kitkat News - Page 3 of 7 - CNX Software

May 11, 2014May 12, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

Upcoming MeLe and Egreat A-Series 4K Android Media Players to Feature Realtek RTD1195 SoC

AndroidPC.es has reported that Mele is preparing to launch a new set-top boxes based on Realtek RTD1195 STB SoC with a dual core ARM Cortex A7 (or A9) and a Mali GPU (TBC), and Egreat will also launch their A-Series STB based on the same SoC according to a video by charbax which also features older Realtek and Rockchip Android TV Boxes, and an RK3188 based game console (Egreat K3). RTD1195 supports 4K, H.265 video decoding, and products usually come with USB 3.0 and Gigabit Ethernet ports, and in some cases, even a SATA drive bay. Here are the preliminary specifications from the the upcoming (and unnamed) Mele boxes: SoC – Realtek RTD1195 dual core ARM Cortex A7/A9 @ 1.2GHz with Mali-400 GPU (TBC) System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB flash (8GB optional), internal bays for 2.5″ or 3.5″ SATA drives up to 3TB Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11n WiFi, and Bluetooth […]

May 9, 2014May 29, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

Hummingbird A31 Is a $70 Feature-packed Development Board Powered by AllWinner A31

Merrii Technologies introduced the Hummingbird development kit powered by AllWinner A20 last year. Since then they’ve sold 10,000 pieces, and have been working on another development board based on AllWinner A31 with lots of different ports and options, including an optional 7″ capacitive touch screen. “Quad Core” Hummingbird specifications: SoC – AllWinner A31 quad core ARM Cortex-A7 with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU compliant with OpenGL ES2.0, OpenCL 1.x, DX 9_3 System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB Flash + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI, VGA, LVDS Video Input – 3.5mm jack for CVBS (or YPbPr?) In (TV IN) Audio I/O – HDMI, 3.5mm jack for stereo audio, 3.5mm jack for Line IN (Same as TV IN). 2x 15w amplifier on-board. Camera – MIPI interface Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and Bluetooth (AP6210 module) Cellular Connectivity – SIM card slot + mini PCIe connector for 3G […]

May 8, 2014May 8, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 28 Comments

MINIX NEO X8 and X8s Android TV Boxes are Now Available for Pre-order for $119 and up

Last month, MINIX announced their NEO X8 and NEO X8s Android TV boxes powered by Amlogic S802 and S802-H (with Dolby/DTS support). The company disclosed the specifications but they did not provide price information. This morning, I noticed the devices were available for pre-order on DealExtreme for $132 and $151.56, and I went to look for it on Aliexpress where NEO X8 sells for as low as $119 and NEO X8s for $148. All prices include shipping. One shop also sell these for well over $200 with the new MINIX NEO M1 air mouse. Both devices come with 2GB RAM, HDMI video output, stereo and optical S/PDIF audio outputs, Ethernet and Wi-Fi connectivity, and 3 USB ports. Whereas NEO X8 features 8GB flash, 2.4GHz Wi-Fi and Amlogic S802 SoC, NEO X8s boasts 16GB flash, dual band 2.4/5GHz Wi-Fi, and Amlogic S802-H which properly supports Dolby and DTS audio pass-through via […]

April 29, 2014April 29, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Samsung Galaxy K Zoom Camera Phone Powered by Exynos 5 Hexa SoC

After Samsung Galaxy S4 Zoom, Samsung has just introduced a new camera-specialized phone called the Galaxy K Zoom with a faster processor, an hexa core processor, which has not been named, but can only be Exynos 5260 hexa core big.LITTLE SoC, a larger 4.8″ display, and a better camera with a 20.7 Megapixel CMOS Sensor and a 10x Optical Zoom. Let’s go straight through the specifications: SoC – Samsung Exynos 5260 Hexa core processor with four Cortex A7 cores @ 1.3GHz, two Cortex A15 cores @ 1.7GHz, and ARM Mali-T624 GPU System Memory – 2GB RAM Storage – 8GB Flash + micro SD slot up to 64GB Display – 4.8″ HD Super AMOLED Display (1280×720) Cellular Network LTE – Cat4, HSPA+ 42Mbps, LTE 800/850/900/1800/2100/2600, HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100, EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 3G – 5-band HSPA+ 42Mbps, HSPA+ 850/900/1900/2100,EDGE/GPRS 850/900/1800/1900 Connectivity – Wi-Fi: 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4+5GHz, Bluetooth 4.0 BLE, NFC, A-GPS + GLONASS Camera […]

