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Mini PC

Introducing The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

The much anticipated new version of the popular $35 mini-pc - The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B is here. The board made appearance at the FCC website revealing all details a few days ago and is now officially released by the foundation for ordering. Major new features include a new 64-bit ARM 8 1.2GHz Quad-core Broadcom BCM2837 CPU with on-board WiFi and Bluetooth Low Energy. Everything else remains the same, the maximum power draw has been upgraded to 2.5A@5V from 1.8A@5V to allow more power hungry USB devices without a need for a powered USB hub.

The Raspberry Pi 3 Model B

Ubuntu MATE 15.10 For Raspberry Pi 2 Coming Next Week..

The Ubuntu MATE 15.04 version for Raspberry Pi 2 has been quite successful, and it seems to soon become the favorite OS for the small mini-PC after the official Raspbian OS.
The image is based on the regular Ubuntu armhf base and is optimized for the Raspberry Pi 2, one can comfortably use applications such as LibreOffice. Since, microSDHC I/O throughput is a bottleneck it is recommended to use a Class 10 microSDHC card for best performance.User needs a microSD card which is 4GB or greater to fit the image. The file system can be resized to occupy the unallocated space of the microSD card, similar to Raspbian.

The good news is the latest version of Ubuntu MATE v 15.10 is also coming to Raspberry Pi 2 and will be available for download on October 22, 2015.

Ubuntu MATE 15.10 For Raspberry Pi 2

Lenovo Ideacentre 300 : Another PC On A Stick

Be it the GULEEK i8 or Intel Compute Stick, mini-pc's are in-vague these days. Lenovo has also jumped onto the bandwagon and released it's very own Computer-On-A-Stick, the Lenovo Ideacentre 300.

Marketed with the tagline "Affordable Personal Computing in the Palm of Your Hand", the pocket-sized desktop comes with the standard spec-sheet of it's competition which is - a Intel Atom Z3735F CPU, 2GB of RAM, 32GB of built-in storage, USB port, microSD card, WiFi and Bluetooth 4. The Windows 8.1 powered HDMI stick computer is scheduled to hit stores in July, 2015 for a price-tag of $129. It is to be noted this costs $20 less then Intel Compute Stick, also I would still recommend GULEEK i8 over these as it costs just $103 for the same specs includes free world-wide shipping, can be ordered right-now and comes with has added benefit of an built-in 3000mAh battery.

Picture Of Lenovo Ideacentre 300

[SuperDeal] Ainol Windows 8.1 Mini PC With Intel Z3735D Quad-Core CPU, 2GB RAM, 32GB Storage, WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0 and 7000mAh Built-in Battery For $109

So, you’re looking for a new PC? It can be a daunting task shopping for a new one as the market is saturated with literally thousands of models, and, if you’re not an IT expert, you may not even know where to begin.

The good news is that purchasing a new computer is now so much easier and you can do it online and from the comfort of your own home (no more battling the crowds at the mall and sullen shop assistants). If you enjoy convenience (don’t we all?) or if you are “technically-challenged”, many PCs now come with pre-installed Windows software, such as the powerful new Ainol Mini PC powered which comes pre-installed with a legitimate licensed copy of Windows 8.1 . This means that you will not need to struggle through the long and arduous installation process and those horrible CDs that always used to come with new computers. Your computer is ready to use as soon as you receive it – what a joy!

Ainol MiniPC

The Ainol Windows Mini PC is a tiny, slim computer and is so compact that it can slide into your back pocket. It weighs only 335g which is the equivalent to a bottle of Coke! Don’t be fooled, though, because although this little PC is small, dynamite comes in small packages and this PC has an amazing Intel Z3735D 1.8Ghz 64 bit quad-core CPU, Integrated Intel HD Graphics GPU, 2GB RAM, 32 GB eMMC ROM, WiFi 802.11b/g/n, Bluetooth 4.0, supports TF card upto 128GB, 3-axis G-sensor, high sensitivity, supports HDMI and has 2 x USB 2.0;1 x Micro SD card slot;1 x 3.5mm Earphone jack interfaces. It also has a built-in 7000m Ah battery and can work for more than 10 hours and on standby for a whopping 40 hours! It will act as a power bank for your phone and will fully charge 2 iPhone 6s. This powerful little PC comes pre-installed with Windows 8.1 (Bing authorized edition) so you will be ready to work within minutes! It also has other amazing features such as live Windows tiles, metro UI and has access to the Windows Store. What’s even more unbelievable is that the boot-up time is only 10 seconds !

CHIP - The $9 Computer

CHIP Computer Logo$35 Raspberry Pi has the crown of being world's smallest and cheapest computer, but this seems not to be the case anymore. C.H.I.P. - a brand new entry to the mini-computing scene has already been successfully crowd-funded at kickstarter, the "100% open-source" product features attractive functionality and power for a price-tag of $9 which includes a 1Ghz A13 Allwinner CPU, 512MB of DDR3 RAM, 4GB NAND storage, USB, Micro USB, Video/Audio/MIC Composite, Bluetooth 4.0 and Wifi 802.11B/G/N.

The tiny C.H.I.P. SOC is designed to run Debian Linux including modern desktop GUI apps like LibreOffice, VLC, or the Firefox or Chrome web browsers. Best of all, CHIP runs mainline Linux, which means it’s easier than ever to keep teaching it new tricks without inheriting a pile of kernel patches. Do watch the introduction video shared by MAKE magazine of this exciting new development for maker's community.

