Gadget

OPPO has announced a new technology at MWC Shanghai: MeshTalk. It is described as a way to talk or text without the need for a cellular, Bluetooth or online connection. MeshTalk apparently works when 2 compatible devices are within a maximum of 1.86 miles of each other.

Based on the PiJuice HAT released in 2016, the PiJuice Zero allows the Raspberry Pi Zero to be used on the go away from a power outlet. Pi Supply has developed a software suite to help get you started and has included a low-profile to keep the overall build size small. The PiJuice Zero is available to order on Crowd Supply now for US$45 with orders shipping worldwide on October 31.

Running on a Python library, the Enviro+ can monitor indoor and outdoor atmospheric changes from air quality to temperature, humidity and noise. The board can contribute to big air quality projects like Luftdaten too. Pimoroni has developed the Enviro+ with The University of Sheffield and has included several sensors, along with a 40-pin header and a 0.96-inch colour LCD. The Enviro+ is available to pre-order now for US$47.63 and will ship worldwide from July 5.

Based on a Microchip MGC3130, the 3D Gesture & Tracking Shield brings gesture and motion tracking to the Raspberry Pi at a reasonable price. The Shield supports touch gestures and emits a short-range magnetic field to allow it to recognise gestures performed nearby it too. The 3D Gesture & Tracking Shield communicates with a Raspberry Pi via I2C and is available to purchase worldwide from Seeedstudio for US$12.90.

FriendlyElec has responded to the aggressive pricing of the Raspberry Pi 4 by cutting the MSRP of its NanoPi M4. The Rockchip RK3399 powered SBC originally started at US$65 for the 2 GB of RAM variant and has now received a 23% price cut to US$50. Similarly, the 4 GB model has come down by 21% to US$75 from US$95. The NanoPi M4 features a more powerful SoC than the Raspberry Pi 4, along with a host of ports, connectors and sensors. FriendlyElec ships worldwide.

The upcoming 12 core and 24 thread Ryzen 9 3900X has posted seriously impressive Geekbench 4.3 and SiSoftware multi-core scores, leaving the Core i9-9900K and even the Threadripper 2950X in its wake. The benchmark results confirm that the CPU will have a 3.8 GHz base clock that it can boost to between 4.51 and 4.54 GHz.

The TUL PYNQ-Z2 is a single-board computer (SBC) designed for development with the open-source Python Productivity for Zynq (PYNQ) framework. The board has Arduino and Raspberry Pi headers along with a host of other ports and connectors. The TUL PYNQ-Z2 ships worldwide from Seeedstudio for US$119 or for US$114 from Newegg if you live in the US. The former is currently offering a US$5 discount on orders too.

Khadas has changed the VIM3 slightly from when we previously reported on it earlier this month. The single-board computer (SBC) now features a more powerful Amlogic SoC, the hexa-core A331D, which can output up to 5.0 TOPS. The VIM3 now starts at US$99.99 and will ship worldwide from August 10.

CHUWI has announced that it will be adding the option to upgrade to 16GB of RAM as rewards to its Indiegogo campaign for the Minibook. These SKUs will have the same Intel m3-8100Y SoC as the UMPC's current higher-end version. The first 50 of these are to cost US$10 more than their 8GB counterparts.

Raspberry Pi Relay HATs are two a penny, but few come with a dedicated mobile app. Meet the PiRelay, a HAT that can manage up to 240 VAC/7 A or 125 VDC/10 A loads across four relays. The PiRelay costs US$17.06 via SB-Components, which ships worldwide.

The Raspberry Pi Foundation has delivered its next single-board computer a year early. The Raspberry Pi 4 Model B comes with a quad-core CPU, up to 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM, Gigabit Ethernet dual 4K HDMI and USB Type-C. It should deliver 3x the performance of its predecessor while remaining backwards-compatible with older boards. Better still, the Raspberry Pi 4 Model B costs just US$35 and is available to order worldwide now.

We’ve known for a number of years that Microsoft has been experimenting with dual-screen devices. The first was the Courier concept, then there was the Andromeda project (aka Surface Phone) which is said was put on hold. Those dreams, however, look like they might coming fruition in the form of a foldable Surface device that can also incorporates a cellular connection.

Canon is attending the 2019 Sensors Expo & Conference in San Jose, California to showcase its new 120MXSI sensor. This CMOS is rated for 120MP imaging, and can operate in visible and near-infra-red (NIR) light spectra at a maximal 9.4 frames per second.

According to a U.S. Office of Inspector General report published Tuesday, a cyberattack on NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory in April 2018 was due to a severe lack of security oversight. The attack was made possible via an unauthorized Raspberry Pi that was connected to JPL's network without any knowledge of the security team. Additionally, a lack of proper network segmentation allowed the hackers to access NASA's Deep Space Network, which is responsible for managing interplanetary missions.

