Giveaway Week – Coowell V4 TV Box with Camera

It’s Friday, and Coowell V4 giveaway day. The device is an Android TV box powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor, 2GB RAM, 16GB storage, and a retractable HD camera with video conferencing. I have not fully reviewed the device, instead focusing on the camera review with Skype and Hangouts, and I could use it without issues with Skype, but video calls in Google Hangouts were not that stable, and frequently lost video. I also quickly benchmarked the device with Antutu and found the score was rather low, so if your ambient temperature is high the device may throttle easily… I’ll send the package to one lucky winner with all accessories shown above. To enter the draw simply leave a comment below. Other rules are as follows: Only one entry per contest. I will filter out entries with the same IP and/or email address. Contests are open for 48 hours starting […]

Remix IO+ Android TV Box Features Rockchip RK3399 Processor, 4GB RAM, 32GB Storage for $129 (Crowdfunding)

Jide Technology launched a Kickstarter campaign for Remix IO TV box a couple of weeks ago, and now they’ve added a very interesting device with Remix IO+ TV box running the company’s Remix OS operating system powered by Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with 4GB RAM, 32 GB storage. The case design will be the same, but the hardware much more powerful than the Rockchip RK3368 based modek. Remix IO+ specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3399 Hexa core processor with 2x ARM Cortex-A72 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz, 4x ARM Coertex A53 cores, and Mali-T860MP4 GPU System Memory – 4 GB RAM Storage – 32 GB eMMC flash + microSD card slot up to 128GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0s port up to 4K @ 60 Hz, VGA port Audio Output – HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet port, dual band 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 2x […]

Remix IO Aims to be Your $99 Android 7.0 TV Box, Mini PC, and Game Console (Crowdfunding)

You can use any Android TV box to watch movies on your TV, play some games as you would on a game console, and perform tasks such as checking email, browsing the web or editing documents like you’d do on your computer. However, this is not always as straightforward and/or user-friendly as it could be, so Jide Technology worked on Remix OS, a fork of Android, to make the experience more PC-like when needed. Recently they’ve also worked on improving gaming and a TV interface, and the company has now launched a new Kickstarter campaign for Remix IO Android mini PC based on Android 7.0 and including software improvements to create an all-in-one device acting as a TV box, mini PC, or game console. Remix IO specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3368 Octa-Core ARM Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5GHz with Imagination PowerVR SGX6110 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3L Storage – 16GB […]

PiPo V5 Android Virtual Reality Headset Powered by Rockchip RK3399 SoC to Sell for $200

Las month I reviewed VR SKY CX-V3 Android virtual reality headset based on Allwinner H8vr octa-core SoC, and based on a report from Netbook Italia at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair, PiPo will launch a device looking exactly the same but featuring a much more powerful Rockchip RK3399 processor, next month for about $200. Beside Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core SoC with two cores ARM Cortex-A72 cores and four Cortex-A53, and a Mali-T864MP4 graphics, Pipo V5 VR headset will support 4K video with HEVC/H.265, H.264 and VP9 video codec support, features 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, one USB type C port, one USB 2.0 host port, a microSD slot, an audio jack,  and a 5.5″ Full HD (1920×1080) IPS display.  The headset will also include sensors such as an accelerometer and s gyroscope. Just like VR SKY CX-V3, it will include power, back and Nibiru buttons, and a touchpad. One important features missing from […]

iFive and Techvision Rockchip RK3399 Hybrid Tablet/Laptop to Run Android 6.0 or Remix OS 3.0

We’ve seen Samsung is about to release the first Rockchip RK3399 Chromebook to the market. However it will be selling for $499, possibly a bit more than many people are ready to pay for such device, so Rockchip RK3399 powered iFive and Techvision 2-in-1 hybrid laptop & tablet devices showcased at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair might be worth a look as they should be quite cheaper. The solution from Techvision ODM design house is a proper 2-in-1 hybrid laptop with a 11.6″ detachable screen with 1920×1080 resolution, two USB ports, a USB Type-C port and HDMI 2.0 output. The laptop also includes 2GB RAM, and 16GB flash. iFive model is more like a 9.7″ tablet sold with a keyboard acting as a tablet stand, and connecting with the tablet through pogopins. Beside the 4K display, the tablet also features 4 speakers, an audio jack, a USB 3.0 type C […]

Samsung Chromebook Pro Powered by Rockchip RK3399 SoC to Sell for $499

Considering Linux kernel commits related to RK3399 processor almost always involves developers with a chromium.org email address, beside rock-chip.com ones, we had to expect a Rockchip RK3399 based Chromebook sooner or later, and based on various leaks, Samsung Chromebook Pro appears to be one the RK3399 Chromebooks to come to market very soon. We’ll see some of the key features and pictures, and technical details on websites such as Adorama, so we can have a pretty good idea of Chromebook Pro OP1 / 513C24I specifications, even though Samsung and Google have yet to officially launch the device: SoC – Hexa core processor with 2x ARM Cortex A72 cores @ up to 2.0 GHz, 4x ARM Cortex A53 cores (Which has to be Rockchip RK3399 SoC, or a special RK3399-C specific to Chromebooks) System Memory – 4 GB LPDDR3 RAM Storage – 32 GB eMMC Flash Storage Display – 360°-rotatable 12.3” LED […]

Linux 4.8 Release – Main Changes, ARM & MIPS Architectures

Linus Torvalds has officially released Linux 4.8 last Sunday: So the last week was really quiet, which maybe means that I could probably just have skipped rc8 after all. Oh well, no real harm done. This obviously means that the merge window for 4.9 is open, and I appreciate the people who already sent in some pull requests early due to upcoming travel or other reasons. I’ll start pulling things tomorrow, and have even the most eager developers and testers hopefully test the final 4.8 release before the next development kernels start coming 😉 Anyway, there’s a few stragging fixes since rc8 listed below: it’s a mixture of arch fixes (arm, mips, sparc, x86), drivers (networking, nvdimm, gpu) and generic code (some core networking, with a few filesystem, cgroup and and vm things). All of it pretty small, and there really aren’t that many of them. Go forth and test, […]

Rockchip RK3399 Benchmarks Appear on GeekBench

Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor with ARM Cortex A72 and A53 cores and a Mali-T860MP GPU will soon be found in TV boxes, development boards, tablets, Chromebooks, virtual reality headset and more, and is widely expected to offer a significant performance boost against previous Rockchip processors, including RK3288, and outperform SoCs from competitors like Amlogic and Allwinner. We can have a first clue about the performance as Rockchip RK3399 boxes and one tablet are now showing up on GeekBench. The box is clocked at 1512 MHz, while the tablet is limited to 1416 MHz, but overall single-core score is about 1350 points, while multi-core score hovers around 2,550 points. I’m not that familiar with GeekBench so number don’t tell me anything. Let’s compare it against RK3288 which CPU-wise is the fastest processor I known of from Chinese silicon vendors targeting TV boxes. There’s a significant single-core performance boost (+73%), and lower […]