Companies charge a fee to Application developers to post glorious reviews

Apple’s utopian iTunes application store has fallen victim to typical troll manipulation.

Rob Walch, host of Tii, emailed me concerned about what he uncovered.   When you are looking for apps to download in iTunes, or looking in any app marketplace for that matter, user reviews are something that heavily influence the decision making process of most buyers.  This is essentially a user forum for that specific product. If 10 guys said it crashes and runs like crap, most people would likely avoid paying for that download.   Naturally, it would work the other way.

We at Mobile Magazine get harassed quite often by shady types of advertising “offers.”  Even larger well known companies offer us mula in exchange for attention and praise on their specific product or page.  So when something like that comes up, it flies right on over to the trash bin. But how do you ignore manipulative fake product reviews when they appear to be from your peers?  Not many ways right now, sure we can go click on the “report a concern” link on every single comment we find suspicious, but shouldn’t Apple have some type of check that says, “hey, this guy since December 17th has rated every single app 5 stars, and oh, most of them are from the same company.”

The perps run a blatantly obvious website: YourAppReviewed.com. YAR’s response to Tii about them creating fake reviews was this: “As we are not posting fake reviews, it’s not something which is conflicting with Apple rules. Our reviewers are real iPhone and iPod users.  We don’t pay them to post fake positive reviews but to give their honest opinion Apps.  Don’t worry about that.”

Ok, so a company sends you money to review their app,  and not by any other means then pure coding and development genius they coincidentally get rated 5 stars, every time. Explain that one to me again?

Zenonia, from Gamevil, is a very popular app for the iPhone and iPod Touch that is regarded as one of the best RPG games on the iPhone. It has won numerous awards since its release over a year ago and is still a highly downloaded app. However is this an app that lives up to its reputation, or is it a relic of the early days of apps?

Zenonia is an RPG which is one giant homage to classic console RPGs of the late 80’s and early 90’s. The plot is rather generic, playing as a special young man who’s destiny determines the fate of the world. The plot may be generic but it’s presented in a brilliant way. The text dialogue is incredibly humorous with numerous breakings of the fourth wall. It is vulgar in concept but all of the questionable words are censored.

The graphics of Zenonia are colorful and really creates a sense of nostalgia to the days of the SNES and Sega Genesis. The graphics are also not in 3D which is prone to shaving off a few hours on your iPhone’s battery life. Sounds are generic and nothing special and the main character’s grunts when attacking can be rather annoying.

The controls are simple. There is a D-Pad and an action button which powers the entire game. I would have liked the game to have been more touch controlled, but it didn’t take away from the brilliance.

As far as actual gameplay is concerned, Zenonia is incredibly fun if you are a Zelda fan. It is action based so there is no turn based combat which slows everything down. A class system, moral alignment, magic, and lots of items add depth to the game in a nod to the Final Fantasy series.

Zenonia in short, is a great game. It provides simple and addicting gameplay with a decent story and funny dialogue. It is currently on sale on iTunes for $3 and is well worth the download. It exceeds expectations and may be the best game on the iPhone. There is talk of a sequel in development so play the original now before the sequel comes out.

Zenonia Screenshot Gallery

If you work with digital content – be they photos, music or even documents – you’re going to need a storage solution.

CDs and DVDs have a limited shelf life and are unwieldy if the data you’re storing is larger than 4GB. That’s where portable hard drives come in.

External drives, at least those that are portable, are typically between 160GB and 500GB (and increasing every day). They are often plug-and-play, so moving your data is as easy as plugging in a USB cord and dragging your data to the drive to back it up. And now they’re even coming in secure, standalone models.

Maxtor’s BlackArmor Always encrypted Government-grade Hard Drive – $169.99 MSRP for 320GB – $119.99 MSRP for 160GB. However these were marked down on Maxtor’s web site the day I wrote this article to $134.99 and $59.99 respectively.

The BlackArmor’s claim to fame is that it has government-grade AES encryption certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). It also comes with the “Maxtor Manager” software suite and the “BlackArmor Manager” software suite. These software suites can be installed and used to automatically back up files, synchronize folders on multiple computers, update passwords, and test the drive.

Any time the drive is disconnected it automatically locks, and without a password, one cannot access any of the backed up files on the drive. But how does it work? Let’s go from box to backup…

In the box are the BlackArmor drive, a USB cable to connect it to your computer, a carrying pouch, and a Quick Start Guide. In less than a minute I had it hooked up to my desktop and the BlackArmor Manager Configure screen auto launched. The first steps are to enter the drive’s 25-character Security ID (SID) that is printed on the back of the drive, and then create a password. Once this is done, you can now click Unlock and unlock the drive. When this is done the autoplay window will open and the guide instructs you to select Install Maxtor Manager from this window. This is just a straight forward install with a EULA screen and then install. Took all of about 90 seconds and then a re-start is needed.

One nice thing I noticed right away about this drive is that it has two soft blue lights on the side. One is a large light that will only light up once the correct password has been entered. The other is a smaller light that comes on as soon as the drive is plugged in to your computer, but will blink and then go out when you use the “Safely Remove Hardware” tool to remove the drive.

My 320GB drive showed a capacity of 298GB. The drive comes loaded with the above mentioned software along with a PDF user’s guide. The guide is quite comprehensive and goes over all the features of the drive and goes very in depth on the functionality of the Maxtor Manager and BlackArmor Manager software. It tells you how to enter different modes, change passwords, change hint questions and answers, and all the different features of the automatic backup software. The manual is 126 pages, but a big reason it is so long is because of the extensive use of screen shots that make it much easier to learn how to use all the features of the software.

One major limitation to this drive is that the software only work on PCs and will not work on a Mac, so the testing done on this drive was performed by my friend Henry DuLaurence. I expect to leverage his PC farm for other devices that aren’t Mac friendly. But back to the test…

Moving files, deleting, copying and saving data was easy. I was able to read and copy the data on my PC and when locked down, the drive protected the files perfectly.

Unplugging/disconnecting the drive puts it back into locked mode, so whenever you’re done using it your files remain safe.

Things I like…

It is USB powered which means no clunky power adaptor to carry around.

The size and the feel of this drive are great. It feels heavy, solid, and well made in your hand. It fits into a pocket or laptop bag easily. The rubbery exterior ensures you won’t fumble it.

The password screen launches quickly when the drive is connected so you can enter your password and get to your files fast. I like the clean black and brushed aluminum design, and that your stuff is completely protected by passwords you choose. I like the ease of changing your password when needed.

Automated backup software included. Makes it easy to plug and play and start backing up in minutes and restore if and when needed.

Things I don’t like…

The BlackArmor drive will not run on a Mac. The BlackArmor will only work on a PC running Windows XP or Vista. It will not work with any other operating systems as an unlocking utility is required that only runs on these operating systems.

Initial setup and configuration is somewhat tedious, but needed in order to set the encryption key. But once it is done, you won’t need to do it again unless you forget your password and need to erase your drive to reset it. This could be a little intimidating for the basic consumer or the user who misplaces his manual.

Cords are way too short, which seems to be the norm for most of the portable drives I see. I understand that portable is important, but portable doesn’t mean minimal.

Only has USB support. All external drives should come with an ESATA port. Considering the amount of data that can be stored, you would think these companies would give you an option to move it quickly if you wanted, and if you haven’t tried an external drive connected with ESATA, which is must faster than FireWire, you would be amazed at how fast it is.

Finally, it gets dirty and smudgy WAY EASILY. The gloss surface holds fingerprints better than the FBI and the black case shows every speck of dust. In some photos you’ll almost be able to see my camera in the reflection. Sure, it looks striking and gorgeous in reflective black, but it gets dusty and dirty quick.

The verdict…

Unless you have a Mac, I think the Maxtor BlackArmor Drive makes the cut. It is priced similarly to other secure drives and the backup software is easy to use and very intuitive. Once it is configured it is easy to use on any PC. And if you shop around you can probably find a 320GB BlackArmor for around $90 which is a pretty good deal for someone who wants to securely transport their data.

Company URL: http://www.maxtor.com

(A good portion of this Cut-List piece was made possible with the help of Henry DuLaurence)