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Tonium 3rd-gen Pacemaker Pocket DJ PMP coming early 2010

Chris Davies — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:54:04 +0000

Tonium are planning to release the third-generation version of their Pacemaker Pocket DJ PMP in early 2010. The news was confirmed by Tonium’s co-founder and creative director Martin Renck, and while he refused to be drawn on specific details for the upcoming device, he did reveal that the company are considering motion-sensing controls for inclusion at some point in the future.

Renck also revealed that existing Pacemaker owners should expect at least two more software and firmware updates for their devices during the second half of 2009. No word on what those updates might address, however.

We reviewed the second-gen Pacemaker back in May, and despite the obvious extra bulk over an above a normal PMP such as an iPod, the additional functionality made for a much more involving musical experience. The device allows you to fade-between, mix and generally mangle multiple tracks, with various audio-out options for playing back your creation through speakers together with an online sharing site.

[via GenerationMP3]

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 22 2009

Chris Davies — Sun, 31 May 2009 19:17:22 +0000

SlashGear has been hanging out with Google this week, at the I/O 2009 conference. You can read our first day and second day highlights for the full details, but perhaps the most interesting news was Google’s Wave demo for iPhone and Android, and Andy Rubin’s confirmation that there should be 18-20 Android handsets on the market by the end of the year. One of those is expected to be the HTC Hero; make sure to check out the promo video for the chin-heavy smartphone.

Meanwhile, Sony Ericsson announced the Satio – the phone formerly known as Idou – together with the Yari and Aino, and we went hands-on with all three at their London launch. With just a week to go until the Palm Pre hits shelves, our sibling-site My Pre offered up the user-guide, Getting Started and Features Guide documents. We also saw camera samples from the phone, plus heard it will have push-GMail support and native iTunes compatibility.

In netbooks, it’s been a week of newly polished systems and slightly more unusual hardware. HP unveiled their Mini 1101, 110 XP and 110 Mi machines, while we saw the first full review of the SmartQ 7 MID and heard that UMID’s mbook M1 will get a few more interesting variants over the next month or so. With Computex kicking off this week, Viliv have dropped some heavy hints about what they might be announcing, including what sounds like a version of the S5 MID with a QWERTY keyboard.

E3 is just around the corner, and what’s likely to be Sony’s pride and joy, the PSP Go, has leaked. A compact handheld gaming system almost half the weight of the PSP-3000 and dropping the UMD system in favor of digital download, the PSP Go looks set to go on sale alongside the existing console.

Also suffering leaks a-plenty are Apple, whose next-gen iPhone and iPod nano 5G were both tipped this week. The former is expected to have Google Latitude support as standard, among other things, while the latter is said to bundle a new camera. It’ll go up against PMP heavyweights like iriver’s P35, which will land in the US sometime this fall, and Microsoft’s new Zune HD.

Finally, we brought you the second part of our behind-the-wheel test drive of the Lincoln MKS, together with reviews of Seagate’s Showcase DVR Storage Expander and the Hantech Siso Tablo. That just left enough time to slot in a review and video demo of the Tonium Pacemaker Pocket DJ.

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Tonium Pacemaker Pocket DJ Review and Demo

Steven Grady — Tue, 26 May 2009 20:07:18 +0000

I wish I was a DJ. Or at least, I wish I was talented enough to use the Tonium Pacemaker Pocket DJ effectively. I play drums but I can’t mix beats, so I had to call in reinforcements. My good friend DJ T.A.I. offered to help out with taking a look at the Pacemaker, and he was able to throw together a short demo for us in the very short amount of time he had the device.

The Tonium Pacemaker is possibly the coolest $500 you can spend if you’re a DJ. The device is a 60GB mp3 player/portable mixer/sound effects generator/turntables/pure awesome. You can store and mix tracks right on the device, or do it on the included software (which makes it really easy by he way) and this makes it possible for professional or amateur DJs to take their beats on the road with them. If needed, the device could essentially act as a makeshift DJ booth just in case a rave breaks out and you have your Pacemaker handy.

Using the device was much easier than I anticipated. The quick start guide showed you the simple gestures required to do whatever you wanted to the track, whether it was fade to the cued track, add in reverb, or beat-match. Soon enough, I had the gestures memorized, and was making poor attempts at mixing some really awesome songs. I decided to let DJ T.A.I have his go with the Pacemaker, and needless to say, he handled that thing like an artist, as if he had always owned the device.

The controls on the Pacemaker include a few buttons to select between the two tracks, a touch pad for doing the bulk of your controls and selections, a touch slider to control the fade, and a switch on the side that acts as sort of an alt-choice selector. The display is beautiful and gives you BPM readouts, EQ, track names, and with the right gesture, can show all the different sound effects you can add in.

