MAXOAK K2 is a 50,000 mAh Power Bank Designed for Laptops, Cameras and Mobile Devices

Most of the time I receive samples by courier 3 or 4 days after the company sends it, but sometimes I’m being sent devices over airmail which may take 2 to 3 weeks, or even more. Today, I received such a parcel with no clear description on the package, and a relatively heavy blank carton box. But I remembered somebody told me they’d send a large power bank for laptops. Could it be it? Sure enough. The power bank is called MAXOAK K2, and claims to offer a 50,000 mAh capacity using a Polymer Li-on battery. All connectors and buttons can be found on one side with the DC jack, four charging/capacity LEDs, the power button, 20V/3A and 12/2.5A barrel outputs, and four USB ports with 5V/2.1A or 5V.1.0A output. Most of the laptops I’ve used were powered by 19V or 19.5V adapters, so I’m not sure it’s safe to […]

Google Releases Android O Developer Preview with UI & Audio Improvements, Better Performance, etc…

Nearly exactly one year after Android N developer preview release, Google has now announced the release of Android O developer preview in order to get feedback from the developer community before the official release of Android 8.0? Oreo? in Q3 2017. So what’s new so far in Android O? Here are some of the changes: Background activity limits –  Automatic limits on what apps can do in the background for implicit broadcasts, background services, and location updates. Notification channels –  New app-defined categories for notification content for better control from the use, as user may only block or change the behavior from one channel, instead of applying the same behavior to all notifications from a given app. For example, a News app may have notifications for Technology, Sports, Politics, International, etc… Autofill APIs – Platform support for autofill, where users can select an autofill app, similar to the way they […]

Banana Pi BPI-M2 Magic is an Allwinner R16 Development Board with LCD and Camera Interfaces

Allwinner R16 is a quad core Cortex A7 processor found in Nintendo NES Classic Mini game console, but so far there was no development board based on the processor apart from Allwinner Parrot board that does not appear to be for sale. But Banana Pi has designed their own R16 development board, and released some information about BPI-M2 Magic board. Banana Pi BPI-M2 Magic specifications: SoC – Allwinner R16 quad core ARM Cortex-A7 processor with ARM Mali 400 MP2 GPU System Memory – 512MB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC flash (option: 16, 32 or 64GB) + micro SD slot Display Interface – 4-lane MIPI DSI connector Camera Interface – CSI connector supporting up to 5MP sensor, 1080p30 H.265 video capture Video Decoder – Multi-format FHD video decoding, including Mpeg1/2, Mpeg4, H.263, H.264, etc H.264 high profile 1080p@60fps Audio – On-board microphone Connectivity – Wifi 802.11 b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0 LE […]

Banana Pi BPI-M64 & BPI-M2 Ultra Boards PDF Schematics Published

SinoVoip has recently released PDF schematics for both of their Banana Pi boards, namely BPI-M64 board powered by Allwinner A64 processor, and BPI-M2 Ultra board based on the latest Allwinner R40 SoC with an on-chip SATA interface. For most boards on the market, this should not be news, but SinoVoip does not always release schematics in a timely manner, so you may want to be noticed when it happens: BPI-M64 schematics – https://bananapi.gitbooks.io/bpi-m64/content/en/bpi-m64schematicdiagram.html BPI-M2 Ultra schematics – https://bananapi.gitbooks.io/bpi-m2-ultra-open-source-single-board-computer/content/bpi-m2ultraschematicdiagram.html The clear benefit of BPI-M2 Ultra is the presence of a SATA connector NOT implemented via a slow USB 2.0 to SATA bridge, but instead directly through the SATA interface of the R40 quad core processor. As for BPI-M64 ($46), it can be compared to Pine64+ with 2GB RAM and a WiFi module ($39), and despite the higher price it does come with some benefits like adb over OTG working, it is […]

CS668 Combines Android TV Box, Power Bank, and Bluetooth Speakers Into One Device

CS668 is an Android 6.0 TV box powered by Amlogic S905X quad core processor, which triples as Bluetooth stereo speakers and a power bank thanks to its built-in 5,000 mAh battery. CS668 3-in-1 TV box specifications: SoC –  Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.5 GHz with Mali-450MP GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 32 GB Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K @ 60 Hz Audio I/O – HDMI output, 3.5mm headphone jack, 10W stereo speakers, built-in microphone Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi @ 2.4 GHz and Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6212 module) USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port Misc – Power & Play/Pause combo button, and volume buttons Battery – 5,000 mAh rechargeable lithium battery good for up to 48 hours Power Supply –  5V/3A Dimensions – 15.1 cm […]

ArduBoy Arduino Compatible Portable Game Console Sells for $39

Ardubox feels like the little brother of PocketCHIP portable & hackable game console with its transparent case, but instead of running Linux on a 32-bit ARM processor, Ardubox is based on the same Atmel ATmega32u4 MCU used in Arduino Leonardo & Micro boards. Arduboy specifications: MCU – Atmel ATmega32u4 AVR MCU with 32KB flash, 2.5KB RAM, and 1KB EEPROM Display – 128×64 1-bit OLED display USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 port for power and programming User Inputs – 6x momentary tactile buttons Audio – 2 channel Piezo Speaker Misc – 1x LED Battery – 180 mAh Thin-Film Li-Po battery good for over 8 hours Beside the Arduino IDE, The board can also be programmed with Codebender, GCC & AVRDude. There’s also a fairly long list of games to play with, and it can be hacked as a virtual business card, a USB mouse and keyboard, a synthesizer, and more. […]

Raspberry Pi Club Battery / UPS Kit Assembly Guide and Review

A couple of months ago, I wrote about a Raspberry Pi battery kit with a 3,800 mAh battery, a battery control board, an acrylic enclosure, and an heatsink + fan set that I found on DealExtreme for about $22. I decided to buy it once I got confirmation the battery was included, and so today I’ll write about my experience assembling the kit, and running it with a Raspberry Pi 2 board. If you are only interested in the “RPi PowerPack” battery control board and battery, you can find them on Banggood for $11.93. Raspberry Pi Club Battery Kit Unboxing DX put all the accessories inside a zip bag, and shipped it in a bubble envelop. It contains a white box with the RPi PowerPack V1.0 battery and battery, several screws, spacers, and bolts sets, a fan with screws, an acrylic case with three layers, an heatsink set with two […]

Review of PocketCHIP Hackable Handheld Linux Computer

It’s not that easy to describe PocketC.H.I.P in a couple of words, as it’s so versatile. It’s a Debian based portable Linux computer with a resistive touchscreen and battery, but also a retro gaming console thanks to PICO-8, as well as a hardware development platform for IoT application with expansion header providing access to I/Os including GPIOs, I2C, SPI, UART…, and WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity. Furthermore you can easily dismantle the device, in order to use the CHIP board, based on Allwinner R8 Cortex A8 processor, for a different project. So when Next Thing asked me if I was interested in reviewing Pocket CHIP, I was pretty excited, but when I received it, I scratched my head as there are so many ways to review the item, and it works out of the box with the firmware pre-loaded inside the internal flash, so a getting starting guide would have been […]

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