Raspberry Pi 2 - 6x Faster, Quad-Core, 1GB And Support For Windows 10 At Just $35

The $35 Raspberry Pi Mini-PC originally aimed to be an affordable educational device to learn computing has started a whole new category of enthusiast using the mini-computer under various scenarios from smart electronic projects to desktop computer's and mini-servers.

The all new second generation Raspberry Pi 2 Model B has now available offering 6x more performance then it's predecessor, thanks to an all new 900MHz Quad-Core Armv7 SOC (Single Board Computer) Broadcom BCM2836 coupled with 1GB of RAM. Apart from the CPU and RAM everything remains the same from form factor to connectors like 4 USB ports, 40 GPIO pins, Full HDMI port, Ethernet port, Combined 3.5mm audio jack and composite video, Camera interface (CSI), Display interface (DSI), Micro SD card slot and VideoCore IV 3D graphics core - which means all the older accessories and software-code can be used with the new Pi.

To make the news even more sweeter, the new Raspberry Pi 2 Model B will cost the same US$35 and will also support an IoT (Internet Of Things) trimmed down version of Microsoft Windows 10. This release of Windows 10 will also be 100% free for the Maker community through the Windows Developer Program for IoT.

Raspberry Pi 2

Intel® Compute Stick - Quad Core Atom CPU With Windows 8.1

HDMI Android and Linux TV sticks are nothing new, but now we have Intel Quad Core powered Windows mini-pcs's as GULEEK i8 which is already on sale and we blogged about it earlier. Intel has also announced their own version of the Mini-PC Stick at CES 2015 as shared below.

The Intel Compute Stick is a new generation device which is a full-featured plug-n-play Desktop computer with a quad-core Intel® Atom™ processor, built-in wireless connectivity, on-board storage, and a micro SD card slot for additional storage. The four inches long, ultra-small, power-efficient device will come pre-installed in two flavors one with Windows 8.1 priced at $150 and other one with Linux priced at $89.

The Intel Compute Stick is planned to be released in March, 2015 but as of now the GULEEK i8 seems a better deal considering the fact that it is powered by same Intel branded CPU, is cheaper (for Windows version), has 3000mAh built-in battery, more connectors, comes with a remote control app for mobile phone and is available to order right now for just $103.

Intel Compute Stick

GULEEK i8 : $104 Intel Quad-Core Mini-PC With Windows 8.1 And Built-in Battery

There are tons of TV sticks and mini-pc's with Android and Linux support, but a new breed of Intel Quad-core HDMI mini-pc's have now started to appear supporting a fully-functional Microsoft Windows 8.1 OS.

GULEEK i8 comes powered with an 1.3 GHz Intel Atom Z3735F quad-core processor, 2GB DDR3 RAM, 16GB of storage, a microSD card slot, 2 full-sized USB ports, a micro USB port (for charging), a micro HDMI port, a headset jack, microphone, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 4.0, 3000mAh battery (allowing usage as a portable media player without need of a power adapter), all this in a ultra-slim, light-weight and noise-free fanless design. The Intel powered quad-core CPU coupled with Microsoft Windows 8.1 OS makes this one of the best setup for a home entertainment system supporting hardware video decoding (Intel HD Graphic(Gen7)) with full codec support unlike it's Android and Linux counterparts, just plug this on any screen via HDMI and you have a fully-functional desktop computer with Windows 8.1 OS.

You can also use this as an headless system, the mini-pc comes with an Android app supporting remote login and interaction with the GULEEK i8 without requiring a keyboard and mouse.

How To Install SSH Server As Root On Android 4.4 KitKat

One of the first thing any advanced user should do after installing Android on their mini-pc is to install an SSH Server to enable remote-access from a computer for faster and easier tweaking, one can simply opt for an free SSH Server app from Google Play like SSHelper for a no frill, click-n-install SSH access to your Android box. However, if you prefer a GUI-less access with FULL-ROOT privileges from both WinSCP and Putty follow the tutorial shard ahead.

SSHelper For Android

Unofficial Custom Android 4.4.2 KitKat ROM For Radxa Rock

One of the biggest advantage of Radxa Rock the quad-core mini-pc over Raspberry Pi is that it supports dual-booting with support for both Linux and Google Android. In last tutorial we configured Samba file-sharing on Ubuntu based Linaro Linux image on the Rock, and today I am going to share an excellent custom Google Android 4.4.2 KitKat ROM for Radxa Rock which works well with everything working out of the box.

If you are thinking why Android when we have a full-desktop OS like Linaro (based on Ubuntu) running on some powerful hardware, then the answer is because Linux still lacks Hardware Acceleration support for Mali-400 GPU on RK3188 based devices like Rock. An experimental Ubuntu Desktop release with OpenGL ES acceleration for Radxa Rock is released but it is still experimental and XBMC still does not work with it. Radxa has also released a preview image of Android 4.4 KitKat but once again it is also half-baked and lacks Root support, luckily we do have an alternative custom Android 4.4 ROM for Radxa ROCK with features like - stock 4.4.0 recovery, CWM 6.0.3.1 recovery, system ext4 support, selinux kernel, ethernet support, init.d support, gameloft compatible, USB-Hub enabled, gamepad compatible (PS2, XBox, …), pre-built kernel modules (cifs, tun, lan, serial, audio), latest hosts, su, su-binary and busybox, Reboot Menu, sEFix, FX Sound, File Manager HD 0root), Google Now and Nova Launcher.

Radxa Rock KitKat
This is just one of the many helpful tips we have posted, You can find more stories here,
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