Reviews - Page 93 of 119 - CNX Software

November 23, 2015January 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 24 Comments

MINI MX 4K Android Media Player Unboxing and Teardown

I received my first Amlogic S905 TV box last week with K1 Plus, and although I have not reviewed it yet due to some issues with Google Play, I’ve run some benchmarks on the Amlogic S905 platform, which some people mentioning that results could have been impacted by the small heatsink leading to CPU throttling. The good news is that I know have a new Amlogic SD905 TV Box to play with as GearBest sent me Beelink MINI MX TV box. Today, I’ll take a few photos of the device and the board, before hopefully publishing the full review early next week. Beelink MINI MX Unboxing I received the package via DHL, and thanks to its low price I did not have to pay custom duties or VAT. The package does not show any specific brand, only Mini MX 4K Movies products, as well as the specifications on the back. […]

November 21, 2015May 5, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

DragonBoard 410c Development Board Quick Start Guide and Android Benchmarks

Linaro’s 96Boards initiative was announced in February with the introduction of Hikey board, and while progress has been rather slow, there are now two boards available for sale: Lemaker Hikey and Qualcomm Dragonboard 410c. The main advantage of these board is that 96Boards is not only an hardware specification, but also a software specifications that mandate most code to be open source, with recent versions of Linux and U-boot, and in the case of Dragonboard 410c work is being done with Freedreno open source GPU drivers. Now that I’ve got a board I’ll explain my experience with the purchasing process, take a few pictures, and show how to get started with Android, and install the latest version, before running a few benchmarks. Ordering DragonBoard 410c Development Board I normally don’t like purchasing from North American and European distributors, because of the potential documentation involved to comply with silly laws, high […]

November 19, 2015November 20, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

NO.1 D3 Smartwatch Specs, Unboxing and Teardown

There are now many wearables, including fitness bands and smartwatches, on the market, but to me many fail on battery life, visibility, and price. The one that would match my requirements the best would be SMA-Q smartwatch, but in the meantime, I’m also interested in testing some more wearables at different price points. Tinydeal sent me NO.1 D3 smartwatch that sells for just $22.99 shipped. I’ll go first through the specifications, before checking of the watch more closely, and in a few days writing a review of the device. NO.1 D3 Smartwatch Specifications You should not expect much for this price, but the watch is surprisingly feature-packed (as taken from tinydeal website): SoC – Mediatek MT6261 processor with 32Mbit RAM, 32Mbit Flash Storage – Internal micro SD slot up to 16GB Display – 1.22″ capacitive touchscreen IPS display with 128×128 resolution Connectivity – Bluetooth 3.0 Cellular – 1x micro SIM […]

November 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

Videostrong K1 Plus Amlogic S905 Android TV Box Unboxing and Teardown

Many Amlogic S905 TV boxes have been announced, and thanks to Videostrong, I’ve received my first Amlogic S905 device for review with their K1 Plus media player (aka KI Plus). Today, I’ll start by listing the specifications, before taking a few pictures of the device and its board. with the full review following up in a few days. Videostrong K1 Plus Specifications K1 Plus is one of the entry level models with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage by default: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash (4 to 32GB optional) + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with HDCP 2.2 support, and 3.5mm AV jack Audio – HDMI, AV (stereo), optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – 10-bit H.265 up to 4K60, […]

November 14, 2015December 5, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

TBS5520 Multi-Standard Tuner Box and Linux Drivers

TBS Technologies is a company that specializes in digital TV tuner cards for PC, and recently they’ve also worked on ARM based boards or devices such as the Matrix 2. The company has sent me one of their TBS5520 USB tuner board and box supporting DVB-T2, DVB-S2, DVB-C and ISDB-T for evaluation, as well as some Linux drivers. Today, I’ll provide some specifications, take some pictures, and show how I compiled and installed the drivers in my Ubuntu 14.04 computer. TBS 5520 Tuner Box specifications TBS5520 is a multi-standard USB tuner with the following features: USB – USB 2.0 device port Antenna connectors – 1x LNB IN, 1x RF IN Standards DVB-S2/S Symbol rate: 1~45Msps; FEC DVB-S2: 8PSK: 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 8/9, 9/10; DVB-S: QPSK: 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 DVB-T2/T Receiving channel: VHF band, UHF band; Bandwidth: 1.7,5, 6, 7, 8 MHz; FEC: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM […]

November 12, 2015November 19, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Run x86 Linux and Windows applications in Raspberry Pi and other ARM Linux Devices with Exagear

A few weeks ago, I finally decided to buy a Raspberry Pi 2 board as it could always be useful for some testing, at least for comparison purposes. I ended up buying it from Ebay for $40, as it’s $3 to $5 more expensive locally. Nevertheless, I was not sure what I’ll use it first for, but after seeing a tweet for Exagear Desktop software that allows ARM boards to run x86 Linux or Windows applications, the latter through wine. The program is available for Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 2, and ARMv7 devices for $19.95 to $29.95. I asked for a version for testing purposes, and I was given a Google Drive link to download Exagear for Raspberry Pi 2, as well as a 3-month trial key. Installation is very easy. I started by downloading and installing Raspbian Jessie the usual way on a 32GB micro SD card. It went […]

November 6, 2015November 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Operys Process Explorer App Shows Android Processes in Your Computer’s Web Browser

Opersys is an Android and Embedded Linux company providing both development and training services, and they regularly attend conferences and release their training materials. The company has also developed a few Android apps to export the file system, the process list and info, and interaction between apps and Android system services exposed via Binder to your computer’s web browser. I found the most interesting app to be Process Explorer, so I gave it a try on Iocean M6752 smartphone. The application requires very little permissions to install, and it’s very simple to use. Simply tap on Start the service, and the app will provide the URL to browse the processes on your computer, in my case http://192.168.0.105:3000. The output is pretty useful, as you get much more information than you could get on your smartphone or tablet screen with CPU and memory usage, running time, logcat, etc… If you click […]

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Kingnovel R8 Android TV Box Review (VLC Edition)

Kingnovel R8 is one of the many Rockchip RK3368 based TV boxes on the market, and since I’ve already provided the specs, as well as pictures of the device and board, I’ll carry on with the review today. While I’m usually testing video playback in Kodi, I’ve only spent a short time with Kodi 15.2 on this box, and instead switched to VLC (aka VideoLAN), an another open source media player, and my favorite program to watch videos in my Ubuntu computer. Of course, I’ve also tested most hardware features and performance of the device. First Boot, and First Impressions Since I like to test worst case scenarios, I also make sure I use all the ports of the devices, and connected a USB hard drive, USB RF dongles, USB webcam, and relevant cables to the device before powering it up. Once you connect the power, I recommend you have […]