Globe celebrates IPv6 day by bringing IPv6 connectivity to the Philippines

Did you know that IPv4 addresses, the four set of numbers that makes the internet possible (if you’ve ever mucked around a router, it’s the 192.168.1.1 address you type in) is running out? Without a public IPv4 address that’s needed by every device that connects to the internet won’t be able to connect to the internet using your smartphone, tablet and yes, even your PC. You don’t need to panic though, as there’s already a successor to IPv4 called IPv6, and local telcos are gearing up to start transitioning into the new internet protocol and chief among them is Globe. In fact, today is World IPv6 Day, and Globe is at the forefront of the change into IPv6 by participating in the 24-hour IPv6 test flight with other international companies like Google, Facebook, Yahoo! and Limelight Networks. Globe is working hard to ensure businesses and consumers are spared the headaches of the transition into IPv6.
We’ve included a few slides of Globe’s presentation below so you’ll have an idea what devices and operating systems will support IPv6 from the get go.

 

You can go to Globe’s IPv6 webpage here to know more.

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Samsung Galaxy Tab 3G and Samsung Galaxy Tab Wi-Fi: An all-around companion

A mini-PC, media player, and e-reader all rolled into one incredible device, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is a powerful entertainment device and business tool. Premium features include Google Android 2.2 (Froyo), a 7-inch touchscreen for mobile computing, watching videos, and browsing the Internet, a rear-facing 3MP camera and camcorder and flash, and a front-facing 1.3MP camera and camcorder for video chat, and flexible access to the World Wide Web with 3G or Wi-Fi versions.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab supports Adobe Flash Player 10.1, providing an enhanced content experience by allowing access to thousands of websites with complex Flash-based applications and content while the Samsung Galaxy Wi-Fi allows you to connect with friends and family faster and easier through the Samsung Social Hub. This allows users to integrate social networking services, messages, personal and business e-mail, calendars, and contacts. Information from web calendars, such as Google Calendar and Facebook, are merged into a single interface for easy organization, too.
Source: Samsung

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Meet StudioBLADE, the World’s Most Powerful Keyboard Workstation

Dubbed by its manufacturer as the “World’s Most Powerful” keyboard station, feast your eyes on one monster music production machine.
The StudioBLADE (Gen 2) utilizes up to dual 6-core (12 core total) Intel Xeon server platform processors that are capable of hyper-threading, so users get up to 24 virtual computer cores to ensure that DAWs and VSTs can run uninhibited. By using server grade processors, this keyboard is able to outperform others by accessing more RAM, and with 12 RAM memory slots able to handle 16GB modules each, this comes to an astounding total of 192GB RAM.

With that much power in its core, The StudioBLADE can purportedly handle over 2,000 plug-ins at the same time and sequence thousands of tracks at once onto its 6TB hard drive. It runs on Windows 7 Professional (64-bit) that has been calibrated specifically  for music production/recording. Users navigate via a 10.1-inch touchscreen that tilts to the their preferred viewing angle and two external video ports provide users the option of running up to three monitors at the same time.
Its compact form factor comes in 61-key or 88-key versions, but it is also a midi controller, featuring mapabble faders, encoders, 64 lighted pads, and a Monome for triggering sequences. It is also equipped with Presonus audio interfaces guaranteeing studio quality a/d converters making the StudioBLADE the complete workstation where users can create, record, mix and master their musical compositions.

If you want to lust further, visit Music Computing to view the StudioBLADE’s complete set of features.


  Source: Sonic State, Music Computing

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Nintendo announces Wii U, awesomeness ensues

While we were unable to go to E3 this year (you can blame that on the 5,000 mile divide) we’re still able to follow the multiple reveals via the series of tubes we call the internet. One of the biggest announcements to come out today was the Wii U, Nintendo’s successor to the massively successful Wii. The Wii U features a 6.2-inch touchscreen in the middle along with the traditional buttons and d-pads that consoles have. The unit will have an accelerometer, is totally backwards-compatible with old Wii titles and has built-in camera that allows some facetime-esque chat functionality. A neat feature is the devices’ ability to continue a game on the touchscreen when someone uses the TV that’s being used. Speaking of TVs, the Wii U will beam the game images straight on to your boob-tube without the use of wires, and will be in HD. There’s so many gameplay possibilities with the new console that it’s really hard to begin to fathom, but if the Wii is anything to go by, it’s probably going be awesome and fun.

