A man of many hats, Tre has expertise in Holistic Health and Wellness, Digital Marketing, and Media Analytics. With over 10 years of experience as a recording artist and producer, he directs our Music Production workshops. and releases music as Tre'mendous - Learn More
The Pangolin is the latest AMD powered laptop to be released by Open-Source-centric OEM System76, and we have our in-depth review ready for the masses.
The Pangolin isn’t much different from the Lemur Pro in terms of reliability and quality – but mobility and internals is where it differs.
Where the Lemur was Intel powered, the Pangolin has the Ryzen 7 Pro and up to 32GB of RAM.
Inboxing
System76 has one of the most unique, quirky, fun unboxing experiences you’ll ever have with any consumer laptop on the market – especially if you’re a developer or programmer.
Build Quality and Specs
Specs
System76 Pangolin
OS
Pop!_OS 22.04 LTS of Ubuntu 22.04 LTS
Processor
AMD Ryzen 7 6800U
CPU
8 Cores – 16 threads 2.7 up to 4.7 Ghz
GPU
AMD Radeon 680M
RAM
32 GB LPDDR5 @ 6400 Mhz
Display
15.6″ 1920×1080 FHD, Matte Finish,144 Hz
Front Camera
16 Megapixels (f/2.5 Aperture, 1/3.06″ sensor
Storage
2 x M.2 SSD (PCIe NVMe) Up to 16TB Total
Expansion
3x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A, 1 x USB 3.2 Gen 2 Type-C, SD Card Reader
System76 laptops ship with either Ubuntu, or their own in-house Linux distro known as Pop_OS! which is my favorite computing environment outside of the music studio.
With a bit of tinkering, most popular productivity software made for Windows runs on Pop_OS!, using Wine or GameOnLinux, you can have the best of both worlds (although results will vary).
Using System76’s flavor of Linux, you pretty have access to any type of software you could ever need through the Pop Store, although it will take some time sifting through the large open-source library of unknown apps.
Pop_OS! Pop StoreThe Pop Store is well organized, containing every type of app you could ever need.
Conclusion
The Pangolin is a worthy choice for any consumer who is looking for an upgradable, Open-Source laptop running Linux. Programmers, Data Analysts, Institutions and companies would be right at home, but this the type of home computer that could easily last 10 years without being left behind by the advancements in tech. Anyone looking for a new, trouble-free way of computing should take a serious look at the Pangolin laptop by System76.
There is really no need to extensively cover a device as popular and household tier as the iPhone – everyone knows someone who owns one if they don’t own one themselves. And if you don’t happen to know anyone who owns an iPhone 14 Pro, you can guarantee any cellular store or electronic department has them on display in their mobile section.
And although seeing a device in person and fiddling around with a display unit isn’t the same as actual day to say usage of a smartphone, it’s safe to say iPhones aren’t going to give you any performance or reliability issues. They are in fact the de facto standard for quality regarding all things mobile.
Which is Apples biggest strength and weakness, they are the company that plays it safe. Incremental hardware updates, tried and proven concepts. This is why although I admittedly DO see the appeal of iPhones everytime I get a new one, I grow bored quickly with iOS – and consequently the iPhone after a few months.
GPS with A-GPS (dual band), GLONASS, GALILEO, and BeiDou
Security Sensors
Face ID
Battery
4323mAh; Fast charging, USB Power Delivery 2.0, Magsafe fast wireless charging v15W, Ai wireless charging
Misc
Face ID, accelerometer, gyro, proximity, compass, barometer; NFC; stereo speakers; Ultra Wideband (UWB) support, Emergency SOS via satellite (SMS sending/receiving);, Apple Pay (Visa, MasterCard, AMEX certified).
Launch Date
September 7,2022
Conclusion
I like the iPhone, and the iPhone 14 Pro is Apple best iteration of their smartphone yet. But their incremental updates and lack of innovation leaves a bitter aftertaste.
With Black Friday (and Cyber Monday) right around the corner, we’ve compiled a collection of the best deals in tech from around the internet into one nice article.