Edge computing is a rapidly emerging industry that may become closely associated with others such as machine learning in the future. Its market is now projected to be worth US$6.9 billion in the next 5 years. This is thought to be driven by its use in 5G and smart-city applications.

The company behind the Rock Pi 4 is back, this time with a tiny SBC powered by a Rockchip RK3308 quad-core SoC. The board comes with either 256 MB or 512 MB RAM, a built-in voice activity detector (VAD) along with a host of ports and connectors. The Rock Pi S measures just 3.8 x 3.8 cm and will sell for US$9.90.

One-Netbook seems to be constantly updating its product portfolio and now the One Mix 1S Yoga mini laptop can join that list. The pocket-sized computer with a 7-inch 1920x1200 resolution display is joining a growing and competitive market thanks to rival products from manufacturers such as GPD and Chuwi. The One Mix 1S Yoga comes with an Intel Celeron 3965Y processor.

Amazon unveiled a new Kindle Oasis that uses a front light with an adjustable color temperature. The Oasis, which goes on sale July 24th, is still one of the most expensive eReaders on the market, starting at $250. While the adjustable color temperature is nice for night readers, other manufacturers (namely Kobo) have offered this feature for years.

The PerfXLab Perf-V is an FPGA based RISC-V developer board that comes with 256 MB of DDR3 RAM along with 8 MB of FPGA and 8 MB of RISC-V flash storage. The board features a host of connectors and interfaces, while it can be programmed with Vivado and supports an IDE for Windows RISC-V development. The Perf-V will ship worldwide on June 21 from Seeedstudio and costs US$79.

Xiaomi has issued a recall of its Mi Electric Scooter (or M365) product. This request to return items does not apply to all units of the personal transport accessory, however, but to a subset of the same sold in certain countries. These devices have a hardware fault that could affect their function and the safety of their users.

The Banana Pi BPI-M4 is a mouthful, but it packs a punch thanks to its quad-core Realtek RTD1395 SoC with ARM Mali-470 MP4 graphics, 1 GB of DDR4 RAM and 8 GB of eMMC flash storage. The developer board is a dead ringer for the Raspberry Pi 3B+ and is compatible with most HATs too. The Banana Pi BPI-M4 currently ships worldwide from AliExpress for US$35.

KaiOS is the most prominent alternative to either iOS or Android on mobile devices. Its CEO, Sebastien Codeville, has just given an interview outlining this platform's directions and goals for the immediate future. They include greater functionality, more form factors and new markets.

Smach has been showing off its much anticipated and delayed handheld games console at E3 2019, with promises that it will ship at the end of the year. 17 FPS in titles like Monster Hunter World for a starting price of US$699 though? No thanks.

A micro-display is a panel that may be made of conventional materials such as OLED or LCD, yet are 2 inches at most on the diagonal. They are incorporated into everyday devices such as digital cameras, and in emerging categories such as heads-up or head-mounted displays. The latest research suggests that their market will be worth US$3.42 billion in the next 6 years.

Xiaomi has released the Mi Band 4 and it seems likely that the device will not disappoint. The Chinese company has created three variants of the fitness tracker, which is brimming with features that appear to contradict its considerably low price. Xiaomi has the basic model of the Mi Band 4 retailing for just 169 yuan, which is about US$24.

The UP Xtreme is no ordinary single board computer (SBC). The board comes with up to an Intel Core i7-8665U Whiskey Lake processor and a 16 GB RAM, along with a host of ports, connectors and sensors. The UP Xtreme is available to order on Kickstarter from €249 (~US$282) and will ship worldwide in September or October depending on the configuration you purchase.

SolidRun has announced the i.MX 8M, a new mini System on Module (SOM) board based on NXP ARM Cortex-A53 CPUs and the Gyrfalcon Lightspeeur 2803S AI accelerator for developing Edge AI applications. The Lightspeeur 2803S is a highly power-efficient AI processing unit that offers up to 16.8 TOPS of peak performance at 300 MHz. SolidRun is also offering the i.MX 8M in a HummingBoard Pulse SBC that offers Raspberry Pi-like enhanced connectivity.

The NVIDIA "Something super is coming..." video has been watched over 325,000 times in just over two weeks. Unfortunately, multiple sources have pointed towards the Super series being little more than a minor RTX 20 series refresh.

The Rock Pi 4 comes in two variants, the base model of which has 1 GB of LPDDR4 RAM. All versions have a similar layout to the Raspberry Pi and feature a hexa-core Rockchip RK3399 processor along with a 40-pin GPIO among other connectors. The Rock Pi 4 ships worldwide.

