Rockchip RK3036 dual core Cortex A7 processor was showcased by Rockchip at CES 2015 and said to enable $10 H.265 TV boxes, and yesterday I noticed some code made it to mainline Linux for Rockchip RK3036 Kylin board. While I have not been able to find any information about that board, or any other RK3036 boards or devices so far, I’ve been informed that RK3128 boards with 512MB RAM and 8GB storage were selling for $11.50 (75 CNY) for 1K orders, and around $15 (100 CNY) and up for samples.

Specifications listed for the board shown above:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3128 quad core ARM Cortex A7 @ 1.3 GHz with ARM Mali-400MP2 GPU
• System Memory – 512MB to 1GB LPDDR2/DDR3 or DDR3L
• Storage – 4 to 8 GB NAND flash + micro SD slot
• Connectivity – Ethernet, and WiFi
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4 and composite RCA output
• Audio Output – HDMI, and stereo audio (RCA)
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 ports
• Misc – IR sensor, LED
• Power Supply – 5V/2A
• Dimensions – N/A

The device runs Android 4.4.2, and while there’s certainly no SDK provided with the board, it’s should possible to adapt the Android and Linux SDKs released for FirePrime board also based on Rockchip RK3128 processor.

Beside 1866 dot com that only accepts order of 5 or more pieces, you can also find RK3128 boards on Taobao for 128 RMB and up (~$20). Apart from the $85 FirePrime board, I could not find other RK3128 boards on Aliexpress, but there are some RK3128 TV boxes start at $33 shipped.

Spartixed is another low cost FPGA board launched on Kickstarter, powered by Xilinx Spartan 6 LX4 FPGA, with a 7-segment display, some headers and buttons, and targeting people who want to learn VHDL/Verilog on the cheap.

Spartixed board specifications:

• FPGA – Xilinx Spartan 6 LX4 FPGA (exact part not disclosed)
• Storage – 16 Mbit flash for program, I2C or SPI EEPROM
• Display – 3 digit 7- Segment Display
• USB – 1x micro USB port for power and debugging
• Expansion – 26-pin unpopulated header, optional SPI Bus A/D Converter
• Debugging – 14-pin JTAG connector, UARt port via USB connector
• Misc – 3x push button switches, 8 slide switches for input, 2x user LEDs, 1x power LED, 1x config. ready LED.
• Power – 5V via Micro USB Connector or 5 to 12 V via external power supply.
• Dimensions – N/A

You can follow the project via its blog, and already access some tutorials on referencedesigner.com, including some YouTube videos.

An early bird pledge of $29 could get you Spartixed board and a 12V power supply, and after the first 25 pieces are gone the pledge is $34. Shipping is $6 to the US, and $20 to the rest of the world with delivery scheduled for February and March 2016. The target funding of $35,000 might however be optimistic for the type of board, as it might be challenging to get the 1,000+ boards required to achieve the goal.

Tronsmart Orion R68 is an octa-core Android TV box powered by Rockchip RK3368 processor with 2GB RAM, and 16GB internal storage. I actually received a sample a a few months ago, but I have not reviewed it yet as I’ve been waiting for a firmware upgrade to fix some of the issues I had in Beelink i68, but it has yet to come. Nevertheless, the device which normally sells for $75 on GeekBuying, is now sold for $39 shipped on Aliexpress in what looks like am amazingly good deal reported by AndroidPC.es.

At first, I was about to write a post about this excellent deal, especially as I saw the link indicated 114 orders, but then on the top left corner, I noticed “Hot CCTV” seller had no feedback score and the store opened on December 9, 2015. It’s quite possible a store will do a promotion to gain attention, but since TV boxes margin are pretty low, it’s pretty sure Orion R68 would be selling at a loss here, unless it was stolen goods, or some packages that fell from the truck…

However, after checking their other products, it’s now clear that something is really odd or dodgy, as MINIX NEO X8-H Plus with NEO A2 Lite is also selling for $52.99.

Knowing MINIX stricts resellers policy, and a normal price closer to $160 for this bundle, you can be sure that any items bought from “Hot CCTV” seller will never ship. Maybe they got their exchange rate conversion wrong, or somehow expected some people to forget to ask for a refund once it becomes clear nobody will receive their device in one or two months. Better save your time and avoid this seller.

So far my quest for a smartwatch as not been successful, with massive disappointments with both No.1 D3 smartwatch and SMA-Q color e-Paper smartwatch, with the latter completely failing after a week. The next potential candidate is Makibes F68 with similar features as SMA-Q, but instead with a grayscale display, IP67 ingress protection rating which should make it suitable for swimming, as well as a promised 7-day battery life during “normal usage”.

Makibes F68 specifications:

• MCU/Memory/Storage – Not disclosed but it’s supposed to run Nucleus RTOS.
• Display – 1″ round capacity touchscreen display, 128×128 resolution, always on
• Connectivity – Bluetooth 4.0
• Sensors – 3-axis accelerometer and gyroscope
• Battery – 180 mAh charged via magnetic connector
• Dimensions – 38 x38 x 10 mm (aluminum alloy material)
• Weight – 31 grams
• IP Rating – IP67 meaning it’s been tested for 30 minutes under one meter of water.

