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Rockchip’s Light Work OS Makes Android Look Like Windows

Android is not exactly great to use as a desktop PC, so there’s been various attempts to improve this for Android boxes, tablets, and laptops for example with Remix OS, bringing a more desktop-like user experience. Rockchip showcased multi-window supports in some tablets a while ago, and now they have “Light Work OS”,  an operating system based on Android 5.1 that feature a start menu and multiple windows support. PiPo even decided to use a background image with Windows logo in their PiPo X9 tablet powered by Rockchip RK3288. The problem with Android used as a mini PC goes much further than the lack start menu or window mode, but copy/paste can be a pain, and things you take for granted on desktop, simply may not be available in Android apps: some graphics elements may not be clickable, some website features may not work properly (I’m thinking WordPress editing here..), […]

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AMD to Launch ARM Cortex A57 “Amur” Mobile SoCs in 2015, ARM “K12” Mobile SoCs in 2016

AMD started using ARM Cortex A5 to add TrustZone security to their x86 processor, they followed with their ARM based Opteron A1100 processor for server last year, recently they announced Hierofalcon embedded processors powered by up to eight Cortex A57 processor, and starting this year and beyond, the company will launch “ultra-low power’ mobile SoCs  using ARM cores, at least according to a leaked roadmap. Two ARM families are planned: “Amur” APU planned for 2015 with: Up to 4 ARM Cortex A57 cores GCN Graphics Compute Units AMD Secure Processor (Trustzone?) ~2W TDP 20nm process, FT4 BGA package “Styx” APU planned for 2016 with: Up to two “K12” CPU cores. These should be high performance custom-designed ARM cores. Next-gen GCN Graphics Compute Units Full HSA 1.0 support (Heterogeneous System Architecture) AMD Secure Processor ~2W TDP 14 nm process, FT4 BGA package With this kind of thermal dissipation, AMD Android and […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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iPazzPort KP-810-35BTT Backlit Keyboard Features a Switchable Touchpad / Numpad Zone

I’ve read many people praise Logitech K400 Bluetooth keyboard for use with Android mini PCs, as it’s functional and costs just $25 on Amazon. I’ve just come across another similar keyboard with iPazzPort KP-810-35BTT that adds backlit keys and the touchpad zone can be switched to numpad by the touch of a button. Key features listed for the keyboard: Backlit QWERTY keyboard with touchpad supporting multi-touch and scrolling bar. Connectivity – Bluetooth 3.0; max distance: 10m Power Supply – 3x AAA Batteries Dimensions –  314 x 112.5 x 17mm Weight – 218g Material – ABS It’s a standard Bluetooh HID keyboard so it should work with any OS including Windows, Linux, Android, Mac OS, iOS… One possible downside is the lack of left / right mouse buttons. I have such touchpad without separate physical mouse buttons on Acer Aspire E5 laptop, and while a left click is easy to do, […]

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This Multi-function Capacitive Stylus Includes a USB Flash Drive

If you have fat fingers, or somehow capacitive touchs creens don’t work that well with your fingers, or you simply need more accuracy, you may have purchased one of those cheap capacitive stylus, many of which come with a real ball-point pen and/or a flash light. However, I’ve just noticed GeekBuying listed a few USB multi-functional 6-in-1 touch pens with 4 to 32GB internal flash with prices ranging from 8 to 19 dollars. Based on the picture above, you can open the stylus to take out a USB flash drive that you can insert into your computer, laptop or mobile’s micro USB OTG port via an OTG adapter. Specifications include: Use with touchscreen of smartphone or tablet PC Ball-point pen Files storage (USB flash drive) Money inspection (ultra-violet light) Pointer (red laser) Mini flash-light Dimensions – 143 x 12 mm Weight – 25 grams I find the USB drive-in-a-pen idea […]

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Intel Introduces Celeron N3000 / N3050 / N3150 and Pentium N3700 Low Power Braswell Processors

Intel Bay Trail processor are found in low cost tablets, laptops and mini PCs with prices starting as low as $60 for retail products. The company has introduced Braswell some time ago, the successor of Bay Trail, which among other thigns brings 14nm process technology instead of 22nm, for even lower power consumption. CPU World has noticed Intel listed the first four low power Braswell processor using Celeron and Pentium branding and with 6W TDP max. We only know a few details about the new processor Celeron N3000 – Dual core CPU @ 1.04 GHz (Burst: 2.08 GHz) with 1MB L2 cache, 4W TDP Celeron N3050 – Dual core CPU  @ 1.6 GHz (Burst: 2.16 GHz) with 1MB L2 cache, 6W TDP Celeron N3150 – Quad-core CPU @ 1.6 GHz (Burst: 2.08 GHz) with 2MB L2 cache, 6W TDP Pentium N3700 – Quad-core CPU @ 1.6 GHz (Burst: 2.40 GHz) […]

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Cubieboard4 (CC-A80) Unboxing and Getting Started Guide

A few samples of Cubieboard4 board may have been available in China in October 2014, but Cubietech only officially launched their Allwinner A80 development board about ten days ago, and you can buy it for $125 + shipping on sites like R0ck.me, Eleduino, Seeed Studio, and many other distributors. The company decided to send a sample for evaluation, and today I’ll start with a post showing some pictures of the kit, and explaining how to get started with assembly and first boot. Cubieboard 4 Pictures I received the board within two days after the company told me they would send a sample, as they used DHL. I also had to pay a bit of import tax and DHL’s handling fee. There should be CC-A80 box with the board and accessories, a white box for the power supply, and a power cord. There’s quite a few items to play with… The […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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iConsole Micro Intel Atom TV Stick To Run Android 5.0 based Console OS

Console Inc., previously Mobile Media Ventures, Inc.,  is the company developing Console OS operating system based on Android 4.4 / 5.0 for Intel platforms that includes customizations for a better desktop experience, and you can already try the preview version of Console OS Standard for free on some Intel hardware, with another paid version to become available at the time of the stable release. The company has now announced iConsole Micro a Console OS HDMI TV Stick based on a quad core Intel Atom processor that looks very much like MeegoPad T01, but it’s said to be based on Intel Compute Stick technology. iConsole Micro specifications have not been fully released, but here’s what we know so far: SoC – Unnamed Intel Atom 64-bit quad core processor System Memory – 2 GB RAM Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SD slot up to 128GB (160GB in total) Video & […]

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Console OS Developer Preview Image Released for Some Intel Haswell and Bay Trail Systems

Console OS is an operating system based on Android that’s designed to run on x86 machines side-by-side with Windows and with desktop-friendly user interface. The project has been funded via a Kickstarter campaign, so backers get the updates earlier, but the developers have now publicly released Console OS DR1 (Developer Release 1) based on Android 4.4.2 so that more people can download it and try it for free after registration. I wanted to try it on Mele PCG03, but it failed, even after copying bootia32.efi to /EFI/BOOT directory (I get stuck into Grub command line), and I found out that “Systems must have 64-bit UEFI firmware. Some systems have 32-bit UEFI firmware, and we are working on adding support for those provided you have one of the processors above”. So it won’t work on cheap Windows 8.1 dongles and mini PC like MeegoPad T01 or Pipo X7, but MINIX NEO […]

Boardcon CM3588 Rockchip RK3588 System-on-Module designed for AI and IoT applications