CNX Software - Embedded Systems News

April 3, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Kodi 14.2 Final and Kodi 15 Alpha 2 Released

Kodi developers have recently announced two release for Kodi: the stable version of Kodi 14.2 Helix, which should be the last Kodi 14 release, and Kodi 15 Alpha 2 Isengard with some interesting new features. Since Kodi 14.2 is a minor release, no new features have been added, but they fixed several bugs: Application stopped responding on Windows Gap-less playback on MP3 Playback of rtmp protocol Scanning of newly added episodes Fix multipath source scanning Loading external subtitles in some cases packaging of PIL module on Android. This fixes some script error when using weather add-on Fix video playback on all platform after refresh rate change Various bugs that were present in PVR add-ons. Save weather location Fix filtering of foreign add-ons ftps handling Use LastWrite instead of ChangeTime for file system on Windows As usual, you can download the release via Kodi download page for Windows, Linux. Mac OS […]

April 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 30 Comments

Xiaomi Mi Box Mini Unboxing

Xiaomi Mi Box Mini is probably the smallest Android media player available so far. It integrates a 100-240V power supply, and only features a single HDMI output port, no micro SD slot, and no USB ports. Although the device is primarily targeting the Chinese market, with a Chinese user interface and CCC certification only, several Chinese e-retailers have started to offer it for $50 or less. GearBest sells it for $42.98 with coupon MIBOX, and they’ve sent me a sample for review. Today, I’ll post some pictures of the device, before doing a review, including trying to switch to a user interface in English. Mi Box Mini Unboxing I’ve received the package via DHL, and for once I did not have pay custom duty or other tax. On the back of the package, they listed some key features in Chinese, such as H.265 1080p video playback, quad core processor, hexa […]

April 2, 2015September 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Scaleway Provides Dedicated ARM Servers for 10 Euros per Month, 0.02 Euro per Hour

Earlier this year, Online Labs launched a beta hosting program using custom-designed C1 dedicated servers powered by Marvell Armada 370/XP quad core processor. The company has now launched a commercial service called Scaleway providing hosting service on these baremetal servers for 9.99 Euros per month, or 0.02 Euro per hour, as well as a “Infinite Storage” service with 1GB data for 0.02 Euros per month. Here are the details of the 10 Euros plan: Server based on Marvell Armada 370/XP quad core ARMv7 processor Memory – 2GB Memory Storage – 50GB SSD Disk 1x Reserved public IPv4 200Mbit/s – Unmetered bandwith Operating Systems – Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora, ArchLinux ARM. Docker supported. That’s not a VPS, but a dedicated server. For reference, I currently pay around $20 per month (Linode) for a server with an Intel Xeon E5-2680 dual core processor with 2 GB RAM and 50 GB SSD storage, and 3 […]

April 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

ActDuino S500 Development Board Features Actions Semi S500 Quad Core Processor

Actions Technology is a subsidiary of Actions Semiconductor SoC vendor, that makes solutions based on Actions Semi SoCs, and recently joined Linaro. The company is said to focus on “focuses on solutions for smart handheld and smart home devices. Its main products are tablet, over-the-Top (“OTT”) set-top boxes and Bluetooth enabled boombox solutions, along with total product and technology solutions based on the Android platform”. We already know it will soon release a 96Boards compliant board, but in the meantime, the company has officially launched Actduino S500 development board powered by a new S500 quad core Cortex A9 processor. I actually found out about this board on ARMDevices.net last October, and sent an email asking for information to the company, but I have not received an email yet after 6 months… At the time, the processor was called ATM7059, but now it’s S500, and it’s unclear if they just renamed […]

April 2, 2015April 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Allwinner V3 SoC Targets 1080p60 Action Cameras, Supports Linux or Camdroid OS

