Hasta La Gadget!

Android has become many things to many people, but high-powered media devices haven’t latched on to the OS just yet. Much of it has to do with the Android’s immaturity: from what we hear, it doesn’t even support hardware graphics acceleration, much less embrace multimedia and games. Archos has punched through that barrier by porting over its existing media-happy application layer from Linux to make good use of the 800MHz OMAP3440 processor they’ve stuffed inside the brand new (much leaked) Archos 5 Internet Tablet. The tablet runs a 4.8-inch 800 x 480 screen, and can pump out 720p video (including WMV and H.264) over HDMI. Because it’s Archos’ own special sauce, the device also supports protected WMV and protected WMA (hooray PlaysForSure), a rarity for Linux. With the optional DVR Station the device can do VGA TV recording, though you’ll probably want to spring for one of the beefy HDD models, which offer capacity up to 500GB, but double the girth of the basic 0.4-inch thick flash player. There’s also 802.11n WiFi, a bit of a rarity in portable devices like this, and quite a treat for 2.4GHz-addled city dwellers.

But that’s all pretty regular Archos-ey stuff. The newness for Archos comes in the form of Android, which has been fairly seamlessly melded with the Archos layer — which hovers over the vanilla Android install when needed. The OS scales up pretty nicely to 800 x 480, which is a relief because the touchscreen keyboard is a bit of a chore with the 5’s resistive touchscreen. Since it’s not a Google-blessed device, you’ll have to score a copy of Gmail on your own time, but the regular Market is available if you want to risk going around the 5-optimized AppsLib store. Several third party apps are included out of the gate, including ThinkFree Mobile, which should be updated to allow for document editing in the near future. When plugged into a dock and paired with an optional mini-QWERTY keypad (or any regular Bluetooth keyboard and mouse) the 5 becomes a rather nice way to surf the internet on your TV. It’s missing in-browser Flash, but there should be an update to rectify that soon. Out of the house the tablet offers a high-end GPS experience, including hugemongous birds eye photo maps of major cities, and can tether with a 3G phone over Bluetooth for a bit of data. So, Archos 5 might not be Android’s killer device, mainly because it isn’t a phone and doesn’t make for pleasurable mobile data entry or consumption. Still, it’s doing stuff with media that the relatively sluggish crop of Android handsets have failed at so far, and hopefully will spur the community to greater heights. The player is available as of today, with prices ranging from $250 to $440, not to mention accessories galore. Check out videos of the tablet in action after the break.

Continue reading Archos 5 Internet Tablet makes an honest PMP out of Android

Filed under: GPS, Handhelds, Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos 5 Internet Tablet makes an honest PMP out of Android originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 15 Sep 2009 13:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We wouldn’t want to jump to conclusions, but Archos might just be onto something with its upcoming 9pctablet, which is due to launch alongside Windows 7. The Windows 7 bit isn’t an accident, since it’s really the first OS from Microsoft that makes it conceivable to use much of the OS with a finger, rather than the stylus. It’s not all there, of course: Archos had to build its own touchscreen keyboard to replace Microsoft’s woefully inadequate implementation, and there’s an optical mouse sensor on the side of the display and a stylus buried within to pick up the slack.

Overall the hardware seems very solid and astonishingly dense, and despite the recent advancements we’ve seen in thin and light laptops, it’s pretty incredible that Archos has a full Atom-based PC running inside this thin, fanless slab. What wasn’t so incredible was the resistive touchscreen, at least on the unit we were playing with. Our touches kept getting misread inexplicably as an inch below where we were tapping, and it didn’t feel like a “light touch” resistive model at all — no confusing what we felt with capacitive, though perhaps we got a faulty unit. This is probably a scenario where resistive makes sense, but we’d say Archos has a lot of work to do on the drivers or **something to make this more usable. The good news is that there will be an optional, super-slim external keyboard, which should make input on the 9 a bit less of a chore.

Filed under: Tablet PCs

Archos 9pctablet hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 09 Sep 2009 09:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Curious about how well the new Archos 3 Vision portable media player stacks up to its bulkier, more voluminous predecessors? Perhaps the video review after the break courtesy of Archos Fans forum user roylovelock will satiate your curiosity — it will, at least, make you a bit queasy thanks to the handheld camerawork. Placed next to an Archos 5 the thing looks positively lilliputian, but its 3-inch touchscreen seems more than adequate and, while 8GB of storage may not be much, microSDHC expansion offsets that. The review praises the device’s functionality, including integrated FM receiving and broadcasting as well as its seemingly solid hardware design and upwards of five hours of video battery life. Not so highly regarded is the non-responsive UI, with a curious on-screen thumbwheel that looks highly unintuitive — at least when used by this particular thumb. The video below is informative but a bit painful to watch, so feel free to skip straight to roylovelock’s written impressions on the other end of that read link, which are rather more easy to take in on a Monday morning.

[Via Archos Fans]

Continue reading Archos 3 Vision PMP given one-handed shakeycam review

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos 3 Vision PMP given one-handed shakeycam review originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 31 Aug 2009 10:41:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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With the 2 Vision’s price and spec recently emerging, all that was missing were some “real life” shots of the player without studio lighting and professional makeup. Archos Lounge has gone and filled that gap, with the added bonus of some 3 Vision and Clipper sightings. Disappointingly, whereas the touch-sensitive horizontal slider originally looked to have been bracketed by buttons sitting flush with the case, in reality those are of the bumpy, cheap looking variety. We can take no umbrage with the thin casing though, as it looks just as skinny as we were led to believe. Hit up the read link to explore the player for yourself, or slide past the break to see it side by side with the 3 Vision.

[Via CrunchGear]

Continue reading Archos 2 Vision, 3 Vision and Clipper spotted in French wilderness

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

Archos 2 Vision, 3 Vision and Clipper spotted in French wilderness originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 24 Aug 2009 04:27:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Meeting what we’d call the bare minimum for being able to say there’s “touch capabilities,” the new Archos 2 Vision PMP has quietly stepped out of the shadows and onto UK retailer MyMemory’s website. Just under the 2-inch, 220 x 176 resolution display is a tactile slider for menu navigation and volume control. The credit card-sized player also sports a FM tuner and recorder, a microSD slot in addition to internal memory, and support for MP3 / WMA audio and AVI video — nothing too fancy here. Battery life is a depressing 10 hours for audio and 4 for video, which at €60 / $85 for 8GB and €99 / $140 for 16GB models, it’s just a tinge south of acceptable in our book. Europeans still intrigued can pick one up now, while US consumers will either need to pay a premium for import or just wait patiently.

[Via DAP Review]

Filed under: Portable Audio, Portable Video

New Archos 2 Vision PMP pictured, priced, and predictably short on battery life originally appeared on Engadget on Sun, 09 Aug 2009 00:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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