The Pacemaker will make many DJs extremely happy, whether they want to simply mix and save tracks on the go, listen to their own mixes and re-mix them, or put on a make-shift rave. The headphone out and audio-out allow for two tracks to be played and cued respectively so the DJ can beat-match and control volumes as well. Syncing your own tracks to the device is as easy as it can be. Drag and drop them onto the device through the included software. You can even import your entire 1980’s techno collection from iTunes the first time you start the software.

The Pacemaker is potentially one of the coolest devices I’ve ever played with, and I hope you enjoy the short video demo by DJ T.A.I. (The music in the video is his own stuff).

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SlashGear Week in Review – Week 19 2009

Chris Davies — Sun, 10 May 2009 19:26:05 +0000

We’ve had some much-anticipated and long-awaited gadgets land at SlashGear this week, so we’ve gone overboard with unboxing videos and hands-on galleries. The Verizon MiFi 2200 only had its official announcement earlier this week, but we’ve been waiting for the Novatel EVDO-hotspot for so long you must forgive us some excitement. Meanwhile the Vodafone HTC Magic has the honor of being only the second Android phone to the market, while the Tonium Pacemaker manages to offer something unique in a sea of PMPs.

Outside of unboxings, we spent some hands-on video time with Sony’s Walkman X with its luscious OLED display, and reviewed the T-Mobile Sidekick LX 2009 with a pretty special LCD screen of its own. Finally the Pro Cyc MyStudio 20 tabletop photo studio turned up for its own review, and proved an excellent – if not especially cheap – way to take high-quality product images.

The other big news of the week has been the announcement of the Amazon Kindle DX, big 9.7-inch brother to the Kindle 2 and an attempt by the retailer to clean up in the textbook and newspaper markets. Check out our hands-on video and photos here.

In software, Microsoft set free the Windows 7 Release Client (RC), and spawned a whole new wave of upgrades as users get to grips with the fresh OS. We were particularly interested to see how Windows 7 RC runs on netbook hardware, and weren’t disappointed; sadly, the same can’t be said for the performance of the Acer Aspire One 751, which manages to chug along miserably even with just XP thanks to an underpowered processor. Still, at least it looks pretty, though whether that will be enough to stave off the competition from ASUS’ tipped 11.6-inch Eee PC – expected to launch this month – remains to be seen.

In mobile devices, Bell Mobility announced that they’ve snapped up the Palm Pre for its exclusive Canadian launch, though our friends north of the border will have to wait until an unspecified date in the second half of 2009 for its actual release. Meanwhile we saw a video demo of the Samsung Alias 2 with its unique E Ink keyboard – the phone itself lands in stores on Monday – and leaked shots of what’s purported to be the Nokia 5900 XpressMusic.

Finally, if you thought plasma TV was a dying technology, think again; it still has the power to surprise and impress when it comes to sheer inches. Samsung took minimalism as their prompt with the 850 PAVV HDTV, going for a set just 29mm thick, while Shinoda went to screen-size extremes with a 145-inch plasma display. Perhaps not the most sensible of launches in today’s economic times, but as headline grabbers they take some beating.

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Tonium Pacemaker Pocket DJ Unboxing

Steven Grady — Thu, 07 May 2009 22:30:41 +0000

I’ll admit, I had no idea what I was getting into when I opened up the Pacemaker. The functionality and the features of the device are astounding. The Pacemaker Pocket DJ system is a 60 GB portable turntable and mixer that allows you to store your music, beats, and mixes on the internal storage, and spin your music on the go. The Pacemaker features the ability to play two tracks side by side, allowing fading and mixing between the two tracks. Cross fading and mixing is an easy task since you can select any two tracks on the device and have one playing while the other is cued up. Whatever track is active will play through the speakers, while you can have the preview of the cued track playing through the headphones.

The Pacemaker is a compact, sleek device that features a beautiful display and easy to learn controls. I’m a music lover and musician myself, but I called in my DJ buddy to come and play with the device and show me some tricks. In just a few minutes, he was mixing and playing tracks off of the Pacemaker. The device is basically a very powerful, very portable DJ station. The audio out allows you to share your creation with others at a performance venue, or you can even publish your mixes online through the included Pacemaker song editor software. The functionality of this device so far is astounding. Tone modification, treble reducing, beat matching, and any other song-mixing function you can think of are all features of the Pacemaker.

Set up was a breeze, and in no time, I was being assaulted by trance beats and heavy bass. The Pacemaker is $499.00 out in the US now, and it includes all the fixings you’ll need to get started: cables, chargers and quick start guides. All you need to bring to the table is something better than the 30-second previews of techno songs you got off of iTunes and a pair of cans to hear your creations. I’ll be playing with the Pacemaker more in the coming days, and will have a full review for you soon.

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