While Best Buy, Target and Amazon have most of the better deals in retail, there are great offers scattered throughout the web directly from brands, and you can usually get the lowest prices on products and services directly from the companies themselves.
pCloud
Click the image to access pCloud’s BF Sale!
pCloud, an emerging cloud storage provider – has one of the best deals for their service with up to 85% off a Lifetime subscription. Black Friday savings brings prices down as low as $139 for a premium lifetime 500GB account.
Users can get up to 85% OFF for pCloud’s Lifetime plans: Starts 21.11.22 ends 27.11.22
– 500GB Premium Lifetime – 75%OFF ($139) (original price $570) = > Saving more than 400$! – 2TB Premium Plus Lifetime – 75% OFF ($279) (original price $1 140) => Saving around 900$! – 10TB Custom Lifetime – 85% OFF ($890) (original price $6 000) => Saving more than 5000$!
Steinberg’s Advanced Mobile DAW is 50% off for Cyber Week
Cubasis, a Mobile Music Creation System available on Android and iOS has a Cyber Week special going on.
For the next 7 days, you can also get 50% off all in-app purchases. This means you can equip your smartphone or tablet with the most studio-quality tools available for under $100.
Lo and behold, when one of the worlds biggest computer manufacturers decides to co-sign a scrappy but formidable newcomer by releasing a laptop with their Linux Distro pre-installed – people like me tend to sit up and take notice. And that’s exactly what we have here with the HP Dev One, a laptop running Pop!_OS by System76.
What is Pop!_OS ?
Pop!_OS Cosmic
Pop!_OS, is a Linux distro by OEM System76. System76 is the company that develops and maintains Pop!_OS and they also manufacturer their own laptops, desktops and servers.
Pop_OS! Desktop
Design and Build Quality
The design is up to par with many Ultrabooks that have a metal build, holding its own against Apple, Dell, and even HP’s premium offering.
Display
14″ diagonal FHD (1920 x 1080) IPS, anti-reflective, anti-smudge, touchscreen, 1000 its
Processor
AMD Ryzen 7 Pro 5850U 8-core, 16-threads 1.9Ghz Base Clock 4.4Ghz Max Boost Clock Total L3 Cache 16MB
2 x Superspeed USB 4.0 Type-C 10Gbps signaling rate (USB Typ / Thunderbolt™ 4 2 x USB 3.2 Gen 1 Type-A (one always on) 1x HDMI 2.0 1x Headphone / mic combo
World Music Day is a celebration of all things related to music. It originated in France, where there is an event called La Fête de la Musique (Music Festival). La Fête de la Musique takes place mostly in public outdoor spaces and it’s free to everyone. Due to its popularity, other countries started celebrating music day. Over 120 countries celebrated it in 2021.
(Left to Right) Bun-B, myself, and Cory Mo (next pic)
Today, we’re celebrating World Music Day by giving away cool music related goodies all week – starting with pCloud!
That’s right, we’re partnering with pCloud to offer our readers 500GB of cloud storage FREE for three months!
pCloud is a Cloud Storage provider – and one that stands out due to the fact that they’re based in Switzerland, for privacy-conscious users – but the standout difference between pCloud and its competitors is they offer a perpetual license. pCloud’s claim an industry-first with their Lifetime plan, which many users say offers the best Backup experience and cost-efficiency. You only pay ONCE and get to organize your entire digital life for a LIFETIME. All premium features are available and you get to enjoy the beauty of collaboration and relieve that your most important asset- your information, is properly protected.
CLICK THE BANNER ABOVE FOR 500GB FREE FOR 3 MONTHS!!!!
Check out 500GB of pCloud risk-free for 3 MONTHS. If you discover you like it after the 3 month trial, come back and get a discounted lifetime license by clicking the banner below:
Get pCloud Lifetime for One Payment, no more subscriptions!
We’re celebrating World Music Day all week so subscribe and get notified when we offer more goodies and giveaways!
PreSonus, manufacturers of some of the world’s most renowned Audio Interfaces, Control Boards, Mixing Consoles, Preamps, and Microphones – releases the Revelator USB mic for project studios , gamers and podcasters. We take it through the paces to see if it adds something new to the market and offers new and rare features. To find out where the Revelator stands in the grand scheme of a recording setup, keep reading.