The watch supports Bluetooth 4.x enabled smartphones with iOS 8 and Android 4.3 or greater. Supported function include call and message reminders (Android only shown via icons on the watch, no text), heart rate monitoring, pedometer, sedentary reminder, sleep monitoring, alarm, and clock display. The app is called HPlus Watch and can be downloaded from Google Play or iTunes for iPhone or iPad. GeekBuying also released the user’s manual, and that’s how I discovered the device.

HPlus Watch Screenshots (Click to Enlarge)

A video shows a little more how the watch and app works, and it looks good in theory, but we’ll have to see how well it works in practise, and the few app reviews so far are rather mixed.

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Makibes F68 is selling for $34.99 on GeekBuying right now, buy you can also find it for $32.99 on GearBest, as well as Aliexpress and eBay for just under $40.

This is take 2 of using an Android mini PC as a desktop PC, as I’m currently writing this post from GeekBox TV box with Rockchip’s Light Biz OS, an operating systems based on Android 5.1 with some optimizations for desktop use. I’ve already installed various productivity apps such as Gimp and Microsoft Excel, and at first this was a problem sinc Light Biz OS “internal storage” partition was too small to install some programs, so I had to resize the “userdata” partition to 6GB to make it usable.

I normally blog with Firefox in Ubuntu 14.04, so right now, I’m writing with Firefox for Android, and not WordPress Android app, which would have been another option. One of the first challenge was to create links, and I could copy links with a long click providing access to copy tools in Firefox, and copy the links with Ctrl+V in Firefox. All good, except I could not select text and create the link, but instead I had to create the link first in “Text” view, and place the URL text accordingly. One of the annoyance while typing and selecting text is that you can’t use Ctrl+Shift to select multiple words, and this is reversed for changing input method in Andoir,d and I’ve had the Google voice typing window showing more than once…

Another frequent task when blogging is to import and insert pictures. So I’ve tken the picture you see above from a Canon EOS 700D camera, and connected it to GeekBox via a USB hub, which started the Gallery and let me import a few pictures. The problem is that the first time as the import seemed successful, the pictures were nowhere to be found in the Gallery, nor the Pictures directory. So I tried a few more times, and finally the 3 imported photos showed in the Gallery and Canon EOS 700D directory in the flash. I could then open the photo in Gimp to resize it and save it as jpg. However, this was quite a struggle, as Gimp would not run in full screen mode, and showed two mouse pointer, so I had to perform all tasks with the keyboard and shortcuts.

Sometimes I also need to create tables. It’s not really convenient to do so directly in Firefox as it requires typing html, so I usually just do this in LibreOffice Calc, but in Android at first, I simply installed the free Microsoft Excel app, until I realized it was read-only and therefore unusable without a subscription. Finally, after three attempsts (one resulting in GeekBox rebooting, one in Google Play crashing), I managed to install Google Sheets to create a spreadsheet listing the apps I’m using for this post, which I copied and pasted below… Unfortunately, it only pasted the text, and not the formatted table like in my computer, so I had to create the table manually with html tags.

The process was greatly simplified with keyboard text selection, and Ctrl+C & Ctrl+V shortcuts, but that’s something that worked too last time I tried this in Android.

Shooting, converting, and uploading videos to YouTube is another frequent task for bloggers. So I shot a video to demonstrate some of the features and issues with Light Biz OS. The first hurdle was to import the video tothe Android mini PC. This just does not work, and the camera was not recognized as an MTP device, so I cheating and imported the video to my PC before copying it to GeekBox with ES File Explorer. Since the 7-minute video is 2.6GB, and my recently upgraded broadband connection is still limited to 10 Mbps upload speed,  I planned to convert it with Android Video Converter Android 2 (VidCon). It started OK, with 24 minutes remaining, but then I saw that the estimated time jumped to 1h40, and the heatsink temperature jumped to 65 C, with the fan remaining still, so fan control may not have been implemented in Light Biz OS. So I cheated two more times and converted the video and uploaded it using my Ubuntu computer. By the way, as I write now there’s about 10 seconds delay as the text is displayed very slowly…

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Accessing YouTube from Firefox would just crash, so I started the YouTube app instead, and copied and pasted the link above. While trying to watch the video, the YouTube was in smartphone app windowed mode, and there was not way to switch to full screen mode. Maybe another version of YouTube is better suited to Light Biz OS, but since YouTube was pre-installed you’d think it would work out of the box.

I’m back to my Ubuntu computer to write the conclusion of my little experiment. To me, the most valuable features of Light Biz OS are the ability of switching between apps on the task bar and the startup menu. Shortcuts support (e.g. Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V/Ctrl+Tab ) is nice too, but already worked for me in standard Android. The three window sizes options may be interesting to some people, but I seldom use windowed mode myself in any operating systems, except for Terminal windows, as I have two displays in my main computer.

