It’s been a few years since Asus launched its first Raspberry Pi-like single-board computer aimed at makers, and the Asus Tinker Board platform hasn’t exactly exploded since then. But the company has made a few updates to the series over the years, with a Tinker Board S, Tinker Board R and Tinker Edge T, and now with the new Asus Tinker Board 2 series.
The latest model is an 85mm x 56mm (3.3″ x 2.2″) computer board powered by a Rockchip RK3399 processor featuring two ARM Cortex-A72 CPU cores, four Cortex-A53 cores, and Mali-T860 graphics.
Asus says the little computer will support Debian 9 Linux and Android 10 operating systems, with a build of the latter coming early next year.
The company hasn’t announced a price or release date yet.
Here’s a roundup of recent tech news from around the web.
- Asus unveils Tinker Board 2 single-board computer [Clubic]
The latest Asus Tinker Board single-board-computers are the Tinker Board 2 with a Rockchip RK3399 hexa-core processor and up to 4GB of RAM, and the Tinker Board 2S, which also has 16GB of onboard eMMC storage. Both also support microSD cards. - ZTE teases the Axon 20 5G Extreme Edition smartphone [MyFixGuide]
The upcoming ZTE Axon 20 5G Extreme Edition will have an under display camera and a gold-colored back, for some reason. - YouTube will run ads on smaller creators’ videos without paying them [Engadget]
Google is going to start monetizing more YouTube videos… including videos from creators who chose not to display ads or who are not part of the YouTube Partner Program, and will therefore not share in the earnings. YouTubers are not happy… and I suspect casual viewers who are about to encounter even more ads than usual won’t be either. (Friendly reminder: if you’re using an ad blocker and would like to support this website, please consider making a donation). - Running Windows apps on Macs with M1 chips via CrossOver [CodeWeavers]
CrossOver, which allows you to play some Windows apps on Mac or Linux PCs, is already working on Macs with Apple Silicon chips. In other words, you can use an ARM-based Mac to run apps designed for Windows PCs with Intel chips. - Fitbit starts rolling out Google Assistant, voice-to-text, phone calls, auto-SpO2 [9to5Google]
Fitbit brings support for Google Assistant to the Fitbit Sense and Fitbit Versa 3 smartwatches. The move’s unsurprising, since Google is buying the company. But it’s still kind of interesting since they’re not Wear OS devices and also support Alexa. - All-new Echo Frames (2nd Gen) smart glasses [Amazon]
2nd-gen Amazon Echo Frames are coming in December for $250. They cost $70 more than the originals, but promise longer battery life, improved audio quality, and more color options for folks who want to talk to themselves/Alexa on the go. - Collaboration Aims To Wirelessly Charge Active Styluses Using Mobile Devices [press release]
Future USI digital pens may support the NFC wireless charging, allowing you to charge a stylus with a phone, tablet, or other device via low-power wireless charging at up to 1 watt. - M1 MacBook Teardowns: Something Old, Something New [iFixit]
iFixit tears down the new MacBook Air and MacBook Pro with M1 chips. They’re… a lot like the old models, but with new chips that make a big difference. The Pro is nearly silent not because of a new cooling system, as some had speculated, but because the fan runs less. - Librem 5 Visual Walkthrough [Purism]
With the Librem 5 smartphone now shipping, Purism put together a 7 minute video showing the hardware and launch software, which includes the PureOS GNU/Linux distro, phosh user interface, and a handful of key apps.
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ASUS deviated away from the RPi compatible form factor, no longer worth it
Youtube angers everyone, again. I don’t think that anyone is truly satisfied with how youtube has been conducting itself, except those who never knew any better. We’re all just becoming numb to the pain since we can’t do anything about it.
I’d like to recommend using a peertube site, but honestly I haven’t used any peertube sites so I don’t know what they’re like.
I can however recommend youtube-dl, which fortunately was popular enough for public opinion to convince microsoft to reconsider how dumb the RIAA’s request was (don’t expect the same treatment for other repos).
I am personally not bothered by youtube ads. I have an adblocker on firefox in both my phone and computers. You can even use YouTube vanced which skips the ads and allows you to login to Google services to keep track of your consumption.
Only 4GB? lool
RPI4 has more!
Very underwhelming. Hey Asus, how about a Mediatek board that runs linux?