Rockchip RK31xx Category - Page 9 of 18 - CNX Software

April 9, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Tronsmart Vega S89 (Elite) Android 4.4 Media Player Unboxing

Last review, I wrote an unboxing post about M8, an Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S802 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor with a Mali-450MP6 GPU. I’m still waiting for the firmware to test this device. In the meantime, Geekbuying sent me Tronsmart Vega S89 (Click for full specs), another Android Kitkat TV box powered by S802. There are actually two versions: Tronsmart Vega S89 (16 GB Flash, dual band Wi-Fi), and Tronsmart Vega S89 Elite (8GB Flash, 2.4 GHz Wi-Fi) which is the model I received. I’ll write an unboxing post today with the device and the board, and test the firmware in the next few days. Tronsmart Vega S89 (Elite) Unboxing Geekbuying sent me the sample via DHL which I received in the package below. There are quite a few accessories included with the board. From left to right: IR remote control (2x AAA batteries not included), HDMI […]

April 8, 2014April 8, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

PIPO X1 (Beta) Android TV Dongle Powered by Rockchip RK3188 Sells for $40

PIPO X1 is an HDMI TV Stick running Android 4.2 with more or less the same specs (2GB RAM, 8 GB Flash) as many other competiting products, but with a price much lower at $39.99 including shipping. The company however mentions the product is still in beta version, which may explain why it’s so cheap… Let’s have a look anyway. Pipo X1 specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 @ 1.6GHz + Mali 400MP4 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB + micro SD slot (up to 32GB) Video & Audio Output – HDMI Connectivity – Buil-int 802.11b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – USB 2.0 host + micro USB (for power) Dimensions – 100 x 40 x 8mm Weight – 30g The device ships with a micro USB cable. That means you’ll need to provide your own 5V/2A power adapter. The company also highlights […]

April 1, 2014April 1, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Official Android 4.4 Firmware for RK3188T HDMI TV Sticks Released

At the very end of last year, a beta Android 4.4.2 firmware for Rockchip RK3188 mini PCs was released, and yesterday, GeekBuying announced an official Android 4.4.2 firmware for Rockchip RK3188T (notice the T) mini PCs with AP6210 Wi-Fi modules,with bug fixes from the beta version. This should work with device such as MK908II and MK809III. There are at least two caveats however. First, I understand it will only work on RK3188T, not RK3188, and hopefully an official RK3188 mini PC firmware will be released soon, but since manufacturers may have changed from RK3188 to RK3188T for the same model during manufacturing, you have to make sure which version you are using. You can do so by installing CheckRK3188 app on your device, and check if you have the slower RK3188T SoC, or the older, but faster RK3188. The second issue is that Google Apps (Play store, gmail) are not pre-installed. You […]

March 25, 2014March 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Discounts on Smartphones, Tablets, and mini PCs with Shopping Festivals on Aliexpress & GeekBuying

Spring shopping festivals are currently taking place on GeekBuying and Aliexpress, where you can get coupon, and/or discounted products. Aliexpress shopping festival has actually started a few days ago, and right now (25th of March) there are sales with discounts up to 50% for smartphones, tablets, and TV Sticks. You can actual search for anything you want, with “On Sale (3/25 Only)” enabled to check product for sale, add them to your cart, and do the actual purchase on the 25th. Discount varies, but most of the time they offer about 15% discount, and sometimes they just allow you to purchase products using the coupons. Deal include MK808B $34.74 for instead of $40.86, Tronsmart T1000 EZcast dongle for $23.84 (16% discount – instead of $28.39), MK908 for $47.6, and so on. Octacore smartphone deals include ThL W200C for $259.69, and ZOPO 990+ for $277. GeekBuying have their own Shopping Carnival running […]

March 20, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Giayee P105 is a Wall-Mountable Rockchip based Android / Ubuntu mini PC with a VGA Output

There are plenty of Android TV Boxes or HDMI TV dongles based on Rockchip RK3066 or RK3188. What makes Giayee P105 computer different is that they completely got rid of the HDMI port and replaced it with a VGA port, and the mini PC, and they also added mount option to attach the device to a wall or the back of your monitor. There are two versions of Giayee P105: P105-D with a dual core RK3168 SoC, and P105-Q with RK3188 quad core processor. Giayee P105 Specifications: SoC P105-D – Rockchip RK3168 dual core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.2GHz with PowerVR SGX540 GPU P105-Q – Rockchip RK3188 quad core ARM Cortex A9 @ 1.6GHz with Mali-400 MP4 GPU @ up to 600MHz System Memory – 1 to 2GB DDR3 Storage – 1 to 32G NAND Flash Video Output – VGA – Resolution: 800×600 up to 1920×1080 Audio I/O – 1x Audio […]

March 17, 2014March 17, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Selecting the Best Adobe Flash Player in Linux for x86 and ARM

I’ve had countless and recurrent crashes caused by Adobe flash plugin either in Firefox and Chromium, mainly while playing videos from YouTube or other online video services that still mostly use flash, instead of HTML5. Adobe flash death is certain, but up to now it has been soooo slow, so I doubt that thing will truly die any time soon, and unfortunately it will probably be with us for many years to come. To work around the issue, I started by enabling Youtube HTML5 player, and try to play embedded videos inside YouTube instead of the orignal website. I still had crashes from time to time, and this method did not help with other video services. So I decided to check out what I could do to fix the issue. When you go to http://www.adobe.com/software/flash/about/ you can check your flash version, and Adobe will also list the player version for […]

March 14, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 25 Comments

Mali-400 GPU Is Now Working in Linux for Rockchip RK3188 Devices

Accelerated 3D graphics in Linux with Mali-400 via OpenGL ES has been possible for nearly a year on RK3066 devices, but there was no such support for RK3188. This week however, both Naoki FUKAUMI and omegamoon have reported OpenGL ES to work in in their respective RK3188 devices. I don’t know which device omegamoon used, but Naoki did so in Radxa Rock, and even posted instructions to build it yourself. They’ve mostly followed the work done by olegk0 for Rockchip, and Mali drivers build instructions provided in linux-sunxi community, and it can be summarize in 3 main steps: Cross-compile drm.ko, mali_drm.ko, ump.ko, mali.ko in a Linux machine Copy and load the four modules to your RK3188 based board or device. Install dependencies and binary Mali drivers from sunxi-linux in your Rockchip device Once this is done you can try some OpenGL ES demos such as esgears2 or glmark2-es to test […]

February 26, 2014February 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Rikomagic MK902 LE (Linux Edition) mini PC Comes Preloaded with PicUntu 4.5

Rikomagic has been selling MK802III LE and MK802IV LE dual and quad core HDMI TV sticks based on RK3066 and RK3188 running Linux (PicUntu) for a little over half a year. The company has now announced a full size box with MK902 LE powered by Rockchip RK3188 with 2GB RAM and up to 16 GB Flash. The specifications appear to be the same as MK902 Android TV box: SoC – Rockchip RK3188 quad core ARM Cortex-A9 processor with Mali-400MP4 System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB or 16GB NAND Flash + microSD slot up to 32GB Video Output – HDMI, AV out Audio – HDMI, AV, optical S/PDIF Connectivity – 802.11n WiFi, 10/100M Ethernet Camera – 5MP USB – 4x USB host ports The device is sold with HDMI and AV cables, a power adapter, and a user’s manual. The 8GB version costs £94.99 (~$158), and the 16GB version […]