I’ve drawn a list of some of the issues I had with Light Biz OS, many shared with Android, and shortcominga to using the OS for desktop use:

1. Internal storage partition is way too small (1.94GB), but that’s easily fixable
2. Lack of soft power button as I need to use the remote control to turn it off, or press the unit power button. Again an easy improvement.
3. I could not create links easily in WordPress while using Firefox.
4. Since Android is mostly an operating for mobile devices, background tabs in the web browser are not running. For example, I’m using an HTML5 Egg timer counter to remember to take breaks, and it’s not running in the background.
5. While importing pictures from the camera via USB, video import does not seem possible.
6. Various bugs with Windowed mode: some Windows are not resizable, ES File Explorer background is dark (text unreadable), Gimp will show two mouse pointers (one for the app, one for the system), YouTube can’t be used in full screen mode.
7. Start Menu does not show the most frequently used app. For example, I’ve used Google Play often, but I had to search for it each time.
8. Cannot copy formatted table between Spreadsheet app and WordPress in web browser (only pastes raw text)
9. Potential performance issue while typing with a keyboard, with text shown may seconds later at times.
10. Lack of spell checker in mobile web browsers (at least in Firefox for Android).

And I could probably carry on with more issues… So Android is still far from being usable as a PC even with improvements brought by Light Biz OS. The issues are not from the OS only, but also apps, so the task at end would be a huge undertaking, and few people are interested since there are already decent desktop operating systems on the market including multiple Linux distributions and Windows that can run on similarly price hardware.

When I wrote an article about H.265 and VP9 video encoding, I noticed only the second generation Maxwell Nvidia Graphics would support H.265 decoding (up to 500 fps) and HDMI 2.0 output, a few weeks after purchasing a first generation Nvidia GTX750 GPU… So when GearBest contacted me about Graphics cards reviews I said I would be interesting in HDMI 2.0 and H.265 capable graphics card, which I meant I had to get a card with Nvidia GM20x chip with the cheapest being GTX960. So the company agreed to send me Maxsun MS-GTX960 graphics card matching my requirements for $240.04. I won’t use it for gaming at all, but instead I plan to use the card to evaluate Kodi 16.x 4K H.265 and VP9 support and compare video performance to the cheap and low power Amlogic S905 TV boxes on the market, as well as try out H.265 video encoding, as it should speed up the process by up to 50 times compared to software only encoding. But first, I’ll show a few pictures of the GPU, and installation process that a little different from lower-end cards.

Maxsun MS-GTX960 Unboxing

I received the box via DHL, and was surprised by the rather large size of the package, and that I did not have to pay any custom duties for this type of item…

The card comes with 2GB GDDR5 RAM.

The graphics card does look quite large and includes with two cooling fans.

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The card has four video outputs: HDMI 2.0, DisplayPort, and two DVI ports.

There’s also a DVD or CDROM included with the graphics, but I did not checked it out, as the latest drivers are usually available online.

Maxsun MS-GTX960 Graphics Card Installation

This is what my previous Kodac GT750 card graphics card looks like when installed in my PC.

I’ve taken it out, and comparing it to GTX960, I was worried it would not fit due to its much longer length.

While there ere are more ports, there’s no VGA output, so I’ll have to find a DVI cable for my secondary display. Not a big deal.

I was relieved when I realized the card would indeed fit into my computer, albeit it’s now pretty tight with my hard drive.

I also noticed a 6-pin connector on the top of the card, and after a Google search, I found it was to provide some extra power required for this type of card, and my power supply had this type of connector.

All good, I tightened the card with a screw, put all back together, and having upgraded from another Nvidia graphics card, the card was automatically recognized in Ubuntu 14.04, and worked out of the box.

I like when everything goes smoothly :).

Merry Christmas to all!!!

Dune HD, a company specializing in “high-performance digital media players”, has just unveiled Dune HD Solo 4K media player based on  Sigma Designs SMP8758 dual core Cortex A9 processor, supporting 10-bit HEVC video decoding up to 2160p @ 30 fps, HD audio pass-though, and including a SATA tray.

Dune HD Solo 4K specifications:

• SoC – Sigma Designs SMP8758 dual core Cortex A9 processor @ 1.2 GHz with an ARM Mali-400 GPU and VXP image processing engine
• System Memory – 1GB
• Storage – 4GB flash for firmware, internal HDD rack with hot swap function for a 2.5″ SATA drive, SD card reader (TBC)
• Video Output – HDMI 1.4b up to 1080p60 and 4K @ 30 Hz (including 23.976, 25, 29.97, 50, 59.94Hz refresh rates), and composite video
• Audio Output – HDMI, analog stereo audio, coaxial S/PDIF (shared via AV port). 24-bit /192 KHz audio support
• Video codecs – MPEG2, MPEG4, XVID, WMV9, VC1, H.264, H.265, H.265 Hi10p; support for very high bitrate video (up to 100 Mbit/s and higher)
• Video file formats – MKV, MPEG-TS, MPEG-PS, M2TS, VOB, AVI, MOV, MP4, QT, ASF, WMV, BDMV, DVD-ISO, VIDEO_TS
• 3D video formats – MVC, Side-by-side, Top/Bottom
• Audio codecs – MPEG-1/2 layer I/II/III, AAC, LPCM, WMA, WMAPro, FLAC, multichannel FLAC, Vorbis, WavPack, APE (Monkey’s Audio), ALAC (Apple lossless), AC3 (Dolby Digital), DTS; support for very high quality audio (up to 192 kHz / 24-bit). Dolby TrueHD, DTS HD MA, and Dolby Atmos pass-through to AV receiver
• Tuner – DVB-T/T2 RF IN
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11b/g/n/ac WiFi with two external antennas, optional Z-Wave controller for home automation
• USB –  2x USB 2.0 ports (1x rear, 1x front)
• Misc – IR extender port, on/off switch
• Power Supply – 12V DC IN power connector
• Dimensions – N/A

