Category: Recent

  • LinkIt and Aster from MediaTek

    LinkIt and Aster from MediaTek

    mediatekAlong with the MT7681 and MT7688 SoC for wearable and home devices, MediaTek will also be releasing “Aster” SoC and “LinkIt” development platform. LinkIt development platform will be mainly geared towards working with Aster.

    LinkIt is especially designed to develop for wearable networking equipment operating systems and supporting touch GUI infrastructures. LinkIt platform will support development for Android and iOS devices.

    From J.C. Hsu, General Manager of New Business Development at MediaTek:

    “MediaTek is now in a unique position to assume leadership by accelerating development for wearables and IoT, thanks to our LinkIt platform,”

    From MediaTek:

    “The launch of LinkIt is a part of MediaTek’s wider initiative for the developer community called MediaTek Labs™ which will officially launch later this year. MediaTek Labs will stimulate and support the creation of wearable devices and IoT applications based on the LinkIt platform.”

    compud2006_550

    According to MediaTek, the key features of MediaTek Aster and LinkIt:

    • MediaTek Aster, the smallest SoC in a package size of 5.4×6.2mm specifically designed for wearable devices.
    • LinkIt integrates the MediaTek’s Aster SoC and is a developer platform supported by reference designs that enable creation of various form factors, functionalities, and internet connected services.
    • Synergies between microprocessor unit and communication modules, facilitating development and saving time in new device creation.
    • Modularity in software architecture provides developers with high degree of flexibility.
    • Supports over-the-air (OTA) updates for apps, algorithms and drivers which enable “push and install” software stack (named MediaTek Capsule) from phones or computers to devices built with MediaTek Aster.
    • Plug-in software development kit (SDK) for Arduino and VisualStudio. Support for Eclipse is planned for Q4 this year.
    • Hardware Development Kit (HDK) based on LinkIt board by third party.

    The purpose of LinkIt is to provide a turnkey reference software development kit (SDK) for developers to help bring products to market as quickly as possible.

    Aster SoC aka MT2502, comes in at a tiny 5.4*6.2mm, but is a full on SoC with CPU and RAM, and configurable by manufacturers to include Bluetooth, 2G and GPS modules.

  • MediaTek To Release SoC for Wearable and Home Devices – Review MT7688 MT7681

    People love making things as simple and easy as possible and I can see a big market for smart home devices being operated via your smartphone. (more…)

  • Solar Roadways

    Solar Roadways

    The massive potential of solar roadways is clear. There is virtually limitless surface area that could be converted into power. But what about some of the other uses of these interlocking solar panels? (more…)

  • Meizu MX4 Preview & Rumors

    Meizu MX4 Preview & Rumors

    meizu-mx4-fanThe successor to the very popular Meizu MX3 — Meizu MX4, is scheduled to be released some time in August. (more…)

  • Elephone Releases KitKat 4.4.2 Download

    Elephone Releases KitKat 4.4.2 Download

    androidIt’s not a secret that I’m not so impressed with the added functionality KitKat brings to the table. The benefits of KitKat vs Jelly Bean, unless you have a Nexus device, are minimal. Still, it’s always exciting when China brands step up to the plate and having KitKat gives them a bit more clout. (more…)

  • Official MT6752 64-bit SoC Specifications & MediaTek Marketing

    Official MT6752 64-bit SoC Specifications & MediaTek Marketing

    mediatek
    Mouth by Alisha Vargas

    MediaTek is expecting to surpass Q1 revenue in Q2. Their target is 90 million units for Q2 with a revenue of 18.2 billion USD. Products with LTE are expected to sell 15 million units. (more…)

  • How To Build Firefox OS 1.3

    firefox-5 Hello again, and welcome back to our next excursion into Firefox OS.

    Today I will show you how I built Firefox OS v1.3 for my ZTE Open.

    First of all, let me say that probably the best way to build your own Firefox OS is to either use a desktop/laptop you do not use anymore, or virtualize a dedicated build-machine. I chose to virtualize the build machine with VirtualBox (it’s available for Windows and Linux).