Source: Joystiq

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Review: Acer Iconia Smart

The high-end smartphone space is dominated by premium brands like HTC, Samsung and LG, with a smattering of different form factors and screen sizes ranging from the standard 4-inch Samsung Nexus S and to the relatively bigger 4.3-inch HTC Desire HD. To really make an impact in a market that’s dominated by high-profile brands and devices, you need to be a little bit different. The Acer Iconia Smart is certainly that. Sporting a massive 4.8-inch, 480×1024 resolution capacitive sceen, the Iconia Smart is an imposing smartphone, at least physically.

In a time where smartphones are shedding hard keys and moving into touch-sensitive controls, the Iconia Smart does the opposite. Housed directly below the gigantic 4.8-inch screen lies the home, search, back and option keys.

The volume rocker and camera shortcut keys are all located on the right side of the unit.

The left side holds the USB slot that pulls double duty as a USB charging port and the HDMI out port if you want to export video to your HDTV.

There’s an eight megapixel camera located on the back, as well as a smaller secondary camera on the front. The whole thing weighs in at a hefty 185 grams – which is a bit heavier than your average smartphone. Some may see this is a negative, but I actually didn’t mind the added weight as it gave the unit a bit of heft. Of course, your mileage may vary. The battery is located at the bottom of the unit, and Acer seems to have taken a few design cues from HTC’s unibody devices when it comes to accessing the battery. You have to take off the bottom cover first, and then open the compartment via a small latch to access the battery.

The Iconia Smart uses Google’s Android 2.3 Gingerbread OS with UI enhancements courtesy of Acer. The unlock screen slightly differs in that you’re presented with 3 initial home screens that you can scroll through without unlocking the phone – great for checking how many unread SMS messages and missed calls you’ve received, checking to see what track is playing and so on. As with anything on Android, that screen is customizable.

Once you’re past that, you get 7 home screens that you can customize depending on your needs.

The first and seventh screen has Acer’s own quick-access solution that acts like a mini-rolodex of sorts for your media (music, photos and video) for the first screen and websites in the case of the second.

The Iconia Smart is powered by a 1GHz Qualcomm MSM8255-1 Snapdragon Scorpion processor. While I was slightly disappointed that something this large wasn’t powered by a dual-core procie, the performance of the unit made up for it – the device was pretty quick, and it was capable of decent graphics. To scientifically gauge performance, we ran a couple of benchmarking tools on the Iconia Smart – Neocore, a graphic benchmarking tool, AnTutu, a system benchmark that stresses the entire phone from graphics to memory, and  Quadrant Standard, which gives another benchmark perspective into the performance of the phone.

Because of the unique size of the Iconia Smart, the Neocore benchmark only ran in the maximum 480×854 resolution, and not the 480×1024 the screen was capable of. Nevertheless, the Iconia Smart came in at a zippy 57.6 FPS.

For AnTuTu, the results were 1992, which were decent.

Quadrant Standard on the other hand, gave the Iconia Smart 1480 points, which was a bit higher than what the benchmark gave the Nexus One on Android 2.2.
For something that has a huge screen, battery life wasn’t as bad as I’d initially thought. The Iconia Smart needed a sip at the end of every workday (with moderate to heavy use), but considering the screen size I think that’s pretty good. Call quality was good.
Two issues stop me from recommending the Iconia Smart to Android freshmen. Ironically, its biggest appeal is also its biggest stumbling block: size. While the Iconia Smart is easy enough for someone like me to use, anyone with dainty hands (which constitute a majority of Filipinos) is in for rough ride. It’s mainly a personal thing, and as such your mileage may vary. Sound isn’t as loud as I’d hoped, which is a major let down since the device sports Dolby Mobile sound enhancement. The huge screen is such a nice place to view movies, unfortunately the disappointing sound makes headphones a necessity if you want to hear what the actors are saying.

The Acer Iconia Smart is a nice take on Android, and its distinct size and features make it stand out against the myriad of other devices currently in the market. Unfortunately there’s still no word on local pricing, or when it’ll be available for local consumption.

What’s Hot:
Large, 4.8-inch capacitive touchscreen
Large screen makes it a natural for watching movies
Good performance, ok battery life

What’s Not:
Large screen makes it a challenge for people with dainty hands to use
Sound could be better

Bottomline:
The Acer Iconia Smart is certainly different, and if you don’t have issues with a large screen, it just might be your next Android smartphone.

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iOS 5 is PC-Free!

