After I wrote about SimpleLink Batteryless power switch and receiver, the company decided to sent me a kit to try out by myself. So in this review, I’ll checkout the kit, install a demo to show how it works, and finally have a look at the internals.

SimpleLink Self-powered Power Swtich Kit (Click to Enlarge)

The kit include a power cord with a US plug and a holder and corresponding light bulb that you need to connect to the corresponding red and blue wire of the receiver (white cylinder), and you can control with the green power battery-less switch. Two 3M double face stickers are also included for the receiver and switch, as well as a strap for the switch, a screw set for either the light holder or receiver, and a user’s manual shown below.

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Installation is pretty self-explanatory, and you just need to connect the blue and red cables to the input (mains) and output (light) as indicated on the receiver.

Then you just need to connect it the mains (100 to 240V AC), and press the switch to turn the light on and off. You can watch a full unboxing, as well as a two short demos: one close to the receiver, one at around 5 meters starting at 3:11 in the video below.

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This works using RF (433MHz) connectivity and in theory line of sight range is 100 meters, and indoors 30 meters, but I found the switch to because unreliable at around 20 meters with line of sight, and if I’m placed at the other side of my house, around 8 meters away, it’s also unreliable through multiple walls at this distance. So it works pretty well, but not exactly as far as in the specs.

I’ve started the teardown by opening the switch.

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We can see a thin wire instead the enclosure that is used as the RF antenna. It starts to be a little more difficult to open after, and I broke a few clips.

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But the second step shows a rubber pad to cover the board, and a tiny button with a spring. After some more efforts I can finally take the board out.

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So the system is using some kind of coil for energy harvesting. I could not identify the model number, but for example, a company called Coilcraft provides inductors and transformers specifically designed for energy harvesting.

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Lifting the coil revealed ST Micro STM8S103F3P6 8-bit micro controller, and Texas Instruments CC115L sub-GHz RF transmitter. The board name is SimpleLink-V05 MFB20151129.

Finally, I could reassemble everything together, with the switch still working! Yeah! But time to care of the receiver that is much easier to disassemble…

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The solder looks thick and clean on the high voltage tracks, so I guess it’s reassuring. The board is called SimpleLinkV4 M&D151129, so both the receiver and switch boards are pretty recent, about one month old. I simply had to pull the board out to check out the other side of the board.

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The relay is WRG RJ-SS-112DM1 operating at 12V DC, and supporting up to 10A @ 250V according to the specs. While the board itself is not UL or TUV certified, the relay is said to have some “SSA approval ratings” for “CQC”, cUL, and TUV.

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A short wire is again used as the RF antenna.

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The long push button and LED are also interesting. The button is used to pair the receiver and the switch in case of issue, but I did not have to use it. The LED turn blue when the light bulb is turned on, and turned off with the light.

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The RF board is soldered, and I did not remove it, but I can see two IC, which should be another STM8S MCU coupled with Texas Instruments CC113L smart RF receiver.

I’ll probably use the system with one of my outdoor fluorescent lamp. SimpleLink used to sell the kit on Aliexpress for $48, but they’ve since removed all product from their store. I found the price to be on the high side, and in a world of $3 WiFi modules, I’d expect a receiver + switch kit to be closer to $20 than $50. You can still check out SimpleLink wireless and batteryless switches on the company website.

In the second part of 2014, we saw a big jump in performance thanks to Cortex A15 and A17 based SoCs, and higher clocked Cortex A9 processors such as Rockchip RK3288 and Amlogic S812, but in 2015, TV box companies have focused on lowering the price and adding features such as HDMI 2.0, instead of looking for higher and higher CPU and GPU performance, and they’ve also moved to 64-bit ARM platform. Intel also continued its foray into low cost HDMI sticks and mini PCbased on Bay Trail, and later on Cherry Trail based devices.  The development boards story was also very much about lower cosst with the $15 Orange Pi PC, follow a few months later by the $5 Raspberry Pi Zero, although people looking for performance at any price still saw the release of Nvidia Jetson TX1 board. It’s was also a big year for IoT with the continued rise of ESP8266 with more and more options, and announcement of ESP32 Bluetooth and WiFi SoC, as well as various ever tinier boards featuring either WiFi and Bluetooth LE connectivity such as LinkIt Smart 7688 or WRTNode. We also started to see more and more wearables, and by the end of the year, I had reviewed 2 smartwatches, with one more in progress.

As every year,  I’ve compiled a list of the most popular post of 2015 using the pageviews count from Google Analytics:

1. Raspberry Pi 2 / ODROID C1 Development Boards Comparison (February 2015) – The big story at the beginning of the year was the release of Raspberry Pi 2 with a quad core processor., and the most popular post on CNX Software in 2015 was a comparison table against ODROID-C1 (now ODROID-C1+) board with similar features, and price, and released at the end of 2014.
2. New FCC Rules May Prevent Installing OpenWRT on WiFi Routers (July 2015) – The second story went viral in social network, as some new rules at the FCC were unclear, and were worded in a few that made people believe the ability to install alternative firmware such as OpenWRT or DD-WRT was going to become impossible, or at least much more difficult. The FCC consulted with the public and a few months later, it was made clear they had no intention to prevent people from installing OpenWRT.
3. Antutu Benchmark – Rockchip RK3288 (ARM) vs Intel Atom Z3735F (January 2015) – While some posts go viral, some other bring traffic in a steady manner, as is the case of this comparison between RK3288 and Z3735F processor, which got a little help from Google when several Rockchip RK3288 chromebooks were released, and people wondered about RK3288 performance.
4. Raspberry Pi 2 Model B Features Broadcom BCM2836 Quad Core Processor (February 2015) – When blogging about technology, speed matters, and I was quick enough to write about Raspberry Pi 2 when I discovered one reputable website was a little early on their embargo… which brought a burst of traffic in the next few days.
5.  Xiaomi Mi Box Mini Review (April 2015) – Over the long term, reviews are what bring traffic to a site like this, but I have to admit I was surprised to find many people interested in Xiaomi Mi Box Mini, a device designed for mainland China, and with an interface in Chinese only. I assume people saw a cute device from a knwon company, and decided to buy it, until they released they had to find out to change the user interface to English.
6. Intel Atom Z3735F vs Atom x5-Z8300 Benchmarks Comparison (August 2015) – So it looks like people are interested in performance comparison between different processor, and with the release of Atom X5-Z8300 Cherry Trail processor, some people wondered how it would perform again the previous generation Atom Z3735F Bay Trail processor. It turns out there’s not that much difference, except for 3D graphics.
7.  Kodi 14 Video Playback on Intel Atom Z3735F Computers Running Windows 8.1 (January 2015) – Intel Atom Z3735F was definitely a star on CNX in 2015, as it got featured in five of the 10 most popular posts this year. Specifically, people wanted to know how Kodi would run on the platform. Answer: excellent for 1080p videos.
8. Getting Started with Orange Pi PC, Pi 2 and Pi Plus Development Boards (September 2015) – Orange Pi PC is probably the board that provide the most performance and features for the buck hardware-wise, but its poor and confusing documentation meant that people were looking for way to get started on the board.
9. Understanding Windows 8.1 Licenses with MeegoPad T01 (and Other Intel Atom Bay Trail mini PCs (January 2015) – Chinese companies are not really well-known for their respect of licenses, and Microsoft made it confusing by offering free Windows 8.1/10 license for smaller tablets, but a different $15 to $25 license for mini PCs. The results that many Intel Bay Trail (Z3735F/Z3736F) mini PC and sticks shipped with Windows Pro trail version, a few with a free and apparently legal (but actually not) Tablet license, or the proper Windows with Bing NTE license.
10. Wintel W8 Review – Dual Boot Android & Windows TV Box (April 2015) –  This Intel Atom Z3735F mini PC reviewe likely got relatively popular because of the device name: Wintel.

While traffic on CNX Software in 2014 was a steady rise, it was more like a not-so-steep roller coaster in 2015 due to a long 3 month trip during which I posted less frequently.

However, the overall traffic progressed from around 4.8 million pageviews in 2014 to about 7.2 millions pageviews in 2015, or a 50% increase. Not too bad.

“M8 Android TV box” and Google+ (aka the Ghost Town) were respectively the top keyword and referral site of 2014, but in 2015 “openwrt” and scoop.it took the lead. Google Analytics only shows the last three months for keywords, and the full year for referrals, but referrals exclude search engines such as Google or Bing that bring in a vast majority of the traffic.

As usual I’ve also look at the visitors origin, operating systems, and browsers.
The US still claims the top spot, with the United Kingdom moving up to overtake Germany, but London has remained the city with the most sessions for the 3 years I actively tracked traffic.

Windows share is still strong but dropped from 57.39% to 54.90%, while Android took the second spot at 17.02% (vs 13.01% in 2014), and relegated Linux to the third spot with 11.98% instead of 15.30% in 2014. Chrome lead has extended from 48.05% to 52.93%, while Firefox went down from 27.20% to 23.54%. As a Firefox user in Ubuntu 14.04, it makes me a little sad…

But I’ll conclude this post and 2015 with a positive note, by wishing you a very happy, prosperous, and healthy new year 2016, which should see more Cortex A57 and A72 designs and products hitting the stores, the rise of ESP32 Bluetooth+WiFi SoC, hopefully better working wearables, and innovations.

Until recently, Orange Pi PC was probably the most cost efficient ARM hardware, but with the launch of Raspberry Pi Zero, and to some extent C.H.I.P computer, they had some competitors in the ultra…

With Raspberry Pi Zero, Next Thing C.H.I.P, and Orange Pi One, we now have have three ARM Linux development boards selling (now or soon) for less than $10 excluding shipping and taxes. So I’d…

H.265 promises the same video quality as H.264 when using half the bitrate, so you may have thought about converting your H.264 videos to H.265/HEVC in order to reduce the space used by your videos. However, if you’ve ever tried to transcoding videos with tools such as HandBrake, you’ll know the process can be painfully slow, and a single movie may take several hours even with a machine with a power processor. However, there’s a better and fster solution thanks to hardware accelerated encoding available in some Intel and Nvidia graphics cards. For this purpose, GearBest sent me Maxsun MS-GTX960 graphics card, a second generation Maxwell GPU, that supports H.265 accelerated video encoding and promised up to 500 fps video encoding. So I’ve put the graphics card to the test in a computer running Ubuntu 14.04, and reports some of my findings here. Similar instructions can also be followed in Windows.