The Revelator Mic is USB-C powered, and connects to Mac, PC, Android and iOS devices. For Windows and MacOS, it has a software hub that adds the ability to broadcast a feedback signal (useful for podcasts) and source mixing (game streaming). But the most useful and powerful feature, is the Revelator’s ability to save up to 5 audio effect Presets directly into the microphone.
Top to Bottom: Preset (light blue), Monitor (dark blue), Volume (Press for Mute)
The Revelator Mic comes with 5 effects pre-installed, Plain/Dry, Broadcast, Slap Echo, Female Voice, and Screamer – which reminded me of a Megaphone. Any or all of the presets could be replaced with a new effect by connecting the Mic to your device with the software installed simply by connecting to two devices using the included USB-C cord.
The Revelator’s Default Preset is effect-free, and it has a flat and dry audio signal that provides clear and crisp vocals or field audio. Broadcast adds a rich EQ, Low Pass Filter, and AutoDuck all in one to give that ‘Radio Announcer’ sound. Female Voice is a Chipmunk-y, high pitched effect; as Screamer and Slap Echo have more self-explanatory Preset names.
Revelator is a part of a suite of products from Presonus that offers an all in one solution for audio recording from the Home to full-fledged Recording Studios. Like in the picture above, where you can see the Revelator as part of a modern home recording studio. It comes with a table stand in the box, but it’s compatible with any standard mic stand, so it can be an all-around ‘Swiss Mic’ for recording any type of sound.
There are many options on the market for cloud storage. Some are integrated into our devices Operating Systems, extending the physical storage by embedding virtual extensions of your smartphone or laptops space within its software. Many people only interact with the services that come with the devices they own – iCloud for iPhones and Macs, Google Drive for Androids/Chromebooks, and OneDrive for Windows PCs. More savvy users test out third-party cloud products that strive to offer the best Cloud Storage available, as opposed to settling for previously mentioned services which sometimes seem more like an afterthought – an add-on treated like a premium feature leveraged to gain extra revenue from existing customers. A few third-party products may instantly come to mind as suitable alternatives – Dropbox for example, but one that should be on your radar comes from a Swiss company known as pCloud.
pCloud is a Cloud Storage provider – and one that stands out due to the fact that they’re based in Switzerland, for privacy-conscious users – but the standout difference between pCloud and its competitors is they offer a perpetual license. pCloud’s claim an industry-first with their Lifetime plan, which many users say offers the best Backup experience and cost-efficiency. You only pay ONCE and get to organize your entire digital life for a LIFETIME. All premium features are available and you get to enjoy the beauty of collaboration and relieve that your most important asset- your information, is properly protected.
pCloud’s Lifetime account is an industry-first in the Cloud Storage sector.
Standout Features
pCloud has quite a few unique features that separate them from the alternatives, starting with Unlimited Capabilities. There’s no limitations to the file sizes that you can upload to your account, and the Upload and Download speeds are unlimited as well. File Management is convenient also, offering superior search and filter capabilities, and th r a even a Trash Bin that preserves files you’ve deleted from your account for 14 days for free users, Premium/Lifetime users get 30 days.
File Sharing is versatile and full-featured, with the ability to Share Folders with colleagues and team members. You can invite other Cloud users to private folders, all while controlling the levels of access by setting View, Edit, or Manage permissions to the folder. You can also stop access to any shared folder or change the permissions whenever you desire. You can also share dynamic links to people without a Cloud account, that will always give access to the latest version of your file. Lastly, using Direct Links to files in the public folder, you could even use Cloud as a hosting service to create static HTML websites or embed images!
Back up and Transfer your files from Third-Party Services easily and quickly
This is where things start to get funky, in a good way. pCloud also has third-party integration. Once you have created your pCloud account, you can back-up your files from third-party services like Google Photos, Google Drive, OneDrive, Dropbox and Facebook! I found this feature to be surprisingly convenient and useful.
