The iPad has found utility that has gone from games to FAA-approved navigation maps. Now, it is invading the realm of laboratory instrumentation, long a bailiwick of Windows PCs. Oscium's New iMSO-104 Oscilloscope Powered By Cypress's PSoC 3 Device Turns iPod touch, iPhone and iPad into Easy-to-Use Mixed Signal Scopes.

The iMSO-104 is the first mixed-signal oscilloscope to run on Apple's iOS devices. It is the smallest, most portable scope in the world, seeking to find favour with hobbyists and students, as well as field sales and application engineers.

It boasts a 5 MHz bandwidth and up to 12 MSPS (megasamples per second) sample rate, while simultaneously analyzing up to one analog and four digital signals. In conjunction with the iMSO app (available for download from the Apple App Store) and Apple's multitouch user interfaces, displays, and computation power, the iMSO-104 Oscium cliams that it delivers the easiest, most intuitive scope solution on the market. It retails for $280 at the company online site.

The iMSO-104 uses multigestures to improve user control. Analog trigger levels are set by touching the right side of the screen and swiping either up or down. Changing the vertical & horizontal scales can be done by moving two fingers away from each other.

Zooming in and out is just like zooming in and out while viewing a picture. Both the analog and digital channels are repositioned by touching and swiping the desired channel to any position on the screen.