No longer will you have to take on the cumbersome task of connecting your iDevice to a computer in order to set it up.
iOS 5 presents its users a PC Free experience, which means that devices can be activated wirelessly instantly. As long as your iPhone or iPad has access to a shared Wi-Fi connection, it will sync, update and backup itself with the help of iCloud.
So, for all of you out there that have your parents and/or grandparents constantly hounding you for help with their iDevices, you just received a break.

Source: Apple, MacRumors

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PowerColor single slot Radeon HD 6850 makes life easy for your case

If there’s one thing that you should expect from today’s graphic cards, its that they’re massive space hogs. It’s not surprising for most of them to consume two, even three slots in your rig. The PowerColor HD 6850 we spotted at COMPUTEX is an oddity then, as it only consumes a single slot in your precious rig, making it a great choice for people who have very limited space in their rigs.

Of course, a thinner profile doesn’t mean that some of the features have been nerfed – the card has 1GB GDDR5 Memory, an engine clock of 775MHz, DirectX 11 support and all the other goodies that the reference 6850 is known for.

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Tomb Raider gets a gritty reboot, new Lara is love at first sight

The Tomb Raider franchise hasn’t had smoothest time as of late, and terrible release upon terrible release has made the franchise akin to Joel Schumacher’s Batman and Robin. But like the unintentionally hilarious Batman with nipples, Tomb Raider is getting a gritty reboot. It seems that we join new Lara as she’s marooned in an island, with nothing but her wits, improvised weapons and oh so pretty face. You can go here for additional media including screenshots of Miss Croft in action, and we’ve embedded the trailer below.

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Asus Eee Pad Slider pics, set to launch “soon”

With the bevy of announcements from Asus in their pre-COMPUTEX presscon, like the 3D tablet and the PadFone, you could forgive us of we didn’t get around to our hands on of the Eee Pad Slider sooner. Nevertheless, its here now and we liked what we saw: 10.1-inch LED IPS screen, retractable keyboard (unlike the detachable design in the Transformer) and Android 3.0 on board.

Asus has teased that the tablet is coming soon from its own Facebook account, though a firm date was never mentioned. There’s also a bit of debate of whether the Transformer would use NVIDIA’s Tegra 2 processor or Intel’s Atom Z670 as reported by Engadget.

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Product Highlight: PowerColor Vortex 2 PCS+ 6950

We got some hands-on time with the PowerColor’s Vortex 2 6950 during our visit to their booth during COMPUTEX. The Vortex 2 PCS+ is the company’s own take on the AMD 6950, and as such has been modified extensively.

Aside from a traditional heatsink, the card also features heatpipes to draw heat away from the GPU, along with 2 fans. But these aren’t regular card fans – their height can be adjusted by the user which then increases the air intake and maximizes cooling.

Another nice feature is that when the fans are placed in opposite angles, a vortex effect is created producing even better cooling for the card. Stats include an 850MHz engine clock, 1300MHz (5.2Gbps) memory clock, 2GB GDDR5 of memory and a 256bit memory interface. We’ll get a review up as soon as we get a demo unit from the folks at PowerColor.

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PowerColor Wireless Media Center beams HD content erm, wirelessly

The crazy/wonderful/insane tech conference known as COMPUTEX has ended, but we’re still sifting through our photos to give you guys a glimpse of products you can expect in a few months. Case in point: the PowerColor Wireless Media Center. This small device allows users to beam full HD content (including 3D) from a PC to a HDTV without wires, which is useful when those devices are located in different parts of your house. You get to enjoy full 8-channel audio, 1080p at 60Hz with less than 1ms of latency and about 100 feet of range.

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You are here: Home / Gadgets / Get the best deals with Gadgets Magazine JUNE issue out NOW! Get the best deals with Gadgets Magazine JUNE issue out NOW!

Calling all bargain-hunters, deal-makers, and bangers for their buck: the June issue of Gadgets Magazine is out now and willing to help you find some sweet deals to make ushering in the rainy season a wee bit sweeter. Check out the “next big thing” Lauren Young and flip through the pages to find some pretty great bargains while getting your monthly dose of the latest gadgets, gizmos, and lifestyle products.
So don’t delay. Summer may be over, but the deals definitely are all year round.

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Meet Luce, the first solar powered laptop

Meet Luce, the double solar panel powered PC, a concept laptop designed by Andrea Ponti. It’s rumored to be able to power continuously under the sun by utilizing two solar panels located on the back of the display and beneath the touch keyboard.
It’s still unconfirmed whether this model has actually been tested, but Ponti’s concept was shortlisted in Fujitsu’s design competition earlier this year. Whether or not the company will push thru with manufacturing this solar powered laptop is still in the wind.