In order to leverage Nvidia Maxwell 2 GPU capabilities you’ll need to download and install Nvidia Video Codec SDK. The latest version (6.0.1) requires Nvidia Drivers 358.xx or greater, and my system had version 352.xx, so I followed some instructions to install the latest drivers in Ubuntu 14.04.

Upon restart I had the latest 358.16 drivers installed.

Somehow the fonts were very small right after installation as xorg.conf was missing, so I recreated with the command:

Then I adjust the font sizes further with Unity Tweak Tool.

The next step is to download and extract nvidia_video_sdk_6.0.1.zip into a working directory:

The instructions in the Readme simply tell you to go to Samples directory, and type make in order to build the samples, but I had to do a few more steps:

I also had to modify Samples/NvTranscoder/Makefile to replace := by += in front of LDFLAGS.

and finally I could successfully build the samples:

There are several samples in the SDK: NvEncoder, NvEncoderCudaInterop, NvEncoderD3DInterop, NvEncoderLowLatency, NvEncoderPerf, NvTranscoder, NvDecodeD3D9, and NvDecodeGL. For the purpose of this post I used NvTranscoder to convert H.264 video to H.265 using the GPU.

At first I had some issues with the error:

I followed a workaround provided on Blender, and it did not work at first, but after using NvTranscoder with sudo once, I could use the tool as a normal user thereafter.

Here’s the output to transcode a H.264 1080p video with High Quality preset.

The video lasts 2 minutes 43 seconds (4901 frames in total), and encoding was done in about 32 seconds meaning about 5 times faster than real-time, and at 156.5 fps on average.

I repeated the same test by with High Performance preset.

Decoding took around 24 seconds at 205 fps. It looked pretty good, but I tried the same test with HandBrake using H.265 with RF quality set to 25, and it took 4 minutes and 30 seconds to encode the video, or about 9 times slower than with the GPU. For reference, my computer is based on an AMD FX8350 octa-core processor clocked at 4.0 GHz.

But then I tried to play the video, and I could not find any tool to play them, and NvTranscode  appears to generate raw H.265 video data, so as I did not want to write my own little program, I found that ffmpeg also support nvenc, but just not by default, and you have to compile it yourself.

There are instructions to build ffmpeg with nvenc in Ubuntu 15.10, but they did not work on Ubuntu 14.04 so I mixed those with ffmpeg Ubuntu compilation guide to build it for my computer.

First we’ll need to install some dependencies and create a working directory:

You’ll also need to download and install/compile some extra packages depending on the codecs we want to enable. I’ll skip H.264 and H.265 since this will be handled by Nvidia GPU instead, and will enable AAC and MP3 audio encoders, VP8/VP9 and XviD video decoders and encoders, and libopus decoder and encoder as explained in the building guide:

Now I’ll download and extract ffmpeg snapshot (January 3, 2016) and copy the required NVENC 6.0 SDK header files into /usr/local/include:

Before configuring and building ffmpeg with nvenc enabled:

You can also optionally install it (which I did):

This will install it in $HOME/bin/ffmpeg. Now we can verify nvenc support for H.264 and H.265 is enabled:

Perfect. Time for a test with our 1080p H.264 video sample, and encoding at 2000 kbps.

It took 30 seconds, or about the same time as with NvTranscode, but this time I had a watchable video with audio, and I could not notice any visual quality degradation.

I repeated the test with a H.264 1080p movie lasting 1 hour 57 minutes 29 seconds. The movie H.264 stream was encoded at 2150 kbps, so to decrease the file size by half I encoded the movie at 1075 kbps (-b:v 1075k option). The encoding only took 13 minutes and 12 seconds, or about 9 times faster real-time at 218 fps.

I also checked some GPU details during the transcoding:

This shows for example that it does not maxes out the GPU power consumption (P2 mode: 33 Watts). My processor load was however a bit higher than expected, although not at 100% all the time as would have been the case for software video transcoding.

CPU Usage during Nvidia GPU Accelerated Video Transcoding

Beside saving time, transcoding videos with a GPU graphics should also reduce your electricity bill. How much exactly will depend on your video library size, electricity rate, and overall computer power consumption.

While the original file size was 2.0GB, the H.265 video was only 985 MB large, and video quality appeared to be very close to the one of the original video.

Finally, I transcoded a 4K H.264 video @ 30 fps (big_buck_bunny_4k_H264_30fps.mp4) at slightly less half bitrate (3500 kbps for H.265 vs 7480 kbps for H.264) and it took 6 minutes and 56 seconds to encode the 10 minutes 30 seconds video. While checking quality the main problem was my computer struggled to cope with the H.265 4K video when using Totem and VLC video players with lots of artifacts at times, and sound cuts, but the videos played just fine with ffplay and Kodi.

I’d like to thanks GearBest for providing Maxsun MS-GTX960 graphics card selling for $240.04 on their website.

While there are plenty of mini PCs based on Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Cherry Trail processor on the market, it’s much more difficult to find more powerful Intel Atom x7 mini PCs, and the only option that I’m aware of is MagicStick Wave TV stick, but while the project was very successful in raising money on Kickstarter, they have not exactly delivered on their December 2015 shipping deadline, and instead shipping has been postpone to March 2016 for now. Luckily, there will be soon another option with Zotac ZBOX Pico T4 coupled with 2GB RAM, 32GB storage, USB 3.0, 802.11ac WiFi, Gigabit Ethernet, and more.