The media device support dual boot Linux + Android with the Linux OS featuring Dune HD media player functionality, and the Android OS providing access to Android apps.

Supported file systems include FAT32, EXT-2/3/4, and NTFS, all with read and write support. The player also has some other media features that are often missing or poorly supported in cheaper devices with as Blu-ray playback and menus, true 24p output (23.976Hz), NAS function, MPEG-DASH and HLS streaming support, etc.. . Solo 4K can also be an home automation gateway thanks to Control4 software.

I’ve never used a product with Sigma Designs SMP8758 processor, but I reviewed Popcorn Hour VTEN with SMP8657, that’s basically the single core version of the processor, and video playback and HD audio pass-through all worked very well, yet with some bugs at the time of review.

Cloud Media also introduced Popcorn Hour A500-Pro media player with Sigma SMP8758 via a crowdfunding campaign where you could get it for $399 instead of $599 (MSRP) retail. Although both players as a different set of features, Dune HD Solo 4K should be a better deal once it becomes available in February of 2016 for 299 Euros (MSRP). You can find more details on the product page.

HD23 (aka MX HD23) is an Android TV Box designed for video conference or home monitoring that includes a 5MP camera and can easily be placed on top of the television. It might actually be a clone of a product called TVPRO based on GearBest’s introduction video for the product, or at least it’s heavily inspired by that platform. GearBest sent me a sample so that I can check how the mini PC’s camera performs.

MX HD23 Unboxing

I’ve received the device in a retail package via DHL.

Everything is neatly packed in separate smaller boxes inside the package.HD23 mini PC comes with an IR remote control taking two AAA batteries, a mini USB OTG adapter, a 5V/1.5A power supply, an HDMI cable, and a Setup and User Guide in English.

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On the front of the device we’ve got a power button, the camera, a camera LED, a microphone (the system allegedly features a dual microphone, but I could not find only one), and a small windows for the IR receiver.

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While the rear panel comes with a USB port, a mini USB port, the power jack, an HDMI port, AV output and Line IN.

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We can also find a micro SD slot on one side, and a pinhole for firmware upgrade on the other.

The mini PC is mounted on a flexible arm which can be mounted on most TVs using a “holder” with a spring to keep it securely in place.

MX HD23 Teardown

The swivel arm can be removed, and it’s compatible with the standard mounting thread of cameras. To open the device, you’ll also have to loosen 3 screws on the bottom of the case, two that can be seen easily, and the other under a sticker (top left), that if broken will void your warranty.

On the back of the board we can find a Realtel RTK8188ETV wireless module for 802.11 b/g/n WiFi, an 8 GB Foresee NCEFES78-08G eMMC 4.51 flash, and the camera ribbon cable that reads “K2155-HD23-G651 V1.0”.

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If we look at the front panel we can clearly see the camera, microphone, and IR receiver.

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Remove one more screw to completely take the board out of the case. There’s a thin sheet covering the processor and RAM chips.

A closer look at the top of the board, shows Allwinner H3 quad core Cortex A7 processor is combined with two 4Gbit SKhynix H5TQ4G63AFR DDR3 SDRAM chips. The board is name HD23_H3_V10, and I can’t see any obvious location for the serial console, although test points H3 to H6 might be a candidates for this.

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I’d like to thank GearBest for sending the review sample, and if you are interested you could consider purchasing MX HD23 from GearBest store for $60.60. Other shopping options include Amazon US, eBay, DealExtreme, GeekBuying, Aliexpress, and others.

Since I’ve already reviewed Allwinner H3 devices (e.g. Zidoo X1), and boards such as Orange Pi 2 mini, I only plan to write a mini review for HD23 focusing on the built-in camera and microphone with Skype and Hangouts.

We first found out about CubieTruck Plus (aka Cubieboard 5) this summer, and while at the time we did not have the full details, it was clear from the board picture and name, that is was an update to CubieTruck board, replacing Allwinner A20 dual core processor by Allwinner A8 octa-core processor, and ditching the VGA port for DisplayPort while keeping most of the same features of the original version.

The company has now provided more details while announcing the launch of the board in China, and it turns out CubieTruck Plus has a few more advantages, and at least one drawback.

So that means other improvements include a faster eMMC interface, on-board microphone, full support for headset via the 3.5 mm audio jack, and 16 more I/O pins. The main disadvantage is that due to the USB to SATA bridge, the SATA interface will now be much slower, closer to 30MB/s sequential read and write speeds if properly implemented, instead of the 180MB/s SATA read speed I measured in CubieTruck using  a 128GB SSD.

The CubieTruck Plus will ship with an acrylic case, a fan, a SATA cable, a USB OTG adapter, a mini USB to USB cable, and a USB to power cable. Since the dimensions of the new and old boards are the same, CubieTruck Metal Kit case will also be compatible, except they’ve made some modifications to the back plate due to the VGA to DisplayPort replacement.

The company has also released tools, documentation, schematics (PDF), source code, and firmware image on CubieBoard5 download page with Android 4.4 and Linaro Ubuntu desktop images bootable from SD card or the eMMC flash.

CubieTruck Plus can be purchased for 539 CNY (~$84 US) on Taobao. A few more details may also be found on the product page.

Thanks to MigSu for the tip.

Hardkernel ODROID-C1 and later ODROID-C1+ boards, both based on Amlogic S805 SoC, have been a popular alternatives to Raspberry Pi 2 board this year. But now that Amlogic S905 quad core 64-bit ARM Cortex A53 processor has been available for a few months, people have been wondering whether the Korean company would launch an Amlogic S905 board, and it looks like ODROID-C2 might not be too far off based on firmware files on odroid.in website.

Picture of ODROID-C1+ (No ODROID-C2 pic yet)

The firmware includes a device tree file, which combined with other files give some clues about ODROID-C2 specifications:

• SoC – Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor @ up to 2.0 GHz with penta-core (3+2) Mali-450MP GPU
• System Memory – 1GB RAM
• Storage – 1x micro SD card
• Video Output – 1x HDMI out
• USB – 1x USB hub, 1x USB OTG

I don’t have much more information about the platform.

Buildroot menuconfig with ODROID-C2 config file

You can also find some ODROID-C2 or “odroidc2” references it in the latest Amlogic buildroot, and for example to build a bootable image based on Linux 3.14.29 for ODROID-C2, you can run:

I guess we’ll have to wait a little longer to find out exactly whether ODROID-C2 is based on the same form factor as ODROID-C1+ board, or closer to ODROID-C0 concept. If you’ve been trying to run Linux on Amlogic S905 devices, using the latest kernel may help fixed some of the issues we’ve had in the past. I have not tried it yet.

Most Android TV box ship with simple heatsink, which may lead to performance degradation due to throttling if you push your device a little too hard, and Ugoos UT3s was one of the few Android TV boxes to feature a fan. The company now have a new model model with Ugoos UT4 powered by Rockchip RK3368 octa-core processor, and they’ve sent me an early sample for review. Today, I’ll start by taking pictures of the device, and taking it apart to check the hardware and how cooling is implemented, before reviewed the unit in a few weeks.

Ugoos UT4 specifications

Before this, since I’ve only shortly mention Ugoos UT4 in Rockchip RK3368 TV boxes list, I’ll go through the specifications:

• SoC – Rockchip RK3368 octa core Cortex A53 processor with PowerVR G6110 GPU up to 700 MHz
• System Memory – 2GB DDR3
• Storage – 16GB eMMC + micro SD slot up to 32GB
• Video Output – HDMI 2.0 up to 4K @ 60Hz
• Audio Output – HDMI, optical S/PDIF, 3.5mm headphone jack
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 a/b/g/n/ac (AP6335 module), Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 4x USB 2.0 ports (including 1x OTG)
• Misc – Power button, recovery pinhole, IR receiver
• Power Supply – 5V/3A
• Dimensions – 116 x 115 x 22 mm

Ugoos UT4 runs Android 5.1.1 like all other RK3368 devices.

Ugoos UT4 Unboxing

I received the device in its retail package, but they had to cover “Quad core” with “Octa core”. This should probably be fixed once the device ships to end users.

A 5V/3A power supply, a flat HDMI cable (Ugoos branded), an high gain WiFi antenna, a short USB cable (for OTG), an IR remote control, and a user’s manual in English are included with the box. The remote looks exactly the same as the one included with GeekBox replacing blue keys by orange ones, and a different branding.

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The devices looks to be made of ABS plastic. One of the side has the WiFi antenna connector, some ventilation holes, and a power button, with the others featuring a 3.5mm AV output hack, a recovery pin hole, a micro SD slot, and two USB ports, including one supporting OTG. The rear panel comes with Gigabit Ethernet, two more USB ports, HDMI 2..0 output, optical S/PDIF and the power jack.

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You can also to watch the unboxing video.

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Ugoos UT4 Teardown

I had to loosen four screw on the bottom of the case to open UT4. It was easy, and there are no easily breakable clips holding the two plastic parts together.

The board is called XZH-TV13_V1R2, and the bottom of the board mostly includes two Samsung K4B4G1646Q-HYK0 DDR3L chips (2x 512MB). We have also find an unused display or camera connector on the bottom of the board, as well as a MAC Address stating with 98:00:00 that does not look up to any company.

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You can then easily take the board out as no other screws are holding it in place.

