Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft), Author at CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

June 6, 2013June 7, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Pandora TV Box is an All-in-One Android Media Player, Game Console, DVB Receiver, Video Chat System, etc…

This morning I received an email from DealExtreme with a link to a teaser video about an upcoming Android device to be available on June 10, that comes with a game controller (PS3 type) to play games. After some research, I finally found this “Android-on-TV” device which is based on Rockchip RK3066 with 1GB RAM, 8GB Flash, lots of ports (USB, HDMI, Ethernet), a webcam, and more. Beside the game controller, it also comes with a remote control, so the device can be used for a whole lot of applications including gaming, video chat, media player, web browsing, and more. It’s something you can already do with existing devices, but it may require some efforts, and this one seems to come all included. Here are the specs of the “beast”: SoC – Rockchip RK3066 dual-core processor @ 1.6GHz + MALI 400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – […]

June 6, 2013June 6, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

Meet DAXIAN XY100S, a $100 Quad Core Android Smartphone

Last year, I wrote about a $50 Android smartphone, and yes, it was cheap but the specifications were pretty poor. But today, I’ve just learned about DAXIAN XY100S powered by Mediatek MT6589 quad core Cortex A7, with a 4.7″ display, and running Android 4.2, which just sells for under $100 on Buyincoins.com, including shipping. That’s about $50 cheaper than the cheapest MT6589 models I found. DAXIAN XY100S specifications as listed on buyincoins: Operating System: Google Android 4.2 SoC – Mediatek MTK6589 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.5GHz + PowerVR SGX544 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot (Up to 32GB) Display – 4.7″ Multi-touch Capacitive screen (854 x 480) Network – GSM: 900/ 1800 MHz, 2010-2025 MHz / 1880-1900 MHz (Dual SIM), 3G: TD-SCDMA Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11a/b/g/n Camera – 2.0 MP front camera, 8.0MP rear camera USB – 1x micro […]

June 5, 2013June 5, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Bluetooth Versions Walkthrough, and Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Development Resources

I’ve seen more and more Bluetooth 4.0 LE devices in the last few months including RFDuino, Wimoto Motes, TI SensorTag, and Scadanu Scout, so I thought it would be good to write a bit about Bluetooth. First, I’ll write about the different version of Bluetooth, since I was still confused with the practical implications between the versions, and then I’ll show some development kits and software resources to play around and/or develop Bluetooth 4.0 LE applications both on devices and hosts. Bluetooth Versions Bluetooth v1.0 and v1.0B The Bluetooth 1.0 Specification was released in 1999, and according to an entry in Wikipedia, 1.0 and 1.0B devices had many issues, mainly interoperability issues. You won’t find any Bluetooth 1.0 device today. Bluetooth v1.1 Bluetooth v1.1 was ratified as IEEE Standard 802.15.1-2002 in 2002. It fixed many issues found in the previous specifications, added the option to use non-encrypted channels, as well […]

June 5, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Scanadu Scout Medical Tricorder for Android and iOS

Low cost personal medical tricorders have the potential to dramatically bring down the cost of health care, and avoid unnecessarily wasted time in hospitals, which is probably the XPRIZE Foundation has launched a competition for medical tricorders, where the winners will get 10 millions US dollars in funding. Scanadu Scout is one of the entry, and they currently have an indiegogo campaign, already oversubscribed, for their medical grade tricorder which gather data by placing it on your forehead for 10 seconds, and display medical data transferred via Bluetopoth Low Energy (Bluetooth SMART) on your iOS and smartphone. The company did not disclose full specifications, but they still revealed the device runs 32-bit Micrium RTOS, which is already FDA approved (pre-market 510K notification and PMA approval), it supports Bluetooth 4.0 SMART, and a micro USB port is included to recharge the battery. I fired up few Google image searches to look […]

June 4, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Asus Launches Memo Pad HD7 Tablet Powered by Mediatek MT8125

