Recording sound intended for a later broadcast online can be tricky and those who tried it know that the cheap little digital recorders sold around $100 just don’t deliver the minimum quality they expect.

Fortunately, you won’t need to break your piggy bank to get your hands on a handy recording device which will make you sound like a real pro.

Samson’s Zoom H4 Handy Recorder delivers awesome sounding results wether you’re recording live performances, podcasts, classes (or workshops), rehearsals or even songwriting sessions. This little device weighing only 6.7 ounces (190 grams) features more recording tools than any other device of its category, on the market.

Looking beyond its fine exterior looks, the built-in studio effects include compression, limiting and mic modeling. Those who need it can use XLR and 1/4-inch inputs for external mics, guitars, bass and keyboards but onboard, you’ll find Zoom’s remarkable microphone, guitar and bass modeling capabilities, reproducing the tone of the most famous mics and amps ever made.

The audio can be recorded as either .wav or .mp3 files and moved to your computer, through USB, for easy editing, mixing and mastering. The H4 comes with Cubase LE (for both PC and Mac) but you can use any other sound editing software which fits your needs. Lets add that the Zoom H4 runs on either two AA batteries or a DC power supply.

That’s a lot of horsepower for such a small form-factor and a complete package, including headphones, a tripod and an 8GB SD Card memory module can be purchased for around $300.

A special note goes out to the bloggers who need to carry out interviews. The H4‘s capabilities are much better than the older H2 and it’s well worth the upgrade. The H4′s stereo sound recording will amaze your end-users who will be under the impression that you’re a real pro, soundwise.

Tags: samson, h4, h2, h4 handy recorder, h4 portable recorder, stereo recorder, quality recorder, high-quality sound recording, mobile sound recording, device to record pro-quality sound, pro-quality sound device, zoom h4, zoom h2, excellent sound quality, professional, mobile field recording

Our modern life is all about data -and- our computer’s main hard drive isn’t enough to hold it all.

Furthermore, most of us have more than one computer per household so sharing data can become something of a challenge without a network-attached storage (NAS) device that basically makes centralized data available to all connected computers (clients).

This being said, not all NAS devices are created equal and since you’re probably not inclined onto spending your money on the wrong device, you’ll be happy to know a company named Synology all but reinvented what a NAS should do for you, the end user.

Let’s look at their smallest NAS appliance, the DS207+ which is a high performance “networked hard drive enclosure” that goes beyond simple network storage. It stores your data (and it does that very well) but it can also replace traditional PC servers and act as a stand-alone file server, web host, back up for your home/office data and get this, it’s fully compatible with Windows, Mac and Linux networks so everybody in the house will be happy.

To achieve all this, the DS207+ comes with its own 500 MHz processor accompanied by 128 MB of RAM memory but you’ll need to supply (up to) two hard drives, on your own. It’s probably better that way since you can make the device as spacey as you need it to be.

With a 1,000 Mbps ethernet transfer rate, your data and built-in network services will fly. Among the services you’ll eventually want to use are FTP, HTTP (using Apache, with PHP and MySQL Server), SMB, AFP, CIFS, Windows ADS and even and iTunes server!

The AJAX-based web interface is a snap to master so you’ll be productive in no time, especially compared to other NAS devices which don’t have such a quality interface to play with. The fan could’ve been quieter but it’s not a deal breaker. This RAID 0/1-capable NAS device is generally performs very well and looks nice.

If you’re new to NAS devices, this is a bit pricier than the “low cost” alternatives but at around $300 for the DS207+ and 200$ for two 1 GB hard drives, it’s not enough to break your bank, especially considering all the bells and whistles that come “standard” with it.

Tags: synology, ds207+, nas, network hard drive, hd, external hard drive, back up data, home office data, extra hard drive, raid hd, raid 0, raid 1, web server, networked data sharing