I’ve previously written about Allwinner V10 and V15 SoC for video applications such as cameras, digital video recorder, and so on. So far, I’ve not found devices based on these, but Allwinner already announced another V-series processor with Allwinner V3 designed for Action camera recording up to 1080p resolution at 70 frames per second. Key specifications are listed below: CPU – ARM Cortex-A7 @1.2GHz Memory 16-bit DDR3/LPDDR3/DDR3L SDRAM controller, up to 1333Mbps 16-bit DDR2 up to 800Mbps, 16-bit LPDDR2 up to 1066Mbps up to 2GB RAM Video / Picture Up to 1080p@60fps or 2-channel 1080p@30fps H.264 video encoding 8M JPEG encoding H.264 1080p@60fps decoding, MJPEG 1080@30fps decoding Integrated ISP up to 8M pixels (HawkView ISP) 2 channel outputs for display and encoding respectively Supports various input and output formats Supports AE/AF/AWB Saturation adjustment, 2D/3D noise reduction, defect pixel correction, and distortion correction Audio Codec Integrated 92dB audio codec 2x ADC […]

April 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Acer Chromebase Runs Chrome OS on Nvidia Tegra K1 Processor

After RK3288 Chromebooks and Chromebit announcement yesterday, another Chrome OS device has been unveiled with Acer Chromebase, a 21.5″ All-in-one Chrome OS computer powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 processor. Acer Chromebase preliminary specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC with 4-Plus-1 quad-core ARM Cortex A15 CPU, and Kepler GPU with 192 CUDA cores System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 16GB internal storage + 100 GB on Google Drive storage (free for two years) Display – 21.5″ touch screen display (10 point touch); Resolution: 1920×1080; viewing angle: 178 deg. Video Output – HDMI port. Audio – HDMI, 3W audio speakers Connectivity – 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – USB 3.0/ 2.0 ports Camera – Front facing HD camera Acer all-in-one computer is apparently only the second Chromebase product, after LG Chromebase, and the first to include a touchscreen. Acer Chromebase will available in North America […]

April 1, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

This Multi-function Capacitive Stylus Includes a USB Flash Drive

If you have fat fingers, or somehow capacitive touchs creens don’t work that well with your fingers, or you simply need more accuracy, you may have purchased one of those cheap capacitive stylus, many of which come with a real ball-point pen and/or a flash light. However, I’ve just noticed GeekBuying listed a few USB multi-functional 6-in-1 touch pens with 4 to 32GB internal flash with prices ranging from 8 to 19 dollars. Based on the picture above, you can open the stylus to take out a USB flash drive that you can insert into your computer, laptop or mobile’s micro USB OTG port via an OTG adapter. Specifications include: Use with touchscreen of smartphone or tablet PC Ball-point pen Files storage (USB flash drive) Money inspection (ultra-violet light) Pointer (red laser) Mini flash-light Dimensions – 143 x 12 mm Weight – 25 grams I find the USB drive-in-a-pen idea […]

April 1, 2015May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Cubieboard 4 Ubuntu Review – Setup, Usability, and Performance

Cubieboard4 is a development board powered by Allwinner A80 octa-core processor with 2GB RAM and 16GB eMMC. I’ve already shown how to get started with the board using the pre-installed Android 4.4 image, and run some benchmarks in Android, so now it’s time to check out the Ubuntu Linaro 14.04 image provided by CubieTech. I’ll show how to install and setup Ubuntu 14.04 on the board using a micro SD card, run desktop applications like Chromium, Libre Office, and son on on the board, and complete the review with some Linux benchmarks. Setting up Ubuntu on Cubieboard4 Firmware images for Cubiebord4 can be downloaded @ http://dl.cubieboard.org/model/cc-a80/Image/. Currently Android 4.4, Debian server, Ubuntu Linaro server, and Ubuntu Linaro desktop with LXDE desktop environment. That’s the latter I’ll use for the experiment, and two images are available: linaro-desktop-cb4-card-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Bootable image from micro SD card linaro-desktop-cb4-emmc-hdmi-v0.4.img.7z – Installation image to eMMC to […]