Android

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Meetion MT-WF910 Wi-Fi Player Streams Audio from your Mobile Device to your Hi-Fi System

Meetion MT-WF910 Wi-Fi Player Streams Audio from your Mobile Device to your Hi-Fi System

There are several ways to play music wirelessly from your devices on decent speakers. One the best way might be one of the Sonos Wi-Fi speakers, but they costs a few hundred dollars. You could also use a ChromeCast or EZCast / Miracast / DLNA dongle, both of which are very cheap ($20 to $35), and would allow you to stream music to your TV from your Android or iOS mobile device, Windows PC or Mac OS computers, but these require you leave your TV on, unless you use a DLNA dongle with an AV port. Another option would be to use a dedicated Wi-Fi player such as Meetion MT-WF910 which can receive audio from mobile devices or computers via Wi-Fi, and output it to a 3.5 mm stereo jack or S/PDIF port. Meetion Wi-Fi player specifications and key features: SoC – Qualcomm Atheros AR9331 processor for Wi-Fi and audio […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on Blend Micro Arduino Board Integrates Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Connectivity for 25 Euros

Blend Micro Arduino Board Integrates Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy Connectivity for 25 Euros

RedBearLab’s Blend Micro is an Arduino compatible board with Bluetooth 4.0 Low Enery (aka Bluetooth Smart) connectivity, that’s part of Arduino-at-heart, a partner program initiated by the developers of Arduino boards. It has been made to help design low power Internet-Of-Things (IoT) projects quickly and easily. Blend Micro technical specifications: MCU – Atmel ATmega32u4 @ 8 MHz with 32KB flash (4KB used by bootloader), 2.5 KB SRAM, and 1KB EEPROM. Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy via Nordic nRF8001 chip USB – 1x micro USB port I/Os: Serial (Tx/Rx) I2C, SPI PWM U to 16 Digital I/Os Up to 6 Analog inputs Operating Voltage – 3.3V Input Voltage – 5V (USB), and 3.3-12V (VIN) Power Consumption – 2mA (average – using Interrupt mode) Dimensions – 43.6 x 18.4 x 4.3mm Weight – 4g The specs are very similar to BLEDuino, except it’s slightly smaller. Blend Micro can communicate with BLE […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Linaro 14.05 Released with Linux Kernel 3.15, Android 4.4.2, and Ubuntu Trusty

Linaro 14.05 Released with Linux Kernel 3.15, Android 4.4.2, and Ubuntu Trusty

Linaro 14.05 has been released with Linux Kernel 3.15-rc5 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.40 (LSK), Android 4.4.2, and Ubuntu has been switched from Saucy to Trusty. More work has been done on big.LITTLE processing and ARMv8 support with notably completing bootstrapping with Debian 64-bit. New hardware platform have started to pop-up such as TI J6-Vayu which must be an evaluation board for Texas Instruments Jacinto 6 dual core Cortex A15 SoC for automotive application, as well as IFC6410, a Snapdragon 600 development board which got a Ubuntu LEB image. This month also marks the first release of Linaro GCC 4.9 toolchain. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.15-rc5-2014.05 new Android topic (linaro-android-3.15-experimental) uses the resent AOSP code base GATOR version 5.18 (same version as in 2014.04) uprobes topic removed as all patches have been accepted into mainline updated big-LITTLE-pmu topic from ARM LT updated basic Capri board support […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on NXP Smartphone Quick-Jack Solution Connects to Your Smartphone Audio Jack and Interfaces with Sensors, HMI Devices

NXP Smartphone Quick-Jack Solution Connects to Your Smartphone Audio Jack and Interfaces with Sensors, HMI Devices

We already knew the audio jack on your mobile device was not only for your headset, thanks to small items like Pressy hardware button. But it’s actually possible to do much more, as shown by NXP smartphone quick-jack solution, a board that can interface sensors to your Android smartphone / tablet or iPhone / iPad via the headphone/microphone jack of your device. The company claims it can be used for various applications such as cloud-based tracking of sensor data, external input devices to smartphone, wearable health monitors, personal exercise trackers, handheld weather stations, handheld inventory monitors, handheld/portable POS devices, and universal remote controls, using powered harvested from the audio jack, and optionally a battery. Let’s go through the hardware specifications of this little board codenamed OM13069: MCU – NXP LPC812 ARM Cortex M0+ MCU @ 30 MHz with 16KB flash, 4KB SRAM On-board peripherals – Joystick, temperature sensor, and LEDs […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Pivos Unveils XIOS XS Android XBMC TV Box Powered by Amlogic AML8726-MX Processor

Pivos Unveils XIOS XS Android XBMC TV Box Powered by Amlogic AML8726-MX Processor

When XBMC Android development was announced in 2012, the main development platform was Pivos XIOS DS, a TV Box based on Amlogic AML8726-M1 that can run either XBMC Linux or Android, and the company (Pivos Group) was the main sponsor and contributor for XBMC on ARM. Contrary to many other companies that push faster and faster hardware, Pivos Group focuses on software and user’s experience, and they’ve just announced he successor of the Pivos XIOS DS, called the Pivos XIOS XS powered by Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 processor and feature their own heavily custom version of Android called ToFu Media OS. Let’s go through the hardware specifications first: SoC – Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.5 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC + micro SD card slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI 1.4b with CEC support […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Toshiba Excite Go 7″ Android Tablet Powered by Intel Atom Quad Core Processor Sells for $110

Toshiba Excite Go 7″ Android Tablet Powered by Intel Atom Quad Core Processor Sells for $110

If you still think that only products based on ARM can be inexpensive, Toshiba Excite Go might change your mind. The latest Toshiba tablet is somewhat similar to HP 7 Plus with a quad core AllWinner A31 SoC and a 7″ display with a resolution of 1024×600, but instead it features an Intel Atom quad core processor, and sells for just $10 more at $110 (MSRP), but CNET reports it might even sell for just $99. The complete specs have not been released, but here’s what we do know, and/or can speculate with educated guesses and pictures from Engadget: SoC – Intel Atom “Bay Trail” Quad core SoC. Probably one of the cheapest Bay Trail-T, so either Atom Z3735F or Z3735G both listed for $17 (Tray price). Z3735F supports up to 1Gb RAM, Z3735G up to 2GB RAM. Both are clocked at 1.33 GHz, and up to 1.83 GHz (Burst […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments on Prpl Non-Profit Organization to Work on Linux, Android, and OpenWRT for MIPS based Processors

Prpl Non-Profit Organization to Work on Linux, Android, and OpenWRT for MIPS based Processors

In what looks like an answer, albeit fairly late, to Linaro, the non-profit organization working on open source software for ARM based SoCs, a consortium of companies composed of Imagination Technologies, Broadcom, Cavium, Lantiq, Qualcomm, Ingenic, and a few others, has funded Prpl (pronounced Purple), “an open-source, community-driven, collaborative, non-profit foundation targeting and supporting the MIPS architecture—and open to others—with a focus on enabling next-generation datacenter-to-device portable software and virtualized architectures”. The Prpl foundation will focus on three key objectives: Portability – To create ISA agnostic software for rapid deployment across multiple architecture Virtualization & security – To enable multi-tenant, secure, software, environments in datacenter, networking & storage, home, mobile and embedded Heterogeneous Computing – To leverage compute resources enabling next generation big data analytics and mining Initially there will PEG (Prpl Engineering Group) to take of the following projects for 4 market segments (datacenter, network & storage, connected consumers, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments on Hewlett Packard Unveils $100 HP 7 Plus Tablet Powered by AllWinner A31 Quad Core SoC

Hewlett Packard Unveils $100 HP 7 Plus Tablet Powered by AllWinner A31 Quad Core SoC

Hewlett Packard has just launched HP 7 Plus Android 4.2 tablet with an AllWinner A31, or possibly AllWinner A31s considering the screen resolution, that sells for $99.99, but you may also be able to get it for $85 with SLICK15HP coupon. This price includes shipping, but unfortunately this is only available in the US. I’ll also check out alternatives of the rest of us. HP 7 Plus specifications: SoC – AllWinner A31 (A31s?) quad core ARM Cortex-A7 @ 1 GHz with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Display – 7″ diagonal WVA IPS multitouch-enabled (1024 x 600) Camera –  0.3 MP fixed focus (front-facing); 2 MP fixed focus (rear-facing) Audio – Mono speaker, 1x integrated microphone, 1x 3.5mm headphone jack Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n (Miracast compatible) USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 Sensors –  Accelerometer Battery […]