Reviews - Page 100 of 126 - CNX Software

November 19, 2015November 20, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 15 Comments

NO.1 D3 Smartwatch Specs, Unboxing and Teardown

There are now many wearables, including fitness bands and smartwatches, on the market, but to me many fail on battery life, visibility, and price. The one that would match my requirements the best would be SMA-Q smartwatch, but in the meantime, I’m also interested in testing some more wearables at different price points. Tinydeal sent me NO.1 D3 smartwatch that sells for just $22.99 shipped. I’ll go first through the specifications, before checking of the watch more closely, and in a few days writing a review of the device. NO.1 D3 Smartwatch Specifications You should not expect much for this price, but the watch is surprisingly feature-packed (as taken from tinydeal website): SoC – Mediatek MT6261 processor with 32Mbit RAM, 32Mbit Flash Storage – Internal micro SD slot up to 16GB Display – 1.22″ capacitive touchscreen IPS display with 128×128 resolution Connectivity – Bluetooth 3.0 Cellular – 1x micro SIM […]

November 17, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 38 Comments

Videostrong K1 Plus Amlogic S905 Android TV Box Unboxing and Teardown

Many Amlogic S905 TV boxes have been announced, and thanks to Videostrong, I’ve received my first Amlogic S905 device for review with their K1 Plus media player (aka KI Plus). Today, I’ll start by listing the specifications, before taking a few pictures of the device and its board. with the full review following up in a few days. Videostrong K1 Plus Specifications K1 Plus is one of the entry level models with 1GB RAM and 8GB storage by default: SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core ARM Cortex-A53 @ up to 2.0GHz with penta-core Mali-450MP GPU @ 750 MHz System Memory – 1GB DDR3 Storage – 8GB NAND flash (4 to 32GB optional) + micro SD card slot Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz with HDCP 2.2 support, and 3.5mm AV jack Audio – HDMI, AV (stereo), optical S/PDIF Video Codecs – 10-bit H.265 up to 4K60, […]

November 14, 2015December 5, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 31 Comments

TBS5520 Multi-Standard Tuner Box and Linux Drivers

TBS Technologies is a company that specializes in digital TV tuner cards for PC, and recently they’ve also worked on ARM based boards or devices such as the Matrix 2. The company has sent me one of their TBS5520 USB tuner board and box supporting DVB-T2, DVB-S2, DVB-C and ISDB-T for evaluation, as well as some Linux drivers. Today, I’ll provide some specifications, take some pictures, and show how I compiled and installed the drivers in my Ubuntu 14.04 computer. TBS 5520 Tuner Box specifications TBS5520 is a multi-standard USB tuner with the following features: USB – USB 2.0 device port Antenna connectors – 1x LNB IN, 1x RF IN Standards DVB-S2/S Symbol rate: 1~45Msps; FEC DVB-S2: 8PSK: 3/5, 2/3, 3/4, 4/5, 5/6, 8/9, 9/10; DVB-S: QPSK: 1/2, 2/3, 3/4, 5/6, 7/8 DVB-T2/T Receiving channel: VHF band, UHF band; Bandwidth: 1.7,5, 6, 7, 8 MHz; FEC: QPSK, 16QAM, 64QAM, 256QAM […]

November 12, 2015November 19, 2020 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 12 Comments

Run x86 Linux and Windows applications in Raspberry Pi and other ARM Linux Devices with Exagear

A few weeks ago, I finally decided to buy a Raspberry Pi 2 board as it could always be useful for some testing, at least for comparison purposes. I ended up buying it from Ebay for $40, as it’s $3 to $5 more expensive locally. Nevertheless, I was not sure what I’ll use it first for, but after seeing a tweet for Exagear Desktop software that allows ARM boards to run x86 Linux or Windows applications, the latter through wine. The program is available for Raspberry Pi, Raspberry Pi 2, and ARMv7 devices for $19.95 to $29.95. I asked for a version for testing purposes, and I was given a Google Drive link to download Exagear for Raspberry Pi 2, as well as a 3-month trial key. Installation is very easy. I started by downloading and installing Raspbian Jessie the usual way on a 32GB micro SD card. It went […]

November 6, 2015November 7, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 5 Comments

Operys Process Explorer App Shows Android Processes in Your Computer’s Web Browser

Opersys is an Android and Embedded Linux company providing both development and training services, and they regularly attend conferences and release their training materials. The company has also developed a few Android apps to export the file system, the process list and info, and interaction between apps and Android system services exposed via Binder to your computer’s web browser. I found the most interesting app to be Process Explorer, so I gave it a try on Iocean M6752 smartphone. The application requires very little permissions to install, and it’s very simple to use. Simply tap on Start the service, and the app will provide the URL to browse the processes on your computer, in my case http://192.168.0.105:3000. The output is pretty useful, as you get much more information than you could get on your smartphone or tablet screen with CPU and memory usage, running time, logcat, etc… If you click […]

October 25, 2015October 25, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 8 Comments

Kingnovel R8 Android TV Box Review (VLC Edition)

Kingnovel R8 is one of the many Rockchip RK3368 based TV boxes on the market, and since I’ve already provided the specs, as well as pictures of the device and board, I’ll carry on with the review today. While I’m usually testing video playback in Kodi, I’ve only spent a short time with Kodi 15.2 on this box, and instead switched to VLC (aka VideoLAN), an another open source media player, and my favorite program to watch videos in my Ubuntu computer. Of course, I’ve also tested most hardware features and performance of the device. First Boot, and First Impressions Since I like to test worst case scenarios, I also make sure I use all the ports of the devices, and connected a USB hard drive, USB RF dongles, USB webcam, and relevant cables to the device before powering it up. Once you connect the power, I recommend you have […]

October 20, 2015October 20, 2015 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 2 Comments

EzeeCube Linux Media Hub Unboxing and Teardown

EzeeCube is a Linux based Kodi Media Hub powered by Freescale i.MX6Quad processor with one internal 1TB hard drive and up to 8TB extra storage via four stackable 2TB hard drive module, as well as an option for a Blu-Ray player module. Beside playing video, it’s also designed to store your pictures and videos like a cloud service such as dropbox, but without privacy concerns since data is only stored in your own EzeeCube. The company launched an Indiegogo campaign in Q2 2014 which ended up being pretty successful having raised over $160,000, and as they are now shipping rewards to backers, I’ve also been sent a unit. Today, I’ll check out the hardware, and will review the unit probably sometimes next month. EzeeCube Unboxing The device came in a cardboard package with some EzeeCube branding, and some features like Freescale quad core processor, a 2TB hard drive (which finally […]

October 19, 2015June 18, 2018 by Jean-Luc Aufranc (CNXSoft) - 36 Comments

Review of WeTek Core Android Lollipop Media Player

EThe first devices based on Amlogic S812 processors started shipping by the end of 2014, but in the third quarter of 2015, there’s been a few new device released as some companies ported Android 5.x Lollipop to the platform. I reviewed two of these. Mygica ATV1900AC had potential but the number of bugs was disappointing, while Tronfy MXIV Telos was almost a disaster. Today, I’m going to report my test results with WeTek Core Android 5.1 TV box, also powered by Amlogic S812, more exactly S812-H, which includes DTS and Dolby licenses. I’ve already listed the specs, and torn down WeTek Core in two previous posts, so I’ll focus on the firmware in this review. Initial Setup and OTA Firmware Update First of all, I’d like to mention that I got an early WeTek Core sample, and while the hardware is frozen, the firmware is still being developed before the […]