Tag Archives: WIndows Surface

Is The iPhone 5 Now The Only Real Option For Handheld Music Making?

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The biggest technology news this week, at least in terms of the coverage we’ve seen at sites like TechMeme, has been Apple’s introduction of the iPhone 5.

We haven’t posted anything on it yet at Synthtopia, because the new iPhone is an evolutionary refinement of an already capable device, rather than something that brings radically new possibilities to musicians.

A post at Palm Sounds, a blog that focuses on mobile music making, made us take another look at the new device. It suggests that, while Apple has made the new iPhone incrementally better, Android and Windows alternatives seem to be going nowhere as music devices:

There is no way now to easily step off the Apple machine if you’re into mobile music. It’s where all the great apps are, and I can’t see that changing for quite a while now.

So I decided that as I have no real choice but to stick with iOS, I may as well go for a new iPhone 5.

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Could Windows 8 Be The Best Windows Ever For Musicians?

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Windows 8 is Microsoft’s most ambitious update in years – intended to create a hybrid OS that can compete with Apple’s OSX + iOS juggernaut, while also maintaining traditional desktop compatibility.

There has been a lot of pre-release criticism of Windows 8, focused on two things:

  • Windows 8′s Metro interface strikes many as attractive but limiting; and
  • Microsofts dual-platform (ARM & Intel) hardware strategy could create confusion, because it will result in two types of WIndows 8 tablets, with very different capabilities.

Cakewalk’s Noel Borthwick has taken a deep look into Windows 8 and how it performs for music, focusing on Cakewalk’s Sonar DAW. He came away skeptical about the new Metro interface, but, nevertheless, excited about the new version of Windows.

Based on his analysis:

  • Windows 8′s Metro interface is “not particularly conducive to music software applications”;
  • Windows 8 runs Sonar better than WIndows 7; and
  • The Intel versions of Microsoft Surface tablets “could be the most powerful tablet based solution for music production today”.

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