ZBOX Pico T4 specifications:

• SoC – Intel Atom x7-Z8700 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.60 GHz/2.40 GHz (turbo) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 600MHz with 16EU.
• System Memory – 2 GB RAM
• Storage – 32 GB storage + micro SD slot
• Video Output – HDMI and DisplayPort
• Audio I/O – HDMI, DisplayPort, 3.5mm headset jack
• Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 2x USB 3.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 type C port
• Power Supply – 5V/3A
• Dimensions & Weight – N/A

The device will come pre-loaded with Windows 10 Home.

While it’s disappointing that a system with a more powerful only comes with 2GB RAM, and 32GB internal storage, it does features a DisplayPort, three USB 3.0 ports – including one of the new reversible type C port – as well as fast networking with Gigabit Ethernet and 802.11ac WiFi that are seldom seem on other Cherry Trail mini PCs.

Availability and pricing have not been disclosed, and I could not find a product page on Zotac website either. They’ve also launched ZBOX Pico T3 based on Atom x5-Z8300 processor with more details available on Liliputing.

One person asked me whether any of the low cost boards in my Raspberry Pi Zero vs CHIP vs Orange Pi One comparison post came with GPS, and the answer is not without some external hardware. The only low cost boards with GPS I could think of were LinkIt ONE and NavSpark. I wrote about the latter over 2 years ago when the board launched via a crowdfunding campaign, so I went to the update page to find out more about the current status, and found two updates made in the last 6 months, including one about Navspark mini, a tiny board with GPS support, removing the USB port and having fewer I/Os compared to its older brother.

NavSpark Mini and USB to UART Debug Board

NavSpark mini specifications:

• MCU – Skytraq Venus828F 32bit LEON3 Sparc-V8 MCU @ 100MHz  with IEEE-754 Compliant Floating Point Unit, 1024KB Flash Memory, and 212KB RAM
• GPS
  • 167 channel Venus 8 engine
  • Uses GPS, SBAS, QZSS signals
  • 1 ~ 10 Hz update rate
  • Position accuracy 2.5m CEP
  • Velocity accuracy 0.1m/sec
  • Warm start TTFF under open sky 29sec average
  • Cold start TTFF under open sky 30sec average
  • Cold start sensitivity -148dBm
  • Tracking sensitivity -165dBm
  • Operating range – Altitude < 18km OR speed < 515m/sec (1854 km/h), but not both simultaneously
• Expansion Headers – 2x 6-pin header with full duplex asynchronous UART, 1x SPI shared with GPIO, 1x 2-wire interface shared with GPIO
• Misc – Atomic clock synchronized P1PPS time reference with +/-10nsec accuracy
• Dimensions – 17 x 17 mm

The board is compatible with Arduino 1.6.5 for Linux and Windows, and functionally compatible with NavSpark, and in theory all you have to do is to add the Board Manager URL for NavSpark in the IDE, install the compiler, and follow the instructions in the tutorial. That said tutorial however mentions that “If you own a NavSpark-mini, the following example is not compatible with NavSpark-mini. Please refer to our user guide and Tutorial 2“, the latter explaining how to configure UART1 . The documentation in the tutorials is a little confusing, so it’s better to download the user guide from the resource page that clearly explains how to setup NavSpark mini, and provide links to requires tools.

In a separate comment in the blog post announcement, further differences are noted:

The Venus828F on the NavSpark-mini is actually a GPS/Beidou receiver. Due to different RFIC used inside, the Arduino NavSpark-BD library cannot work with Venus828F, but the Arduino NavSpark (GPS) library does work with Venus828F.

Default shipped firmware on NavSpark-mini is GPS/Beidou firmware having GP prefix, making its NMEA output  compatible with conventional GPS receivers. Users can easily hook up UART output to their application controller and use it as a GPS or GPS/Beidou receiver module; or connect via PL2303 UART-to-USB adapter to evaluate performance on a PC, or using Arduino NavSpark library to use it as a development board with GPS.

Currently we don’t have a definite plan for a 7mm x 7mm module supporting GLONASS or Galileo yet.

NavSpark mini module sells in a pack of 6 for $36, hence the $6 price tag, but there’s also a page where it is just given away for free with a USB to TTL debug board, and all you need to pay is $10 (without tracking) or $20 (Fedex) for shipping. This was announced 5 months ago on the Indiegogo page, but I tried today, and the order went through. It will probably be taken down soon. One important detail is that you ‘d have to order a $9 antenna too, unless you already have GPS/Beidou antenna with u.FL connector. I have the one that was included with LinkIt One, which I hope will work too, so I skipped it.

PiPO X6S is a Windows 10 mini PC powered by an Intel Atom x5-Z8300 quad core processor with up to 4GB RAM, 64GB eMMC, and a 2.5″ internal SATA bay, that includes support for 802.11ac WiFi, and two Gigabit Ethernet ports.

