Testing Category - Page 135 of 169 - CNX Software

December 1, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Preliminary Ubuntu Image for Tronsmart Draco AW80 Octa-core mini PC

Tronsmart Draco AW80 is an Allwinner A80 based mini PC pre-loaded with Android 4.4. A preliminary Ubuntu image is now available for the device. It’s still a little buggy, but you can access LXDE desktop on an HDMI TV, Ethernet is working, and web browsing is apparently working nicely. Known bugs include FAT32 partitions are read-only, wireless mouse and keyboard are not working (USB versions are OK), shutdown does not work, the user interface is not as snappy as in Android, and YouTube video playback is choppy. The last two issues could be related to the lack of VPU and GPU drivers providing video hardware decoding, and 2D/3D hardware acceleration respectively. The good news is that the company working on Draco AW80 got the GPU drivers from Imagination, and an updated image could be available with hardware acceleration. I’m not sure sure about VPU support, which is extremely important if […]

November 30, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Create-android-sdcard Script Creates a Bootable SD Card for any Rockchip RK3188 Devices

Bootable Linux SD card images for some Rockchip RK3188 devices such as MINIX NEO X7, MK809III, Tronsmart T428 have already been released this summer, and it provided any easy way to try Linux on Rockchip RK3188 devices without messing with your Android installation. But now you can create Android bootable images with any Rockchip RK3188 devices thanks to create-android-sdcard script written by Ian Morrison, as long as you have the firmware for your Android mini PC, and I don’t see why it would not even work for tablets. It allows you to try Android firmwwre before replacing your existing installation (great for developers), and it can also be a way to handle multiple users on a single device. There could be one SD card for dad, one for mum, and one for the kid, and all you have to do is to take out and replace the SD card with […]

November 29, 2014November 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 34 Comments

Review of Realtek RTD1195 Based M-195 Android Media Player

M-195 is one of the new low cost Android media players based on Realtek RTD1195 processor featuring two Cortex A7 cores, and a Mali-400MP2 GPU, but providing high speed interface like USB 3.0, and Gigabit Ethernet, as well as 4K video decoding and output, including the latest H.265 / HEVC video codec. So before testing, I was expecting the box to be mainly interesting as a media player, and even maybe NAS, as Android performance for other tasks would be similar to Allwinner A20. I’ll already taken pictures of M-195 and its “902” board, so today we’ll find out how the device performs. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions I’ve used both the provided IR remote control, and Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse in this review, simply because I needed to press the Home button to come back to the Launcher from time to time, and the Home button on […]

November 28, 2014November 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

Linaro 14.11 Release with Kernel 3.18, Android 5.0, & Ubuntu Utopic. Debian 8.0 Gets ARM64 Port

Linaro 14.11 has been released with Linux kernel 3.18-rc5 (baseline), Linux 3.10.61 & 3.14.25 (LSK, same versions as last month), and Android 4.4.2, 4.4.4, and for the first time Android 5.0 Lollipop. There’s also been some news with regards to Linux desktop distributions, as Ubuntu baseline has been upgraded to Utopic (14.10), and Debian 8.0 (Jessie) will officially support ARM64 with 93% of packages built as of November 5th. Android Lollipop images are said to be built for TC2, Juno, Nexus 7, Nexus 10, and FVP models, but I could not find the images. Finally, it’s the first time I’ve noticed Hisilicon X5HD2 development board with a dual core Cortex A9 processor, but apparently it’s the same as Hi3716cv200. Here are the highlights of this release: Linux Linaro 3.18-rc5-2014.11 updated GATOR to version 5.20 updated topic from Qualcomm LT (include IFC6410 board support) updated integration-linaro-vexpress64 topic by ARM LT (FVP […]

November 26, 2014November 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Zero Devices Z5C Thinko 4K H.265 TV Stick Review

Zero Devices Z5C Think is one of the rare HDMI TV sitck powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A12/A17 processor available on the market. I’ve already take a few pictures of the device and internals, so today I’ll focus on testing the firmware, and performance of this thin and nice looking TV stick. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions There was a time when HDMI stick were powered by much slower, but power efficient processor based on Cortex A5 cores. One of these was CX-01 mini PC, and they could be powered by the USB port of the TV without problems. Now the processor are much more powerful, so normally you can’t power the device directly from the TV, but since I’ve seen people claim it was possible to drive RK3288 stick directly from the USB port of some TVs, I gave it a try, connected the stick to […]

November 25, 2014November 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 11 Comments

Unboxing of Jesurun T034 RK3288 TV Dongle with a Gigabit Ethernet Port

Jesurun T034 is an Android HDMI Stick that looks just like MK802 V, and with the same specifications. GearBest sent me a sample of this Rockchip RK3288 based HDMI TV dongle that have the particularity to include an Ethernet RJ45 port that most sticks lack. I’ll take a few pictures of the device, and the internal of this product today, before writing a full review. Jesurun T034 Unboxing I’ve received the parcel via DHL together with a dreaded piece of paper reading “Inbound Charges Invoice”. The package is a white brand box reading “Smart TV BOX” with RK3288 logo. The stick comes with a 5V/2.5 power adapter, a short HDMI cable, a micro USB to USB cable, a IR remote control. and the IR receiver cable. There’s also a user’s manual in English that seems to be for other RK3288 TV boxes (CR12, CR13, and CR16), but I’m sure nobody […]

November 24, 2014November 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 16 Comments

Unboxing of M-195 TV Box Powered by Realtek RTD1195 Processor

Realtek RTD1195 is a dual core Cortex A7 processor with a Mali-400 GPU, supporting fast interfaces such as USB 3.0, Gigabit Ethernet, and SATA, as well 4K video decoding (including H.265) and output, and HDMI input. Despite all these features, it can be found in ultra low cost Android media players, so I was eager to find out if it’s as good as it looks on paper. Thanks to GeekBuying which sent me M-195 TV box, I’ll soon be able to find out. Today, I’ll list the technical specifications of the device, and take pictures of the device and the board, before doing a full test early next month. M-195 specifications Hardware specifications as listed in the user’s manual and GeekBuying: SoC – Realtek RTD1195 dual core ARM Cortex A7 processor @ 1.3 GHz with Mali-400MP2 GPU System Memory – 1 GB DDR3 Storage – 8 GB eMMC + SD […]

November 24, 2014November 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 13 Comments

Unboxing of Cloud Media Open Hour Chameleon Android Media Player

Cloud Media (previously Syabas) recently announced Open Hour Chameleon Android media player powered by Rockchip RK3288 processor. Compared to the many competing solutions based on Rockchip’s quad core Cortex A12/A17 processor, Open Hour comes with a metallic case to provide better casing, and instead of coming with internal NAND or eMMC flash, they provide a bootable SD card (Class 10) pre-loaded with Android 4.4.2, and they also have a preliminary Lubuntu image. They also recommend to use SPMC for video playback as “going forward, Rockchip will fully support SPMC instead of their custom Kodi”. Before writing the full review, I’ll show some pictures of the device, and take it apart to check out the hardware and their thermal dissipation solution. Open Hour Chameleon Unboxing I’ve received the box by Fedex in the following package. They list the key features on the top of the box namely RK3288, XBMC, Android Kitkat, […]