mini pc News - Page 124 of 148 - CNX Software

August 28, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 19 Comments

ZOTAC ZBOX PI320 is a Pocket-Sized Intel Bay Trail-T Mini PC

If you’re a fan of HDMI TV sticks, but wished it could use an Intel processor, instead of the various ARM processors currently available, your dream may have come true thanks to ZOTAC ZBOC PI320 mini PC. Although it’s not quite as small as your standard HDMI TV stick, it’s small enough (115.5mm x 66mm x 19.2mm) to fit into your pocket, and it’s also much more powerful, as it features Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core Bay Trail-T processor, 2GB RAM, 32GB flash, wired and wireless connectivity and more. ZBOX PI320 pico-series mini PC specifications: SoC – Intel Atom Z3735F “Bay Trail” quad core processor @ 1.33 GHz (Burst freq up to 1.83 GHz) and Intel HD Graphics System Memory – 2GB DDR3L @ 1333 MHz (soldered) Storage – 32GB eMMC flash (soldered) + “3-in-1” card reader (micro SD/SDHC/SDXC) Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, Wi-Fi 802.11n + Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6383) Video Output […]

August 27, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

Review of UyeSee G1H Rockchip RK3288 Android TV Box

UyeSee G1H is one of the first Android TV boxes powered by Rockchip RK3288 quad core Cortex A17 SoC. I’ve already listed specs, and shown a few pictures of the device and the board in my “UyeSee G1H Unboxing” post, so today I’ll write a full review, checking out the user interface, testing video playback capabilities, network and storage performance, play a few games, check hardware features are working as expected, and runs some benchmarks on the platform. First Boot, Settings and First Impressions There’s an infrared remote control with the device. I’ve inserted a CR2032 battery, and although it works great in the user interface, it becomes useless with Android apps, so instead I’ve opted to use Mele F10 Deluxe air mouse which brings mouse and keyboard support. Before powering up the device, I’ve connected an HDMI cable, the RF dongle for Mele F10 Deluxe, a USB hard drive, […]

August 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 20 Comments

Using an Android Mini PC as a Desktop PC (Blogging Version)

I use an x86 computer running Ubuntu 14.04 as desktop PC, spending most of my time working on this blog, which mostly involves reading and writing articles in web browsers (Firefox, Chrome), handling emails, communicating via Social networks, manipulating and editing pictures. But for reviews, I also need to take pictures and videos, tranfer these to my PC, and upload videos to YouTube. When I create tables, I normally type them in LibreOffice Calc, and copy/paste the results in WordPress editor. But this post side, I’ve put my noisy PC aside, and I’m writing from an Android 4.4 TV box, namely Probox2 EX, in order to evaluate how convenient, or not, Android may be for simple computing needs. First let’s indentify some applications used in desktop operating systems such as Windows and Linux (Ubuntu 14.04), and their equivalent in Android. I made the comparison table below in AndrOpen Office (AOO), […]

August 22, 2014August 22, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

Shuttle DSA2LS Fanless Android Mini PC with Dual Display Support for Digital Signage Applications

Shuttle is a company making small form factor PCs, and I’ve recently mentioned their Intel Celeron J1900 based mini PCs. The company has now launched its first ARM based mini PC, called DSA2LS, powered by Freescale i.MX6 Duallite processor, and running Android 4.2. This computer is mainly destined to be used as a digital signage player with features such as VESA mounts, dual screen support, protective operation, and has been designed for 24/7 operation at 0 to 45 C. Other applications include kiosk, thin clients, and vending machines. SoC – Freescale i.MX6 DualLite dual core processor @ 1GHz with Vivante GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 4GB eMMC + SD card slot up to 64 GB protected by anti-theft (or anti-troll) cover Video Output – HDMI and VGA, supporting dual displays (but maybe not independent displays). Audio – HDMI, Line OUT Connectivity – 10/100/1000M Ethernet (470Mbps max) with […]

August 18, 2014October 11, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 21 Comments