PiPO X6S specifications (preliminary since the specs on GeekBuying are a complete mess, and pictures are lacking):

• SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.44 GHz/1.84 GHz with Intel Gen8 HD graphics
• System Memory – 4 GB DDR3
• Storage – 64 GB flash, 2.5″ SATA drive support, and micro SD slot up to 128GB
• Video and Audio Output – HDMI and AV
• Connectivity – 2x Gigabit Ethernet port, 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0 (possibly via Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 3160 Plus Bluetooth card)
• USB – 2x USB 2.0 host ports, 1x USB 3.0 port
• Misc – Reset and power button
• Power Supply – 5V/3A
• Dimensions – 153.4×153.4x38mm
• Weight – 340 grams

The specifications also mention MT7620A WiFi module, and 10/100M Ethernet in other places, so I’ve asked the company to clarify, and provide more pictures if available. The mini PC looks quite thin on the picture, so I thought an hard drive could not fit inside. But the specs mention it’s 3.8cm high, or about the same as some Intel NUCs, so it should be feasible. Pictures showing the USB 3.0 port and dual RJ45 ports are also missing.

I’m still confident the specs should be roughly accurate, as PiPO X6S product page has mostly the same specs (with less details). Yet you’d probably want to avoid this product for now, at least until specs are clarified, but GeekBuying is already taking pre-orders for $199.99 including shipping with delivery scheduled for Janury 15, 2016.

Silicon manufacturers are starting to launch ever more integrated solutions specifically designed for wearables, and after Samsung S3FBP5A bio-processor unveiled a few days ago, MediaTek has launched MT2623 ARM Cortex M4 System-in-Package (SiP) with GPS, Bluetooth LE, and a MIPI DSI interface.

Other details are sparse but here’s what the company disclosed for MT2523:

• MCU core – ARM Cortex M4
• GPU – 2D accelerator supporting true colors, per-pixel alpha channel, anti-aliasing fonts, and 1-bit index color to save memory.
• Connectivity – Dual-mode Bluetooth Low Energy and GPS
• Display – MIPI DSI and serial interfaces
• Integrated PMU
• Battery Life – More than a week (typical)

The SiP’s printed circuit board area is said to be 41% percent smaller than competitors’ solutions.

MT2523 will be available to manufacturers in H1 2016, and found in active and fitness smartwatches a little later.

Thanks to Nanik for the tip.

For some reasons, people who decide to name things like to give one name for technical people, and another for consumers. A few years ago, I went to buy a 1080p TV, but at first the seller was confused when I asked, and then I talked about resolution, and when he asked “Full HD” or “HD Ready”? It was my turn to me confused. There are several other example such as Bluetooth Low Energy for geeks may be Bluetooth Smart for consumers, and now the Wi-Fi alliance has just announced that IoT devices and gateway featuring the latest 802.11ah standard will be designed as Wi-Fi HaLow devices.

They have not come up with a Wi-Fi Halow logo yet… Nevertheless, apart from the name, nothing appears to have changed. HaLow/802.11ah is still the same Wi-FI standard operating at 900MHz targeting IoT applications with low power, long range (up to 1km), and low bitrate (up to 150 Kbps) requirements for smart homes, connected cars, and digital healthcare, as well as industrial, retail, agriculture, and smart city environments.

The alliance expects that many devices that support Wi-Fi HaLow will also work in the 2.4 / 5 GHz band, and according to this comparison table of LPWAN standards, 802.11ah standard is expected for release in 2016, and actual devices, powered by 802.11ah SoCs such as Newracom NRC6101, should become available later in 2016 or later.

Via Liliputing

Last year, a company, now called BOUD, launched Flex Cam PIC actions camera with an innovative and cute stick that can bend as needed, either straightened to use it as a selfie stick, or rolled around an object. The project launched on Indiegogo, but had some delays, and over the course of last year I received a few emails asking me when the camera would be ready. While development is close to the end, and backers should receive their rewards soon, SOOCOO, a Chinese company known for their action & sports camera, must have thought it was a pretty neat idea, and decided to create their own version of Flex Cam PIC with G1 model using a similar, but removable, flexible stick.

SOOCOO G1 camera specifications:

• SoC – “SUI chipset” (I could only “map” SUI to Sensor Unlimited Inc, but they don’t seem to mostly provide industrial solutions)
• Storage – micro SD slot up to 32GB (not included)
• Camera
  • 8.0 megapixels CMOS image sensor
  • Up to 1080p30 or 720p60 video recording (H.264 codec, MOV container, AAC audio)
  • 125 degree viewing angle
• Audio – Built-in microphone
• Connectivity – Built-in WiFi module for controlling and onluine share, 2.4 GHz RF for remote control
• USB – 1x micro USB port for charging
• Misc – Shutter, power, reset, and Wi-Fi buttons, status indicator, tripod screw thread
• Battery – 1,100mAh Lithium battery (Good for 2 hours of 1080p30 recording)
• IP Rating – IP66
• Dimensions – Camera: 4 x 3.5 x 4.3 cm; Stick length: 49 cm
• Weight – 54 grams (camera only)

By default, the camera ships with a remote control with an include CR2032 battery, a USB cable, a magnet & sticker cover, an an English user’s manual, with the flexible stick being optional.

If you go without the stick, the magnet & sticker cover allows to hold the camera on any surface by using the magnet side for metallic surfaces, or sticker for other flat surfaces. The camera can be controlled with the RF remote, or a mobile app that according to the user’s manual is called iShare Cam Remote. The video below shows a few ways to use the watch with or without the stick.

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Soocoo G1 camera sells on Gearbest for $46.99, while the flexible stick goes for $6.68 (~$54 in total), yet if you were to buy the bundle instead you’d have to pay $60.84… I could also find the camera on other websites including Aliexpress, GeekBuying, Banggood, and eBay, but none of them seem to provide the flexible stick.

