Earlier this year, Shenzhen Xunlong introduced two new Orange Pi cellular IoT boards running Android – but no Linux distribution just yet – with Orange Pi 3G-IoT and Orange Pi 4G-IoT boards, with LTE bands suitable for Asia and most part of Europe, but not the US. But boards are quite cheap, the 4G-IoT model recently got Android 8.1 Oreo support, if you’d like a display with the board, you can now buy various kits with touchscreen display and in some sets a power supply as well for $34.80 and up plus shipping, or the displays only for $14.80 and up. Four kits have been launched so far: $34.80 Orange Pi 3G-IoT-A Set1 with Orange Pi 3G-IOT-A board powered by Mediatek MT6572 dual core Cortex A7 processor + 256MB RAM/512MB eMMC combo chip, and a 4.98″ TFT LCD touchscreen display (854 x 480) $39.80 Orange Pi 3G-IoT-B Set1 with Orange […]
Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 8″ Tablet Comes with Snapdragon 660 Processor, 4G LTE Connectivity
Android tablets are not as popular as they used to be, and the choice of tablets has come down as a results. However, Xiaomi still keeps on updating their Mi Pad family every year or two years. After NVIDIA based Mi Pad in 2014, Intel based Mi Pad 2 in 2015, and Mediatek powered Mi Pad 3 last year, the Chinese company has now launched Mi Pad 4 with a Qualcomm 660 octa-core processor and an 8″ Full HD display. Xiaomi Mi Pad 4 specifications: SoC – Qualcomm Snapdragon 660 octa-core Kryo 260 processor @ up to 2.2 GHz (1.8 GHz for the low power cluster), Adreno 512 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 3.2, OpenCL 2.0 full,Vulkan, DX12, and Hexagon 680 DSP with Hexagon Vector eXtensions (HVX) System Memory – 3 or 4GB LPDDR4x Storage – 32 or 64 GB eMMC 5.1 flash, micro SD card slot up to […]
Tail it is a Family of WiFi & Cellular GPS Trackers for Things, Pets, and Bicycles (Crowdfunding)
We’ve previously written about Ping, a tiny Cellular GPS tracker that promised to last 3 months on a charge. The raising money part of the crowdfunding campaign itself was successfully with over one million dollars raised, but as with many such campaigns there have been delays, and some people still have to receive theirs, not to mention people complaining about poor battery life and other issues. But there seems to be another option now with Tail It Technologies now offering four different “Tail it” cellular GPS trackers (with WiFi too) for things, pets, and even one designed specifically for bicycles. The company has already sold their devices to thousands of customers in Norway, so they should be working, and on-time delivery should hopefully not be an issue. All four GPS trackers come with 2G, 3G, 4G, and WiFi connectivity, a 5-meter accuracy, and share the same electronics and firmware. Here’s […]
Onenuts 4G LTE TV Box Comes with Optional Battery and Zigbee Connectivity
In some countries, especially in the Middle Easy and Africa, 4G LTE is a popular way of getting broadband Internet, and in the past we covered several 4G LTE TV boxes running Android such as WeTek Hyperion, SDMC DV8230-AP LTE, or Geniatech ATV329. Shenzhen Tomato now offers another options with their “Onenuts 4G-LTE Android OTT Set-Top Box” powered by Amlogic S905X processor, and that happens to come with a compartment for optional batteries. Onenuts 4G LTE TV box specifications: SoC – Amlogic S905X quad core Arm Cortex-A53 processor @ 1.5 GHz with penta-core Mali-450 GPU System Memory – 1GB or 2GB Storage – 8GB, 16G, or 32G eMMC flash; micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0a up to 4K UHD @ 60 Hz, AV output (composite) Audio – Video – 10-bit H.265 & VP9 Profile 2 4K @ 60fps, H.264 4K @ 30fps, AVS+ & H.264 1080p60 Connectivity […]
Dragino NB-IoT Bee is a $23 Xbee Compatible NB-IoT Add-on Board
