Android

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Android 5.0 Lollipop Image for Wandboard Development Boards

Android 5.0 Lollipop Image for Wandboard Development Boards

Wandboard Solo, Dual and Quad are development boards powered by Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual, and Quad, that have been launched in 2013. I can remember running Android 4.1.2 and Ubuntu on both Wandboard Dual and Wandboard Quad. Fast forward to 2015, the board is still supported, and Android 5.0 Lollipop beta has been released for the three boards, making these one of the few hardware platforms supporting Android Jelly Bean, KitKat, and Lollipop. You can try it out by downloading the image, and flashing it to a micro SD card (8GB or more) as follows: Linux

Where X is the letter for your micro card which can be found with lsblk command Windows – Download wandboard-lp-5.0.0-20150213-sdcard-boot.img.xz, extract it, and flash to the the micro SD with Win32DiskImager. Insert the micro SD into the micro SD slot on the CPU board, and enjoy! At least in theory… If you have […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on ZRRO Android Game Console Includes a Hover and Touch Controller (Crowdfunding)

ZRRO Android Game Console Includes a Hover and Touch Controller (Crowdfunding)

Android games are fun to play… on smartphones and tablets, but if you want to play such games on a TV screen via an Android mini PC, it can become more problematic, as most of the games were designed for touchscreen, so you have to be prepare to juggle between input devices.. In my reviews, I have to play Candy Crush Saga with an air mouse, and I switch to a wireless gamepad for racing games such as Riptide GP2 or Beach Buggy Racing, while some games are simply not playable at all without touch emulation, unless you install a software remote such as Droidmote on your smartphone, and use the latter as a controller, which may not be ideal either. ZRRO, an Israeli company, came with a new package comprised of an Android game console (ZRRO Box), and a game controller (ZRRO Pad) featuring a hover and touch surface […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments on M9 Android TV Box Based on Amlogic S812 Sells for $63 (Promo)

M9 Android TV Box Based on Amlogic S812 Sells for $63 (Promo)

M9 (aka E8 Plus) is yet another Android media player powered by Amlogic S812 with 2GB RAM and 8GB flash, but it’s currently selling for $62.71 including shipping on Aliexpress from a seller with positive feedback. The offer is valid for 17 hours more. M9 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S812 quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with octa-core Mali-450MP6 GPU @ 600+ MHz System Memory – 2 GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + SD card socket Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, Bluetooth 4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 4K2K @ 30 Hz, AV port Audio Output – HDMI, AV, optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – 4k2k H.264, H.265 UHD, HD MPEG1/2/4, AVC/VC-1, RM/RMVB, Xvid/DivX3/4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10, Audio Formats/Codecs – MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG, FLAC, APE, AC3, AAC etc… Dolby TrueHD & DTS-HD pass-through USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports Misc – Power […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on HD18T Android DVB-T2 Receiver Mini Review

HD18T Android DVB-T2 Receiver Mini Review

I’ve had HD18T Android TV box with a DVB-T2 tuner for several months, but I’ve only installed a roof antenna recently, so I’ve decided to give it another try since my indoor antenna did not pick-up any signal with that box. The set-top box is also known as EM6-T2 or HD18T2, and features Amlogic AML8726-MX dual Cortex A9 processor which has been used in numerous boxes in the past, so I will only focus on my experience with the DVB app in this mini review. If you want to use DVB-T2 go straight to the right and click on DVB app. Where you’ll then be greeted with a pop-up windowsasking if if you want to scan channels. You can do autoscan, manual scan (for one frequency), select the area (France/Taiwan/UK/Italy/Australia only), and enable/disable LCN (Logical Channel Numbering). At first I selected “Australia”, and the system did not find any channels, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Advantech UBC-220 Freescale i.MX6 RISC Compact Box Is Made for Wall-Mounting

