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Singles’ Day 2018 Promotions on GearBest, Aliexpress, GeekBuying, Banggood…

Taking place every year in China on November 11, Singles’ Day is the equivalent of Black Friday and Cyber Monday in the US with shops offering large discounts on various products. The good news is that the event is not actually limited to China, since popular online shopping websites based in China will all organize events and promotions for overseas customers. I posted a list of Singles’ Day promotions in 2017, and I’ll do that again this year with promotions launched by shops like GeekBuying, Aliexpress, GearBest, and others, often starting in early November, and culminating on November 11 for the deepest discounts. GearBest GearBest will have two main Singles’ Day events: Deposit Expansion – To maximize your saving, GearBest implemented a “deposit expansion” policy. This is a FREE bonus that increases the worth of the deposit you made. Put a deposit in advance, get the extra discount when finalizing […]

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A95X Plus TV Box Features Amlogic S905Y2 Processor

Amlogic showcased three reference platforms based on new processors namely S905Y2, S905X2, and S922X at ICB 2018. Let’s forget about the more powerful S922X processor for now since it should be released a bit latter, but S905Y2 was integrated into a HDMI stick reference design, while S905X2 was found in a TV box reference design. We’ve also covered an Amlogic S905X2 TV box with X96 MAX model, but today I came across a model based on Amlogic S905Y2 processor instead. Meet A95X Plus.A95X Plus TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905Y2 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 1.8 GHz (TBC) with Mali-G31 MP2 “Dvalin” GPU System Memory – 4GB LPDDR4 Storage – 32GB flash, micro SD card slot (but not visible on any of the photos) Video & Audio Output – HDMI 2.0a output with HDR, AV port (composite) Video Codecs –  VP9 Profile-2 up to 4K 60fps, 10-bit […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
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Amlogic A311D Media Processor Features Cortex A73/A53 Cores, an Arm Mali-G52 MP4 GPU

As far as processors are concerned, it’s been pretty quiet in the TV box space in this year with for example, devices based on Amlogic S922 yet to launch, and new TV boxes are normally launched with processors such as Amlogic S905X/Z/W or S912, as well as Rockchip RK3328 or RK3229. But this morning,  I’ve been informed that Amlogic is working on a more powerful media processor based on info from buildroot release notes  Amlogic A311D is an hexa-core processor featuring four Arm Cortex A73 cores, two Cortex A53 cores, and an Arm Mali-G52-MP4 GPU. Amlogic A311D specifications known so far: CPU – 4x Arm Cortex A73 @ TBD GHz, 2x Arm Cortex A53 GPU – Arm Mali-G52 MP4 Memory I/F – DDR3/4; LPDDR3/4 Storage I/F – eMMC, SD/SDHC/SDXC Video Output – HDMI Tx up to 4K2K @ 60 Hz with CEC & HDR support, CVBS Video Processing Unit (VPU) […]

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ODROID-N1 Canceled due to RAM Supply Issues, ODROID-N2 Coming Later this Year

Rockchip RK3399 powered by ODROID-N1 board was unveiled earlier this year with two SATA interfaces, up to 4GB RAM, HDMI 2.0 4K UHD output, Gigabit Ethernet,  and more. The plan was to launch the board in May or June for around $100. Sadly, the board has been canceled for reasons we’ll explain below, but the silver lining is that a more powerful ODROID-N2 should become available by the end of the year. The reason for the cancellation is all explained in a forum post in ODROID forums: After announcing the N1 board in February, we started to prepare all the components for the mass production. But Samsung and Hynix suddenly informed us 1GB DDR3 chip was End-of-Life phase and we couldn’t place any order. It meant we could not make 4GB model since there must be four DRAM chips mounted on the board. We could make a 2GB model only […]

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Amlogic S905D2 Quad Core Cortex A53 Processor Coming Soon with Google Fuchsia Support

Earlier today, I wrote about the latest version of USB Burning Tool, and noticed added support for Amlogic “905D2” processor in the changelog. I had heard about Amlogic S905X2, but S905D2? Never. I could find information in some recent Buildroot/Linux release notes, and as one would expect it’s another quad core Cortex A53 processor, and likely an update of S905D processor targeting set-top boxes with multiple independent tuners. Amlogic S905D2 specifications known so far: Processor – Arm Quad Cortex-A53 at up to 1.896 GHz GPU – Arm Dvalin MP2 GPU (Likely meaning Arm Mali-G31MP2) Memory I/F – DDR3/4, LPDDR3/4 Security – TrustZone & TVP Video decoding – 4K H265, VP9, and AVS2 Video Encoding – 1080p H264 H265 Video I/F – HDMI-Tx up to 4K2K, CVBS Ethernet – 10/100M/1000M IP License – Dolby, DTS There’s no mention about TS or DVB,  but it appears the processor may be clocked faster […]

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Rockchip Unveils RK3308 & Gemini Cortex-A35 Processors for Smart Speakers

Rockchip has posted a tweet about smart speakers, specifically about Midea AI speaker based on Rockchip RK3229, but the second image is what caught my eyes, as it reveals two new Arm Cortex A35 processor designed for “Smart AI solutions”, namely RK3308 and “Gemini” Processor. Rockchip RK3308 “mainstream” processor specifications: CPU – Quad core Cortex A35 processor GPU – TBD (maybe none?) Audio Integrated 8-ch ADC and hardware VAD (Voice Activity Detection) module Multi-channel PDM/I2S/TDM audio interface Rockchip Gemini “high-end” processor specifications: CPU – Quad core Cortex A35 processor GPU – Mali Dvalin MP2 GPU Audio – “high-end smart audio solution”; multi-channel PDM/I2S/TDM audio interface Video I/O – LCD screen & camera support Rockchip will provide support for Android Thing and Linux for the processors, as well as integration with MIC arrays boards and popular voice services such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant,  Baidu DuerOS, and others. Arm Cortex A35 […]

AAEON Intel Arc
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$38 MECOOL M8S PRO W “with Voice Control” TV Box Runs Android TV 7.1 OS

There was a time when most TV boxes would run Android operating system for mobile with lots of modifications to make it suitable for the big screen, except for a few models that would run the official Android TV operating systems. But things are now changing, with announced from Geniatech, WeTek, and others all announcing certified Android TV set-top boxes and media hubs. We’ve even been told Amlogic will now only provide Android TV SDK from now on with no support for “normal Android”, and the good news is that inexpensive TV box running Android TV will become common place, and one of those devices, MECOOL M8S PRO W is the cheapest I’ve seen so far going for $37.99 shipped with coupon DSJMVRWB (pre-order) MECOOL M8S PRO W specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905W quad core ARM Cortex-A53 processor with penta-core Mali-450MP3 GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 2GB DDR3 […]

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