As for now, we can only imagine what it would be like to actually own the first fully functional solar powered laptop, which could hopefully lead us to greener pastures in the wasteland of technology. In Ponti’s words,

Luce is a concept designed to turn maker’s attention to real sustainable production. Wireless devices, powered by nature, completely free of cables, represent the future for a sustainable development focused on user’s real needs.

Source: TheTechJournal

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Pentagon now considers hacking an act of war

Recent cyber attacks on corporations and the growing use of malicious software to crack government servers and other vital installations have risen in past years. In response, the Pentagon has concluded that computer sabotage from another country constitutes as an act of war. This means that the Pentagon could potentially retaliate with traditional military hardware which includes a vast array of weapons at its disposal. Of course, not every cyber attack will have this serious of a retaliation – the Pentagon says that only attacks that could potentially threaten lives, or do as much damage and destruction as a traditional military attack would be liable for retaliation.

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ECS e-reader spotted sporting Android

E-readers isn’t the first thing you’d associate with ECS – it’s actually the last thing you’d associate with the prolific motherboard manufacturer. But apparently ECS does e-readers as well, as evidenced by this little thing we saw in COMPUTEX the other day. We didn’t have time for a full shakedown, but according to the specs, it has an 8-inch, 1024 x 768 resolution screen, Marvell PXA 166e processor, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth, Android 2.1 and more importantly, about a month’s worth of battery endurance with wireless off. No word on prices and even if it would be available for purchase in the good ol’ PH, but here’s to hoping.

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Review: Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101

Try as others might, there really hasn’t been a true Android tablet that could go toe to toe with Apple’s iPad. Sure, there’s the Motorola Xoom, but the Xoom was a horrible release – bugs heaped upon bugs, plus an $800 price tag that didn’t even come close to being as competitive as the iPad’s $499 sticker price. Android tablets that run version 2.3 or earlier doesn’t count either, because those devices don’t even bring a fraction of the user experience that’s needed to compete realistically with the iPad.
That’s until the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 came along.
The Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 is the first Android tablet in the market that can realistically go up against Apple’s entrenched iPad. It has the right price, the right amount of features, is easy to use and has enough innovative features of its own to entice customers away from the clutches of the fruity one.
Let’s get all the technical data out of the way first. The Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 is a 10.1-inch Android Honeycomb tablet that’s powered by NVIDIA’s dual-core Tegra 2 processor.

Like the Motorola Xoom, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 has few hardware buttons, and aside from the power/lock button and the volume rocker, the sides of the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 are devoid of buttons.

The right side houses the HDMI port, headphone jack and microSD card slot, while the bottom holds the power/data port.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 is powered by Google’s Honeycomb tablet OS, which is definitely different than Android on your smartphones. The screen to screen transition is smooth and you get that nice border-line effect when you swipe from one screen to the next. Navigation is done via the back, home and multi-task buttons on the lower right side, while battery status, time, wireless connectivity and other information (such as mail notification) are located on the lower right.

You can access the main screen via the grid icon on the upper right marked apps, and you can quickly customize the number of apps on your different home screens (you get five) by pressing the plus button on the side of the app button.

Another nice feature of Honeycomb is its ability to multitask like crazy. You can press the multitask button and you can easily go to the previous programs you had open before.

The Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101’s large screen size make it a natural choice for reading books and comics, and its overall weight doesn’t make it hard for you to lift it up to your face while laying down. The on-screen keyboard is easy to use and worked well enough in practice.

Unlike most tablets, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 can take a keyboard accessory which also pulls dual duty as an additional battery, extending the quoted 9.5 hour battery life to 16 hours.

With the keyboard attached, the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 resembles a netbook – complete with a touchpad for navigation. The dock also has an SD card reader and a USB port. The keyboard dock allowed me type long articles fairly easily as the keys have enough travel and the keyboard in general is extremely comfortable to use.

There were a couple of games installed on the device I reviewed which really showed off the power of the Tegra processor. Samurai Vengeance was a fairly demanding game graphics-wise, but the device handled it with ease, and I never really felt it was struggling with the graphics even with multiple enemies on the screen. Additionally, with the Honeycomb 3.1 update in the winds (I’m in Taiwan as I write this and I’ve received the update already) it’s now possible to connect a USB game controller to the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 and use that to play games.

Probably the only complaint I have with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 is the scarcity of apps on the Android Market. Sure, there are apps in there that were ported from the Android marketplace, but I would have preferred a bit more apps created solely for Tablets. While there was a dedicated ereader for the device, there wasn’t a native comic book app – an odd complaint, but I know more than a few people who bought their iPads with the sole purpose of using them as comic book readers. There’s also no orientation lock, or none that I could see right away, and the constant auto-rotation of the device while lying down when I was browsing the internet got a bit annoying, to say the least.

Those are really small complaints, and in the end the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101 is a solid tablet and the first real contender to Apple’s iPad. Its ability to take a keyboard and act more or less like a traditional netbook puts it in a class of its own when it comes to versatility. The Eee Pad Transformer will be available this month, and will retail for 22,995 (32GB) (16GB) for the keyboard-less version, and 29,995 (32GB) (16GB) with the keyboard.

What’s Hot:
Has a proper tablet OS
Has an option to take a keyboard that acts as a secondary battery
Powerful Tegra 2 processor allows graphically demanding games to be played

What’s Not:
Needs more apps developed specifically for tablets
Needs a native comic book reader
No obvious orientation lock

Bottomline:
There are not enough superlatives in the world to express my feelings with the Asus Eee Pad Transformer TF101. It’s the first, real contender to the iPad and it’s probably the Android tablet you’ve been waiting for.
Buymeter: 9
Edit: Apparently the prices and specs we were initially given were incorrect, the review has been updated to reflect this.

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AOC Razor Monitors: The Power to Transform

Taking inspiration from the beloved Marvel X-men and their mutant abilities to transform and redefine the way they live, AOC now gives us a more “highly-evolved” way of viewing our world.

Imagine vivid colorful images gliding on your monitor screens in mirror-like clarity, sans the blur from yesteryears. You’ll clearly see how each X-Men transforms into their alter-ego. Suddenly, Mystique turns to her blue self and Prof. Charles summons the other mutants with his mind. Altogether, the characters you’ve once read in Marvel comic-books spring to life.
But this powerful imagery and transformation can only be achieved with state-of-the-art gadgetry like AOC’s Razor LED monitors.
The 43-series or Razor LEDs are available in a range of practical screen sizes, from 18.5” to 23-inches. All models are equipped with multiple power saving features for reduced environmental impact, whilst the LED backlight contains no toxic mercury, unlike traditional LCD monitors that present a disposal hazard.

The 51-Series, on the other hand, offers an exciting blend of cutting-edge style and new technologies that will thrill all people who see them. Whether your first choice is elegantly traditional or strikingly alternative, the 51-Series has the technology to inspire those with sharp eyes and environmental awareness.
Meanwhile, futuristic technology is more than just an impression as the 53-X sport a cutting-edge IPS (In-Plane Switching) panel; a superior type of screen that offers consistent image appearance and colours across the entire display, even from extreme viewing angles. Contrast ratio is ultra high at 50,000,000:1 (DCR). These latest ultra-slim LED monitors have unique smart bases containing all the input connectors and control electronics, allowing the entire display panel to measure just 9.6mm thin!The 53-Series is an award-winning line with its i2353Ph model. It received the “iF design award China 2010” for its 9.2mm display panel with metal front bezel.

The ultra-slim Razor LED monitor by AOC is a first of its class, akin to the first class of mutants who banded in the film X-Men First Class. As prequel to the saga, X-Men First Class unveils the epic beginning of the X-Men series. Before mutants had revealed themselves to the world, they were discovering their powers for the first time, and worked together to prevent an impending nuclear war. In the process, a serious rift opened between them, beginning the conflict between Magneto’s Brotherhood and Professor Xavier’s X-Men.
So when you’re confronted with the query, “Which side will you be in the end?”, fret not! As long as you’re on the AOC camp, then, like the X-men, you’re on the winning side. First class, that is!
AOC and leading global film distributor Twentieth Century Fox International have banded together to promote the highly-anticipated release of the movie X-Men: First Class this month of June.
Headquartered in Taipei, AOC is a leader in display technology for monitors and TVs, backed by over 6 decades of design and manufacturing experience. AOC has earned a reputation for selling user-friendly, technologically-advanced displays, with every aspect of AOC’s business focusing on the development of products that fit seamlessly into consumers’ digital lifestyles.
In the Philippines, AOCmonitors are distributed by EA Global Supply Chain Solutions, Inc.
For more information aboutAOC and its products, simply visit their Web site www.aoc.com.

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We sit down with Intel’s Shmuel (Mooly) Eden and talk tablets, smartphones and the future of netbooks

We managed to have sit down with Intel’s corporate vice president and general manager of the PC Client Group (PCCG), Shmuel (Mooly) Eden. We had a lot of burning questions on the heels of Intel’s entry into the tablet market, and what he thought of the current state of netbooks and their future in a world where tablets are becoming more and more of a threat to a category that Intel helped create.
John: Now that Intel has Atom powered tablets running Honeycomb and MeeGo, is this now your main push? Will you be abandoning netbooks altogether?
Shmuel: No, we are not abandoning the category, we are doing two things in parallel. First of all, we’re putting a huge amount of effort to catch up and be relevant in the tablet space. It’s a fact that Apple is running the space using an ARM solution, we believe that now that we are putting more effort on the ARM architecture we will have a solution which will be compelling. In parallel we are trying to continue the work on the netbook. The netbook is changing. It’s very interesting – Asus recently launched a netbook that’s priced at $199, and that’s totally different question. We never really tested the market’s elasticity. I believed when we started the netbook was aimed only at emerging markets, but then the netbook also went to the mature markets and I believe with the new price point there will be another opportunity to see where we are.
John: There’s a lot of people that are saying that the netbook is past its prime, that the tablets will kill the netbook. Do you think there’s space for both to co-exist?
Shmuel: I believe so for one reason, but only the future may tell. If Asus comes with a netbook that’s only $199, I don’t think there’s a touch tablet that can match $199. What can you match up with a netbook that’s only $199? A tablet that costs $499? So it’s left to be seen, the market will be dynamic and we’ll be seeing many form factors – by the way, how would you call a netbook with a touchscreen? (he gestures to the Eee Pad Transformer I brought to the interview)
John: A hybrid device, I guess.
And I believe we’ll be seeing many, many more hybrid devices. Left to be seen, I believe that the category itself, of the netbook, and I believe we spoke about it in our previous financial announcements. It’s left to be seen if it’s still relevant – some say the netbook disappeared but there’s still some OEM that still have plans for it – only the future will tell. But we’ll try to support both, and we’ll see how the category will adapt.
John: Intel will also be going into the mobile space. How much catching up will you have to do, because Qualcomm is already there and Nvidia is already making its mark with its Tegra 2 processor?
Now we are jumping into the third category. It’s a fact, and I’ll not hide it – we’re behind in some categories, but then we are leading in some categories. In smartphones the fact that we’re behind is true – there are many smartphones and I’m not there. I do have great teams of architects that are working around the clock; I have a great processor technology that the competition doesn’t have, and there’s no reason to believe that I won’t be able to close the gap. We have the UMG (ultra mobile group) which are focusing 100% of their time in order to make phones that I believe you will see soon. With the tablets, you’ll see some things and we’re working to improve our tablets as well.  We’ve got all intention to be very relevant in the traditional desktop and servers and we’ll definitely be very relevant in tablets and phones, and we don’t see any reason to believe we will not to be successful over there.

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Meet the Zoom R8, a hybrid portastudio

I still own a 4track cassette recorder because I love its lo-fi sound and ultraportability, but perhaps it would be useful to pick up a digital portastudio as well.
Meet the Zoom R8, the company’s newest portable recorder that also functions as an audio interface and control surface. Simply writing about its capabilities in a nutshell already has me interested, so let’s take a look at what the “Total Music Production Solution” has to offer.
First off, it definitely looks suave and portable, which is advertised as small enough to fit in a guitar case. This means that it can also be stuffed inside your laptop bag, guaranteeing an ultraportable recording rig that you can take anywhere you go.
The Zoom R8 can record 2 tracks simultaneously at up to 24-bit 48kHz with a maximum of 8-track playback. When used as an audio interface, it provides users with 2 ins+2 outs, and conveniently connects to the computer via USB.  The R8 can also be used as a control surface (8 mini-faders + 1 master fader), allowing you to have a hands on approach to mixing on your DAW.

If you’re not fascinated yet, this little monster is also an 8-voice sampler, looper and drum machine. It is equipped with mini pads that can be played in real-time and it can also be used to trigger recorded patterns.
Wait, that’s not all. Users who pick up this gadget will also get Zoom’s classic chromatic tuner and metronome. Pair that up with time stretching and over 140 DSP effects, and the R8 might be one of the most promising ultraportable workstations to hit the market.
Oh, and it can run on 4 AA batteries as well.

For the unending list of the Zoom R8′s features and specs: http://www.zoom.co.jp/products/r8

Source: CreateDigitalMusic and Zoom

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