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I had not read about the device in details before taking it apart so I was quite surprised to find a fan inside the device. There’s also a small battery for the RTC on top of what must be the WiFi module. The fan, heatsink and battery are all glued to the board, so I did not tried to remove or displace them before the review. Mnova MS00731NL transformer confirms Gigabit Ethernet is implemented in the device, Samsung KLMAG2WEMB-B031 eMMC 5.0 flash provides internal storage with 170MB/s and 11 MB/s theoretical read and write speeds, and USB hub chip is also included.

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If you are interested in hacking the board, two I2C and two UART connector footprint can be found on the side of the board.

I’d like to thanks Ugoos for providing a sample for review. If you are a distributor, and are interested in buying in quantity, you may find out more and/or contact the company via Ugoos UT4 product page. I could not find the device listed on the usual e-retailers, but for reference Ugoos UT3s (2GB/16GB) with  is now sold for $119 shipped, so I’d expect UT4 to be slightly cheaper. [Update: Ugoos UT4 sells for $103.90 on Ugoos Aliexpress store]

Together with Ugoos UT4 octa-core Android mini PC, Ugoos sent me Ugoos AM1 TV box based on Amlogic S905 quad core Cortex A53 processor. There are basically two category of products with S905: entry level with 1GB RAM, and 8GB flash, which represents the majority of devices on the market, and mid range with 2GB RAM, 16 GB eMMC flash, 802.11ac WiFi and Gigabit Ethernet with devices such as MINIX NEO U1 or Tronsmart Vega S95 Telos. Ugoos AM1 is part of the second category so it will be interesting to compare its performance to the other two. But in the meantime, I’ve taken some pictures of the media player and its board to find out more about the hardware design.

Ugoos AM1 Unboxing Pictures and Video

All new Ugoos devices look alike, and even the retail package follows the same theme across their new devices.

I got a blue (cyan?) colored TV box which shipped with a flat HDMI cable, a 12V/3A (36W!) power supply, a high-gain WiFi antenna, an IR remote control, a USB cable for OTG/firmware update, and a user’s manual in English.

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Apart from the different color Ugoos AM1 looks exactly the same as Ugoos UT4. But the ports and connectors are a bit different too. One side include some ventilation holes and the antenna connector, while the other includes two USB 2.0 host ports and a full-size SD card slot. The antenna connector was a bit loose, so I had to tighten with plier a little to make sure the antenna stays in place.

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The rear panel features the power jack, an optical S/PDIF port, Gigabit Ethernet, HDMI 2.0, and another USB 2.0 port.

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Ugoos AM1 Teardown

Usually, I’m only interested in opening a device to find out more about the design, but with the sample I received I could hear something was loose inside, and that picked my interest further. The bottom of the case as a large hole for the recovery button, so you would not need to use a toothpiclk, and even a sharp pencil could be used for firmware flashing. The only thing you need to do to open the case is to remove the four screws, and the bottom cover will come up easily.

The bottom of the board has two hardly readable Samsung memory chips, and the recovery button. We can also find a sticker with a MAC address suffixed with 20:18:0E which looks up to Shenzhen Sunchip Technology.

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I could then take out the board from the case easily without have to loosened any screws, or bend any clips, and I discovered that the loose part was a metallic shield with the heatsink, which had fallen out during transport… The factory should probably add a bit of solder to that shield…

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Amlogic S905 processor is coupled with four Samsung K4B4G1646D-BCMA DDR3 chips (4x 512MB RAM) and th same Samsung KLMAG2WEMB-B031 eMMC 5.0 flash as found in UT4 with theoretical read and write speeds of 170MB/s and 11 MB/s. Ampak AP6335 module brings 802.11ac and Bluetooth 4.0 connectivity to the device, and Gigabit Ethernet is implemented with Realtek RTL8211F transceiver and NS892407 magnetics. Genesys GL850G USB hub chip is used to get some extra USB ports.

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There’s also JM20329 USB to SATA bridge, because yes, there’s a SATA connector inside the device, but it’s not exposed to the outside.

It’s quite likely they’ll remove this when shipping to end users to cut costs, but this really looks familiar… and indeed it’s the exact same board as found in Tronsmart Vega S95 Telos, but instead of using an internal WiFi antenna, they opted for an external antenna, and the case is also a little different.

I could re-insert the shield back into the metal clips on the board, so now it’s ready for review :).

Distributors and resellers willing to purchase in quantities may contact Ugoos via Ugoos AM1 product page. Individuals can purchase Ugoos AM1 on Ugoos Aliexpress Store for $89.90 with free shipping.

Some projects such as the World Air Quality Index project are already generating a pollution world map using data from the countries’ respective “Environmental Protection Agency (EPA)”, but a Romanian startup aims to allow individuals to monitor pollution around the world with their uRAMonitor project, effectively crowd-sourcing pollution monitoring.

uRADMonitor Model D

For this purpose, the company created environmental monitors with various features and price points, include the higher-emd Model D with the following specifications:

• Color LCD with touchscreen
• LND712 made in the USA for Alpha, Beta and Gamma Radiation
• Bosch BME680 to measure air temperature, barometric pressure, humidity and VOC (volatile organic compounds)
• Sharp photoelectric sensor to measure dust, pollen, soot, smoke and other particulate matter
• 1500mAh rechargeable battery for 8 hours of continuous use
• Wireless 802.11b/g/n connectivity
• mini USB connector for charging or data
• Internal audible alarm when pollution readings are high

There’s also model A measuring temperature and radiation, connected to the network via Ethernet, and already tested by 300 users, and a cheaper open source uRADMonitor KIT1 with a Geiger counter.

uRADMonitor KIT1

All the data will be send to a central server with measurements publicly available on uradmonitor.com, and thanks to the models A currently in the wild, there’s already some data as shown in the screenshot below. Data can also be sent to your mobile for real-time monitoring.

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The device can also be used for indoor air quality, for example to remind you to ventilate your home if there’s too much dust or other pollutants.

uRADMonitor project has now launched on Indiegogo, where you can pledge $490 for the Model B, $150 for model A, and $90 or $120 for KIT1 depending on whether you’d like to solder components yourself, or prefer it assembled. Shipping is not included and adds $10 or $15 (Express), with delivery scheduled for January and February 2016 for models A and KIT1, and March 2016 for Model D. Bosch BME680 used in Model D is only scheduled for “Q1 2016”, so delays are possible and IMHO even likely.

Thanks to Jesu for the tip.

HD23 is an Android TV box based on Allwinner H3 quad core processor that includes a 2.0MP camera and a microphone that should allow you to make and receive video calls. I’ve already taken some pictures of the device, and opened it to have a look at the hardware including the camera and microphone in HD23 unboxing and teardown post, so today I’ll specifically test the device’s camera and mic with Skype and Google Hangouts.

HD23 Installation

The device is made to connect to the top of your TV, so you’ll probably want to limit the weight on the back of the device, and I only connected the HDMI cable, the RF dongle for MINIX NEO A2 Lite air mouse, and the power supply cable. For the purpose of the review, I also connected a USB keyboard via the USB OTG adapter in order to take screenshots.

If you wonder how big the device would look on your TV, I’ve take a picture with the device connected to a 42″ TV (LG 42UB820T).

It’s fairly easily to adjust the mini PC to the direction and angle you need, but you’ll have to make sure you tighten the two screws firmly.

HD23 User Interface and Configuration

MX HD23 has a typical Android home screen, not really a TV launcher, but you could always install another one if you prefer. As you can see from the picture above, the device is set to compensate for overscan by default, so if you TV is already doing this, as in my case, you want to go to Settings->Screen percent, and adjust the slider to the max, or whatever value is best for your TV in order to get a full screen experience. Since HD23 has no Ethernet, you’ll have to setup WiFi too if you want to access the Internet.

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The list of pre-installed app is shown above. If you click to see the full size of the screenshot you’ll notice the image resolution is 1280×720, meaning they’ve gone with a 720p user interface whatever video output you set in the settings, in my case 1080p50, but 4K30 is also supported. The Play Store worked fine, as I could install ES File Explorer and Google Hangouts.

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I’ve also gone into About device to find a bit more about the system. The model number is TVBOX-H3, and it’s running Android 4.4.2 with Linux 3.4.39. The firmware is dated on November 13, 2015, and the firmware update app told me my firmware was up to date.

HD23 Camera Review

I’ve tested the camera with three applications: the included Camera app, Skype and Hangouts. I’ve checked the picture quality in the camera app, and considering my room is relatively dark, the quality is not too bad, and much better than the cheap USB camera I normally use for TV box reviews.

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Taking an actual picture with the camera with save 1600 x 1200 photos. Here one sample for reference. It’s rather grainy and it would be pretty bad if the device was used as an actual camera instead of a webcam.

I then switched to Skype. I had not problem to log into the app, and make an audio test call with the Echo / Sound Test Service, and audio quality was quite good, and I find the device has a decent microphone. The video was fine and smooth too, but somehow the picture on the receiving end was not exactly the same as on the TV, with the lower part of the video cut. One thing you need to be aware of while doing video conferences on a TV is that you’ll usually be a bit further from the screen as usual, so you may have to come a little closer to the screen, as AFAIK there’s no option to zoom in.

Finally I tried Google Hangouts, and while I could sign-in, and make a call, the whole experience was not smooth at all with the video rendering at 1 to 2 fps or even less on both HD23 and computer (Ubuntu 14.04 + Chrome).

So while I find Skype perfectly usable on the device, Google Hangouts is not. You can see all three tests in the video below.

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I’d like to thanks GearBest again for sending a sample for review, and if you are interested in such device, you could purchase it for $60.60 on GearBest [Update: Coupon HD23sV brings that down to $59.39]. It can also be found on Amazon US, eBay, DealExtreme, GeekBuying, Aliexpress, and others online retailers for $60 and up.

