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March 7, 2016May 19, 2016 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

The First Devices and Routers with WiFi 802.11ad Delivering Up 7Gbit/s Transfer Rates at 60 GHz Will Be Available This Year

802.11ad is the latest and fastest WiFi standard working in the 60 GHz band and delivering up to 7 Gbit per second data transmission rates. The 60 GHz frequency band offers both advantages and disadvantages because it does not penetrate through walls nor water, meaning it can only be used within a room limiting the range, but at the same time it’s more secure since it cannot be snooped from the outside, and for people who worry about health effects it does not penetrate the human body. 802.11ad routers will also be able to switch to 2.4 and 5.0 GHz frequency bands in order to go through walls. The table above nicely summarize the key features of 802.11ad over 802.11ac and 802.11n, however the throughput row shows the theoretical maximum throughput, but in practice, using 802.11ac as example, clients are often limited to 433 or 866 Mbps, and distance and […]

September 2, 2015September 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Acer Jade Primo is the First Smartphone PC Running Windows 10 Continuum

At least two operating systems companies are working on mobile desktop converge: Microsoft with Windows 10 Continuum and Canonical with Ubuntu, Mir and Unity 8. There are still software and hardware challenges ahead, but I envision that in a couple of years my smartphone will also be my Ubuntu powered computer. But so far it looks like Microsoft might be ahead, as jointly with Acer they announced and demo Windows 10 Continuum on Jade Primo smartphone. The smartphone itself is powered by a Qualcomm Snapdragon 808 processor, with a 5.5″ AMOLED display, and 21MP & 8 MP cameras. I could not find details about RAM and storage. When the phone is connected to a dock via its micro USB to HDMI (MHL) cable, it pairs with Bluetooth mouse and keyboard, and you can simply use Windows 10 just like on a real computer running Office, browsing the web and so […]

September 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Acer Unveils “Revo Build” Modular Mini PC with Stackable Blocks

Acer Revo Build is a mini PC that looks similar to Intel NUC, and powered by Intel Celeron N3050, Celeron N3150, or Pentium N3700 Braswell processor with 32GB eMMC and 8GB RAM, that looks like that: Nice colors… but at first glance it’s just another mini PC with more a recent recent processor and more RAM than usual, until you notice a connector on the top corner of the device no the picture above. That connector is used to stack other blocks such as: 500GB to 1TB hard drive Graphics Block with AMD processor Audio Block with speakers and microphone Wireless charging block Projector block So eventually, your mini PC could look more like a mini tower… Acer Revo Build (M1-601) will ship with Windows 10, and features three USB 3.0 ports, HDMI and DisplayPort video output, a headset jack and an SD card slot. The mini PC itself measures […]

April 2, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

Acer Chromebase Runs Chrome OS on Nvidia Tegra K1 Processor

After RK3288 Chromebooks and Chromebit announcement yesterday, another Chrome OS device has been unveiled with Acer Chromebase, a 21.5″ All-in-one Chrome OS computer powered by Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 processor. Acer Chromebase preliminary specifications: SoC – Nvidia Tegra K1 SoC with 4-Plus-1 quad-core ARM Cortex A15 CPU, and Kepler GPU with 192 CUDA cores System Memory – 4GB RAM Storage – 16GB internal storage + 100 GB on Google Drive storage (free for two years) Display – 21.5″ touch screen display (10 point touch); Resolution: 1920×1080; viewing angle: 178 deg. Video Output – HDMI port. Audio – HDMI, 3W audio speakers Connectivity – 802.11a/b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth 4.0 USB – USB 3.0/ 2.0 ports Camera – Front facing HD camera Acer all-in-one computer is apparently only the second Chromebase product, after LG Chromebase, and the first to include a touchscreen. Acer Chromebase will available in North America […]

March 23, 2015March 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 3 Comments

