Up to now, I always connected USB keyboard and mouse to Android mini PCs I tested. It works but it’s not always fun to use. Mele F10 Fly mouse is a dual sided 2.4GHz remote control with one side being somewhat of a standard remote, while the other side is a QWERTY keyboard. A gyroscope is also integrated in to the remote, which allows it to be used as a “magic” remote and mouse the mouse pointer. I’ve bought one on DealExtreme for $25.20, and I’ll do a short review about the remote today, even though it’s not exactly a new device. Mele F10 Unboxing I’ve received the F10 in a slightly damaged package. This happens often as to save on costs packages are often sent in bubble mailers, but all items I’ve received have usually worked fine. The other sides of the package indicate Mele F10 can be used […]
iben Gamepad Android Game Consoles Powered by AllWinner SoCs
Earlier this month, AllWinner exhibited many devices from their customers at the Hong Kong Fair, including an Android game console called iben GamePad. There are now more details about this gaming device, one of them being there are three models: Game Pad L1-B – Based on AllWinner A20 – $110 per unit for 500 pieces order. Available in May. Game Pad L1-C – Based on AllWinner A31 – $150 per unit for 500 pieces order. Available in May. Transformer Game Pad L2 – Same as L1-C except the actual gamepad is detachable, so you can just use it as a normal tablet when you don’t play. Available in June. Game Pad L1-C / L2 Specifications: SoC – AllWinner A31 Quad-Core ARM Cortex A7 CPU + PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 16GB flash + microSD slot Display – 7″ touch screen (5pts), IPS display. Resolution: 1280×800 […]
PlayJam GameStick Devkit Unboxing (Video)
PlayJam GameStick is a video game console comprised of an AMLogic powered mini PC and a wireless game controller. They had a successful kickstarter campaign with 5,691 backers, and the company started to ship developer’s kits earlier this month. Those kits are designed for developers, and is not the final hardware which, as Liliputing reports, will be available in June for $79. The retail version of the GameStick will feature a smaller stick with mini USB port (instead of a full USB port in the devkit), and a controller with a better finish. In the meantime, PlayJam has uploaded an unboxing video of the development kits, showing the mini PC, controller and accessories (cables, power supply, etc..), as well as a quick demo. The demo shows the first boot setup (language, display layout, ethernet, Wi-Fi settings), the Gamestick store, and they play a RipideGP. If you’re a game developer, you can […]
Nvidia GRID Platform, Tegra 4 Processor and Project SHIELD Game Console at CES 2013
CES 2013 has finally started, and Nvidia has had a pretty amazing keynote with some PC gaming announcements such as “GeForce Experience” which is a piece a software that can configure your games settings automatically based on your PC hardware (e.g. processor and GPU), and 3 cloud and mobile devices announcements: Nvidia GRID Platform – Cloud Gaming Server with 240 Nvidia GPUs. Nvidia Tegra 4 – Nvidia 4 cores Cortex A15 , 72 GPU and SDR modem SoC for tablets and smartphones. Nvidia Project Shield – Game console with a 5″ display powered by Tegra 4 that can also act as a game controller, and play PC games on your TV. Nvidia GRID Platform NVIDIA GRID Cloud Gaming Platform is comprised of 20 GRID server per rack with a total of 240 Nvidia GPU capable of 200 TFLOPS or the equivalent of 700 Xbox 360. Nvidia GRID render 3D graphics […]
PlayJam GameStick Console-On-a-Stick Powered by AMLogic AML8726-MX
OUYA is not the only Android device specifically targeting games anymore, as PlayJam has launched a kickstarter campaign for the GameStick, a combo Android 4.1 HDMI TV dongle + BlueTooth game controller that you should be able to get by April 2013 with a $79 pledge. The neat thing is that it’s highly portable as the dongle fits inside the controller for transport. However, I don’t find the design of the controller as beautiful as OUYA controller. The specs of the GameStick do not quite have the same oomph as the OUYA either, but it should still play most Android games smoothly: SoC – Amlogic AML8726-MX dual Cortex cortex A9 @ 1.5 GHz + dual core Mali-400 GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB FLASH Video Output – HDMI. Final product will also feature MHL, but current prototypes are powered via USB. Connectivity: WiFi – 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth […]
libavg on Raspberry Pi
libavg development team has recently announced a beta port of their multimedia library to the Raspberry Pi. libavg is a high-level development platform for media-centric applications using Python as scripting language and written in C++. I came to know this platform as I tried Xibo Digital Signage, and I tested it on ARM platforms. Up to know this would only work using software rendering/decoding, and everything was painfully slow on ARM, but libavg developers are now making use of OpenGL ES to boost graphics speed. More work is needed, and they intend to eventually support features such as hardware video decoding (OpenMAX possibly via gstreamer) and compressed textures. Installing libavg on Raspberry Pi. Pre-built packages are available for Raspberry, so installation is pretty straight forward:
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sudo apt-get install libxml2 libpango1.0-0 librsvg2-2 libgdk-pixbuf2.0-0 \ libavcodec53 libavformat53 libswscale2 libboost-python1.49.0 \ libboost-thread1.49.0 libsdl1.2debian libxxf86vm1 wget https://www.libavg.de/site/attachments/download/190 -O libavg-raspberry.tar.bz2 sudo tar -C /usr/local -xjf libavg-raspberry.tar.bz2 |
Running Samples Apps 32 samples are located in /usr/local/lib/python2.7/dist-packages/libavg/samples/ directory, and they rely on X11, so first start LXDE:
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startx |
Open a serial console (LXTerminal) […]
$800 OUYA Development Kit Is Available for Pre-Order
As the OUYA is slowly (but surely?) nearing its launch in March 2013, the OUYA Dev Kit can be pre-ordered for delivery in January 2013. The kit costs $800 and includes an OUYA console, 2 controllers and the ODK ( OUYA Software Development Kit). This devkit is targeted at game developers (Users better just wait the $99 version) who will be able to test their games and apps on OUYA hardware before the official release. The ODK should be available for download and the developer portal launched in December, As a reminder, here are OUYA (updated) specifications: Nvidia Tegra3 quad-core cortex A9 processor 1 GB RAM 8 GB of internal flash storage HDMI port (up to 1080p HD) WiFi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth LE 4.0 Ethernet USB 2.0 port Wireless controller with standard controls (two analog sticks, d-pad, eight action buttons, a system button), a touchpad Android 4.1 Jelly Bean If […]
Nvidia Has Ported Unreal Engine 3 to Windows RT
After Archos GamePad, more gaming news today, as Nvidia announced Unreal Engine 3 port to Windows RT. The company showcased Epic Citadel demo on Nvidia Tegra 3 based Asus Vivo Tab RT (previously known as Tablet 600) at a press conference held at IFA 2012, in Berlin. The demo above is the full PC implementation running on ARM hardware and renders graphics at 35 to 40fps. The Unreal Engine 3 “Epic Citadel” demo implements the full DirectX 9 pipeline, with shaders and materials. Nvidia also announced that UE3 Windows RT code is available to licensees from Epic now. Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft)Jean-Luc started CNX Software in 2010 as a part-time endeavor, before quitting his job as a software engineering manager, and starting to write daily news, and reviews full time later in 2011. www.cnx-software.com