GizBeat

Category: Televisions

  • Rii mini i24 review

    Rii mini i24 review

    Note, GizBeat may receive a small commission on sales generated through our links.

    I’ve used the Rii mini i24 air mouse keyboard for several days now and have a fairly good grasp of its assets and limitations. 

    Essentially, the mini i24 is meant to replace a keyboard and mouse for navigation of your smart device. My primary use for this gadget has been controlling a Web Browser on a smart TV. It can also be used with a PC, Android phones and Android TV boxes – basically, anything that can accept mouse/keyboard input, this remote can do. This includes helping big time with navigating and adjusting smart TV settings. 

    The mini i24 looks good. It’s brushed plastic and the long sides are curved in slightly. Two fat mouse buttons are in the middle. The center button stops the mouse pointer where it is regardless of where the remote is pointed. This remote features an internal battery that can be recharged via the micro-SD port. I would have appreciated an LED backlight but given the price point, it is forgivable. 

    In the apps I tested, the i24 requires that the Fn key be held down to access media functions instead of the PC targeted F1-F12 functions. For my purposes this isn’t a big issue, as the D-pad can be used in HTML5 web videos for volume and fast forward/rewind. This also works with YouTube through the smart TV’s browser, but does not in the YouTube app.

    There are three ways to scroll through pages – the D-pad, the page up and page down, or by clicking and dragging the scroll bar. It’s quite a stretch going back and forth with one hand between the mouse buttons and the scroll controls. There were several solutions missed here – enabling scrolling by pointing at the very tops and bottoms of the screen, including a side scroll wheel, putting the mouse buttons and D-pad closer together, or for example, holding down the mouse button while moving the pointer up and down to scroll. 

    The keyboard packs in a ton of controls. In addition to the ASDF keyboard there is a 3-level LED battery meter, a 4-way directional pad, function keys for PCs, page up and page down, caps lock, even a CTRL-ALT-DEL by holding the Fn key and hitting Enter.

    In Live TV, the page up and page down keys change the channel and the number keys can be used to change the channel as well. I have not found a way to bring up the channel list without using the stock TV remote.

    A bonus is that you can use the remote to control games, particularly any games which allow the controls to be set. Many emulators allow this, so you can play Super Mario with this remote too.

    Setup is automatic plug-and-play. Just plug the included USB dongle into the TV and you are ready to rock.

    Overall I’m fairly impressed with this device. There are a couple of frustrating things about it that could easily be addressed, but the Rii mini 24 is a great addition to the arsenal, doubly so due to the excellent price point.



  • MediaTek joins with Google and continues to dominate budget devices

    MediaTek joins with Google and continues to dominate budget devices

    Taiwan is the home of gadget megabrands Asus and Acer, who after getting tired of watching the likes of Dell and Gateway snag the lion’s share of profits, decided to create their own line of PC’s and notebooks.UDIGU0A2SN

    Taiwan is not only the home of Asus and Acer, but also MediaTek. There was a time not long ago when most believed that MediaTek processors only belonged in China brand phones, and that it would be unlikely they’d move beyond this bottom of the barrel position.

    As early as 2012, I predicted this wouldn’t be the case and it wouldn’t be too long before we saw MTK SoC in major brand phones. Shortly after this prediction, we had the likes of Sony, HTC and Asus all looking at producing devices with MTK processors (opens in new tab).

    Now warp speed to 2014/2015 and we not only have a slew of brands jumping on the MTK bandwagon, but the models the major brands are putting out are models that are internationally sold and considered mainstream devices. Even Google has jumped on the train and as of September 14th, 2014 there was an official announcement made by both MTK and Google which solidified their partnership in the Android One initiative.

    “Google is pleased to partner with MediaTek on the Android One initiative. MediaTek has the expertise to provide what is needed for Android One devices and insights into the needs of consumers in emerging markets,” said Caesar Sengupta, VP of Product Management at Google

    It’s also a little known fact that MediaTek was partnered with Google to create the world’s first Ultra-HD TV powered by Android. This system was powered by the MT5595, which is a big.LITTLE Cortex-A17/Cortex-A7 SoC and supports streaming of 4k2k@60fps.

    Google Cast Ready
    chromecastgoogle_w_600

    As of the beginning of the year, MediaTek and Google also began collaborating on the Google Cast for audio using MT8507. Google Cast Ready speakers will be used to stream music from iPhones, iPads, Android devices, Macbooks, and Windows PCs via Google Cast Ready apps.

    Quite a few streaming services are already supported, including Google Play Music, YouTube, Pandora, Rhapsody, iHeart Radio, TuneIn, Rdio and NPROne.

    “Based on the success of Chromecast, we’re excited to expand the Google Cast ecosystem by working with a leading semiconductor company such as MediaTek to power audio devices,” said Suveer Kothari, Google Cast Director of Business Development.

    https://youtu.be/8q0yZomXuSw

    MT8507 details:

    • ARM® Cortex®-A7 CPU core with L2 cache and Floating Point Unit (FPU)
    • High-resolution audio format support for up to 192kHz for PCM, FLAC, DSD and APE
    • Dolby® TrueHD and DTS Digital Surround™ decode capability
    • 16-bit single-channel DDR3 up to 512MB
    • Embedded SPDIF IN/OUT & 7.1ch I2S Output
    • HDMI Repeater (Tx/Rx) built-in with Audio Return Channel (ARC) support
    • USB 2.0, SD card, MHL support
    • 10/100 Ethernet-MAC/PHY built-in with WoLAN capability

    You know when giants such as Google join the MTK fray you’ve hit the big time and it seems that MTK’s chugalong choo-choo has quickly accelerated into a silver bullet.

  • Quantum Dot Technology in TVs

    Quantum Dot Technology in TVs

    Click here for the Google Build Your Own Phone Project Ara article. We apologize for the incorrect link in the newsletter.

    CES 2015 will be bright and colorful with the release of many new gadgets, including the introduction of Quantum Dot TVs.

    (more…)

  • Megapixel Tech in televisions 84″ and under reaching it’s peak – ‘4k’ (8mp)

    Megapixel Tech in televisions 84″ and under reaching it’s peak – ‘4k’ (8mp)

    While hard drives will always get bigger and processors continue to get faster, there’s one aspect of technology that may not improve much – The amount of Megapixels in LCD’s.  84″ TV’s with 8mp, or “4k” (which stands for 4 x 1080hd) are now being released by the hardware giants – Sony, Toshiba, LG.

    While on these huge LCD’s you can discern the pixels at 3 feet distance, nobody is going to be watching an 84″ television from 3 feet away, (more…)