Kodi 15 Alpha 1 Adds Support for H.265 on Android, Drops Some Older OS Versions and Hardware

Kodi 15 Isengard got its first public Alpha release, with 400 pull-request for code merges, 1322 commits and thousands of code lines changed compared to Kodi 14 release with modifications of all operating systems ports, and changes to newer OS versions. Major changes for Kodi 15.0 Alpha 1 include: Added adaptive seeking through audio and video playback, also know as “skip steps” Android HEVC H.265 HW decode support for some chipsets Improved webserver caching control External subtitles over UPnP Allow scanning of new sources and marking as watched during other library operations such as “update library” Allow different sort orders for different sort methods Start of integration binary add-ons and changing the build system around it Improved CC (Closed Captions) support for Live TV ffmpeg 2.5.4 update Remove remaining SDL code New OS Requirements: Minimal Mac OSX 10.7 Lion requirements (Only OSX 64-bit builds provided, no more 32bit builds) Minimal […]

With Ulefone Be X, You can now Buy an Octa-core Android Smartphone for $90

$100 quad core Android phones, all Mediatek based, could be found back in 2013, and included 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, and a 4.5″ display with 854×480 resolution. Technology gets cheaper overtime, and in early 2015, you can now purchase an Octa-core smartphone for $90 with 1GB RAM, 8GB flash, the same 4.5″ display size, but a slightly higher resolution of 960×540 pixels thanks to products like Ulefone Be X. Ulefone Be X specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT6592M Octa Core Cortex A7 up to 1.4GHz with ARM MALI-450MP4 GPU System Memory – 1GB RAM Storage – 8GB flash + micro SD card slot (up to 64GB) Display – 4.5″ IPS OGS display with capacitive touchscreen. Resolution: 960×540 (qHD) Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, built-in microphone, and speaker. Network – 2G: GSM850/900/1800/1900MHz 3G: WCDMA 850/1900/2100MHz. One SIM card slot + one micro SIM slot. Dual SIM, Dual Standby support. Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 […]

Intel Provides Details for Atom x3, x5 and x7 Processors

Intel had already announced their plan to change Intel Atom branding to use x3/x5/x7 nomenclature in order to make it easier for consumers to navigate their product offerings, but the company has now provided much more details during their press conference at Mobile World Congress 2015. Intel Atom x3 (previously known as SoFIA) will be entry and ultra-low cost processor up with 3G or LTE connectivity found in products up to around $150, while Atom x5 and x7 (previously known as Cherry Trail) will be found in tablets between about $200 to $400, with the top performing devices going with Intel Core M processors. Intel Atom x3 are very interesting because they mix Intel 64-bit cores with ARM GPUs (to keep the cost down), and parts with RK suffix are made by Rockchip. Three x3 processors are currently available: Intel Atom x3-C3130 – Dual-core processor up to 1.0 GHz with […]

$35 Bluetooth Blood Pressure Monitor Works with Android and iOS

People with hypertension or other heart conditions may want to monitor their blood pressure daily, and since I was asked recently, I studied blood pressure monitors available on the market from Chinese websites. The simplest ones that simply display the results on an LCD are quite inexpensive since they cost about $15 shipped, unless you buy brands like Omron. You’d then need to enter the data in a spreadsheet or on paper after each measurements, so you’d rather have the process more streamlined, you could consider a Bluetooth version that will automatically keep measurements stored in your Android or iOS smartphone, such as the model below that sells for around $35 on Aliexpress and Ebay. Key features for this unnamed digital blood pressure monitor Display – 70 x 55mm; 3x 3 Digits lines for systolic and diastolic pressures, and heart rate; Memory/Heartbeat/Low battery indication Measurements: Oscillometric method Pressure Range- 0 […]

Samsung Galaxy S6 and S6 Edge Octa-core Smartphones Support Two Wireless Charging Protocols and UFS 2.0 Flash

Samsung Electronics announced Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 Edge smartphones at Mobile World Congress 2015 during their “Unpacked” event. Both features Exynos 7420 octa-core SoC with 64-bit ARM cores, and 5.1″ display, bit the Galaxy S6 Edge display is curved on both sides. Galaxy S6 &  S6 Edge specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 7 Octa (Exynos 7420) octa core processor with four Cortex A57 core @ 2.1GHz + four Cortex A53 cores @ 1.5Ghz, and Mali-T760 MP8 GPU, manufactured using 14nm process. System Memory – 3GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32, 64 or 128GB UFS 2.0 flash. Display Galaxy S6 – 5.1’’ Quad HD(2560×1440) 577ppi, Super AMOLED. Gorilla Glass 4. Galaxy S6 Edge – 5.1’’ Quad HD(2560×1440) 577ppi, Super AMOLED, Dual edge. Gorilla Glass 4. Camera 16MP OIS(rear), 5MP (front). Features: Quick Launch (0.7s by pressing the home button twice), Tracking AF, Auto Real-time HDR(Front & Rear) , F1.9, Low Light Video(Front […]

Warchief Nvidia Tegra K1 Android Game Console Supports Kinect-like 3D Motion Tracking

Nvidia Tegra K1 is still the one of the best low power processor for gaming with its 192-core Kepler GPU, and a few Chinese manufacturers are about the launch mini PCs or game console featuring the 32-bit and/or 64-bit version of the processor. Warchief is one of those products. It’s sold as an Android game console with a gamepad, a motion controller, and a webcam used for motion detection. Warchief specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 processor with a 192-core Kepler GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC Video Output – HDMI Connectivity – Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 4x USB 2.0 ports Power Supply – TBD Dimensions – 340 x 235 x 110 mm The package also include the Wii-like remote, a wireless gamepad, the camera, a power supply, a small USB dongle (for the remote or gamepad), and […]

Linaro 15.02 Release with Linux 3.19 and Android 5.0

Linaro 15.02 has just been released with Linux 3.19 (baseline), Linux 3.10.68 and 3.14.34 (LSK), Android 5.0.2, and Ubuntu Linaro Utopic. Listed changes for Linux Linaro are exactly the same as last month, except they’ve used Linux 3.9 release. Power management tools have been added to their AOSP build, and some work has been done for Android 5.0 on the new Hikey board. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.19-2015.02 GATOR topic: version 5.20.1 updated integration-linaro-vexpress64 topic by ARM LT (FVP Base and Foundation models, and Juno support) updated topic from Qualcomm LT (ifc6410 board support) updated topic from HiSilicon LT (Hi36xx, HiP04, and X5HD2 families support) updated LLVM topic (the community llvmlinux-latest branch) included ILP32 patch set v3 rebased onto 3.19. Initial tests using syscalls LTP tests done. When using ILP32 userland, a few tests have to be skipped (msgctl07, msgrcv0[1-7], msgsnd01) to avoid the stalls, […]

Console OS Developer Preview Image Released for Some Intel Haswell and Bay Trail Systems

Console OS is an operating system based on Android that’s designed to run on x86 machines side-by-side with Windows and with desktop-friendly user interface. The project has been funded via a Kickstarter campaign, so backers get the updates earlier, but the developers have now publicly released Console OS DR1 (Developer Release 1) based on Android 4.4.2 so that more people can download it and try it for free after registration. I wanted to try it on Mele PCG03, but it failed, even after copying bootia32.efi to /EFI/BOOT directory (I get stuck into Grub command line), and I found out that “Systems must have 64-bit UEFI firmware. Some systems have 32-bit UEFI firmware, and we are working on adding support for those provided you have one of the processors above”. So it won’t work on cheap Windows 8.1 dongles and mini PC like MeegoPad T01 or Pipo X7, but MINIX NEO […]