Review of Mygica ATV586 Android Set-Top Box with DVB-T2 Tuner

I’ve already tested some Android TV boxes with tuners such as HD18T (DVB-T2) and WeTek Play (DVB-S2) , but they were all based on Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core processor. Geniatech recently sent me Mygica ATV586 quad core Android DVB-T2 receiver based on Amlogic S805 processor. I’ve already taken a few pictures, and look at the hardware components,  so today, I’ll write the review, mainly focusing on the live TV program capabilities including PVR and Timeshifting. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve connected a hard drive, a webcam, MeLE F10 Deluxe RF dongle, and a keyboard (for screenshots) to the device’s USB ports, as well as HDMI and Ethernet cables, and a TV antenna cable, before connecting the 5V power adapter to start the device. When everything is connected, the boot takes about 1 minute 35 seconds, but without USB devices, it drops down to 44 seconds. Boot time is […]

Review of Tronsmart Ara X5 Windows 10 mini PC with Intel Atom X5 Processor

Tronsmart Ara X5 is one of the first mini PC featuring a Cherry Trail processor, more exactly Atom x5-Z8300 quad core processor manufactured with 14nm process. Price and max TDP are similar to Atom Z3735F Bay Trail-T processor found in many mini PCs designed in China, so it will interesting to compare the two platforms. Yesterday, I took some photos of the device, and found out the design was comprised of a baseboard and system-on-module, but today, I’ll focus on testing the device in Windows 10, checking everything works as it should, as well as running some benchmarks, verifying the Windows license status, test H.265 video playback in Kodi, and more. Tronsmart Ara X5 Setup I had not much to do the first time I booted the device, as it was already configured to use English, and the system logged in with user “User” without password. I still double checked […]

Mygica ATV1900AC Android 5.0 Mini PC Review

4K TV boxes based on Amlogic S812 processor have been around for about 9 months, and I already reviewed MINIX NEO X8-H Plus and CX-S806 mini PCs, but Mygica ATV1900AC is one of the first to support Android Lollipop, so I though it would be interesting to see the progress made compared to devices that run Android KitKat. I’ve already taken apart the TV Box, and found some interesting Toshiba eMMC flash and Realtek 802.11ac WiFi chips on the board, but today, I’ll test the firmware including stability, features and performance in this review. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve connected all ports of the device using the four USB host port with a webcam, hard drive, an RF dongle for a wireless gamepad, the RF dongle for the included remote, as well as inserting an HDMI cable, an optical audio cable S/PDIF, an Ethernet cable to Gigabit switch, […]

NextDrive Plug Adds Wireless Storage or a Surveillance Webcam to Your Smartphone (Crowdfunding)

There are several wireless storage options on the market that allows you to add storage to your smartphone, such as WiFi USB flash drives, wireless SD card readers, or WiFi HDD enclosures. These inexpensive solutions are are quite portable since they come with a battery, so it’s like your have your own portable NAS or Cloud storage in your pocket. The Next Drive plug is a tiny computer with a single USB port and WiFi connection, that will add wireless connectivity to your USB device such as hard drives, including USB RAID arrays, but also others like USB webcams. Next Drive technical specifications: Processor – ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz System Memory – 128MB DDR3 Storage – 16MB NOR flash for firmware only Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port USB Output – 5V @ 2.1A Support File Systems – FAT, FAT32, […]

$5 Amazon Dash Buttons Can Be Hacked as WiFi Logging Buttons

Amazon launched Dash buttons earlier this year in order to allow Amazon Prime customers to order products by simply pressing them. The small WiFi enabled buttons only cost $5, and looked like a nice thing to hack. And that’s exactly what Ted Benson did, and managed to use them to log his baby’s patterns like the number of time he poos, or wakes up at night by pressing some buttons, and storing the results in a spreadsheet. The hack does not involve any firmware or hardware modifications, and instead he noticed that the Dash was disconnected and sleeping, except when the button was pressed. So all he does is to detect ARP requests from the Dash using some Python code relying on Scapy library, and when the MAC address matches one of the dash MAC addresses (hard coded in the Python program), data is sent to a Google Spreadsheet using […]

WRTnode2P, WRTnode2R and WRTnodeHi OpenWRT Boards to Feature M.2 & mini PCIe Edge Connectors, H.265 Camera Support, and More

WRTnode is a small and low cost development board powered by Mediatek MT7620N and running OpenWRT. The developers have been working on three new OpenWRT boards based on Mediatek or Hisilicon processor and featuring either an M.2 connector, a mini PCIe connector, or support for H.265 camera. The first board is WRTnode2P with the following specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7628an MIPS 24KEc processor @ 575 MHz System Memory – 256 MB RAM Storage – 32MB Flash Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n WiFi @ 300 Mbps (2T2R) I/Os via NGFF M.2 connector: PCIe X1, USB 2.0 host, SD-XC 5x 100M Ethernet switch I2S up to 192K/24-bit 2x UART, SPI, I2C 20x GPIO Dimensions – 42 x 22mm The second board, WRTNode2R, features a processor and a micro-controller, and can be connected to a mini PCIe port: SoC – Mediatek MT7688an MIPS24K Processor @ 580 MHz System Memory – 256 MB DDR2 Storage […]

Beelink i68 (Rockchip RK3368) TV Box Review

Beelink i68 is one of the first 64-bit ARM Android mini PCs available on the market, and could offer an update to Rockchip RK3288 TV boxes thanks to its eight Cortex A53 cores and support for HDMI 2.0 up to 4K2K @ 60Hz. I’ve already taken a few pictures of the device and RK68 board, so today I’ll report about performance, stability, features and video playback capabilities in the full review. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions The box has three USB 2.0 host ports and a micro USB OTG port, so for once I did not have to use a USB hub to connect all my devices and cables. I’ve inserted an Ethernet cable, an HDMI cable, an optical cable to the S/PDIF output, a Class 10 micro SD card, a USB hard drive, a USB webcam, an RF dongle for Tronsmart Mars G01 wireless gamepad, and finally MeLE […]

Updated Ethernet & WiFi HDD Enclosure Supports 300Mbps with Mediatek MT7620N Processor

I featured an HDD enclosure with WiFi and Ethernet on CNX Software a few months ago, and several people were interested, bought one, and found out it was running OpenWRT, and easily to adapt to your needs, although some people complains it was not able to connect as a client. There’s now a new model, looking similar, by powered by Mediatek MT7620N and supporting 300 Mbps WiFi. While hardware specifications were not published with the first model, the manufacturer decided to release the full specifications for the new model: Processor – Mediatek MT7620N MIPS processor @ 580 MHz System Memory – 64MB DDR1 Storage 16MB SPI flash for firmware SATA interface for 2.5″ HDD up to 2TB (10TB is shown in the description) File systems – FAT32, NTFS, EXT64 (Sic.). Connectivity 2.4GHz WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n 2×2 up to 300 Mbps with 2 internal antennas Wireless security – WPA-PSK/WPA2-PSK/AES encryption, Intelligent […]

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