Google Nexus 7 Tablet (8GB) is Now Available Worldwide… for $330

If you do not live in one of the 8 countries where Google Nexus 7 is for sale, namely the US, Canada, the UK, France, Germany, Spain, Australia and Japan [Update: Actually it seems to be officially available in more countries now (e.g. South Kore, Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong…) , but I can’t find an exact list], and still want to get your hands on a Nexus 7 tablet, there is now an option as the Google Nexus 7 (8 GB) can be bought via Dealextreme for $330.30 including (slow shipping) via Hong Kong Post. That’s about $100 more expensive than the original price on Google Play ($199 + ~$30 shipping + taxes), but it may be one of the only options, if you don’t live (or have friends) in the countries where Google Devices are available. The Nexus 7 (8 GB) is not for sale anymore on Google Play, […]

Motorola Announces ATRIX HD Smartphone Developer Edition

After 5 months after Motorola ATRIX HD hit the market, Motorola announced it would make a developer edition of the core Qualcomm MSM8960 Snapdragon based smartphone that comes with unlockable bootloader so that developers can play around and install their own firmware. Apparently the ability to unlock the bootloader is the only extra “feature” you get with this phone. You’ll then need to use a tool to unlock the device, lose your warranty, and start creating and flashing custom ROM to your phone. There is no plan to allow this on the “standard” edition of the phone  however, and efforts by the XDA developer community to unlock the bootloader do not appear to have been successful to date, except for some some Atrix HD bought from Ebay which already came unlocked.  Motorola ATRIX HD developer edition will be available soon for an undisclosed price, and only in the US. If […]

Variscite VAR-SOM-MX6 Freescale i.MX 6 Solo, Dual and Quad System on Modules Start at $59

Variscite has unveiled a new series of system on modules powered by Freescale i.MX6 Solo, Dual, DualLite and Quad processors with 512 to 2048 MB DDR3 RAM, and 128 to 1024MB SLC NAND Flash. Here are the modules key features: SoC – Freescale i.MX 6 series SoC (Single/Dual /Quad ARM® Cortex™-A9 Core, 1.2 Ghz) System Memory • Up to 16 Gb DDR3 RAM Storage – Up to 8 Gb NAND Flash for storage memory/boot Video Output: 2 x LVDS display interface HDMI V1.4 i nterface 1 x MIPI DSI Touch panel interface Camera – Parallel & serial camera interface (CSI) Connectivity On-board 10/100/1000 Mbps Ethernet PHY WLAN (802.11 b/g/n) Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR USB – 1 x USB 2.0 host, 1 x OTG Audio – Stereo line -In/out, digital & analog microphone, and S/PDIF In/Out Other interfaces: 2 x SD/MMC Serial interfaces ( SPI , I2C, UART, I2S,) 2x CAN […]

$100 Mele A1000G / A2000G Android Media Players with 1GB RAM and 8GB Flash

I’ve been asked by several people when there would be a Mele with 1GB RAM, well the time is now, with the Mele A1000G and Mele A2000G. Both appear to be based on the previous Mele A1000 and Mele A2000 set-top boxes, but feature 1 GB RAM and 8 GB Flash instead of 512 MB RAM and 4 GB Flash. Here are Mele A1000G & Mele A2000G Specifications: SoC – AllWinner A10 Cortex A8 processor @  1GHz System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage: 8GB NAND Flash  SD card slot (up to 32 GB) Connectivity: Wi-Fi – 802.11 b/g 10/100 MB Ethernet USB – 3 USB Host ports SATA Interface for 2.5″ HDD Video Output – HDMI, composite and VGA. Audio Output –  RCA stereo output and optical out (SPDIF) Audio Formats – MP3 / WMA / WAV / OGG / FLAC / MKA Video Formats – TS / M2TS […]

PengPod 700 & 1000 – Linux Tablets Based on AllWinner A10

There are plenty of tablet based on AllWinner A10 and A13 processors, but all of them run Android, and you are out of luck if  you want to run Linux on your tablet, unless you hack this yourself. But this is about to change as PengPod will launch 2 tablets and 1 mini PC running Linux from NAND flash or micro SD card: PengPod 700 – 7″ tablet with Allwinner A10, 1GB RAM and 8GB Flash PengPod 1000 – 10″ tablet with AllWinner A10, 1GB RAM and 8GB Flash PengStick – AllWinner A10 mini PC with 1GB RAM and 4 GB Flash The table below gives more detailed specifications and comparison of the three devices. Device PengPod1000 PengPod700 PengStick Type Tablet Tablet TV Stick CPU Allwinner A10 AllWinner A10 AllWinner A10 Android 4 4 4 Linux 3.0.42 3.0.42 3.0.42 Screen 10” 7” External Resolution 1024×600 800×480 1080i Ram 1GB 1GB […]

Rockchip RK3066 UG802 mini PC is Now Available for Just $46.50

Earlier today, a reader left a comment about a mini PC based on RK2908 sold for $40 including shipping on Ebay. No bad! But since I hadn’t checked mini PCs on Aliexpress for a few months, I decided to have a look for cheap devices. The cheapest sold by a company with decent feedback is the IP872 ($34 including shipping), but it’s based on an ARM11 chip (Infotmic IMAPX 200) and runs Android 2.3, so I don’t find it that interesting. There are also some AllWinner A10 mini PCs that cost just above $40 including shipping, but then I found one company selling UG802 for $46.50 including shipping via China Post. It’s quite shocking that the price halved within 3 months, and this makes single core mini PC that less attractive, unless you want to run Linux (Ubuntu, Debian…) which is not yet supported by RK3066. The device sold by […]

TI and AllGo Embedded Launch E-Tab Tablet Reference Design Powered by TI AM3354 Processor

Texas Instruments and Allgo Embedded jointly announced the availability of E-Tab, a tablet reference design based on Cortex A8 Sitara AM3354 processor that targets the healthcare, logistics, retail and education markets as well as hotels and restaurants. Here are the tablet reference designs specifications: Processor –  TI’s AM3354 ARM Cortex-A8 microprocessor (up to 1 GHz) Operating System – Android ICS 4.0 System Memory – 512 MB DDR3 RAM Storage – 512 MB Nand Flash and 4GB Micro SD card Display –  7″ WVGA TFT LCD with 5-Touch Capacitive Touch panel Audio –  Stereo Headphone, Internal MIC and Internal Mono Speaker Connectivity: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n + BT 2.1 Module Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR Ethernet 10/100Mbps (Optional) Camera – Internal USB Camera Module (Optional) USB Interfaces – USB High Speed Host Port and USB OTG (ADB and Debug purpose) Key/Button – Single Button for Back and Home screen, Reset Switch and Power […]

New Features in Android 4.2 Jelly Bean

As Google unveiled Nexus 4 smartphone and Nexus 10 tablet, they also announced Android 4.2, the latest version of Google operating system, that brings the following new features. Photo Sphere Camera Going beyond panoramic photo shots, photo sphere allows you to generate a 360 degrees panorama by taking pictures in all direction, up, down, right and left. Head over Google maps to see a few examples. Keyboard with Gesture Typing You can now just glides over the letters you want to type, and the new improved keyboard will find the word you want to type. The keyboard is also said to be able to anticipate the next word allowing to type a full sentence by just selecting suggested words.  Google also claims text-to-speech capabilities and voice typing have been improved, and you don’t need an internet connection to type with your voice anymore. Multiple User Profiles This is the most […]