Virgin Media apologises in advance for Olympic issues

Olympic Route Network woesNetworking News By Patrick Goss Friday at 19:55 UTC | Tell us what you think [ 0 comments ]

Tweet VM - advance warning

Virgin Media has apologised in advance to thousands of customers that live in London for delays that will be caused by restrictions on digging up the roads on the Olympic Route Network.

In a postcard apologising to users on the route, Virgin Media explains that any necessary repairs to its cable will take 'longer than usual' between March and September, because it will be limited on what it can dig up.

"Thanks to the team's hard work. It's really unlikely that you there'll be a problem with your service," wrote VM.

Dig it

"If it turns out that we need to dig under your roads, it might take us a bit longer than usual...we're really sorry for any inconvenience this causes," the note continued.

The Olympics is inevitably causing some major gripes to those in the areas likely to be affected, with already overloaded transport links likely to be hit hard by the Games.

Virgin Media is, in fairness, making sure that it is being clear about a potential problem, rather than predicting one.

But here's hoping that your cable doesn't go down in a whopping seven month period, or you could find yourself listening to the 100m final on the radio rather than watching it in HD.

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Exclusive: Why Samsung is embracing valve audio technology

Why Samsung's embracing valve audio | News | TechRadar Updated 36 minutes ago

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Tweet Samsung - amping it up

Samsung revealed at CES 2012 that it was getting into the audio dock market in a big way, announcing the DA-E750 – a piece of audio kit that uses valve amplification.

The 2.1 channel speaker dock is one of the most distinctive docks we have seen – and the first ever to come from Samsung – and is being pegged as the only to have docking support for both the company's Galaxy S smartphone range and Apple iOS devices.

TechRadar spoke to Chris Mosely, an AV product manager at Samsung about the reasons the company chose vacuum tube technology and he explained that it was all about an oft-overlooked element in the soundbar world: sound quality.

"The home theatre market is declining and one of the reasons for this is that the docking market is increasing. So we have moved into this area rather than just concentrating on iPods, we are concentrating on dual docking – both Galaxy and iPods," said Mosely.

"The competitors we are going up against have used design but haven't really used sound quality as a benefactor and that is what we are doing with our new range of docks."

Warm sound

When it comes to valve amplification, Mosely said the sound was superior but Samsung decided to go for a dual approach to the technology, mixing the old school technology with new school digital amplification.

"Valve amplifiers have been around 60-odd years and are proven to give off good sound. But there are good points and bad points," Mosely explained.

"The good points are that they are warm and there's a very natural sound to them; the drawback is that they are very inefficient – you have to put a lot of current in to get a lot of sound out.

"Solid-state amplifiers just don't sound as good but they are more efficient. Digital amplifiers are extremely efficient but don't sound great. So what we have done is use a valve amp in the pre-amp stage and a digital amp in the power stage."

There seems to be a push to the high end with audio docks – Samsung will be going up against the well received Arcam rCube – and Mosely reckons it is a change in tastes in the consumer that has leaned the market to the more premium end.

"The industry 15 years ago had a choice of moving from CD to something that sounded better – SACD and audio DVD – but what they chose was convenience with the MP3.

"It is easier to carry around but doesn't sound good. Now this has gone full circle and the market wants things to sound decent again, so there is a market for better docks that can offer this sound quality.

"The valve amp shows that there is something that is going on inside the dock which offers better sound quality."

Tags: Samsung, DA-E750, audio docks, smartphones, iOSTweetreddit!StumbleuponComment on this article  Your comments (1) Click to add a new commentbradavon

Friday at 17:03 UTC

1. This is great. It's about time Android got some docking love too.

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Apple App Store about to hit 25 billion downloads

Big prizes on offer tooMobile phones News By Gareth Beavis 4 hours ago | Tell us what you think [ 0 comments ]

Tweet App downloads reaching dizzying heights

The Apple App Store is underlining its power in the world of applications with a huge milestone of 25 billion app downloads fast approaching.

The Cupertino brand is understandably proud of the achievement, which counts apps across iPod, iPhone and iPad.

To that end, it's offering up a $10,000 (£6,300) App Store voucher for whoever manages to become the lucky 25,000,000,000th downloader of an application.

Good luck spending that

We're not sure how you'd really be able to ever spend that much on apps, iTunes stock or iBooks - but Apple must be hoping that anyone who spends that much on its wares will stay an Apple user for ever.

The App Store only managed to get to 15 billion downloads in July last year, which means 10 billion apps have been snared in just seven months.

The debate over which is the most successful app portal still rages, with the likes of Android and Windows Phone both offering decent alternatives. However, with these numbers on offer, it's clear to see Apple is still on top of the application pile.

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