Reolink, a company already known for well-spec'd wireless security cameras, now launches the E1 Pro. This new option offers a wide range of coverage for an affordable price. It will also gain Amazon Alexa and Google Assistant compatibility in the near future.

To celebrate an event in which more information on its first cloud gaming platform was released, Google has prepared a "Stadia Founder's Edition". It consists of a Stadia Controller in an exclusive Night Blue colorway and a Chromecast Ultra. It may help play the range of Stadia titles that were confirmed today.

The single board computer comes with up to 4 GB of LPDDR4 RAM and 32 GB of eMMC 5.1 storage. The Khadas VIM3 will launch on June 24 and runs Android 9.0 Pie, LibreELEC or Ubuntu.

Rumours about the possibility of NVIDIA releasing an RTX 2070 Ti have appeared again online. This time, alleged CUDA core specifications, VRAM speed and more have been "confirmed".

It has been a long time coming, but a final version of the Smach Z will apparently be at E3 2019. The conference, hosted at the LA Convention Center between June 11 and 13, will be the first opportunity to see the much delayed handheld console in the flesh. The Smach Z is still available to pre-order with prices currently starting at US$629.10.

The ATTO measures just 10.3 x 11.5 mm² and weighs 0.68 g. Nionics has equipped the board with an Atmel ATmega32U4 microcontroller, a micro USB port and a reset button. The company has pre-flashed the board with the Arduino Leonardo bootloader too. The ATTO is available to pre-order now for US$11.90 and will ship worldwide in October.

The 8110 (4G) is a reprise of a classic Nokia phone of the same name, released at MWC last year. However, its KaiOS meant that it had reduced functionality compared to the average Android or iOS device. With the roll-out of a compatible WhatsApp version, this has been remedied slightly.

Panasonic introduces a new LUMIX S-series camera, which, as it claims, "combines the video quality of a professional camera and the high mobility of a mirrorless camera". This is because it is capable of recording 6K video at up to 24fps, which still maintaining a full-frame unit's form factor. It will be released some time after summer in 2019.

A new online listing has revealed that One-Netbook is bringing a third version of the One Mix 3 to market this summer. The pricier model will feature a more powerful processor and a higher clocked GPU. It appears that the One Mix 3s will not come with the CPU that we previously thought it would though.

If Galaxy Note 9 and S10 prices are anything to go by, then the Note 10 will likely come in at around US$1,000. Samsung may have a remedy for this though if you do not fancy digging that deep into your pockets.

Bose has launched an all-new range of premium noise cancelling headphones. The first to hit the market is the new Headphones 700 that packs in 11 levels of noise cancellation.

Home security camera systems can be expensive. But where there is a Raspberry Pi, there is a way. All you need is a Raspberry Pi Zero W, a Raspberry Pi camera module, some free software and an enclosure that you can buy for as little as €5 (~US$5.57).

Chuwi has announced the pricing of its upcoming MiniBook on Twitter, and it is lower than expected. Two versions of the 8.0-inch convertible mini laptop will arrive at launch, which will be available to order on Indiegogo from June 19.

DJI has announced the Manifold 2, a line of tiny supercomputers that can be installed on certain drones from this manufacturer. These devices can upgrade the devices in quesiton into autonomic flying machines, or those that can be trained to recognize certain objects or use an AI.

Coral is a platform developed by Google to support and facilitate on-device AI. Asus has announced that it will use its system-on-module (SOM) on its new AI development kit and single-board computer (SBC). They will be called Tinker Edge T and the CR1S-CM-A respectively.

GoPro has a history of allowing its customers to trade their existing cameras in for something off the cost of a new model of this brand. However, this offer has never been available in the European Union's (EU) member-states before. This has now changed: customers in these 28 countries can now "trade-up" their cameras for €100 (about US$112) off a Fusion or Hero7 Black's price.

The Chatterbox is a DIY smart speaker that even children can build. The device has a chipboard case and is built around a Raspberry Pi 3B. The speaker can be taught new commands using the Chatterbox app too. The Chatterbox is currently available for US$119 on Kickstarter and ships worldwide in December.

Scuf has launched its new Xbox One and PC Prestige game pad designed to take on Microsoft’s own customizable Elite controller. Not only can the buttons be remapped, the device also includes mappable paddles and other customizable options to give players a distinct edge over the competition.

Who needs an Amazon Kindle when you can build one yourself? The Waveshare e-paper HAT comes in numerous display sizes ranging from 1.54-inches to 9.7-inches. The HAT communicates with a Raspberry Pi via SPI, UART or USB depending on the model and comes in a choice of two, three or four supported colours. The Waveshare e-paper HAT costs between US$15.99 and US$169.99 and ships worldwide.