    Firefox OS can be built either on 64bit Linux, or OSX if you happen to have an Apple.

    My Laptop is installed with Windows 8, has 16GB of memory and an i7 4002mq quad core.

    The virtual machine I created with VirtualBox has 5GB of memory (4 is minimum) and 2 cores, capped at 90% execution. The Harddisk size I chose is 50GB – you will need at least 30GB and that could potentially be not enough. I won’t go through the details of setting up VirtualBox, there are tutorials out there to help you with that.

    Here it’s also important to mention that you will also need the VirtualBox Extension Packs because you need to be able to attach USB devices.

    The VM was then installed with Ubuntu 12.04.4 LTS 64bit. I did this by downloading the Desktop Live-CD.

    After successfull installation, follow the instructions of how to set up your build environment on Mozilla Developer Network:
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Firefox_OS_build_prerequisites.firefox

    I won’t detail this here because I would encourage you to actually read through the instructions there to better understand what is going on.
    also, if you want to use a different Linux Distribution (such as Mint or Fedora) everything you need is described there also.

    You will also need adb and fastboot, which is described here:
    https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/Firefox_OS/Debugging/Installing_ADB

    If you haven’t already configured udev rules, this how to do it:

    • Create a file 51-android.rules in /etc/udev/rules.d/ and put this inside:
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="19d2", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
    SUBSYSTEM=="usb", ATTR{idVendor}=="18d1", MODE="0666", GROUP="plugdev"
    

    The first line is for ADB to recognize your zte roamer2 (=open)
    The second line is for fastboot

    • Restart udev like so:
    sudo service udev restart
    
    • Now connect your ZTE Open (dont forget to attach it to the VM)
    • Check if you can see it:
    adb devices
    

    it should show

    roland@B2G-Dev:~$ adb devices
    * daemon not running. starting it now on port 5037 *
    * daemon started successfully *
    List of devices attached
    full_inari    device
    

    In your case it should show ZTE open/roamer2 instead of inari.

    Now go get the 1.1 update from ZTE, you have to install that first.
    Depending on your geo and the revision of your phone you need to download the right update:

    If all went well, you should now be on V1.1 – hurray.

    • Now move on in the description on MDN of how to get the code. (git clone etc.)
    • Configure the build. If you want a clean enduser build its like this:
    BRANCH=v1.3 VARIANT=user ./configure inari
    

    inari is the code name for the ZTE open.

    This is going to take a LONG time, depending on how fast your internet is, it’s going to fetch about 17GB.

    Once this is done, go ahead and build. In order to do that, your phone needs to be connected and attached, because the first time it’s going to pull the system folder for the build process.

    • so to really build ->
    BRANCH=v1.3 VARIANT=user ./build.sh
    

    If you set up the build machine correctly, this should be successful.

    Now comes the tricky part. Since the hal is provided by ZTE and also the RIL proxy is a binary blob, if you flash your phone now it will be stuck in a boot loop. You don’t want a boot loop, so we will fix the problem beforehand.

    To avoid the boot loop, you will need:

    1. boot.img contained in the v1.1 update zip
    2. abootimg (is a standard Ubuntu package, install as usual with sudo apt-get install abootimg)
    3. mkbootfs
    4. mkbootimg – the last two tools are from the android source code, either you compile them from there or you ask Mr. Google – there ar precompiled ones to download.
    • If you have all 4 of these ready to go, do as follows:
    abootimg -x boot.img
    mkdir a_dir; cd a_dir
    gunzip -c ../initrd.img | cpio -i
    

    This will extract the boot.img file and the included initrd.img so you can edit it.