$122 MK903V May Be the First Android HDMI TV Dongle Powered by Rockchip RK3288 SoC

Most of currently announced Rockchip RK3288 based Android mini PCs comes in box form factor, rather than in HDMI stick form factor, but I’ve been informed that MK903V is one of the first HDMI stick based on the latest Rockchip quad core Cortex A17 SoC. MK903V specifications: SoC – Rockchip RK3288 quad core CortexA17 @ 1.8 GHz (likely 1.6 GHz or lower) + Mali-T764 GPU with support for OpenGL ES 1.1/2.0 /3.0, and OpenCL 1.1 System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + micro SD card slot (up to 32 GB) Connectivity – dual band WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4GHz/5GHz) with external Wi-Fi antenna, and Bluetooth 4.0 (AP6330) Video Output – HDMI 2.0 output (male) up to 4k2k @ 60 fps USB – 1x USB 2.0 host port, 2x micro USB ports (1x OTG, 1x for power) Misc – Firmware update button (pinhole). Power Supply – 5V/2A Dimensions […]

August 12, 2014September 23, 2017 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 4 Comments

How to Upgrade Firmware in Rockchip RK3288, RK3328, RK3399 Android TV Boxes

For some reasons, Rockchip is extremely fond of Windows based firmware tools, and instead of providing a simple SD card method, they’ve continued to use these awful tools to upgrade firmware for Rockchip RK3288, RK3328, RK3399 devices, and other Rockchip based TV boxes. I don’t mean to say these are useless, but they should not be used by end users, unless their device is bricked. Nevertheless, Rockchip has now release version 2.3 of their Android tools for Windows, and GeekBuying has published a guide showing how to do, which I’ll summarize below. Rockchip has also released an updated version for the Linux Upgrade Tool (upgrade_tool) v1.24 that allows you to do the update in Linux. [Update: The latest versions of DriverAssistant (Step 1) and AndroidTool (Step 2) can be found in Rockchip-Linux account in Github] The first thing to do is to make sure you’ve got the latest Rockchip USB […]

August 6, 2014August 6, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Rippl-TV Android TV Box Brings XBMC Front and Center

Most Android TV boxes come pre-loaded with XBMC, but Rippl-TV goes a step further by replacing the Android home screen, or other common found launchers, by XBMC which is used not only as a media center, but also to launch apps, access the settings, and so on. Everything is done within XBMC. The hardware is very similar to SZTomato / Enybox M8, and Shenzhen Tomato appears to be the company behind this project, or at least promoting it. Rippl-TV hardware specifications: SoC – AMLogic S802 quad core Cortex A9r4 processor @ 2GHz with Mali‐450MP6 GPU System Memory – 2GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash + SD card slot Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, dual band Wi‐Fi (2.4GHz/5GHz) & Bluetooth (AP6330) Video Output – HDMI 1.4b, AV. HDMI supports 1080p, 4K2K 30fps Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF Video Codecs and Containers – MPEG1/2/4, H.264, AVC, VC‐1, RM/RMVB, Xvid, […]

August 4, 2014 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 7 Comments

Ugoos S85 Android HDMI TV Stick Features Amlogic S805 Quad Core SoC, Supports H.265 Video Decoding

HDMI TV sticks used to be popular, but as processors became more powerful, it became more and more challenging to put new SoCs in such a small form factor due to thermal issues. For example, there’s no HDMI TV stick powered by Amlogic S802 (4x Cortex A9 @ 2GHz), as even TV boxes may have troubles keeping things cool with two largish heatsinks. But the new Amlogic S805 quad core ARM Cortex A5 is more power-efficient, and Ugoos will soon release S85 model in an HDMI stick form factor. For now, they’ve just published some pictures of the board. Ugoos S85 specifications: SoC – Amlogic S805 Quad-Core Cortex-A5 @ 1.5GHz with Quad Core ARM Mali-450MP GPU @ 600MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND FLASH + micro SD card slot Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4b with CEC (male connector) Video Codecs – MPEG1/2/4, H.265, HD […]