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$49.90 MarsBoard is Yet Another AllWinner A10 Development Board

After the tablet based Gooseberry and Hackberry boards, as well as Cubieboard and the upcoming A10-Olinuxino development boards, here’s another development board based on AllWinner A10 called the MarsBoard that looks very similar to the Cubieboard. Here are the key features of the board: SoC – AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 @ 1 GHz + Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DRAM Storage – 4GB Flash + 1x microSD card (up to 32GB) Video Output – HDMI Audio Output – 3.5mm stereo jack USB – 2x USB host port + 1x microUSB Connectivity – 10/100 M Ethernet SATA Connector Headers – 2x 2.0mm GPIO headers. (140 pins in total) Power Supply Requirements – 5V/2A Dimensions – 80mm x 55mm There’s also a 3.5mm jack but I’m not sure if it’s just for audio in or out, or for composite output. The website is still in construction (basically a modified copy of […]

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Future Versions of Ubuntu To Feature Mir Display Server Compatible With Android Graphics Drivers

The X server is getting old, and many developers complain it’s not an optimal solution anymore due to its (over) complexity, which was why Wayland was developed. However, it turns out Ubuntu will not use Wayland, but instead their own display server called Mir which will be used in all form factors from phones to desktops. Phoronix has provided a quick summary about the key aspects of Mir: Mir is a new display server being developed at Canonical and it is not based on X.Org or Wayland. Android graphics drivers will be supported. Existing DRM/KMS/Mesa/GBM (the open-source Linux graphics drivers) will work. Canonical is pressuring the binary blob vendors to make their drivers compatible. There will be support for legacy X11 applications through an integrated root-less X.Org Server. Canonical will natively support GTK3 and Qt/QML toolkits with Mir. Mir will be used for all form factors from Ubuntu Phones to […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Measy U2C Gets Finless ROM and PicUntu Support

A few weeks ago, I reviewed Measy U2C, a Rockchip RK3066 mini PC with a webcam using the stock Android firmware. Since then other people received the device, and started to work on improving it notably by releasing a Finless ROM and providing instructions to install PicUbuntu on the device. Bob Finless is Freaktab.com administrator., and he has released popular custom ROM for the most commonly RK3066 mini PCs, and this time it’s Measy U2C turn! Measy U2C Finless ROM This first custom ROM is based on the latest ROM released on Geekbuying (March 1st, 2013) that fixes the CPU frequency, and let the device now achieve 9200 Antutu score. The Finless ROM brings the following improvements: Fully rooted with the latest SU and SUperUser.apk. All Google apps updated to latest, except Google Search. Deleted unusable and junk apps. Cleaned up the file system with tune2fs. Increased “system” space for […]

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Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview Is Now Available for the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4, 7 and 10 Devices

As promised with the announcement of Ubuntu on Tablets, Canonical released a developer preview of Ubuntu 12.10 for smartphones and tablets that can be installed in Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones, as well as Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets. It is an experimental development snapshot that could potentially brick your device. Many features are still not available but you should be able to access the following: Shell and core applications Connection to the GSM network (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4) Phone calls and SMS (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4) Networking via Wifi Functional camera (front and back) Device accessible through the Android Developer Bridge tool (adb) You’ll be able to reinstall Android after trying it out, but all your data will be lost, unless you use apps such as Titanium Backup. The instructions to install Ubuntu 12.10 Touch are available on Canonical website, and you’ll basically […]

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Final Release of Fedora 18 for AllWinner A10 & A13 Powered Devices

A few months ago, Hans de Goede, currently working at Red Hat and a Fedora contributor, started to show up on linux-sunxi mailing list, and sent a lot of kernel patches for linux-sunxi kernel. Last week-end, he  announced “Fedora 18 Final for Allwinner A10 and A13 based devices” on linux-sunxi community mailing list. To install it, first download the image:

And write it to an SD card (all data will be wiped out):

You may have to replace “/dev/mmcblk0” by your own SD card device, e.g. “/dev/sdc”. AllWinner based devices can share the same kernel, but u-boot is board/products specific, so you’ll have to install u-boot for your board. First remove the SD card, re-insert it in order to automatically mount the FAT partition, and run:

This will show the list of supported boards and products. Then run the command again for your device. For example:

[…]

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Kimdecent Droid Stick A2 Review

At the beginning of December 2012, I wrote a post about Droid Stick A2 mini PC based on AMLogic AML-8726-MX to show some pictures of the device, but I could not really test as the firmware was not complete, and was promise a working firmware soon. Unfortunately, things did not really go according to plans for this hardware, so the firmware never showed up… Luckily, Kimdecent found another version of the device with basically the same specs, a slightly different casing, and more importantly a “working” firmware. The company was kind enough to send me another sample for review. Droid Stick A2 Unboxing Here’s what the new Droid Stick A2 and its accessories look like. Beside Droid Stick A2 mini PC, the package contains a power adapter (5V/2A), a mini USB to USB cable, a short HDMI cable and a user’s manual in English. A close up shows the device […]

Intel Arc Graphics Technology
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Marvell SMILE Plug DevKit is Now Available for $199

The SMILE Plug is a development kit, designed jointly by Marvell and Standford University, that brings Wi-Fi connectivity to a classroom, and allows up to 60 pupils / students to interact with their teacher via their phones’ or tablets’ web browser. Other possible applications include cloud computing, wireless AP, industrial control, medical instrumentation, office automation, as well as mesh and grid computing. The SMILE Plug is now available with the following updated specifications: SoC – Marvell ARMv7 compliant Marvell ARMADA 370 CPU System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 Storage – 1 GB NAND Flash + microSD slot Connectivity WiFi 802.11 a/b/g/n via Marvell Avastar 88W8764 4×4 WiFi for up to 60 nodes 2x Gigabit Ethernet USB – 2x USB 3.0 External backup battery for hours of reserve power* (optional accessory) Power on button and restart Power Supply – 12V/2amp external power supply JTAG and UART port for programming and debugging […]

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WonderMedia PRIZM WM8980 Dual Cortex A9 SoC

WonderMedia Technologies, a subsidiary of Via Technologies, has recently announced the WonderMedia PRIZM  WM8950, a dual core Cortex A9 processor running up to 1.2 Ghz with a Mali-400MP2 GPU. This new SoC supports Android 4.2 Jelly Bean, Linux, and WinCE 7, and targets applications for mobile, digital home and business applications in devices such as tablets, smart TVs, networked projectors, digital signage players, and thin clients. It also features integration of the Wi-Fi CERTIFIED Miracast standard into the WonderMedia SmartStream for support of DMR (Digital Media Renderer) and wireless display functionalities over standard compliant and legacy WiFi direct and WiFi devices in both embedded and Android environments. WM8980 supports HDMI, LVDS, and DVO video interfaces, features a CMOS sensor input for webcams,  SD / SDIO / MMC / e-MMC interfaces, USB 2.0 Host/device, audio interfaces (I2S, S/PDIF, PCM), SPI, I2C, UARTs and GPIO. Wi-Fi and Bluetooth can be supported with […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC