PINE A64+ Board Giveaway

PINE A64 and A64+ board are incredibly inexpensive, but still not free, so when PINE64 asked if they could give eight PINE64+ boards with 1GB RAM and the WiFi & Bluetooth module to CNX Software readers, I thought it was not a bad idea, and I’ve decided to organize a giveaway. The eight boards given away will have the following specs: SoC – Allwinner A64 quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor @ 1.2 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – micro SD slot supporting up to 256 GB Video Output – HDMI 1.4 up to 4K resolution @ 30 Hz, and 4-lane MIPI DSI connector and touch panel connector Audio – HDMI, 3.5 mm headphone jack Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet + WiFi & Bluetooth module USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports Camera – MIPI CSI camera interface Expansion – 40-pin Raspberry Pi 2 compatible […]

Ugoos AM1 Android TV Box Giveaway

I reviewed Ugoos AM1 TV box based on Amlogic S905 processor a few weeks ago, and while the hardware was rather good, and found the firmware lacking with some bugs such as the remote control and one USB port not port, some instability issues with Google play and Kodi, Bluetooth transfer corruption, etc… The company has now released a firmware update (v 0.0.4) that will fix most of the issues I reported, and also sent me a new remote control as the one I had was an early model, and we’ve decided to giveaway one Ugoos AM1 to one lucky winner, the same way we had done for Ugoos UT4. The Rafflecopter form below has three options, each optional, but if you do all three you’ll get more chances to win. The contest will run for 4 days until March 16 10am (GMT+7), I’ll select the winner randomly through RaffleCopter, […]

Free and Discounted Development Boards: Raspberry Pi 3, DragonBoard 410c, LinkIt ONE and More

Based on the number of comments I get when I organize giveaways, I think people like freebies. I don’t have anything to give away today, but others have launched competitions to win free developments, and Seeed Studio is having a promotional event with some discount on IoT boards. DragonBoard 410c Boards “Maker Month Contest” Qualcomm has declared March as Maker Month, and is asking developer to tell them what they’d make with a DragonBoard 410c board for a chance to win the board and up to $5,000. All you have to do is to submit your idea on DragonBoardContest.com, and every week, the company will give 7 to 10 boards (31 boards in total) to the people with the best ideas as selected by popular vote. The contest has two part: Part 1 – Submit your idea as mentioned above – Open between March 1 and March 31, is open […]

Ugoos UT4 TV Box Giveaway

Ugoos UT4 is an actively cooled Android TV box powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor, and I did notice a better overall performance in my review compared to other RK3368 mini PCs I tested. However, I did find some issues, such as power off not working properly, a lack of DRM support, Kodi video and audio capabilities could be improved and so on. Since the review, Ugoos released two firmware updates fixing several of the issues I noticed during my testing, and the company has asked me if I could organize a giveaway for one Ugoos UT4, so here it is. I’ve organized the giveaway a little differently, as I’ll use Rafflecopter form below with three options, each optional, but if you do all three you’ll get more chances to win. The contest will run for 4 days until February 15 10am (GMT+7), I’ll select the winner randomly rthrough RaffleCopter, […]

Giveaway Week Winners (November 2015)

The third giveaway week, and the second in 2015, on CNX Software is now complete. I’ve just sent the packages this morning, including 4 Android TV boxes, 2 Linux media players, and a development board to the winners from Europe, North America, and for the first time, Oceania. The winners were selected randomly from the list of people who comments, and without any further due, here are the results: let’s go through the winners and their country of residence, with links to the original individual winner announcements: Zidoo X6 Pro – Marko, Slovenia ARNU Box Mach Q Pure Linux – Xavier, Belgium M-195 TV box – Fran, Spain A80 OptimusBoard development board – Gil, Portugal M8S TV box – Roel, Belgium Tronfy Telos MXIV – Treb “winners are grinners”, Australia Popcorn Hour VTEN – ax, USA While last time, people living in Canadians were the luckiest, this giveaway was kind to people […]

Giveaway Week – Popcorn Hour VTEN 4K Media Player

Linux based Popcorn Hour VTEN media player is based on Sigma Designs SMP8757 Cortex A9 processor, and supports video playback up to 4K @ 30 fps (H.264 and H.265), and 7.1 channel audio pass-through. It’s not running Kodi, but CloudMedia’s own media application, and the build quality is superior to most devices thanks to its metallic enclosure. That’s one of the best media player I’ve reviewed so far with H.265 10-bit 4K video playback support, HDMI audio pass-through working for 5.1 and 7.1 channels audio, and very good playback quality. There were a few codecs that were not supported at the time however, such as RealMedia and VP8, and it does not support VP9 either like the vast majority of players on the market today. There were also a few bugs here and there, so the winner may want to upgrade to the latest firmware in case the OTA update […]

Giveaway Week – Tronfy MXIV Telos Android Lollipop TV Box with Amlogic S812 Processor

After Eny M8S yesterday, I’m now giving away another Amlogic S812 quad core TV Box with Tronfy MXIV Telos. Noticeable differences are that it runs Android 5.1 instead of Android 4.4, and features more storage (16GB), 802.11ac WiFi, and Gigabit Ethernet. So on paper Tronfy MX4 Telos appears to be a great improvement over products like M8S with better hardware, and a more recent Android firmware. While Tronfy MVIX Telos review did confirm the hardware was pretty good with good networking performance and a fast internal storage, the firmware was not quite ready for prime time, with disastrous Kodi support, and a settings app that would keep on crashing. There’s not much you can do about the latter without a newer firmware, but you might try out some other versions of Kodi to improve video playback. You can find more photos on the unboxing and teardown post. To enter the […]

Giveaway Week – Eny M8S Android TV Box

Today, I’m going to give away Eny M8S, an Android media player based on Amlogic S812 processor with 2GB RAM and 8GB NAND flash that runs Android 4.4, and supports H.265 video playback up to 3840×2160 at 30 fps. How does the device perform? Well, I don’t really know because I postponed the review due to many problems including HDMI going on and off, lack of Google Play Store, some power issues, and eventually the box refused to boot. When I finally got a new firmware, I did upgrade it, but so many months had passed, that I postponed the review indefinitely… Having said that, I tested its 4K capabilities later on, and again before this giveaway to reset the box to factory settings, and it booted fine… The box is not abandoned, as the company released a new firmware at the beginning of this month, so the lucky winner […]

EDATEC Raspberry Pi 5 fanless case