    • Edit default.prop so it looks like this:
    roland@B2G-Dev:~/FXOS/bootimg/a_dir$ cat default.prop
    #
    # ADDITIONAL_DEFAULT_PROPERTIES
    #
    ro.secure=0
    ro.allow.mock.location=1
    ro.debuggable=1
    persist.sys.usb.config=adb
    persist.usb.serialno=full_inari
    
    • Edit init.b2g.rc (you need to comment out everything related to the RIL proxy)
    roland@B2G-Dev:~/FXOS/bootimg/a_dir$ cat init.b2g.rc
    service fakeperm /system/bin/fakeperm
    class main
    user root
    
    service b2g /system/bin/b2g.sh
    class main
    onrestart restart media
    
    #service rilproxy /system/bin/rilproxy
    # class main
    # socket rilproxy stream 660 root system
    # user root
    # group radio
    
    on boot
    exec /system/bin/rm -r /data/local/tmp
    # set RLIMIT_NOFILE to increase soft limit from 1024(default) to 2048.
    # Hard limit keeps default value(4096).
    setrlimit 7 2048 4096
    
    • Last but not least, edit init.rc. Go to line 111 where it mounts all the filesystems and change it to look like this:
    # mount mtd partitions
        # Mount /system rw first to give the filesystem a chance to save a checkpoint
        mount yaffs2 mtd@system /system
    # make bootable b2g environment
        chmod 0755 /system/b2g/b2g
        chmod 0755 /system/b2g/updater
        chmod 0755 /system/b2g/plugin-container
    #done, b2g should work now
        mount yaffs2 mtd@system /system ro remount
    

    All done. Bravo.

    • Repack everything like this:
    mkbootfs . | gzip > ../newinitramfs.cpio.gz
    cd ..
    mkbootimg --kernel zImage --ramdisk newinitramfs.cpio.gz --base 0x200000 --cmdline 'androidboot.hardware=roamer2' -o newboot.img
    
    • Copy the new boot image to the finished build so you can flash it together with it: (adjust the path to your environment)
    cp newboot.img ~/B2G/out/target/product/inari/boot.img 
    

    Now when you then flash your phone the boot.img will be flashed also.

    This is the last chance you get to backup anything, because in the next step the phone will be wiped clean (the sdcard will be left alone – but your contacts etc. are gone)

    • Go back to the B2G folder and flash your phone (again, your phone has to be connected and attached)
    ./flash.sh

    This will reboot your phone into fastboot mode – if you use Virtualbox, you have to reattach the Android “bla bla” now, then the process should go through until you see -”trying to set time”,

    • Then your phone should be booting and you have to reattach it again in Virtualbox.

    If all went ok, it should be successful now.

    Bravo, you just installed Firefox OS 1.3. If you have any questions or comments, please feel to ask in the comments or at www.chinaphonearena.com

  • Google Nexus 6 To Come With MTK 64-Bit SoC

    Google Nexus 6 To Come With MTK 64-Bit SoC

    nexus6I’m highly skeptical this news is anywhere near the truth, but latest rumors out of China are that the Google Nexus 6 scheduled for Q4 release will use MediaTek MT6732 & MT6752 SoC. (more…)

  • Xiaomi Official Website, Tablet, Router & Expansion — Big Plans for the World

    Xiaomi Official Website, Tablet, Router & Expansion — Big Plans for the World

    Xiaomi, while previously known for their MIUI customized Android OS, exploded onto the China brand scene in 2011 and skyrocketed to the top of the ‘must-have’ list. They now hold 2 of the spots on the top 10 phones list. Their sales model has been aggressive and smart (more…)

  • Green Orange NX To Come With KitKat 4.4.2

    Green Orange NX To Come With KitKat 4.4.2

    Green-Orange-NX-MyUI-2.0Many people have been frustrated waiting for China phones to come up to speed by including Android 4.4 KitKat OS as opposed to the standard Android 4.2.2. This has been the least of my concerns regarding China brands, (more…)

  • MT6290 LTE 4G MT6595 MTK & 64-bit Timeline Update

    MT6290 LTE 4G MT6595 MTK & 64-bit Timeline Update

     by Jonathan Kos-Read
    by Jonathan Kos-Read

    One area MTK has lagged behind in is frequency support. The WCDMA 3G frequencies supported often are 850/2100 900/2100 and occasionally 2100 only. That all may change when MT6290 is released. (more…)

  • Enable THL LED Notifications

    Enable THL LED Notifications

    Though the THL T11 and THL W200S are both very good phones, the LED notification system is nonexistent unless using a 3rd party app.
    (more…)