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March 28, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment

UG008 and UG008B Rockchip RK3066 Android 4.1 Set-Top Boxes

For those of you who prefer to have a full sized set-top box with an Ethernet port powered by Rockchip RK3066, there aren’t that many options (i.e. Mini X5, TVi7, Wise TiVi Box) and they are usually significantly more expensive than equivalent mini PCs. But there’s no a cheaper option with UG008, a media player powered by Rockchip RK3066 with 1GB RAM, 4 to 8 GB Flash, as well as Ethernet and Wi-Fi support, that sells for around $62 and up. Here are the specifications of this media player: SoC – RK3066 Dual Core Cortex A9 @ 1.6 GHz + Mali-400 MP4 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4 to 8 GB NAND Flash + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Connectivity Wifi – 802.11b/g/n with external antenna 10/100M Ethernet Video Output – HDMI + AV Video Formats and Codecs – WMV, ASF, MP4, 3GP, 3G2, M4V, AVI, […]

March 27, 2013May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Mini PCs (MK802+, UG802, GK802 & iStick A200) Linux Performance Comparison

Ian MORRISON (linuxium) has tested Linux with several mini PCs powered by different processors. The main point of his tests was to evaluate the performance difference between running Ubuntu 12.04 natively, or in a chroot in Android using tools such as Complete Linux Installer. I previously tried Linux on Android in ODROID-X, and found the applications start time when running from an low-end SD card pretty dismal, and the graphics performance poor. Ian had a different approach, and decided to use a subset of Phoronix Suite benchmarks to compare different hardware / software combination and posted the results in “mini PCs” G+ community. There’s a lot of data, and analyzing the results is not really straightforward without spending some time looking at the data. In this post, I’ll explain how the tests have been conducted, explain the results and try to draw a conclusion. Mini PCs and other Hardware Under […]

March 26, 2013March 26, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Zealz GK802 Is (Temporary?) Available for $69.99 on GeekBuying

Zealz GK802 is a mini PC based on Freescale i.MX6 Quad processor, with 1GB RAM, 8 to 16 GB internal memory (internal micro SD card). The main selling points of this HDMI dongle is that it’s the only currently available quad core processor (about to change), it’s hackable and unbrickable with easy access to the serial console, full support for Linux with hardware video decoding and 2D/3D acceleration (work in progress), and Freescale has released proper software and hardware development resources for the i.MX6 processor. As mentioned in my review of Hi802 mini PC, the downside is that Vivante GC2000 GPU performance is lower than the Mali-400 MP4 found in Rockchip RK3066 mini PC, and its price (usually above $90) is about double the price of Rockchip RK3066 mini PCs. We can’t do anything for Vivante GC2000 performance, but Roman found a coupon code “FVKIWVAG” on a Russian forum that […]

March 25, 2013November 23, 2023 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 10 Comments

Z1 Android 2.2 Smart Watch Phone

There’s currently a lot of articles about Apple, Samsung, and Google smart watches rumors in the blogosphere. I’ve written about other smartwatches in the past with products such as the Pebble or Wime Nanowatch, but those are based on low-end hardware that do not run Android directly, but instead communicate with your Android or iOS device via Bluetooth. The only watch I know that runs (a customized version of) Android is the “I’m Watch“. You’ll need relatively deep pockets to purchase it as price starts at 249 Euros / $349 US and goes up to $19,999 if you purchase the version with white gold and diamonds. So I decided to have a look if there are lower cost Chinese Android smartwatches around. The Z1 Android Smart Watch Phone showed up everywhere in my searches. The product is not new, as Charbax first discovered it in January 2012 and it was […]

March 22, 2013March 22, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments

Ugoos UG007B Rockchip RK3188 mini PC Sells for $74

My very first article about Chinese mini PCs was about Rikomagic MK802, an Android 4.0 HDMI TV dongle with a cortex A8 processor, 512 MB RAM and 4GB flash, and the device was selling for $74 at the time. Ten months later, it appears that for the exact same price you can now buy UG007B, an Android 4.2 mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 processor with 2GB RAM, and 8 GB Flash. Here are UG007 IIB specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 Quad Core ARM Cortex-A9 Processor up to 1.6Ghz + Mali-400MP4 Quad-core GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8GB Nand Flash + microSD card slot (up to 32GB) Connectivity Wifi – 802.11 b/g/n (MediaTek 5931 in CDT-K25931 module) Bluetooth 3.0 (MediaTek 6622 in CDT-K25931 module) 3G support via external USB dongle USB – 1 x USB 2.0 Host + 2x micro USB host Video […]

March 20, 2013May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

DH108A Android 4.1 Media Player Powered by AllWinner A31

DH108A (aka K-A37) is the first AllWinner A31 Android set-top box I’ve ever come across. This full-sized media player comes with 2 GB RAM, 8 or 16 GB flash, and provides both Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity. This Android 4.1.1 STB has the following specifications: SoC – AllWinner A31 quad core Cortex A7 + PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8 or 16GB NAND Flash + microSD slot Video Output – HDMI 1.4 Connectivity: Ethernet – 10/100 Mbps (RJ45 port) WIFI – 802.11 b/g/n USB – 4x USB Host* ports + 1 USB Device port (*Note: The specs on Alibaba indicate 4x USB OTG ports instead) Power supply – 5V/2A Weight – 110g Dimensions – 115x115x23 mm The device comes with a power adapter, a remote control, an HDMI cable, and a user manual. It may also be sold with a 2.4 GHz wireless mouse and keyboard […]

March 20, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

$19 RFDuino is a Coin-sized Bluetooth Arduino-compatible Board

RFDuino is a tiny board, about the size of a coin, powered by Nordic nRF51822 Cortex M0 SoC including bluetooth 4.0 LE support, and software compatible with Arduino UNO and DUE board, so you can just use Arduino sketches with the board. Bluetooth allows it to communicate with your smartphone (iPhone for now, but Android support is coming) to control motors & relays, monitor sensors, turn LEDs on/off, and more. Key features of RFDuino board: MCU – Nordic nRF51822 Cortex M0 @ 16 MHz Memory – 16 KB on-chip SRAM Storage – 256 KB on-chip Flash Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0 Low Energy built in MCU GPIO – 7 pin software configurable as digital IO, analog ADC, SPI, I2C, UART and PWM. The company currently offers several stackable shields for RFDuino including battery shields (1x AAA, 2x AAA, and CR2032 coin battery), a servo shield, a USB shield, a prototype shield […]

March 20, 2013 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Embedded Android Training Workshop At Linaro Connect Asia 2013

Karim Yaghmour, Opersys’ CEO, gave 4 training sessions dealing Embedded Android at Linaro Connect Asia 2013, in Hong Kong, earlier this month. Charbax filmed those 4 40 to 50 minutes session with excellent video and audio quality, so I encourage you to watch all sessions if you are interested in this topic. The presentation slides are available on Slideshare. The first training session is entitled “Android Internals”, and Karim introduces Android’s overall architecture, following the agenda below: Android Concepts Framework Intro Overall Architecture System startup Linux Kernel Hardware Support Native User-Space Dalvik JNI System Server Calling on Services Activity Manager Binder HAL Stock AOSP Apps Case-in-Point The second session “Working with the AOSP” deals with the following key points: Tools and location Content Building Build tricks Build system architecture Output images Using adb Custom toolchains and dev kits Compatibility Test Suite Basic hacks The third session entitled “Native Android user-space” […]