Microsoft now Supports ARM64 Apps in Visual Studio 15.9, Microsoft Store

Visual Studio ARM64

The first “proper” Windows Arm laptops became available earlier this year, but they disappointed most people due to their high price and relatively poor performance. They only really make sense for people who need LTE connectivity and very long battery life (over 20 hours). Price will likely stay elevated for the foreseeable future, but at least performance will increase thanks to faster processors such as Qualcomm Snapdragon 850 processor found in Lenovo Yoga C630 WOS Laptop ($849.99 and up once available), and the rumored sm8180 laptop processor that may be, or not, announced on December 4-6 during Snapdragon Tech Summit. Hardware is one thing, but software is also important. As far as I understand, while UWP (Universal Windows Platform) apps already supported native 32-ARM compilation , legacy Win32 apps relied on x86 “emulation” / binary translation, which may slowdown performance. But Windows users may also get some software optimization soon, […]

Alfawise T1 Gemini Lake Mini PC Offered for $150 (Promo)

Alfawise T1 mini PC

Gemini Lake mini PCs have been around for a while, but not quite at the price most expected, that is roughly the same as Apollo Lake, possibly due to shortages of Intel’s entry level processors. So for example, I had yet to see any Gemini Lake computers for under $150, with with Black Friday taking place now, GearBest decided to offer Alfawise T1 mini PC powered by an  Intel Celeron N4100 quad core processor for just $149.99 with coupon GBJEAN. Alfawise T1 specifications: SoC – Intel Celeron N4100 quad core Gemini Lake processor up to 2.4 GHz with Intel UHD Graphics 600; 6W TDP System Memory – 4GB DDR4 Storage – 64GB eMMC flash, 2.5″ SATA bay, M.2 SSD slot, micro SD card Video Output – 2x HDMI 2.0 ports up to 4K @ 60 Hz Audio – Via HDMI, built-in microphone, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, dual […]

Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 with Myriad X VPU Finally Announced

Intel Neural Compute Stick 2

Intel Neural Compute Stick was first introduced in early 2017 as a USB compute that allows AI inference at the edge with low power consumption. The stick is based on Myriad Movidius 2 VPU (Vision Processing Unit), and was found to significantly improve inference performance on Raspberry Pi 3 board over a proprietary GPU accelerated solution. However, a little later last year, Intel also announced Movidius Myriad X VPU with claims of up to 10 times DNN performance over Myriad 2 VPU. But so far, we would only see solutions launched with the latter, and it looks like Intel is finally ready to bring Myriad X VPU to the market with the company announcing Intel Neural Compute Stick 2 at Intel’s artificial intelligence (AI) developer conference in Beijing taking place on November 14 and 15. Intel NCS 2 (Neural Compute Stick 2) specifications: Processor – Intel Movidius Myriad X Vision Processing […]

ModBerry M2000 Industrial Computer Features UP Squared Apollo Lake Board

Modberry M2000

TECHBASE has been providing DIN rail mountable Arm and x86 based Modberry industrial computers / IoT gateways for several years. The company has now upgraded ModBerry M1000 model with an Intel Cherry Trail UP board to ModBerry M2000 computer featuring AAEON UP Squared board powered by either an Intel Celeron N3350 dual core processor, or Pentium N4200 quad core processor, both part of Intel’s Apollo Lake family. ModBerry M2000 specifications: SoC (one or other other) Intel Celeron N3350 dual core processor @ 1.10 / 2.40 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 500; 6W TDP Intel Pentium N4200 quad core processor @ 1.10 / 2.50 GHz with Intel HD Graphics 505; 6W TDP System Memory – 2, 4, or 8GB RAM Storage – 16, 32, 64, or 128GB eMMC flash, SATA connector and M.2 SATA socket Video Output – 1x HDMI Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet, with optional LTE/3G, WiFi, ZigBee, LoRa, […]

