Soap is a Touchscreen Enabled Router Supporting Gigabit Ethernet and Lots of Wireless Standards (Crowdfunding)

Soap is a strange creature, and I’m not convinced there are that many use cases for such hardware, but I find it interesting that the developers decided to pack a Freescale i.MX6 Solo/Dual or Quad SoC powered Android 4.4 tablet and a router supporting five Gigabit Etherner ports, as well as WiFI 802.11ac, Wi-0Fi 802.11 b/g/n,  Zigbee, Z-wave, Bluetooth 4.0 (BLE), Insteon RF, X10, 433Mhz, NFC, and infrared into one and only device which they call an “Intelligent Home Management Hub”.  It’s also complete with an HDMI output port so that you can use it as a media player. Let’s go through the specifications for the four version this little monster (Soap Solo, Soap Dual, Soap Quad, and Soap 8.4): SoC Soap Solo – Freescale i.MX6 Solo single ARM Cortex A9 @ 1 GHz with Vivante GC880 3D GPU Soap Dual – Freescale i.MX6 Dual dual ARM Cortex A9 @ […]

MyGica ATV582 Enjoy TV Box Powered by Amlogic S802 Is Now Available for $139

Geniatech has historically been the company which first delivered set-top box and media player solutions based on Amlogic processors. I’m not sure it’s still the case with Amlogic S802 and other S80x SoCs, as other companies appear to have released their products first such as Tronsmart Vega S89 and M8 Android TV boxes, but Geniatech ATV582 based on Amlogic S802 quad core processor has been available since April under the company’s retail brand Mygica. Mygica ATV582 specifications: SoC – AMLogic S802 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor @ 2GHz with Mali‐450MP6 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + micro SD card slot Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, Wi‐Fi 802.11 b/g/n Video & Audio Output – HDMI, AV. HDMI supports 1080p, 4K2K 30fps Video Codecs and Containers – MPEG1/2/4, H.264, AVC, VC‐1, RM/RMVB, Xvid, DivX3/4/5/6, RealVideo8/9/10… Audio – MP3, WMA, AAC, WAV, OGG, AC3, DDP, TrueHD, DTS, DTS […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC

Meet Samsung Smart Bike fitted with an Arduino, a Rear Camera, Lasers and More

Samsung Maestros Academy has introduced a Smart Bike prototype integrating various “smart” components within its aluminum frame, such as an Arduino board connected to a Wi-Fi + Bluetooth module, a battery, four laser projectors, and a digital camera controlled by a Samsung smartphone. The camera is fitted at the back just under the seat, and allows the riders to have a real-time rear view image on the phone. The four lasers are used to create a virtual bike lane in case a real one is missing, and remind other drivers to keep a safe distance to your bicycle. The bike can also detect ambient conditions using the smartphone sensors, and modify its behavior. For example, it can switch on or off the laser beams depending on the brightness sensor data from the smartphone. Each bike also tracks daily routes of the riders using GPS, and can let local authorities know where bicycle traffic is most intense, and […]

Vidonn X5 USB & Bluetooth LE Activity Tracker Sells for $27.61

Many companies have launched activity trackers, some small watch-like device that you wear around your wrist, and that monitor fitness related data such as the number steps and the distance you’ve walked during the, the calories you’ve burnt, and even your sleep quality. However, I’ve never understood why you would pay more than $30-$40 for such devices, let alone around $100. Vidonn X5 is one of the low cost devices that still looks decent, and can be found on many Chinese online stores for about $40 to $50. But DealExtreme currently has a promotion selling the device for just $27.61 which makes it even better value. Vidonn X5 specifications: MCU/Memory – Unknown Display – 0.49″ OLED display Connectivity –  Bluetooth 4.0 LE and micro USB Battery – 40mAh Li-battery good for 4 days on a charge IP Rating – IP65 (Dust-proof and waterproof to water jets) Operating Temperature – -20’C~45’C Maximum Operating Altitude […]