How to Install Ubuntu 14.04 on Acer Aspire E5 Laptop

I’ve been owning an Acer Aspire One D255E netbook with a 10″ display, an Intel Atom N455 processor and 1GB RAM that served me well during my travels, but as I’ve become older and less patient, I felt I needed to upgrade it. I planned to spend around 10,000 Baht (~$300), wanted a 14″ display, one of the low power CPU such as Intel Bay Trail-M or AMD Mullins / Beema processors, at least 500GB storage, 4GB RAM, and the ability to install Ubuntu. Finally, after going through several products at my local shop, I had to chose between Acer Aspire E5-411-P3CL with a 7.5W TDP Intel Atom N3540 and Acer Aspire E5-421G-45L0 with a 15W TDP AMD A4-6210 processor that both sell for 11,900 Baht ($365). Despite my preference for processor with lower TDP, I still went with the AMD system, since the performance is a little better, the […]

March 22, 2015March 23, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Acer Shamelessly Sells Aspire E5 Laptops with a Crippled UEFI Setup Utility

Yesterday, I bought an Acer Aspire E5-421G-45L0 laptop powered by AMD A4-6210 “Beema” processor and after some effort I managed to install Ubuntu 14.04 and make it mostly work, but more on that later. I also planned to copy a 64-bit OS VirtualBox virtual machine from another PC to this PC, but I quickly realized I could only select 32-bit operating systems, so my 64-bit image could not boot. Virtualization extension are required for 64-bit support in VirtualBox, and I had not checked whether AMD A4-6210 supported these before purchase. Amazingly, I could not find that information on AMD’s very own website, but CPU Boss reports A4-6210 does indeed support AMD-V virtualization. All good, so I must be just a question of enabling it in the “BIOS”. So I rebooted the laptop, and pressed F2 to enter InsydeH20 Setup Utility. There are few options with only Information, Main, Security, Boot, […]

August 7, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 9 Comments

Acer CB5 Chromebook To Feature Nvidia Tegra K1 Processor, 13 Hours of Battery Life

It seems Nvidia Tegra K1 is getting in more hardware than its predessors. It can not only be found in Jetson TK1 development board and Shield tablet developed by the company, but also products such as Xiaomi MiPad, as well as Google Tango Project Tablet devkit. Acer CB5 Chromebook should also launch very soon with Tegra K1 quad core processor, a 13.3″ display, and the company claims it should last 13 hours based on Google’s power_loadtest. Preliminary specs for Acer CB5 Chromebook: SoC- Nvidia Tegra K1 quad core Cortex A15 @ 2.1 GHz with Kepler GPU System Memory – 2 to 4 GB DDR3 Storage – 16 / 32 GB flash Display – 13.3″ display with 1366×768 or 1920×1080 resolution (TBC) depending on model, and optional touchscreen support Video Output – HDMI Audio – 3.5mm audio jack, speakers Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi USB – 2x USB 3.0 ports, 1x […]

January 29, 2014February 19, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 6 Comments

Acer AerialCast Miracast Adapter Powered by Realtek RTD1185PA + RTL8192DV

Details about Acer AerialCast, a Miracast dongle have recently showed up on the FCC website. The device is an upcoming Miracast adapter features RTD1185PA media SoC and RTL8192DV Wi-Fi module, which specifications very similar to what is found in AX-01 Miracast/DLNA adapter. The specifications have not been listed, but can be derived from FCC documents and pictures: SoC – Realtech RTD1185PA MIPS24Kc processor @ 500MHz System Memory – 128 MB DDR3 SDRAM – (Etrontech EM6GC16EWXA) Storage – 128 MB NAND Flash – ESMT F59L1G81A Video Codecs – H.264, VC1, RM/RMVB, AVS Decoder USB – 1x micro USB for power WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n via Realtek RTL8192DV module Video Output – HDMI Misc – 1x LED Power Supply – 5V/1A. The device sent to the FCC came with a 5V/1A power adapter, a micro USB cable, an HDMI cable, and a technical documentation. The device will be sold under the name […]