Makibes F68 is a smartwatch with fitness features (HRM, pedometer…) and smartphone notification support, that is supposed to last around one week on a charge, and certified with an IP67 ingress protection rating. GearBest asked me if I wanted to review that model since SMA-Q watch was a disappointment, and I accepted so I have yet another smartwatch to try out. Today. I’ll take a few pictures of the watch and accessories, better writing a full review in one or two weeks.

The package looks quite nice, but one detail is quite revealing: there’s no Makibes brand, nor F68 model name anywhere, and it looks exactly like FlyShark BW410 reported a few days ago by Charbax, so it must be an OEM design that will show up under multiple brand names, not only Makibes.

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The watch is not fully assembled, and instead the watch face comes with two watch bands, a charging pad, a micro USB to USB cable, and two “Quick Understand” guides in English and Chinese.

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The round shape is nice, but it has the same black band on the lower part as Moto 360. There are no buttons at all around the watch, so everything will have to be handled by the touchscreen.The bottom of the watch features the HRM sensor, and two charging pins. There are also four screws, but I’ll resist the temptation to open it before the review since it’s supposed to be somewhat waterproof with an IP67 rating.

That’s how the watch is placed on the charging pad.

and once assembled, it fits on the wrist nicely with a band long that should be long enough for most wrists.

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Time to charge the watch before testing it… Sadly, I’ve already found a pretty bad issue (to me): there’s no backlight at all, or none that I could find, so the watch is unreadable at night or in the dark, unless you turn on the light…

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F68 sports smartwatch can be purchased on GearBest for $29.89 in blue, orange, or black. Alternatively, you can also find it on GeekBuying, and eBay for about the same price.

We now have many wearables capable of monitoring your activities, be it smartwatches or fitness tracker, and usually they are comprised of several small sensor chips, a low power micro-controller, a Bluetooh radio, and possibly some other ICs . Samsung has been designing and just launched a bio-processor to regroup most of those features into a single chip which should only require a fourth of the area required by current multi-chip solutions.

While the press release did not mention the part number, the included picture – shown above – sort of gave a clue, and Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor has the following specifications:

• MCU – ARM Cortex-M4
• Memory – 256 KB RAM
• Storage – 512 KB flash
• DSP
• Sensors – 5 Analog frontends (AFEs) measuring:
  • PPG (photoplethysmography)
  • ECG (electrocardiography)
  • Skin temperature
  • BIA (bioelectrical impedance analysis)
  • Galvanic skin response (GSR)
• I/Os – SPI, I2C
• PMIC
• Security units

The sensors will enable measurements of body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rate, heart rhythm, skin temperature and stress level in a single chip. The company  also mentioned several wearable reference platforms are now available including wrist band, board and patch type reference devices, but did not provide any details.

Samsung S3FBP5A Bio-Processor is currently in mass production, and should be found in devices in H1 2016. You can visit Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor page for not that many extra details.

Via Liliputing.

I’m not a Netflix user myself, but I know many of my readers are, and a frequent complain was the inability to play Full HD or 4K content, except on specific devices such as WeTek Core or Nvidia Shield Android TV. Until now, I thought most TV box manufacturers did not get DRM and Netflix support to reduce costs, but after reading one article about this very subject on AndroidPCReview, I realized it was more complicated than that.

Beside the obvious hardware requirements that you need a Full HD or 4K capable player and television, the device needs to be certified by Google, and Widevine Level 1 DRM is required to stream anything above SD resolution from premium apps such as HBO Go or Netflix.

However while many devices are certified by Google, only a few are officially supported by Netflix. The company also ranks device by categories such as Smart TVs, Smartphones & tablets, and within the “streaming media players” category only Apple TV, Google Chromecast, Roku, Amazon Fire TV (2015), British Telecom BT DTRT-4000, TiVo Bolt, Google Nexus Player and NVIDIA Shield are said to be supported.

If you run Android on a media player, it will likely be considered as a tablet, and you allegedly need to run Android TV on your media player for it to considered for certification. But since WeTek Core is simply running Android 5.1, and supports Netflix Full HD video playback (but maybe not 4K), there may be exceptions to this rule…

So the biggest problem with Full HD or/and 4K support in Netflix is the need for Netflix certification. One relatively well-known Android TV box manufacturer has been trying for 2 to 3 years, and unfortunately Netflix simply does not want to work with them.

One of the reason might be because it’s a small company not selling million of units in the US per year. It’s very common that companies don’t want to sell, work or even talk to you if you don’t have a significant volume projections, but if you do they’ll even invite you for lunch or dinner regularly… This is because every company has to manage their resources carefully, but we don’t exactly what the workload on Netflix is to certify one device. The company in question is probably roughly the same size as WeTek, so it might depend on your business relationship too, not only volume or company size… Another reason could be that the company in question in based on Asia, albeit in a “country” with a decent IP protection record, and Netflix might be wary to give their secret DRM sauce to regions of the world it might not trust.

So the takeaway here is that if you want to have Netflix Full HD or 4K in your Android device, you’ll have to buy a certified device, and Neflix won’t be found on low cost Android TV boxes, not because the manufacturers want to cut costs and/or don’t go through the certification process, but simply because Netflix won’t let them in in their “closed system”.