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Vernee Apollo Lite Helio X20 Smartphone Review – Part 2: Android 6.0 Firmware

I’ve already taken pictures and shown Antutu benchmark in the first part of Vernee Apollo Lite review, an Android 6.0 smartphone powered by Mediatek Helio X20 deca-core processor. Now that I’ve had time to play with the phone for over 10 days, I’ve ready to report my experience and write the second part of the review about performance, features, and issues I encountered with the phone. General Impressions First, the build quality feel pretty good, the phone is light and slim. I’ve only called once or twice, and voice quality was good, but I mostly use my phone over WiFi to browse the web, check emails, watch YouTube, and access social networks. More rarely, I also use GPS while running and during trip, and play some games. To be honest, the first few days did not work as expected, as many apps would either be much slower than last year […]

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Large American Technology Companies Abusive Practices Against Bloggers

OK the title might be a little over of the top, but within the last month or so, I’ve been a “victim” of three American companies’ requests, via third parties, namely their customers or technology partners, never directly, to delete or amend the content of this blog. One which I believe is justified albeit not really necessary, and two are just ridiculous, with the latest one prompting me to write this post. The first issue was about a post entitled “Allwinner A64 based Pine A64 and Banana Pi M64 Boards Can Now Run Windows 10 IoT Core“, where I shared .ffu firmware file links that I found directly via a page on Microsoft Azure github about Banana Pi board. There were accessible without any EULA, or agreement. So The Internet being the Internet, where you can freely share links that don’t break any sort of copyrights or promote hate, I […]

ArmSoM RK3588 AIModule7 NVIDIA Jetson Nano-compatible SOM
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Beelink GT1 4K TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

Beelink GT1 is among the cheapest Amlogic S912 TV boxes available today, selling for around $56, but despite the inexpensive price tag, its specifications are not too bad with Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11ac WiFi, 2GB RAM, 16GB flash, and 4K H.265 & VP9 video capabilities. The company sent me a sample for review, and as usual, I’ll start by posting photos, and having a look at the hardware design, before reviewing the firmware in more details in a the second part of the review. Beelink GT1 Unboxing My package appears to have had a rough trip, but apart from the edges of the black retail package nothing was damaged. The main specifications are shown on the bottom of the package together with CE and FCC certifications, and the type of power adapter inside the package. GT1 ships with a simple IR remote control, a shortish HDMI cable (~1 meter), a small […]

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ArduBoy Arduino Compatible Portable Game Console Sells for $39

Ardubox feels like the little brother of PocketCHIP portable & hackable game console with its transparent case, but instead of running Linux on a 32-bit ARM processor, Ardubox is based on the same Atmel ATmega32u4 MCU used in Arduino Leonardo & Micro boards. Arduboy specifications: MCU – Atmel ATmega32u4 AVR MCU with 32KB flash, 2.5KB RAM, and 1KB EEPROM Display – 128×64 1-bit OLED display USB – 1x micro USB 2.0 port for power and programming User Inputs – 6x momentary tactile buttons Audio – 2 channel Piezo Speaker Misc – 1x LED Battery – 180 mAh Thin-Film Li-Po battery good for over 8 hours Beside the Arduino IDE, The board can also be programmed with Codebender, GCC & AVRDude. There’s also a fairly long list of games to play with, and it can be hacked as a virtual business card, a USB mouse and keyboard, a synthesizer, and more. […]

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Sensors Predicting The Future – Elderly Persons Fall Prediction and Detection with Kinect, Webcams and Microphones

Wearables can be used your young children or elderly persons to monitoring their locations or health, and one use case, especially for old age persons, is to detect falls. However, it’s quite possible they don’t like it and/or not always wear it, so the Center for Eldercare and Technology of the University of Missouri designed a system based on Microsoft Kinect, two webcams, and microphones in order to detect falls, and even predict falls by analyzing gait, i.e. the pattern of movement of the limbs. The picture above shows at least part of the hardware setup with the Kinect, a webcam, and a PC  tower doing the processing stored in a cupboard. Fall detection algorithms are relying on the microphone array, Microsoft Kinect depth camera, and a two-webcam system used to extract silhouettes from orthogonal views and construct a 3D voxel model for analysis. Passive gait analysis algorithms are for […]

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MINIX NEO Z83-4 mini PC Review – Part 2: Windows 10 and Benchmarks

I’ve listed specifications and posted photos of MINIX NEO Z83-4 mini PC in the first part of review, and while NEO Z83-4 is yet another Intel Atom x5-Z8300 device, it’s clear the company has made specific efforts for the thermal design with a large heatsink and aluminum bottom cover, and provided a solid 12V/3A power supply. So in the second part of the review, I’ll check how Windows 10 performs in the device, and run some benchmarks to compare it to other low power Intel mini PCs. MINIX NEO Z83-4 Setup & System Information If you’ve connected USB mouse and keyboard, HDMI and Ethernet, a USB 3.0 hard drive to the USB 3.0 port, and the power cord. Pressing the power button on the right side will boot the device. A typical boot will take around 30 seconds to the desktop. My system was already configured with Z83-4 user, possibly […]

Rockchip RK3568, RK3588 and Intel x86 SBCs and SoMs in 2025
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Rockchip RV1108 Cortex A7 + DSP SoC is Made for Audio & Video Conference and Recording Applications

[Update May 2017: Rockchip has renamed RK1108 to RV1108.] Rockchip has introduced RV1108 ARM Cortex A7 SoC with a 600 MHz DSP targeting visual communication, consumer electronics, automotive DVR, and security applications thanks to its 8-channel I2S audio codec and 1440p H.264 video encoder and decoder. Detailed specifications can be found on the official Rockchip Wiki: CPU – Single-core ARM Cortex-A7 Core processor with NEON and FPU,  32KB/32KB L1 I-Cache/D-Cache, Unified 128KB L2 Cache, and Trustzone Video/Image DSP – Up to 600 MHz, 32KB I-TCM and 32KB I-cache, 128KB D-TCM Memory 12KB internal SRAM DDR3/DDR3L interface – 16 Bits data width, 1 ranks (chip selects), up to 512 MB RAM NAND Flash Interface – 8-bit async NAND flash, 16-bit hardware ECC eMMC Interface – Compatible with standard iNAND interface, eMMC 4.51 standard. SD/MMC Interface – Compatible with SD 3.0, MMC 4.41 System Component 2x 64-bit timers with interrupt-based operation 8x […]

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Zidoo X9S (Realtek RTD1295) Android TV Box Review – Part 1: Unboxing and Teardown

Zidoo X9S is one of the first Realtek RTD1295 based TV boxes coming to market, and it has some pretty special features like running both Android 6.0 and OpenWrt simultaneously, HDMI input support for video recording and PiP, an external SATA interface, 4K media capabilities including HDMI 2.0a output, 4K 60 fps H.265 and VP9 & 4K 24 Hz H.264 video decoding, as well as HDR and 3D support. You can find the full Zidoo X9S specification in my previous post. The company has now sent me an early review sample, and in the first part of the review you’ll post photos of the devices and accessories, and perform a teardown to find out more about the electronics and thermal design. Later on I’ll publish articles with benchmarks, video performance, and the complete review. Zidoo X9S Unboxing The box comes in a light green retail package showing some of the […]

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