Just about 5 days after Mediatek announcement of their quad core Cortex A7 SoC for tablets, Asus unveiled the Memo Pad HD7, and Android 4.2.2 tablet powered by MT8125, at Computer 2013. The device will be available for just $129 with 8GB flash for developing markets, and for $149 with 16GB Flash worldwide. Asus low cost quad core tablet comes with the following specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT8125 quad core Cortex A7 + PowerVR SGX544 GPU System Memory – N/A Storage – 8 or 16 GB NAND Flash + micro SD Display – 7″ IPS display with 1280×800 resolution, and 10 point capacitive touchscreen. Connectivity – Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 and GPS Camera – 5MP rear camera and 1.2MP front camera. USB – micro USB port Audio – Stereo speakers Battery – N/A mAh, said to last 10 hours. Weight – 302 grams Dimensions – 10.8mm thick It looks […]

June 4, 2013June 4, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

Bsquare Announces Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Series Mobile Development Platforms

BSQUARE has recently announced the availability of its Qualcomm Snapdragon 800 Mobile Development Platform (MDP), based on Qualcomm Snapdragon 8974 (LTE), which will be released both in tablet and smartphone form factor. This development platfom has been designed for application developers and device manufacturers so that they can develop, test, optimize and showcase apps in Android 4.2.2 powered by the latest Qualcomm SoCs. Snapdragon 800 Tablet and Smartphone MDP specifications: SoC – 8974 Quad Core Krait 400 Snapdragon Processor @ 2.3GHz with Adreno 330 embedded GPU and Hexagon v5 QDSP6 Memory and Storage – N/A, apparently you don’t need to know… Display: Tablet MDP – 11.6” 1080p HD Multitouch Display Smartphone MDP – 4.3” 720p HD Multi-touch display Video Playback – UltraHD/4K video support via HDMI output Camera – 12MP rear camera w/ Flash (1080p HD @ 30fps) & 2MP front facing camera (1080p HD @ 30fps) Audio – Surround sound […]

June 3, 2013May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

$60 MK805 II Android STB Features AllWinner A20 SoC, HDMI and AV Outputs

Almost exactly one year ago, I wrote about MINI X (aka MINI XPlus H24, or MK805), an Android 2.3 media player powered by AllWinner A10 with 4GB flash and 512MB Flash, and it sold for $77.50. Today, I’ve come across an updated version, called MK805 II or MINI XPlus H34, with AllWinner A20 dual core SoC, 1GB RAM, 4GB Flash, and running Android 4.2.2. Here are the specifications of the device: SoC- AllWinner A20 dual core Cortex A7 processor @ 1.2GHz + Mali-400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 4GB NAND Flash + micro SD card slot Connectivity – Built-in WiFi 802.11b/g/n, and firmware is said to support external USB Ethernet and 3G dongles. Video Output – HDMI 1.3 (1080p) + AV Video Codecs – MPEG1/2/4, H.264, HD AVC, VC-1, Divx, Xvid, RealVideo8/9/10, VP6 Video Container Formats – MKV, TS, TP, M2TS, RM/RMVB, AVI, MPG, VOB, […]

June 3, 2013January 15, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

ARM Announces Cortex-A12 processor, Mali-T622 GPU and Mali-V500 VPU

Right before Computer 2013, ARM has made a single announcement for 4 new products for smartphones: Cortex A12 core, Mali-T622 GPU, Mali-V500 video processor unit, and POP IP technology. Cortex A12 processor, with 40 percent more performance than Cortex-A9, positions itself between Cortex A9 and A15 offerings, and brings virtualization, big.LITTLE processing, and up to 1TB addressable memory to mid-range devices. Combined with the new Mali-T622 GPU, it will offer GPU Compute and OpenGL 3.0 solution. Add the new Mali-V500 video IP solution to complete the SoC for tomorrow’s, 2015 more exactly, mid-range smartphones and tablets between $200 and $350. Cortex A12 will have the following key features: Architecture – ARMv7-A Cortex Multicore – 1-4X SMP within a single processor cluster Multiple coherent processor clusters through AMBA 4 technology Support ARM Thumb-2 TrustZone security technology NEON Advanced SIMD DSP & SIMD extensions VFPv4 Floating point Hardware virtualization support Large Physical […]