Ainol NOVO 7 Crystal II Quad Core 7″ Tablet is Available for $99

Earlier this year, several blogs and news website reported about Cherry Mobile, a 7″ Android tablet powered by Actions Semiconductor ATM7029 quad core Cortex A9 processor, that sells for just $99 in the Philippines. This morning I’ve found a quad core tablet with similar specifications that also sells for $99 on Asiapads (after using AINOLCII coupon) . The Ainol NOVO 7 Crystal II comes with a 7″ touchscreen, is powered by ATM7029 SoC with 1GB RAM and, 8GB NAND Flash. Tablet Specifications: SoC – Actions Semi ATM7029 Quad Core Cortex A9 @ 1.5 GHz + Vivante GC1000 (Plus) GPU System Memory – 1GB DDR3 RAM Storage –  8GB NAND Flash + micro SD slot Display –  7-inch capacitive touchscreen LCD (Resolution: 1024*600) Connectivity – WiFi: 802.11b/g/n Camera – 0.3 MP front camera Video Output – mini HDMI Audio I/O – 3.5 mm headphone jack USB – 1x micro USB OTG port […]

AllWinner Announces A31s Processor for Phablets, Hints about Ubuntu Devices

AllWinner is currently a Mobile World Congress 2013, and Charbax had the chance to interview Eva, manager at AllWinner, and learn more about new processors, and future plans by the company. They spent some time discussing about AllWinner A31 and AllWinner A20 quad and dual Cortex A7 processors, but since we’ve know about those for a while I’ll skip this part. The most interesting part is about AllWinner A31s, a cost down version of A31, specifically designed for phablets (smartphones with 5″ to 7″ screens). Like AllWinner A31, AllWinner A31s is also a quad core Cortex A7 processor with PowerVR SGX544MP2 GPU (8 shader engines) and the following specifications: CPU – ARM Cortex-A7 Quad-Core with 256KB L1-Cache/1MB L2-Cache GPU – POWERVR SGX 544MP2 with 8 logic cores. OpenGL ES2.0, Open CL1.x and DX 9_3 compliant. Memory 32-bit Dual-Channel LPDDR2/DDR3/DDR3L Controller, 8-bit NAND FLASH Controller with 64-bit ECC Video UHD H.264 […]

Ubuntu Touch Developer Preview Is Now Available for the Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4, 7 and 10 Devices

As promised with the announcement of Ubuntu on Tablets, Canonical released a developer preview of Ubuntu 12.10 for smartphones and tablets that can be installed in Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4 smartphones, as well as Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 tablets. It is an experimental development snapshot that could potentially brick your device. Many features are still not available but you should be able to access the following: Shell and core applications Connection to the GSM network (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4) Phone calls and SMS (on Galaxy Nexus and Nexus 4) Networking via Wifi Functional camera (front and back) Device accessible through the Android Developer Bridge tool (adb) You’ll be able to reinstall Android after trying it out, but all your data will be lost, unless you use apps such as Titanium Backup. The instructions to install Ubuntu 12.10 Touch are available on Canonical website, and you’ll basically […]

Marvell PXA1088 Quad Core Cortex A7 SoC

Marvell has just announced the MarvellPXA1088, a quad-core Cortex A7 application and communications mobile SoC that integrates Marvell’s WCDMA and TD-SCDMA modem technology to provide a low-cost 3G platform for both smartphones and tablets. Marvell’s mobile platform also includes Avastar 88W8777 WLAN + Bluetooth 4.0 + FM single-chip SoC, L2000 GNSS Hybrid Location Processor, and an integrated power management and audio codec IC. PXA1088 is said to be pin-to-pin compatible with the earlier PXA988/PXA986 solutions (dual core SoC) so that current mobile device designs can be upgraded with a quad-core SoC without  additional development costs. Additional PXA1088 Features: Support for advanced WCDMA Release 7, TD-SCDMA HSPA+ Release 8, and class 12 EDGE 3G protocol stack certified on all major carrier networks and validated via IOT, GCF and field trail testing Support for popular full-feature operating systems (Including Android 4.2), and industry-standard development tools Multi-radio platform capabilities with WLAN/Bluetooth solutions Integrated […]

Canonical Unveils Ubuntu on Tablets

Yesterday, Ubuntu.com displayed a time counter for an announcement reading “Tic Toc Tablet Time” that ended being about Ubuntu on Tablets, and not an HTC Tablet running Ubuntu as some blogs speculated, as both companies had a timer counter set to expire at the same time for separate, and unrelated, announcements. The interface looks very much like Ubuntu for Phones with a similar “Welcome Screen”, except multiple users are supported, no icons (except for apps), and you can swipe around the 4 edges to access the dash, opened applications, notifications, and more. Canonical highlights 5 key features for Ubuntu on Tablets: Real multitasking – Run mobile and tablet apps at the same time on the same screen Secure multi-user Voice controlled HUD productivity Edge magic for cleaner apps – As I said previously no buttons, you control eveything from the edges. Content focus – Messages and media are easily accessible […]

Pipo Max M9 Android 4.1 Tablet Powered by Rockchip RK3188

I first heard about Rockchip RK3188 quad core Cortex A9 at the end of 2012,  Rockchip showcased an RK3188 tablet development platform at CES 2013, and we were told the first tablet would ship in March without more details about available models. It appears Pipo Max M9 may be one of the first RK3188 available for purchase. This Android 4.1 tablet features a 10″ IPS display with 1280 x 800 resolution, 2 GB RAM, and 16 GB Flash. Here are the full specifications for PiPO MAX M9: SoC – Rockchip RK3188  Quad core Cortex A9  @  1.8GHz with Mali-400MP4 GPU @ 533 MHz. System Memory –  2 GB RAM Storage – 16 GB flash + microSD slot Display – 10.1″ IPS display with 10-Point capacitive touch screen. Resolution: 1280 x 800 pixels Connectivity: Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g/n Bluetooth 2.1 3G via external USB dongle Camera – 2.0MP front camera, 5.0MP rear […]

Always Innovating MeCam is a $49 Voice-Controlled Nanocopter Camera

Earlier today, I’ve posted a list of some interesting sessions for the upcoming ELC 2013, and one of the talk entitled “Lessons Learned in Designing a Self-video Self-hovering Nano Copter” by Gregoire Gentil, Always Innovating CEO, caught my attention. In this presentation, he will talk about the technical challenges the company encountered when they designed MeCam, a self video nano copter to point-and-shoot yourself, that should sell for just $49 retail. The MeCam launches from the palm of a hand and hovers instantly. It streams video to an Android or iOS phone or tablet that can be easily shared on social media platforms such as YouTube, Facebook, Google+ and Twitter. There’s no remote control for the MeCam as it’s either controlled by voice commands, or it can be setup to follow you around thanks to the follow-me feature. It can also do panorama shots automatically. The products is still in […]

XBMCHUB Releases XBMC for Android Version with HW Video Decoding on All Platforms

As you may know, XBMC developers have been working on XBMC for Android for a while, and have recently released XBMC 12.0 RC3 for Android APK. The only problem is that, apart from devices based on AMLogic AML8726-M1/3,  many platforms still do not support video hardware decoding, so this  must be handled by software. As the CPUs in most devices are not powerful enough to decode HD videos, some people have provided instructions to use an external player, for example with Telechips TCC8925 and Diceplayer. This is not ideal because you basically lose XBMC user interface during video playback, but it’s a good workaround until XBMC 4 Android supports more platforms. However, you still need to edit some config files by yourself. That’s why the guys at XBMCHUB have decided to release an XBMC for Android APK where all the configuration is done for you, so that you can get […]

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