Advantech UBC-220 Freescale i.MX6 RISC Compact Box Is Made for Wall-Mounting

If somehow you need a fanless ARM Linux / Android computer with lots of mounting holes, Advantech UBC-220 might be what you are looking for. The company’s “Freescale i.MX6 RISC Compact Box” features a Freescale i.M6 Solo or DualLite processor with up to 1GB RAM, 4GB eMMC, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI and LVDS, a COM port, and more. Product specifications: SoC – Freescale i.MX6 Solo/DualLite up to 1GHz with Vivante GPU System Memory – 512MB to 1GB DDR3 @ 1066 MHz Storage – 4GB eMMC for OS, 4MB SPI flash for Advantech bootloader, 1x SD card slot Video Output / Display – 1x HDMI, 1x 18/24-bit LVDS Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet (limited to 470Mbps due to i.MX6 internal limitation). Optional 3G/Wi-Fi via mini-PCIe slots. External antenna connector included. USB – 1x USB 2.0 type A, 1x micro USB 2.0 OTG Serial – 1x 4-wire UART Expansion 1x full size mini PCIe […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments on Egreat A9 Quad Core Android Media Player Comes with HDMI Input, a 3.5″ SATA Bay

Egreat A9 Quad Core Android Media Player Comes with HDMI Input, a 3.5″ SATA Bay

Egreat A9 was first shown in spring last year with a Realtek RTD1195 processor, but it’s only now that I could see it for sale. But just like Zidoo X9, the device is now powered by Mstar MSO9810 quad core processor, and features an HDMI input port with PVR capabilities, but adds an internal 3.5″ SATA bay, double the internal storage (16GB eMMC), as well as a Gigabit Ethernet port. Egreat A9 specifications: SoC – Mstar MSO9180-DB2 quad core Cortex A9 processor up to 1.5GHz with an ARM Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 16 GB eMMC flash + 3.5″ internal SATA bay Video Output / Input –  HDMI 1.4b output up to 4K30, HDMI input (1080p) with PVR support Audio I/O – HDMI Out and In, and optical S/PDIF Video Containers & Codecs DAT, MPEG, MPE, MPG, TS, TP, VOB, ISO, AVI, MP4, MOV, 3GP, FLV, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on ZTE Blade S6 Smartphone Runs Android 5.0 Lollipop on Snapdragon 615 Processor

ZTE Blade S6 Smartphone Runs Android 5.0 Lollipop on Snapdragon 615 Processor

Android 5.0 (Lollipop) was released on last October, together with Motorola Nexus 6 phone running the latest version of the operating system. Since then some other global brands like Samsung, HTC, or Sony have ported Android 5.0 to some of their devices, but it’s currently pretty hard to find a Lollipop smartphone on Aliexpress made by low cost Chinese manufacturers. ZTE Blade S6 is one of the first “Chinese” smartphone boasting Android 5.0, so let’s have look. ZTE Blade S6 smartphone: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 615 (MSM8939) Octa-core processor with 4x Cortex A53 @ 1.5 GHz, 4x Cortex A53 @ 1.0 GHz, Adreno 405 GPU, Hexagon V50 DSP, and a 4K HEVC capable video decoder. System Memory  2GB RAM Storage – 16 GB eMMC – No micro SD slot Display – 5.0” capacitive touch screen IPS display (16M colors). 1280×720 resolution Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi , Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 17 Comments on Review of Zidoo X9 Android Media Player and Video Recorder

Review of Zidoo X9 Android Media Player and Video Recorder

Zidoo X9 is quite a unique product on the market, as it’s the only low cost Android platform that I know of that features an HDMI input port with recording capabilities. The hardware is actually based on Kaiboer F5, with some modifications, but the latter focuses on the Chinese market, while Zidoo X9 targets oversea markets with an English firmware by default. I took pictures of Zidoo X9 and its board about a month ago, but a busy schedule and some initial issues with Google Play Store delayed the review. Finally, I’ve completed testing of the device, and ready to share my findings about performance, stability, and features in this review. OTA Firmware Update I’ve had to go through two firmware updates before carrying on with the review, and this part is working great, and they even include a detailed changelog with each release, which they also publish on their […]