Hasta La Gadget!

[CES 2014] Archos from France is still hanging tough in the extremely competitive smartphone market, and I clearly remember them for churning out some decent portable media players in the days before the iPod overtook all. Well, Archos also happened to be one of the first Android tablet manufacturers in the world, and they have now graced CES 2014 with a couple of smartphones from their Helium range. You will find that neither of these will be all hot air, where the Helium smartphones would make up part of Archos’ high end offerings.

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Archos Helium Smartphones Unveiled original content from Ubergizmo.

Ahead of CES 2014, Archos has spilled the beans on a number of “connected objects” that it is going to showcase at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. These include a weather station, home camera, blood pressure monitor, activity tracker, smartwatches and more. The connected objects will be compatible with iOS and Android platforms, allowing users to control them from anywhere and use Bluetooth Low Energy to ensure extended use without requiring recharging. The company says these objects are styled to “blend into your home environment.”

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Archos To Showcase ‘Connected Objects’ At CES 2014, Will Unveil Sub $100 Smartwatches original content from Ubergizmo.

Archos has revealed a new connected home system which will hook up your security, appliances, and even your dog to a smart ecosystem, all controlled by a new 7-inch “Home … Continue reading

Archos just dropped a huge smattering of CES news in advance of the huge annual tech show, which kicks off next week in Las Vegas. Among the various announcements, tucked away near the bottom, is the revelation that it will be introducing a “selection of smartwatches” for 2014, which will start at under £50 (roughtly $82 U.S.).

Archos doesn’t go into much detail about its smartwatches, saying only that they’ll have a “pebble-like” design and will work with both Android and iOS smartphones and tablets. The “pebble-like” seems like a blatant shot across the bow of Pebble, the Kickstarter-backed hardware startup that began building smartwatches under that name this past year, though it’s probably meant on the surface to indicate the things will look somewhat like rocks.

The Pebble is arguably the current leader in the smartwatch space, having sold somewhere around 300,000 units to date according to the latest official figures released by the company. Archos, the French company behind a line of moderately successful media players, and subsequently many Android-based tablets and gaming gadgets of questionable quality, looks to be trying to exploit the opportunity exposed by newcomer Pebble with cheaper devices in a range of options to suit the needs of various consumers.

Archos is targeting “simplicity and function” with its smartwatch designs, the company says, which could actually seem to be at cross-purposes. Maybe they’ll have some feature heavy designs, more like the Samsung Galaxy Gear, and some that are essentially just streamlined data delivery devices, more like the Pebble itself. Either way, I highly doubt Archos will find a red-hot seller in any smartwatch design – but that doesn’t mean it can’t meddle with the grand plans of Pebble and other startups.

Pebble is currently running a lot of sales and promotions, and giving away a good number of devices. This means that either A) it’s finding interest is dropping off after initial demand has been satisfied; or B) it’s gearing up to release second-generation hardware. Regardless, I still think we’ve yet to see any proof that watch-based computing is something that’s feasible as a mainstream device, and entrants from Archos are unlikely to provide said evidence.

During IFA 2013 in Berlin last August, we got our first look at some of Archos’ new Android-powered tablets. Among those new Android-powered tablets was the Archos 101 XS 2 tablet that fit into the company’s Gen11 tablet range. At the time, Archos offered up most of the details on the tablet, but we didn’t […]