Several companies are already offering XBee NB-IoT add-on board including Digi International themselves, and SODAQ with their NB-IoT Bee N211 module going for 69 Euros. Dragino NB-IoT Bee is another option for NB-IoT connectivity using Xbee form factor, and the board should be cheaper than most as it goes for $23.00 on Tindie with an external antenna. NB-IoT Bee specifications: NB-IoT module Quectel BC95-B5 for B5:850Mhz, B8:900Mhz, or B20:800Mhz in respectively Nb-IoT Bee QB05, QB08, QB20 models (i.e. one frequency is supported by model) Quectel BG96 for LTE Cat M1 & Cat NB1 & EGPRS in Nb-IoT Bee QG96 model Output Powe – 23dBm Sensitivity – -129dBm Micro SIM Slot Input voltage – 4.5v ~ 5.5V Temperature Range – -40°C ~ +85°C Typical applications for such board include smart metering, facility management services, security & fire alarms, asset tracking, smart city infrastructure and so on. If you are looking specifically […]
MIPS I7200 Processor Core with nanoMIPS Architecture is Designed for LTE/5G Communications & Networking SoCs
MIPS has recently unveiled the I7200 multi-threaded multi-core processor for advanced LTE/5G communications and networking SoCs, which also happens to be the first MIPS core based on the new nanoMIPS 32-bit ISA. nanoMIPS is a variable instruction length ISA consisting of 16/32/48-bit instructions and various other optimizations that enables performance in the smallest code size. MIPS I7200 core features: 32-bit nanoMIPS Instruction Set Architecture with MIPS DSP ASE optimized instruction set extensions for integer DSP and 32-bit SIMD operations Balanced, 9-stage, dual-issue pipeline with Vertical Multi-Threading (VMT) Superscalar on a single thread per cycle Zero overhead context switching – can switch threads every clock cycle Implements MIPS MT ASE – can implement up to 3 fully OS visible Virtual Processor Elements (VPEs) per core, and up to 9 lightweight thread contexts (TCs) per core, assignable to the VPEs Configurable memory subsystem Support for caches, tightly coupled ScratchPad RAM (SPRAM), or […]
hIoTron Modular & Enterprise IoT Development Kit is Designed for Fast Prototyping
hIoTron modular & enterprise IoT development kit is described by the company has a “fully pre-programmed prototyping kit for quickly building and testing your IoT concept” with plug-n-play module allowing for flexible prototyping. Beside the hardware comprises of a gateway and nodes, the kit also integrates with the company’s enterprise IoT Platform enabling easy design of custom mobile application & GUI dashboard. The company offers standard, advanced, and custom kits, but to keep things simple, let’s focus on the content of their standard kit first: Hi-Gate IoT gateway: WiSoC – Texas Instruments CC3200 Arm Cortex-M4 @ 80 MHz with 1MB flash, 256KB RAM Storage – 1MB serial flash, 512KB EEPROM Connectivity 802.11 n/g/n Wi-Fi, 2G GSM/GPRS (optional 3G/4G), ZigBee, BLE 4.0, sub-1GHz RF/NON RF to REST/MQTT gateway Expansion – 2x GPIO port pins, 2x analog port pins Power Supply – 9-12V DC 3x modular Hi-Nodes (up to 25 supported per […]
$200 VOYO i8 Max 2-in-1 4G Android Tablet is Powered by Mediatek Helio X20 Processor
Mediatek Helio X20 (MT6797) deca-core processor was announced about 3 years ago, and made into various smartphones – such as Vernee Apollo Lite – as well as MediaTek X20 Android development board. However so far, I did not see any proper tablets based on the processor, but VOYO i8 Max tablet with a 10.1″ display and 4G LTE connectivity has just started to sell for $199.99 and up including shipping. [Update: price drops to US$162.99 with GKB89VW coupon. valid until 2018/7/24] Voyo i8 Max specifications: SoC – Mediatek Helio X20 deca-core processor with two Arm Cortex A72 cores @ 2.1 GHz, four Cortex A53 @ 1.95 GHz, four Cortex A53 @ 1.4 GHz, and Arm Mali-T880 GPU @ 800 MHz System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 64GB eMMC flash + micro SD slot up to 64/128GB Display – 10.1″ 1920×1200 IPS display with stylus support Audio – 3.5mm audio […]