Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments on Receive Android SMS & Call Notifications in Ubuntu 16.04 with KDE Connect (or Not?)

Receive Android SMS & Call Notifications in Ubuntu 16.04 with KDE Connect (or Not?)

I often miss calls, and I may be slow to answer SMS on my Android phone, but I’m often in front of my computer, so I decided to look for solutions to show SMS and call notifications on my computer running Ubuntu 16.04. I first found LinConnect, but it does not seem to be developed anymore, and after some more research I discovered that KDE Connect should do the job. The developer just released KDE Connect 1.0 a few weeks ago with add encryption, the ability to reply to SMS from your computer and more… One person posted instructions for Kubuntu 16.04. There’s just a problem it won’t work with Unity desktop, only KDE Plasma, due to a lack of support for Qt 5.6. You can still use the older version without encryption and other new features by “simply” running:

However the installation failed for me:

An “apt […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments on A.I. Thinker A20 Plus ESP8266 WiFi Board Includes GPRS Support and a VGA Camera

A.I. Thinker A20 Plus ESP8266 WiFi Board Includes GPRS Support and a VGA Camera

A.I. Thinker, a company known for its ESP8266 module, has designed a new intriguing product with A20Plus board powered by Espressif ESP8266 (or ESP8285) WiFi SoC, that also features GPRS connectivity, and a 0.3MP camera. There’s basically no info on the “English Internet”, but Raymond Tunning found lots of info in Chinese, and posted information and links on his blog. A20 Plus board specifications: Wireless Module – A.I. Thinker A20 module with GPRS and WiFi (ESP8266 or ESP8285), two antennas connector Camera – VGA camera interface (up to 640×480 resolution) compatible with OV7670, GC0308, GC0328, & GC0309 sensors. Expansion – 2x headers with GPIO, ADC, power signals… USB – 1x micro USB port for power and programming Misc – Reset and user button, two LEDs (for flash?) Dimensions – TBC An Android app (binary + source code) is provide to retrieve pictures (apparently no video for now) over WiFi or […]

Khadas Edge2 Arm mini PC
Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 29 Comments on Broadlink MP1 Quad Socket WiFi Power Strip Review and Teardown

Broadlink MP1 Quad Socket WiFi Power Strip Review and Teardown

Broadlink MP1 is an inexpensive ($20) power strip with four international sockets that can be controlled over WiFi. Since I was interested in finding out how the power strip was designed internally, I asked GearBest whether they could send a sample for evaluation, which they did, and I got it today. So I’ll first check the device, and hardware design, before trying it with the Android app. Broadlink MP1 Unboxing I don’t have much to say about the package, it’s just a bland white box with Broadlink logo. The bottom of the package is useful however, as it contains a sort of user guide in Chinese together with the specifications. I could not find any mentions of CE/FCC/CCC (for WiFi) or UL/TUV (safety) certifications on the package. There’s no more information inside the box, except what looks like a warranty card in Chinese. The power strip itself has four multi-standard […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments on Widora-NEO OpenWrt WiFi IoT & Audio Board is Based on Mediatek MT7688 SoC, WM8960 Audio DAC

Widora-NEO OpenWrt WiFi IoT & Audio Board is Based on Mediatek MT7688 SoC, WM8960 Audio DAC

A couple of weeks ago, I reviewed ReSpeaker board combining MediaTek MT7688 WiFi SoC with WM8960 audio DAC, running OpenWrt, and allowing you to perform tasks using text-to-speech and speech-to-text thanks to the built-in microphone (or optional microphone array), and a 3.5mm audio jack to connect speakers, as well as several I/O pins. It turns out there’s been board with similar features, minus the built-in microphone, available in China for a while. Meet Widora-NEO. Widora-NEO board specifications: SoC – Mediatek MT7688AN MIPS SoC @ 580 MHz with built-in WiFi System Memory – 128 MB RAM Storage – 16MB SPI flash, micro SD card Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi 1T1R up to 150 Mbps with PCB antenna, or IPEX connector Audio – 3.5mm jack for stereo headphone and mono microphone, WM8960G audio codec USB – 1x micro USB port for programming via CP2104 chip, 1x micro USB host (or […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments on SCISHION V88 PRO TV Box Powered by Amlogic S905X SoC Sells for $22 (Promo)

