Android

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments on $89 Rockchip RK3066 Dual Core Cortex A9 mini-PC Coming to Market

$89 Rockchip RK3066 Dual Core Cortex A9 mini-PC Coming to Market

Liliputing has just reported that a $89 dual core Cortex A9 mini PC may be available soon from a South African company/individual. The SoC would be clocked at 1.6Ghz, come with 1GB RAM, 4GB flash, and destroy all other low cost mini PC in terms of performance. Here are the announced specifications: Operation System – Android 4.0.4 ICS SoC – Dual ARM Cortex-A9 processor up to 1.6GHZ with Mali-400MP4 Quad-core GPU RAM – 1GB DDR3 Storage –  4GB Nand Flash , microSD card slot (up to 32 GB) Connectivity – Built-in WiFi 802.11b/g/n USB – 1 x USB 2.0 Host,  1 X micro usb host Video out – HDMI Video Codecs – Mpeg1/2/4.H.264,VC-1,Divx,Xvid,RM8/9/10,VP6 Video Containers – MKV,TS,TP,M2TS,RM/RMVB,BD-ISO,AVI,MPG,VOB,DAT,ASF,TRP,FLV etc full formats Audio Codec – DTS,AC3,LPCM,FLAC,HE-AAC Audio Formats – MP3,OGG,WMA,WMAPRO Power – 90-230V, 50/60Hz input, max. power: 30W, Output: 5V/2A Dimensions – 10.1 x 3.8 x 1.3cm Weight – 38g The device […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 1 Comment on XBMC For Android on ODroid-X Development Board (Video)

XBMC For Android on ODroid-X Development Board (Video)

I’ve tried one the latest nightly builds for XBMC on Android on the ODroid-X development board based on Exynos 4412 quad core Cortex A9 processor, and more exactly that file. Currently XBMC only supports 2 cores, so it’s still not optimized for this platform, but there has been a lot of progress since last month, when I tried XBMC on the Mele A1000, and it appears to be fairly stable. The UI is very smooth (about 55 fps) and responsive on the ODroid-X  board. 1080p video playback is not perfect yet, but once XBMC can make use of four cores, it should be possible to handle 1080p software video decoding. Most of the things I tried work almost perfectly: video playback, picture display, audio playback, weather… There are still some bugs however, such as the lack of timezone support as you can see on the picture above, and the plugins […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on XBMC For Android Nightly Builds

XBMC For Android Nightly Builds

Last month, XBMC developers announced they were working on XBMC for Android. The app is still being developed, and is not available on Google Play store yet, but the source code is available, so you can try it out by building it yourself, or try one of the apk available. The goods news is that you don’t need to build it yourself anymore (unless really want to change the source yourself), as kemonine96, Xda-developers forum member, has setup nightly builds for XBMC for Android. XBMC for Android can be installed on devices with Android 2.3 and greater and 2 versions are currently available: “NEON” devices “non-NEON devices” – Mainly those based on Tegra 2 processor This will work on many different devices such as smartphones, tablet, mini-PC, set-top boxes, etc…, although this type of apps works best on large screens. Bear in mind this is mainly for evaluation for now, […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Instructions to Build Android Jelly Bean on Pandaboard and Origen Boards

Instructions to Build Android Jelly Bean on Pandaboard and Origen Boards

About 2 weeks ago, Linaro showed Android Jelly Bean running on Origen board with hardware accelerated, and last week they provided instruction to build Jelly Bean for the Pandaboard (OMAP4430) and the Origen board (Exynos 4212). Android Jelly Bean for Pandaboard: Pre-build Image and Build Instructions The fastest way to try Android Jelly Bean on the Pandaboard is to download the latest binaries available at https://android-build.linaro.org/builds/~linaro-android/panda-jb-gcc47-tilt-stable-blob in a PC running Ubuntu. For example (12/08/2012): wget http://snapshots.linaro.org/android/~linaro-android/panda-jb-gcc47-tilt-stable-blob/24/target/product/pandaboard/system.tar.bz2 wget http://snapshots.linaro.org/android/~linaro-android/panda-jb-gcc47-tilt-stable-blob/24/target/product/pandaboard/boot.tar.bz2 wget http://snapshots.linaro.org/android/~linaro-android/panda-jb-gcc47-tilt-stable-blob/24/target/product/pandaboard/userdata.tar.bz2 Install linaro-image tools: sudo add-apt-repository ppa:linaro-maintainers/tools sudo apt-get update sudo apt-get install linaro-image-tools Insert an SD card, make sure it is not mounted and flash it with the firmware (Replace /dev/sdc by the corresponding drive in your system): ./linaro-image-tools/linaro-android-media-create –mmc /dev/sdc –dev panda –system system.tar.bz2 –userdata userdata.tar.bz2 –boot boot.tar.bz2 Finally install the graphics libraries: wget http://people.linaro.org/~vishalbhoj/install-binaries-4.0.4.sh chmod a+x install-binaries-4.0.4.sh ./install-binaries-4.0.4.sh Remove the SD card from your PC, and insert it […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 22 Comments on New Android 4.0.4 Firmwares for Mele A1000 / A2000