Many smartwaches or fitness trackers include an heart rate monitor, but instead many people need to monitor their blood pressure to make sure it’s not too high (hypertension) or low (hypotension). Usually this involves either going to the doctor, or doing measurements at home with a blood pressure monitor by placing a cuff on the upper arm, and in this should take a short time, but many people may still not want to bother with the procedure. So Omron has designed a new blood pressure monitor that looks like a large smartwatch, and includes the same function as fitness monitors, in order to simply the process further, and have more people regularly measure their blood pressure.

Technical details about Project Zero wrist blood pressure monitor (BPM) are not fully available yet, but we do now the company is going through FDA approval, so contrary to gadgets with heat rate monitors whose measurements can not be fully trusted, it will be reliable and accurate at +/- 3mm Hg per hear beat. When you take a measurement, the wrist band will slightly squeeze your wrist. just like when using a cuff. The device will also remind users to take medication and record the time they take to improve. Omron BPM will also be compatible with Omron Connect mobile app, available for Android and iOS, which can share information with a personal physician.

The watch will also track your sleep, measure your heart rate, count your steps, estimate the calories you’ve burnt through the day, the distance walked, and… display the time of the day. The company has also developed project zero upper arm blood pressure monitor (P7000 model) integrating a display and Bluetooth Smart connectivity. Charbax interviewed the company, and filmed both devices with the part about P6000 starting at 2:50.

[embedded content]

Eventually more details should surface on Omron Project Zero page. Both products should become available late 2016, and sell for less than $200.

Via ARMDevices.net

While many of us take Internet access for granted, about 60% of the world population did not have access to Internet at the end of 2014, and Outernet initiative aims to provide educational, emergency, and news content to this segment of the population, which still represents the majority, at a rate of 1GB per day via a satellite receiver called Lighthouse.

Let’s check the hardware first:

• SoC – Amlogic AML8726-MX dual core Cortex A9 @ 1.5GHz with Mali-400MP GPU
• System Memory – 1GB DDR3
• Storage – 4 GB NAND flash + 1x micro SD slot
• Video Output – HDMI, AV (CVBS + R/L audio)
• Audio Output – HDMI, AV, and optical S/PDIF
• Connectivity – 10/100M Ethernet, 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi with up to 5 clients
• Tuner – DVB-S2 tuner with two antenna connectors (only one used)
• USB – 3x external USB 2.0 ports, 2x internal USB 2.0 ports (used)
• Misc – IR receiver, 3 LEDs for power, and status (special events and tuner), RS-232 port for serial console via 3.5mm jack.
• Power – 12V/1.5A
• Dimensions – 178 x 140 x 38 mm

If the specifications seem familiar, it’s because the hardware is based on WeTek Play satellite receiver, but instead of receiving video streams, it’s receiving scheduled data. The video output ports are not used, and you are supposed to use a computer or mobile device to configure the system and access data via a web interface using the right satellite for your region (See Outernet coverage map):

• North America – Galaxy 19, Eutelsat 113W
• Middle America – Galaxy 19, Eutelsat 113W
• South America – Eutelsat 113W
• Europe – HotBird 13E, Intelsat IS-20
• Africa – Intelsat IS-20
• Middle East – HotBird 13E, Intelsat IS-20, AsiaSat 5
• Asia (with Russia) – AsiaSat 5, ABS-2
• Oceania – AsiaSat 5

Outernet Web Interface – Click to Enlarge

Since the 4GB internal storage will be filled quickly, you can also extend capacity with a USB flash drive or hard drive.

So what content is sent exactly?

• 30% is reserved for the core archive which is sent repetitively, although kept up to date, with textbooks, health guides, courseware, certain software
• 60% is updated weekly with content curated by the team and the public, including music, videos, courses, DIY projects, games, art. It has to be distributed under an open license (Creative Commons, MIT, GNU, Copyleft,…)
• 10% is for feeds such as Twitter, disaster alerts, news, crop prices, weather

Beside the hardware costs, data transfer is free, so it’s only a one time investment. Outernet has recently partnered with Khan Academy to stream their education content over satellite using Lighthouse.
[embedded content]

Outernet Lighthouse currently sells for $99, but you can also opt to donate one for $89, and buy and donate Lighthouses for $169. I’ve also been told they plan to “drastically reducing the price in the coming weeks”. Since the firmware is available, you could also re-purpose your WeTek Play using these instructions. More details can be found on Outernet Lighthouse product page.

Mediatek has unveiled MT8581 processor for UHD Blu-ray players at CES 2016, with support the latest 10-bit H.265 and VP9, as well as  High Dynamic Range (HDR) for better video quality.

The press release provides limited info, but I found a temporary? page with more details (screenshot), and MT8581 specifications should be as follows:

• CPU – Quad core ARM Cortex A53 processor
• GPU – N/A, but could be ARM Mali-820MP2 according to AndroidPC.es
• Optical Disks support – Blu-ray, DVD and CD playback, including the latest BD-ROM format, such as BD-Live and BonusView. When combined with MT8577A
• Video Codecs – HEVC/H.265 10-bit, H.264 and VP9 Profile 2, Ultra HD 60p video decoder (3840×2160), MPEG-1/2/4, VP8 and VC-1 for Full HD 60p. Encode: H.265 and H.264.
• High Dynamic Range – HDR10 open standard and Dolby Vision IP
• Audio – AAC, Dolby Digital, Dolby Digital Plus, Dolby TrueHD, DTS, and DTS HD
• Network Connectivity – Gigabit Ethernet
• USB – USB 2.0 and USB 3.0

MT8581/MTK8581 will also support DVD upscaling up to 4K resolution, and 4K downscaling to for Full HD and HD ready screens.

The processor’s mass production is scheduled for H2 2016.

Zidoo X9 and Tronsmart Pavo M9 are TV boxes based on Mstar MSO9180D1R processor and featuring an HDMI input port that can be used for record video from an external source. Danman got a Pavo M9, and managed to successfully hack it to stream the HDMI input to the network using VLC and ffmpeg.

Tronsmart Pavos M9 Board (Click to Enlarge)

One of his first task was to check out the hardware, and while the board has a different name (HDMI_4K_V1.2 vs MSO9810D1R-TF-V1.2), the board layout appears identical to Zidoo X9 board, so the instructions below should also work on Zidoo’s device.

After doing some tests with VLC server on a Linux computer and running ffmpeg for Android in M9, as well as analyzing the recording app (ZidooRecorder.apk), and finding the app’s source code released by Zidoo (with some NDA protected binaries), he try to adapt the app to stream content instead, and called it ZidoStreamer.

Eventually he managed to stream videos by running VLC on the computer as follows:

starting recording with the recording app using TS container and H.264 codec, and running the following command in the TV box:

It works, but this is not 100% user-friendly, and not optimal as you still need storage to stream data. So works in not completed yet, and his plans are to:

create an app which will be able to start recording without that binary (it should be possible according to some tests I did), set different bitrates/resolutions, omit the recording to file (use just fifo file to avoid flash memory speed bottleneck and limited size – done some successful tests, just need to fix bugs) and allow different output stream types, e.g. rtmp, udp mpegts unicast, tcp mpegts unicast, rtp etc. (this all can be handled by ffmpeg, just needs to be correctly setup).

That’s the plan, and he welcomes others to join/help him. You can find more details on his blog post.

Via HackADay.

Intel has introduced 5 new models of their Compute Stick with two models based on Intel Atom x5-X8300 Cherry Trail processor, and three more power and expensive models based on Core M Skylake processors, namely Core M3-6Y30 and m5-6Y57 vPro.

Let’s get started with the specifications for the two Cherry models STK1AW32SC and STK1A32SC:

• SoC – Intel Atom x5-Z8300 Quad-Core “Cherry Trail” processor @ 1.44 GHz/1.84 GHz and Intel HD Gen8 Graphics
  
• System Memory – 2 GB DDR3L @ 1600MHz
• Storage – 32 GB eMMC + micro SDXC v3.0 slot with UHS I-Support up to 128GB
• Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4b
• Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi  and Bluetooth 4.0 (via Intel Dual Band Wireless-AC 7265)
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, 1x USB 2.0 port, 1x micro USB port for power
• Misc – Power button, security notch
• Power Supply – 5V/3A via micro USB port.
• Dimensions – 113 mm x 38 mm x 12 mm

The Core M Skylake compute sticks looks very similar from the outside, except the connectors are arranged differently, and the USB 2.0 port is gone. STK2MV64CC, STK2M3W64CC, and STK2M364CC models feature:

• SoC
  • STK2M3W64CC & STK2M364CC – Intel Core m3-6Y30 dual core/four thread processor @ 900 MHz/2.2GHz with Intel® HD Graphics 515 @ 300MHz/850Mhz (4.5 W TDP, configurable to 3.8W and 7W)
    
  • STK2MV64CC – Intel Core m5-6Y57 vPro dual core/four thread processor @ 1.1 GHz/2.8GHz with Intel® HD Graphics 515 @ 300MHz/900Mhz (4.5 W TDP, configurable to 3.5W and 7W)
• System Memory – 4 GB DDR3L @ 1833MHz (Dual channel, 2GB per channel)
• Storage – 64 GB eMMC + micro SDXC v3.0 slot with UHS I-Support up to 128GB
• Video & Audio Output – HDMI 1.4b
• Connectivity – 802.11 b/g/n/ac Wi-Fi up to 867 Mbps and Bluetooth 4.2 (via Intel Dual Band Wireless AC 8260)
• USB – 1x USB 3.0 port, and 2x USB 3.0 ports on power adapter.
• Misc – Power button, security notch, TPM (STK2MV64CC  and STK2M364CC)
• Power Supply – 5V/4A via power port.
• Dimensions – 114 mm x 38 mm x 12 mm

The model with a W (STK2M3W64CC) will come with Windows 10, and the other two models without operating system. The specs should make these last three sticks perfectly usable as desktop replacements, although the difference between base and turbo frequencies for the CPU and GPU is very large, so proper thermal management will be critical. I also find it very interesting that due to the small size of these sticks, they’ve decided to add two USB 3.0 ports on the power adapter itself. You can find a comparison of all existing and new Compute Sticks on Intel website.

Linuxium reports that the Cherry Trail sticks will sell for $159 with Windows 10 and production taking place now, while the Core M3 stick will go for $399 with Windows 10, and the Core M5 Compute Stick for $499 without OS starting in February. That’s a little odd since the “recommended customer price” for both Skylake processors is $281, but these are the prices listed in the press release.