SCISHION V88 PRO TV Box Powered by Amlogic S905X SoC Sells for $22 (Promo)

Amlogic S905X was supposed to allow for cheaper TV boxes compared to Amlogic S905 ones thanks to more integration with built-in Ethernet and audio DAC, as well as support for 2-layer PCB. It also adds 4K VP9 support, but it’s mostly useful for YouTube 4K, a feature only available in devices running Android TV operating system, with Xiaomi Mi Box the only option that I’m aware of based on S905X. Amlogic S905X has also been found to be slower than Amlogic S905 processor, so unless you absolutely need Android 6.0 or/and VP9 support, there’s very little reason to buy an Amlogic S905X box if it’s more expensive, which was the case for most devices so far. SCISHION V88 PRO TV box changes that somewhat as the Amlogic S905X TV box is sold for just $21.99 on GearBest. SCISHION V88 Pro: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments on $20 pcDuino4 Nano is Yet Another Allwinner H3 Development Board (Sort of)

$20 pcDuino4 Nano is Yet Another Allwinner H3 Development Board (Sort of)

We already have plenty of low cost Allwinner H3 development boards thanks to several Shenzhen Xunlong Orange Pi boards and FriendlyARM NanoPi boards among a few others. Here comes another one with pcDuino4 Nano. pcDuino4 Nano (preliminary?) specifications: SoC – Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU up to 600 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 SDRAM Storage – micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI and 3.5mm jack for CVBS (composite + stereo audio) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet USB – 3x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x micro USB OTG port Camera – DVP Interface Expansions – 40-pin Raspberry Pi compatible header with UART, SPI, I2C, PWM, GPIOs, etc… Debugging – 4-pin header for serial console Misc – Power and reset buttons; 2x LEDs; IR receiver; on-board microphone. Power Supply – 5V/2A via micro USB port; 5V via VDD_5V pin […]

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Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on ZTE CSX Crowd-sourced Project Gets to Concept Phase with Eye-tracking Phone, Robotic Glove, Submersible VR Headset

ZTE CSX Crowd-sourced Project Gets to Concept Phase with Eye-tracking Phone, Robotic Glove, Submersible VR Headset

ZTE launched CSX Project last month in order to design a smartphone or other consumer product based on input from the community. People submitted ideas last month, and voted for the best ideas at the beginning of September, and the results are now in. There used to be a popular proposal to make a ZTE Ubuntu phone, but for some reasons since they may make one anyway, this has not been selected by the jury, and instead the three winning ideas are: Self-Adhesive Smartphone with Optimized User Interface via Eye Tracking System and Split Screen Technology Powerglove (Android application control of hands) VR – Interactive diving mask The first solution had by far the most votes, and the main purpose is to use the phone without touching it. Two laser-focused front cameras would track the eye movement to let the user scroll the screen with eye, while it’s been stuck […]

Posted on by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments on Borg Lets You Search for Bash Commands within the Terminal

Borg Lets You Search for Bash Commands within the Terminal

There are so many commands available in bash that it’s impossible to know them all, and some commands are rarely run. Usually, you have to switch to your web browser to search for a solution or spending time reading through the manpage. In case you’d like to search for a specific command line you can now do so with borg script. If you want to give it a try, you can install it in Linux as follows:

Then run the script with your search query in quotes. Some explanations for the output: () denotes hits for your query [] denotes possible solutions … under a [] means more lines to display a “–” in a solution means separate code examples extracted from the same source Some queries are returning useful results such as “list all files in dir” as show in the screenshot above, but others not so, as […]

Khadas VIM4 SBC