New Android 4.0.4 Firmwares for Mele A1000 / A2000

Mele released a new firmware for the Mele A1000, A100 and A2000 Android media players. Here are the download page for Android 4.0 V1.1 (Thanks Fabricio & JP) and the changelog: Update to Android 4.0.4 Fixed problem with Flash Player “black screen” Mouse speed can be set Option to turn on/off the background applications Allowed to set the font size Supports playback of DVD and Blu-Ray ISO files (Files mode) Multiple mouse devices can be used Full-screen playback of online video sources I haven’t had time to try it myself yet, but some people did, and it fixed some of their issues (e.g.  HD multicast video streaming). Tip: Since the whole download process in in Chinese,  “下载” means “download” in Chinese. You’ll have to be patient because the download is slow right now (About 5KB/s on my side). Kimdecent also informed me they’ve released a new firmware for the Mele A1000/A2000 […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 23 Comments on Zero Devices Z900 Android mini PC Unboxing and Review

Zero Devices Z900 Android mini PC Unboxing and Review

Zero Devices Z900 HDMI Stick hardware is very similar to CX-01 as it has the same Telechips TCC8925 Cortex A5 processor, 512 MB RAM and 4GB Flash memory. The only key difference is the presence of a microSD card slot which is lacking on CX-01 mini PC. It ships in the same package as Zero Devices Z802 mini PC, and the only difference is the lack of marking to tell the device name. Let’s open the box and see what’s inside. The package contains from top left to bottom right: USB to mini USB cable to connect the power 5V/1A power supply Documentation in Chinese and English mini HDMI to HDMI cable (about 30 cm long) Z900 Android TV Stick Zero Devices Authenticity Card. The Authenticity Card is used to register your device on Zero Devices website and access a VIP area with access to support forums, a download section […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments on Zero Devices Z802 mini PC Unboxing and Review

Zero Devices Z802 mini PC Unboxing and Review

Yesterday, I received 2 mini PCs from Zero Devices: The AllWinner A10 based Z802 and the Telechips TCC8925 based Z900. Today, I’ll show the unboxing pictures of the Z802 and review the device, and I’ll take care of Z900 mini PC another day. Zero Devices Z802 is actually the same design as Rikomagic MK802, and was released about 2 weeks earlier, but fate made the media “gods” hype MK802 instead of Zero Device Z802. This mini PC features AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 processor clocked at up to 1.5 GHz, 512 MB RAM, 4 GB flash,  built-in Wifi 802.11 b/g/n, a mini USB OTG port, USB 2.0 host port, a microSD card slot and an HDMI female connector. I received the device in the package pictured on the left. Once you open the box, you’ll see the Z802 on top, and once you pull off the cover, you’ll see quite a […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments on MIPS Releases Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) Source Code

MIPS Releases Android 4.1.1 (Jelly Bean) Source Code

At the end of last month, MIPS announced the $125 Karbonn Mobiles Android Jelly Bean Tablet powered by Ingzenic MIPS-Based JZ4770 SoC.  Today, they released Android 4.1.1 source code for MIPS Before downloading the Android source code, make sure you have a properly setup Linux workstation. Here are the instructions to checkout MIPS Android 4.1.1:

You can read the release notes for more details about the current status of the MIPS Android Jelly Bean port. Myriad Dalvik turbo, an alternative Dalvik implement that is much faster than the default Dalvik engine (at least on MIPS), is not yet available for Android 4.1, but should be soon. All MIPS Android source code can also be viewed online at http://www.github.com/mips. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time […]

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