One of the main problems with any type of wireless communication is that in order to maintain speed and allow the signal to be transmitted effectively, data often has to be compressed to fit the bandwidth. For wireless audio, this is a problem, as compressing sound signals can reduce the overall quality of the sound you hear, meaning that wireless headphones rarely give you CD Quality sound.

Samsung, however, believe they can make it work. The company’s newly introduced Level On Wireless Pro headphones include a new technology, dubbed “Ultra High Quality Audio” that improves the quality of sound whether you’re plugged in or streaming wirelessly. In typical conditions, the headphones are supposedly capable of CD Quality sound, particularly when listening to a lossless audio format (such as FLAC) or streaming service (such as Tidal). However, when paired with a device that supports Ultra High Quality Audio, such as Samsung’s own Galaxy Note 5 or Galaxy S6 Edge+ smartphones, and the right source material, Samsung claim the sound experience can reach higher-than-CD fidelity. That’s pretty impressive from a wireless headset, though the caveats (Engadget helpfully claims that “you’ll need to shop at a service like Pono’s to get the right source material”) mean that getting this higher quality audio may not always be clear-cut.

Being an improved version of the existing Level On Wireless headphones, the Pro comes with the same additional benefits of its less audiophile cousin – “extra comfortable” cushions designed to completely enclose the ear, active noise cancelling and touch-sensitive controls – though the claimed 11 hour battery life will slightly reduce if one uses Bluetooth and noise reduction at the same time. Given the existing model tends to retail for around the £140 mark, it can be expected that the Level On Wireless Pro will retail for slightly more; but Samsung are yet to reveal price or shipping dates for the new product as of the time of going to press. Watch this space!

Game publishing giant Valve has apologised for a flaw in its Steam digital distribution platform that saw numerous accounts hijacked last week, blaming a software bug for the issue.

Valve’s Steam platform is one of the most popular distribution services around, largely thanks to its required use for the company’s own games and heavily-discounted sale prices several times a year. With millions of users, though, it’s a prime target for ne’er-do-wells – and a bug in the platform allowed many accounts to be hijacked by said wrong’uns over the last week, thanks to what Valve is claiming was a software bug.

‘On July 25th we learned of a Steam bug that could have impacted the password reset process on your Steam account during the period July 21-July 25. The bug has now been fixed,’ the company explained in an email sent to users whose passwords had been changed – legitimately or otherwise – during the period. ‘To protect users, we are resetting passwords on accounts that changed passwords during that period using the account recovery wizard. You will receive an email with your new password. Once that email is received, it is recommended that you login to your account via the Steam client and set a new password.’

The company has stated that the original password was never revealed to the attackers, and neither was any internal system compromised: the flaw was limited to an issue with the account recovery wizard, which allowed attackers to reset the password for any account without access to the account’s original email address. Those who use Steam Guard, the company’s two-factor authentication system, were protected even if the password was changed, Valve has added.

Those who have received the email are advised to reset their passwords in order to regain access to their accounts, and to check for any unauthorised activity while the account was in another’s control.

Seems that Electronic Arts is going through a rebrand of their Origin accounts program. Some users of the service are reporting that they’ve received e-mails about an account branding change.

The e-mail says that “in the coming weeks your Origin Account will be renamed to an EA Account” but otherwise nothing else is expected to be changed – just the branding and the design. Account owners are reassured that “Your Account identity, preferences, and order history will remain unchanged.
You will continue to use this account and the same login credentials to access all EA games, web sites, and services, including Origin.”

No reasons have been given for the change of account naming, but it’s possible that EA are seeking to try and brand things under one umbrella to improve association between all the parts of their business. The changes will happen automatically without any users needing to do anything, and EA hope that the transition will go smoothly.

A report published today in the Nikkei Asian Review has revealed that company president of Toshiba, Hisao Tanaka, plans to tender his resignation from the technology giant. having informed numerous ‘close associates’ of the intention. He is expected to be joined by his predecessor and current vice chair Norio Sasaki, who he displaced in 2013; as well as several other executives, totalling more half the board, as the company aims to clean the slate.

Central to the mass departures is a suggestion that the company has engaged in accounting irregularities. Third party regulators have been investigating financial mismanagement covering the tenure of both of the former presidents mentioned earlier; as well as a third former president, Atsutoshi Nishida, presently a consultant for the company. The investigation is expected to report the company’s complicity in padding its profits by fraudulently manipulating accounting records in order to appear to be more closely competing with rival Hitachi.

Toshiba has not yet made an official statement on the matter, but is expected to do so when it reveals the results of the investigation and reports its delayed financial earnings statement; during which the executive departures are also expected to be announced.

The irregularities, believed to stretch over at least a five-year period, have seen the company pad its operating profits by up to ¥200 billion (around £1.04 billion). Since the investigation was announced in early April, the company’s stock has nose-dived from ¥481.20 to just ¥374.90 today.

Oculus VR have confirmed that they’re working on around two dozen games for their own Oculus Rift device, with CEO Brendan Iribe saying that these games are being fully funded by their own studios – Oculus Studios.

The games are part of a program where developers pitch their ideas to Oculus and in return for platform exclusivity the games get full funding to be made. Other VR developers are also welcome to take part in the program to pitch ideas. Oculus have also made smaller investments in VR games that are not exclusive to the Rift, which total around $10 million altogether.

Oculus seem to be the first of the ‘big VR studios’ to be looking at exclusivity deals, and the question now on our lips has to be will other like Sony’s Morpheus or the Valve HTC Vive do the same as they get closer to release?