April 25, 2014July 26, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 39 Comments

Amlogic STB SoCs Comparison – AML8726-MX, S802, S805, and S812

The second quarter of 2014 is promising to be an exciting time for Android TV boxes based on Chinese SoCs with lots of announcements. Devices powered by Amlogic S802 quad core SoC such as M8 and Vega S89 are already available, Rockchip RK3288 Android TV boxes are likely to sell in May, together with AllWinner A80 development board and tablets, and Android media players probably coming to market in June or July. But Amlogic S802 is not the only new quad core processor announced by Amlogic, with S805 and S812 soon to be featured in HDMI TV sticks and TV boxes. Amlogic IP/OTT STB SoC page has a comparison table for their four STB SoC. Let’s go through this table to see which processor may better match different end-users requirements. Multi-core CPU Dual Core ARM Cortex A9 Quad Core ARM Cortex A9 Quad Core ARM Cortex A9 Quad Core ARM […]

April 25, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - No Comments

Linaro 14.04 Release with Linux Kernel 3.14 and Android 4.4.2

Linaro 14.04 has been released with Linux Kernel 3.14 (baseline), Linux Kernel 3.10.37 (LSK), and Android 4.4.2. More work has been done on ARMv8 support, and big.LITTLE for both the Linux kernel and Android, as well as work on member hardware platforms such as Origen, Arndale, Arndale Octa, Broadcom Capri, and Hisilicon D01 boards. GCC 4.8-2014.04 Linaro is said to include performance improvements. Linaro Android engineering builds for Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 have been setup, but I can’t quite find the images. They’ve also added the BeagleBone Black to member builds. Here are the highlights of this release: Linaro Stable Kernel (LSK) 3.10.37-2014.04 Updates to Android support (from Google and Linaro) Added Big endian for ARMv7 and ARMv8 Thermal framework DT support Huge pages and transparent huge pages for ARMv8 Tagged pointers for ARMv8 Non-coherent DMA for ARMv8 Other Features big.LITTLE support – ARM MP patch set, IKS (ARMv7 […]

April 17, 2014August 17, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 242 Comments

Review of M8 Android Kitkat TV Box Powered by Amlogic S802 SoC

A few days ago, I wrote an Unboxing and Specs post about the M8, an Android TV Box powered by Amlogic S802 quad core Cortex A9 processor. The review took a little as I was waiting for a new firmware. I’ve now upgraded this S802 Box, and been able to complete a review. As usual , I’ll start by giving my first impressions, have a look at the user interface and settings, test different king of video files, evaluate Wi-Fi performance, and try to cover most hardware features including Bluetooth, external storage, USB webcam, and so on. The overall user’s experience, is very similar to Tronsmart Vega S89, but there are some notable differences I’ll go through during the review. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions Shenzhen Tomato sent me a sample unit which they call TM8 (Tomato M8?), but I’ll just refer to the device as M8 in the […]

April 13, 2014April 13, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 18 Comments

MINIX Unveils NEO X8 and X8s Android TV Boxes Powered by Amlogic S802 & S802-H SoCs

MINIX has been providing Rockchip based Android TV boxes for a couple of years notably with their NEO X5 and NEO X7. They will now also offer devices powered by Amlogic with NEO X8 and NEO X8s respectively powered by S802 and S802-H quad core SoC. The advantage of the former is that it fully supports DTS and Dolby decoding and pass-through. Let go through the hardware specs of both devices: SoC NEO X8 – Amlogic S802 quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with Mali-450MP6 GPU NEO X8s – Amlogic S802-H quad core cortex A9r4 @ 2 GHz with Mali-450MP6 GPU including Dolby and DTS support. System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB (X8) / 16GB (X8s) eMMC + SD/MMC card reader Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, dual band support for X8s, Bluetooth 4.0 Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 4K @ 30 fps, with […]