Posts by symbol_soup

BT and Plusnet most moaned about broadband providers. Again

Re: Plusnet customer service - watch out for Plusnet mobile's inability to port over your old number

In this case it's plusnet. It's a shambles. Take a look at the forum posts. https://community.plus.net/t5/Mobile/PlusNet-Porting-issues-email-the-CEO-Andy-Baker/td-p/1396385

Fart-buster underpants selling well among Japanese salarymen

Re: Definately a Friday afternoon article

I can def confirm that that is NOT the case after trying to "sneak out" a quiet one while sat in a crowded, un-carpeted lounge at Vienna airport while sitting on those bloody awful plastic chairs wearing a set of headphones. The looks of every other people sharing my lounge told me that my sneaky one was not so sneaky and def not quiet

Reg reader seeks living room Myth advice - can you help?

Samsung TV will do what you want

If you want a serious 'one box' solution just look at the new TV's. I have played around wth various bits of kit in the lounge for ages (Boxee / XBox / Acer Revo / ITX / Myth) but eventually settled on....a TV. The new Samsungs play pretty much any format. You can hook up USB Hard Drives and they become a PVR. They have dual freesat and terrestrial inputs. USB sticks can be used as well. The have DNLA so you can access you movies / photos etc over the lan.

I am seriously impressed with mine (UE46D7000). For once I have bought a piece of kit that just works and works well. Better still, it looks stunning and has a fantastic picture.

Sonos Play:3 network music player

Squeezebox solutions: Good and bad

I have owned a variety of music players from the Roku Soundbridge through pretty much the entire range of Squeezeboxes. Currently I have a SB Transporter in the lounge, a boom in the bedroom and a Touch in the kitchen. The older equipment is def better. I had the Radio for six months and sold it due to buggy software. My Touch I only keep as my wife finds it easier to use the touch screen.

I run Squeezecommander (android) to control all devices on a cheap £150 Hannspree tablet over wi-fi, this is great for viewing album art etc.

I do love the SB range but the user inteface is looking really dated and isn't particularly intuative to use. The server software is also nowhere near as stable as it used to be since Logitech took them over.

BUT, if you love quality sounding devices they are hard to beat for the money. ebay and 2nd hand are the way to go.

IDLENESS sees Brits haemorrhage cash to mobe firms

Virtual Operators

After spending years on expensive contracts I investigated my options around the virtual providers. Result. £10 per month gets me 250 minutes, unlimited txts, unlimted data and free calls to the same network. Oh and free call numbers are actually free. £5 recommendation for each user I add. Added the entire family so now all calls between us are free.

My virutal provider runs off O2 and are called GIFFGAFF.

Up unti lrecently they did offer roaming for data, but that has been added this month @ £1.50 per meg.

Been with them now for 18 months and can't fault them.

Ten... in-ear headphones

Shure cables crack

I have had three replacements for my Shures. The cables crack over about a year of normal use. That said, they have amazing sound but the def needs toget the cables sorted.

Corporates love iPhone, iPad more than Android kit

Real world example

We have 45000 employees. We have a project starting to assess iPads and yet we already have 2000 'unoficial' iPads deployed via local business units. We sell drugs and the iPads are shiny, can have our own apps put on and look sexy. THese are a saleman's wet dream and they have imrpoved sales substantially.

Personally I am not an Apple fan but the sales figures don't lie.

Now, if I could have some the increased revenue to actually support the blasted things.........

Explosion - because I know that sooner rather than later the support costs are going to do this

Spotify launches unlimited free US service

Long time user (music junkie)

Not sure what the moaning is about here. I have been using Spotify Premium in the UK on my phone, PC and via 3 squeezeboxes to stream music around the house. It's great. It costs me £10 per month for unlimited access to old / new music. I already have over 3000 CD's ripped to a media server and find myself using Spotify to find new music and listen to old favourites. I just wish I could get it as a flac stream. Other than that I am incredibly happy with it.