Premium Add-Ons
There are a few features that are kept back for the Premium and Premium Plus users. The most notable being the ability to share BRANDED LINKS. Thats’s right, links to file that you share with the public can be branded with a unique look and feel – down to the logo, and custom message to greet the recipient. It’s truly a standout feature that we even use here at Labfreq to share content with our readers.
Make any Download a White-Labed Branded Link
File Versioning is unique to Cloud at the time of writing this article, allowing for Revisions to preview your file edits and restore previous versions if necessary. While file versions are also kept for free users for up to 15 days also, the feature is extended to 30 days for Premium to Lifetime users. You can Rewind back to any previous versions of your digital collection and restore or download and of your non-encrypted files or accidentally removed content. ETH (Extended File History) allows for you to record all file changes up to 365 days back in the past – and easily recover your content within a year of deletion or edit.
Security is at the forefront of pClouds feature set, with TLS/SSL encryption which is applied the moment you transfer a file from your device to pClouds servers. But the built-in security can be hardened with the Cloud Crypto add-on.
Cloud Crypto folder
pCloud Crypto, is client-side encryption which no-one – not even pCloud – will have the keys for file-decryption. Set a password for your Crypto folder and you are the Supreme gatekeeper to what your place in it.
Pricing
Pricing for pCloud comes in three tiers- for the Individual, Family, and Business users. For the Individual, Annual pricing is $49.99 for the Premium 500GB account, and $99.99 for the Premium Plus 2TB accounts, and $175 for the Premium, $350 for the Premium Plus lifetime accounts. A Business Plan is available for $9.99 monthly and $7.99 annually, adding 1TB per user for up to three users. The Family Plan is available for $500 lifetime only.
There are a lot of power players in the Cloud Storage game, many that can afford to throw hundreds of millions – if not billions – into ad budgets to popularize their services over a start-up that might be in business solely to provide cloud storage as a service – like Dropbox or iCloud. But you would be mistaken for assuming those services are better simply because they are better marketed and are more readily assessable due to them being integrated into your devices. I’m happy to reveal that is not the case in this instance, as deep pockets, a large product lineup, and a large workforce work against Big Tech in this case. pCloud is one hell of a standout option in a sea of myriad, redundant choices.
PreSonus has released the ATOM SQ a TR-808 styled groove box/MIDI controller, to accompany their 1st gen Atom Drum Machine. Here we take a look at the former to see if it’s a worthy addition to the line up and how it compares to the latter. Let’s get it!
The ATOM SQ has a more robust, durable build than it’s predecessor – not that the original Atom was a slouch at all. The body is firm and solid with no creaks or pops when you flex anywhere on the frame, the buttons are tight and the knobs are stiff. No wobbly or flimsy parts, PreSonus has done the Atom SQ justice – when picking up the device, placing it on your set up table and powering up the device it gives the impression it means business.
There are 32 velocity and pressure sensitive pads that are laid out like Roland’s TR-808 grooveboxes, yet the ATOM SQ goes a step further by incorporating an assignable multifunction touch strip. There are also two Octave buttons to the left of the pads. Transport controls occupy the left side of the controller’s panel, below eight assignable bank buttons.
The LCD screen is a crisp, Context-sensitive display, which gives visual info on parameter information,note repeat, swing, and much more.
ATOM SQ is tailor-made for PreSonus’ stellar DAW Studio One 5, offering tight integration and no mouse navigation of all parts of the interface, – including instruments and effects.
The ATOM SQ + Revelator Mic + Studio One 5 = All you really need
PreSonus also made sure the ATOM SQ has Ableton Live integration built-in, for control that’s just as extensive as it is with Studio One.
Conclusion
PreSonus ATOM SQ and Cubasis 3 on the Pixel 6
ATOM SQ is a shockingly impressive MIDI controller, that works with Studio One the way a standalone device does. Besides typing in the name of your song or session for the first time, you can create compositions with the SQ and Studio One (Ableton Live also) without touching your computer. And it works nearly as good out the box with apps like Cubasis and FL Studio Mobile on Android and iPhone/iPad. If you’re looking for a MIDI controller/ groove box styled instrument for more expressive control over the virtual instruments in your music production software – few are as versatile and fully featured as the ATOM SQ.