One Mix 2S Yoga Amber Lake “Pocket” Laptop Up for pre-order for $720 and up

One Mix 2S Yoga

One Mix 2 Yoga mini Laptop powered by a Kaby Lake Core-m3 processor may have launched just about 10 days ago, but the company is now already taking pre-orders for One Mix 2S Yoga mini portable computer with a faster Intel Core M3-8100Y Amber Lake Y-Series processor. Otherwise, the new model has very much the same look and feel as the earlier models. One Mix 2S Yoga specifications: SoC – Intel Core M3-8100Y dual core / quad thread Amber Lake-Y processor @ 1.1 GHz (base) / 3.4 GHz (Turbo) with 4MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics 615 @ 300 MHz / 900 MHz (Turbo); 5W TDP System Memory – 8GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 256GB PCIe SSD, micro SD slot up to 128 GB Display – 7″ 1920×1200 IPS panel with touchscreen, 360° hinge Video Output – micro HDMI Audio – Built-in speakers and microphone, 3.5mm headphone & mic jack […]

One Mix 2 Yoga Intel Core m3-7Y30 mini Laptop is up for Pre-order for $650

Intel Core m3 mini laptop

GPD Pocket 2 Kaby lake mini laptop is getting some competition with One Mix 2 Yoga pocket laptop featuring the same Intel Core M3-7Y30 processor, but coupled with 8GB RAM, and a 256 SSD, and equipped with the usual 7″ touchscreen display and QWERTY keyboard. The product is an upgrade to the company’s One Mix Yoga powered by an Intel Atom x5 processor, and contrary top GPD Pocket 2 and the upcoming Topjoy Falcon which relied/will rely on Crowdfunding for their launch, One Mix 2 Yoga can be pre-ordered directly  for $649.99 on GeekBuying with shipping planned for next month. [Update: GearBest has it too for the same price] One Mix 2 Yoga specifications: SoC – Intel Core M3-7Y30 dual core / quad thread Kaby Lake processor @ 1.00 GHz / 2.60 GHz (Turbo boost) with 4MB cache, 24EU Intel HD graphics 615 @ 300 MHz / 900 MHz (Turbo […]

TopJoy Falcon Review – A Windows 10 Mini Laptop (Prototype)

The Topjoy Falcon is a mini laptop reminiscent of netbooks and similar to the recent GPD Pocket 2 or One Mix Yoga devices. Marketed as an 8 inch (203mm) pocket-sized computer with the following specification: Intel Pentium Silver N5000 CPU 8G RAM 256G SSD disk 1920*1200 FHD IPS touch screen 6000 mAh battery for up to 8 hours working time 1 x USB A 3.0, 1 x USB Type-C 1 x 3.5mm headphone jack 1 x Mini HDMI port Active cooling 802.11ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 Backlit keyboard Windows 10 Home Weight 550g (1lb 3oz) Fits easily in your pocket Although you would need a large pocket as whilst It is physically small consisting of an approximately 8″ by 5.2” and about 0.7” thick (203mm x 132mm x 18mm) when closed it is in reality too big for the average pocket. It will soon be available on Kickstarter with an early bird price of $399 and an expected retail price of […]

Beelink X55 Review – Part 2, Take 2: New Drivers and BIOS

Beelink-X55-UEFI

When I reviewed the Beelink X55 earlier, I encountered poor graphics performance when testing the device with its ‘Out-Of-The-Box’ configuration. As a quick reminder the Beelink X55 is a NUC-style mini PC powered with an Intel Pentium Silver J5005 processor and comes with a 128GB mSATA SSD with pre-installed Windows 10 Home together with 8GB DDR4 RAM (soldered and is non-expandable) and space plus a connector for an SSD. In an attempt to address the poor graphics performance I reinstalled Windows using Microsoft’s ISO however I then found I had missing drivers: Having contacted Beelink through the support email enclosed with the device they replied with a link to a full driver pack. So having downloaded and unzipped the file I updated the first driver: followed by the second: resulting in additional entries to the Intel Dynamic Platform and Thermal Framework (DPTF). Having fixed the driver issue I then reran […]