Linux 3.15 Released

Linus Torvalds announced the release of Linux Kernel 3.15 last Sunday: So I ended up doing an rc8 because I was a bit worried about some last-minute dcache fixes, but it turns out that nobody seemed to even notice those. We did have other issues during the week, though, so it was just as well. The futex fixes and cleanups may stand out, but as usual there’s various other random fixes since rc8 in there too: mainly drivers (drm, networking, sound, usb etc), networking, scheduling and perf tooling. But it’s all been fairly small and quiet, which *may* of course be due to the fact that last week was also the first week of the merge window for 3.16. That might have distracted some developers. I’m not entirely convinced I liked the overlap, but it seemed to work ok, and unless people scream really loudly (“Please don’t _ever_ do that again”) and give good […]

Texas Instruments Releases Zigbee Home Automation Gateway Reference Design Based on BeagleBone Black

Texas Instruments has recently release a complete Linux based Zigbee home automation gateway based on BeagleBone Black development and CC2531 Evaluation Module Kit hardware which you can purchase for about $100 in total, and including Z-STACK Ubuntu gateway installer, as well as Z-STACK Home, a ZigBee Home Automation (ZHA 1.2) compliant protocol stack for the company’s CC2530 and CC2538 SoCs. I won’t go into details about the BeagleBone Black as I have already covered it into details previously. However, the hardware has slightly changed since the initial release, as the 2GB eMMC has now been replaced by a 4GB eMMC, and price has been increased to about $55. CC2531 evaluation module kit is comprised of CC2531 USB Dongle which you can connect to the USB port of a PC, or in this case a BeagleBone Black, for 802.15.4 / ZigBee applications. TI also provides CC2531 USB Firmware Library on their site to let developers […]

UP 7000 SBC

Teclast P98 3G Tablet is Powered by Mediatek MT8135 big.LITTLE SoC

Several companies have announced processors with big.LITTLE processing technology, but until recently only some Samsung Exynos 5 processors (Exynos 5420, 5422, and 5260) are found in products available for purchase. Available a few weeks ago, Teclast P98 3G tablet changes that as it is powered by Mediatek MT8135 quad core processor featuring big.LITTLE processing. Teclast P98 3G specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT8135 (aka MTK8135) with two ARM Cortex A15 cores @ 1.5 GHz (1MB L2 cache), two ARM Cortex A7 cores @ 1.2 GHz (256KB L2 cache) in big.LITTLE configuration, and Imagination PowerVR GC6200 GPU System Memory –  2GB DDR3 Storage – 32GB eMMC (UP to 120 MB/s) + micro SD slot Display – 9.7″ 2048×1536 IPS screen Video Output – HDMI Audio – Earphone jack, and AAC stereo speakers Connectivity – WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, GPS, FM Cellular – Built-in 3G WCDMA modem and one SIM card slot (Not for Wi-Fi only version) USB – 1x […]

1TB Seagate Expansion Portable Drive USB 3.0 Benchmark

Many upcoming ARM based board and device will support better connectivity with Gigagit Ethernet and USB 3.0 port, and Wi-Fi 802.11ac support. Since my media files are stored in a USB 2.0 hard drive, and my network is still using fast Ethernet and 802.11n, I had to go shopping. I’ve already purchased a 5-port Gigabit switch (D-Link DGS-1005A), and an an external USB 3.0 hard drive (Seagate Expansion 1TB Portable External Hard Drive), but I’m still looking for a decent and reasonably priced 802.11ac router (Suggestions welcomed). I’ll plan to use the USB 3.0 drive both to test file transfers over Gigabit, USB 3.0 performance, and file systems compatibility. So I’ve partitioned the drive using four common filesystems: NTFS, EXT-4, FAT32, and BTRFS, and both to make sure the drive is suitable for Gigabit transfer, and as a reference point, I’ve also performed some benchmarks. There are several tools to test […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC