from the original Air; the L2 cache doubled from 1MB to 2MB; and it also comes with 2GB of RAM, twice as much as the last few iPads. It's no surprise, then, why the company is boasting a 40 percent boost in CPU performance and an increase in graphics prowess by a factor of 2.5. Nilay Patel of The Verge: Inside the iPad Air 2 lies Apple's new A8X chip, which is a variant of the A8 found in the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus with additional graphics capabilities. It's ridiculously fast - noticeably faster to load web pages and launch apps than my iPad Air, and it has so much graphics headroom that I'm eager to see how game developers take advantage of it. ... You'd expect a thinner device with a more powerful chip to take a hit on battery life, but the Air 2 lasted just as long as any of my other iPads - I went a full weekend of using it on LTE and Wi-Fi without charging it, finally plugging it in at 34 percent. Chris Davies of Slashgear On the iPad Air, the LCD, cover glass, and the touch sensor are all separate. The iPad Air 2 fuses them into one, doing away with the gaps in-between. That means a big reduction in internal reflectance - where light bounces between the reflective surfaces of each layer - and the result is a step up in clarity. It's subtle: you don't necessarily clock that there's been an improvement in color quality, or contrast range, but simply that the screen seems clearer and more lively. At times, it almost feels like graphics are popping out, or floating just above the surface of the cover glass. Walt Mossberg of Re/Code liked the device overall, but had one minor gripe: The problem was this: I couldn't tell the difference between the Air and Air 2 while doing these things. The new model didn't seem faster or smoother while running all my apps, perhaps because - like most people - I don't use my iPad for the most demanding video-editing apps or high-end games. It registered pretty much the same network speeds as my Air. The Air 2 didn't allow me to hold or carry the tablet longer and more comfortably than the Air. Its weight of 0.96 pounds isn't discernibly lighter than the Air's weight of one pound. And its thickness of 0.24 inches is a barely noticeable reduction from the Air's 0.29 inches. And for your viewing pleasure, here are a few more iPad Air 2 reviews from David Pogue, John Gruber, Harry McCracken of Fast Company, and Joanna Stern of the Wall Street Journal.
