Asus Zenbo Smart Home Robot is Looking for Developers

Asus introduced a $599 robot on wheel at Computer 2016. Asus Zenbo features a friendly face which can also be used as a touchscreen display, answer voice commands, take pictures on-demand, and can help you for all sort of task from reading recipes out loud, emergency calls if it detects an elderly person’s fall, to task reminders such as taking medicine, or going to a doctor’s appointment. The robot could also be used for all sort of home automation tasks so as turning on and off lights, so Asus also launched a developer program in order to get more applications leveraging the robot’s capabilities, including Android and web applications using speech recognition, facial recognition, indoor navigation, smart home protocols, etc… Few technical details have been provided so far though. The highlights of ASUS press event do show the robot in action, answering questions, moving around and taking photos. Via Liliputing […]

Jide and Asus Optimized Remix OS 2.0 on a Specific Intel Celeron 3150 mini-ITX Board

Remix OS 2.0 Android port with optimization for desktop use is great on ARM hardware, as in most cases, Linux distributions or Windows 10 don’t really run perfectly on such hardware. Remix OS for x86 could also be an option for your older computer that may feel sluggish with recent desktop operating systems, but would people really run it on newer and faster x86 hardware as their main OS? Jide and Asus actually think  there’s a market here, and both companies collaborated to optimize Remix OS 2.0 for Asus N3150I-C mini-ITX motherboard powered by Intel Celeron N3150 processor. For reference, I’ll list the main specifications of Asus N3150C-I motherboard: SoC – Intel Celeron N3150 “Braswell” quad core processor @ up to 2.08 GHz with Intel HD Graphics Gen8 @ up to 640 MHz – 6W TDP System Memory – 2x U-DIMM up to 8GB DDR3 1600/1066 MHz Non-ECC dual channel […]

Asus Zenfone Go TV Android Smartphone Includes a DVB-T2 & ISDB-T TV Tuner

Asus has introduced Zenfone Go TV Android 5.1 mid-range smartphone that only stands out thanks to its built-in digital TV tuner supporting DVB-T2 and ISDB-T standards letting you watch terrestrial digital TV on the go without needing Internet connection. Asus Zenfone Go TV (ZB551KL) specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 400 (MSM8928) quad core Cortex A7 processor @  1.4GHz with  Adreno 305 GPU System Memory – 2GB LPDDR3 Storage – 16GB/32GB eMMC Flash, MicroSD card slot up to 64 GB Display – 5.5″ TFT display with capacitive touch panel; 1280×720 resolution, Gorilla Glass 3; 450nits brightness Tuner – SONY SMT-EW100 Digital TV (DTV) tuner supporting  DVB-T, DVB-T2, DVB-T2 Lite, ISDB-T, ISDB-Tmm Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi; Bluetooth V4.0+EDR +A2DP; GPS, GLONASS, AGPS & BDS Cellular Connectivity Dual Micro SIM card with Sual SIM Dual Standby (DSDS) support Network Standard – WCDMA/TD-SCDMA/TDD-LTE/FDD-LTE Data Rate – LTE Cat4 – UL 50 / DL […]

The First Devices and Routers with WiFi 802.11ad Delivering Up 7Gbit/s Transfer Rates at 60 GHz Will Be Available This Year

802.11ad is the latest and fastest WiFi standard working in the 60 GHz band and delivering up to 7 Gbit per second data transmission rates. The 60 GHz  frequency band offers both advantages and disadvantages because it does not penetrate through walls nor water, meaning it can only be used within a room limiting the range, but at the same time it’s more secure since it cannot be snooped from the outside, and for people who worry about health effects it does not penetrate the human body. 802.11ad routers will also be able to switch to 2.4 and 5.0 GHz frequency bands in order to go through walls. The table above nicely summarize the key features of 802.11ad over 802.11ac and 802.11n, however the throughput row shows the theoretical maximum throughput, but in practice, using 802.11ac as example, clients are often limited to 433 or 866 Mbps, and distance and […]

ASUS Chromebit CS10 Chrome OS TV Stick Launched for $85

Soon after Google and various partners announced Rockchip RK3288-C based Chromebooks in March of this year, Asus teased us with a Chrome OS stick called Chromebit to sell for less than $100, and also based on Rockchip RK3288 processor. After a few months wait, the company has now launched Chromebit CS10 for just $85. Chromebit CS10 have basically stayed the same: SoC – Rockchip RK3288-C quad core Cortex A17 processor with ARM Mali-T764 GPU. System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L Storage – 16 GB eMMC Video Output – HDMI Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 2×2 (MIMO) a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB OTG port Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions – 123 x 31 x 17 mm Weight – 75 grams The Chrome OS stick is fanless, but the company warns to use it with “reasonable ambient airflow and temperatures […]

Asus VivoStick PC is a Cherry Trail HDMI TV Stick Running Windows 10

We’ve had many Bay Trail-T HDMI TV stick in the past year, but recently some Cherry Trail low power mini PCs such as Tronsmart Ara X5 and MeegoPad T04 have started to hit the virtual shelves, and now Asus is the first company to announce a Cherry Trail HDMI TV Stick, and it’s pretty good looking, although its shaper reminds me of fluorescent markers… Asus VivoStick PC specifications: SoC – Unamed Intel Cherry Trail processor Memory & Storage – Single eMCP chip with 2GB DDRL3 and 32GB eMMC (no micro SD slot) Video Output – HDMI Audio Output – HDMI, 3.5mm audio jack Connectivity – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x micro USB port (for power) Power Supply – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions – 138 x 15 x 14 mm Weight – 70 grams The stick will […]

Asus Zenphone 2 Deluxe Edition Smartphone Comes with 256 GB Storage, 4GB RAM

As far as I’m concerned the talk about a “Post-PC” area is just that: talk. As long as the hardware specifications of smartphones don’t match the ones of entry-level computers, and mobile operating systems don’t support a desktop mode, desktop PCs will still be popular, and I can see it everyday as 60 to 70% of visits of this very blog are made with Windows, Linux and Mac OS computers. However, that’s not to say mobile and desktop converge is not getting closer, as on the software side, Canonical is working on bring Ubuntu to different form factors and support desktop mode for mobile desktop, and Microsoft is also working on Continuum, and on the hardware side, Asus announced a smartphone with 256 GB storage and 4GB RAM, which is pretty close to the specifications of an entry-level computer these days. Asus Zenfone 2 Deluxe Edition specifications: SoC – Intel […]

Asus Chromebit Chrome OS TV Stick to Sell for Less than $100

Google has just announced Rockchip RK3288 Chromebooks, and also quickly mentioned Chrombit Chrome OS dongle, but with very few details. However, several large US blogs like Engadget and Gizmodo got a sample (mock-up?), and shared more details. So now we have the technical specifications of the dongle, which unsurprisingly also feature RK3288 processor: SoC – Rockchip RK3288-C quad core Cortex A17 processor with ARM Mali-T764 GPU. System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L SDRAM Storage – 16 GB eMMC Flash Storage Video Output – HDMI Connectivity – Dual band Wi-Fi 802.11 2×2 (MIMO) a/b/g/n/ac, Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 1x micro USB OTG port Power – 5V via micro USB port Dimensions – N/A Weight – N/A It’s quite likely the Rockchip processor won’t run at full speed, at least not for a long period of time, as it’s likely to overheat in such small form factor, […]