Tweet Intel has introduced 5 new models of their Compute Stick with two models based on Intel Atom x5-X8300 Cherry Trail processor, and three more power and expensive models based…

Imagination Technologies introduced PowerVR Series7XT GPU family with up to 512 cores at the end of 2014, and at CES 2016, they’ve announced Series7XT Plus family with GT7200 Plus and GT7400 Plus GPUs, with many of the same features of Series7XT family, plus the addition of OpenCL 2.0 API support, and improvements for computer vision with a new Image Processing Data Master, and support for 8-bit and 16-bit integer data paths, instead of just 32-bit in the previous generation, for example leading to up to 4 times more performance for applications, e.g. deep learning, leveraging OpenVX computer vision API.

Block Diagram (Click to Enlarge)

GT7200 Plus GPU features 64 ALU cores in two clusters, and GT7400 Plus 128 ALU cores in a quad-cluster configuration. Beside OpenCL2.0, and improvements for computer vision, they still support OpenGL ES 3.2, Vulkan, hardware virtualization, advanced security, and more. The company has also made some microarchitectural enhancements to improve performance and reduce power consumption:

• Support for the latest bus interface features including requestor priority support
• Doubled memory burst sizes, matching the latest system fabrics, memory controllers and memory components
• Tuned the size of caches and improved their efficiency, leading to a ~10% reduction in bandwidth

The new features and improvements of PowerVR Series7XT Plus GPUs should help designed better systems for image classification, face/body/gesture tracking, smart video surveillance, HDR rendering, advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS), object and scene reconstruction, augmented reality, visual inspection, robotics, etc…

You can find more details on Imagination Tech Blog.

Tweet Imagination Technologies introduced PowerVR Series7XT GPU family with up to 512 cores at the end of 2014, and at CES 2016, they’ve announced Series7XT Plus family with GT7200 Plus…

After Zotac ZBOX Pico T4 mini PC unveiled earlier this week, we now have another Cherry Trail mini PC with an Atom x7-Z8700 processor thanks to Voyo V3, that also includes 4GB RAM, 128GB eMMC storage, USB 3.0 ports, dual band 802.11ac WiFi and more.

Voyo 3 specifications:

• SoC – Intel Atom x7-Z8700 “Cherry Trail” quad core processor @ 1.60 GHz/2.40 GHz (turbo) with Intel Gen8 HD graphics @ 600MHz with 16EU (2W SDP)
• System Memory – 4 GB LPDDR3
• Storage – 128 GB “SSD” storage + micro SD slot up to 128GB
• Video Output – HDMI up to 4K resolution
• Audio I/O – HDMI,  3.5mm audio jack
• Connectivity – Dual band 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth 4.0
• USB – 2x USB 3.0 host ports, 1x USB type C port, 1x USB 2.0 port
• Misc – Power button
• Power Supply – 12V/2A
• Dimensions – 13.00 x 13.00 x 0.99 cm
• Weight – 200 grams

The mini PC runs Windows 10, most probably not activated for the model sold now. The same “armored” glass found on Voyo V2 is used, so it will also be a pain to open it, but that’s something most people won’t need to do. Voyo V2 often had a manufacturing defect with the battery wire soldering, but since there’s no battery in Voyo V3, this should not be an issue. Some Chinese websites claim the 128GB storage is a SATA3 SSD, while other simply refer to 128GB “ROM”, but it’s likely a soldered eMMC flash.

Contrary to the Zotac device, we already have some price information, as it is sold for 1399 CNY ($212) in China, and $235.51 with free worldwide shipping on EverBuying. I could not find it listed on any other English websites at this stage.

Thanks to godmd5 for the tip!

Tweet After Zotac ZBOX Pico T4 mini PC unveiled earlier this week, we now have another Cherry Trail mini PC with an Atom x7-Z8700 processor thanks to Voyo V3, that…

Remix OS is a fork of Android developed by Jide and optimized for desktop use, in a similar way to what Rockchip is doing with Light Biz OS, except the developers do not limit themselves to one specific SoC vendor with the operating system found in Remix Mini (Allwinner A64), and Remix Ultra-tablet (Nvidia Tegra 4), as well as several firmware images for popular Android devices such as Nexus 9 & 10. Now the company is planning to release Remix OS 2.0 for Intel and AMD based computer including PCs and Macs.

How do they achieved that? Technically same way as Console OS by forking Android-x86 project, except they did it with less contention, and instead Jide partnered with Android-x86 developers.

Remix OS for PCs alpha is a version of Remix OS 2.0 based on Android 5.0 with the taskbar, multiple windows, better memory management (it will try not to kill your Word file open in the background…), etc. The Play Store is also installed to let you install Android apps just like on any Android device. The company ran Antutu on a laptop with an Intel  Core i7 4590 quad core processor which achieved 214,218 points or over twice as fast as a high-end mobile device such as a Samsung Galaxy Note 5.

You’ll be able to try Remix OS for PC starting on January 12,when it will available for download, by flashing the image to a USB flash drive, and booting from it. Remix OS for PC is free, and the company plans to keep it that way, instead making money buy either selling hardware or partnering with third parties.

As a side note, Remix OS 2.0 Beta was also released for Tronsmart Vega S95 Meta and Telos earlier today. You can find all details here.

Via Liliputing

Tweet Remix OS is a fork of Android developed by Jide and optimized for desktop use, in a similar way to what Rockchip is doing with Light Biz OS, except…