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Tizen Shows Up in Smartphones, Ultrabooks, and Cars

I’ve seen a lot of tweets about Tizen in the last fews days, mainly because Tizen Conference 2013 just took place. First there’s been Tizen 2.1 SDK release, and few demos have surfaced,  showcasing Tizen in their target devices: smartphones, tablets,smart TVs, laptops, and In-vehicle infotainment devices. Beside all the work done, the companies behind the project will also offer $4 million to developers who publish apps on Tizen store. There will be 9 categories. The best 3 games will get $200,000 each, and the best apps in the other 6 categories $120,000 each. Tizen App Challenge will start on June 3, 2013, and you can see details for this program here. Let’s see the demos. First Tizen in Samsung developer smartphone running Qt 5.1, and the usual Qt5 Cinematic Experience demo, as well as 2 others apps, both super smooth. (via TizenExperts). You can find more information in Qt […]

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AMD Launches Three New Mobile APU Families: Elite Mobility, Mainstream, and Performance

AMD has just announced three new Mobile Accelerated Processing Unit (APU) lineup, which better  performance and power efficiency. AMD’s APU brings the CPU and GPU on a single chip, and connects to an external chipset to handle peripherals. Here are the three new families of processors from lower to higher performance: 2013 AMD Elite Mobility APU (codenamed “Temash”) – 28nm, dual and quad-core x86 APU designed for touch small form-factor notebooks (i.e. netbooks),  tablets, and hybrids 13-inches and below; Performance between Intel Atom and Core i3. 3.9 to 8W TDP. The 2013 AMD Mainstream APU (codenamed “Kabini”) – Quad-core x86 SoC solution for entry-level and small-form factor touch notebooks; Performance equivalent to Intel Pentium and Core i3 depending on model. 9 to 25W TDP 2013 AMD Elite Performance APU (codenamed “Richland”) – For premium ultrathin notebooks. Equivalent to Intel Core i3 to Core i5, depending on model. 17 to 35W […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Review of Kimdecent CS868 mini PC Powered by AllWinner A31

Kimdecent sells some cheap RK3188 mini PCs such as QC802 for $76, but instead of sending me yet another RK3188 device, they agreed to send CS868, an HDMI TV dongle powered by AllWinner A31 quad core processor, so that I could review it. This mini PC comes with 2GB RAM and 16GB Flash, the latter being larger than the 8GB flash found in most other devices, and is available for $95 on Kimdecent Aliexpress store. More details about the specifications are available on Unuiga U28 post since the hardware is the same. In theory, AllWinner A31 has a much slower CPU than Rockchip RK3188, but its PowerVR 544MP2 GPU should outperform the Mali-400 MP4 found it the Rockchip processor, and A31 supports 4K2K video decoding. In this post, I’ll show some unboxing picture, give my first impressions, test Wi-Fi performance, video playback capabilities, and run some benchmarks. CS868 Unboxing Pictures […]

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DealExtreme 50% Discount on Mini PCs, Class 10 SD Cards, RF Remote Controls and More

DealExtreme has started a promotion that is taking place on May, 15-20 offering 50% discount on selected products. I’ve gone through the list, and found several RK3066 Android mini PCs all priced between $23 and $27, as well as some other items that may be of interest to readers of this blog. [Update: Sorry, in just a couple of hours, all items listed below are already sold out] Android Mini PCs: MK808 – $25.00 – One of the most used Android mini PC. Powered by Rockchip RK3066 with 1GB RAM, 8GB Flash. The version in DX runs Android 4.1.1, but a beta Android 4.2.2 firmware is also available. MK808B –  $23.50 – Same as MK808, but with Bluetooth, and somehow it’s cheaper… Rikomagic MK802 IIIS – $27.10 – Rockchip RK3066 powered mini PC with 1GB RAM and 8GB Flash. Contrary to the previous 2 that feature a HDMI female connector, […]

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Intel Takes on ARM with Silvermont Microarchitecture for Low Power SoCs

Intel has launched Silvermont, a new microarchitecture for low power SoC targeting smartphones, tablets, and servers in data centers. Silvermont SoC will be manufactured using 22nm Tri-Gate SoC process, and the company claims 3x times more peak performance than current generation Atom processors, or 5 times less power consumption at the same performance level. Silvermont will be used in Bay Trail, Avoton,  and Merrifield processors: Intel’s quad-core “Bay Trail” SoC is scheduled for Q4 2013 tablets, and variants of the “Bay Trail” platform will also be used in market segments including entry laptop and desktop computers. Intel’s “Merrifield” is scheduled to ship to customers by the end of this year, and actual smartphones will show up in 2014. Intel’s “Avoton” will be used in low power microservers, and provide full server product capability that customers require including 64-bit, integrated fabric, error code correction, Intel virtualization technologies and software compatibility. Intel […]

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Matricom G-Box Midnight MX2 Android TV Box Review

Matricom sent me one of their latest G-Box Midnight MX2 media player based on AMLogic AML8726-M6, with 1GB RAM, 8 GB flash, running Android 4.2, and with full support for XBMC. This is an update of the G-Box Midnight based on AML8726-M3 which supports XBMC in Android, as well as XBMC Linux thanks to community builds. Specifications: SoC – Amlogic AML8726-MX Dual Core Cortex A9 CPU + dual core Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage – 8GB Flash + SD card slot (Up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI v1.4, composite (CVBS) and component (YUV) Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and SPDIF Connectivity – 802.11b/g/n internal Wifi + 10/100 Ethernet Port USB – 4x USB 2.0 Ports (1 might be OTG) IR sensor Power Supply – 5V/2A The hardware and software is very similar to Tronsmart Prometheus (See review), as both are based on AML8726-MX, run Android […]

Intel Arc Graphics Technology
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CloudnetGo CR-M200 Low cost Miracast Adapter

Low cost Miracast dongles are finally coming to market. Rockchip demonstrated a $10 (BoM price?) Miracast dongle running Linux at the Hong Kong Electronics Fair earlier this month, and it seems CloudnetGo will bring a device, possibly based on this RK2928 design, with its “CR-M200 WiFi Display Dongle”. Connect this device to the HDMI port of your TV, and you’ll be able to mirror your Miracast-enabled Android smartphone or tablet display on the big screen, as well as use it as a smart video controller. CloudnetGo Miracast Adapter Specifications: SoC – ARM Cortex A9 @ 1GHz with Mali 400 GPU. Flash – 16 MB Nor Flash System Memory – 256MB DDR3 WiFi – WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Miracast and DLNA support HDMI port and micro USB for power Dimensions – 61mm x 31mm x 8mm This adapter will come with a USB cable, and an optional 5V/500mA power adapter, which may not […]

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Tronsmart MK908 Quad Core HDMI TV Stick Review

Yesterday, I published some pictures of MK908, and this morning I updated it to the latest firmware, so it’s time to review this mini PC powered by Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 SoC. First Boot, Settings, and First Impressions First of all, the firmware update has not changed the Home Screen, and we still get a standard Android Home Screen with an animated wallpaper. Screenshot and volume buttons are shown in the status bar, but there’s no soft power button, and no full screen button. Hopefully the power button can be added in next firmware update, and as we’ll see later the lack of full screen button is not really an issue. As usual, I’ve gone to the settings menu to configure Wi-Fi, and I had no problem to connect. The device also supports Bluetooth (built-in), and you can setup to device with VPN, as a hotspot, and add […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC