Archos’s budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video)

Archos's budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video)

It’s been a few months since we last heard of Archos’s supposed new player lineup, as all the talk lately has been tablet-this and tablet-that, but we finally have some video of a new Vision device, the A43VB. Somewhat tragically, though, it apparently is not a real Archos device at all, rather a re-branded discount media player given the Archos silkscreen and a UI refresh. The good news is this means a low cost — just €99 (or $135) — for this 8GB model with a 4.3-inch screen and microSD expansion, but the bad news is that the result is slightly janky. The plastic looks rough and the UI far from intuitive, leaving our friendly video guide below to decry “I cannot exit the cats.” That said, this is not a final device we’re looking at here, so with any luck things will be a bit cleaned up inside and out before retail. Just don’t go hoping for a surprise infusion of Android before then.

Continue reading Archos’s budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video)

Archos’s budget Vision A43VB PMP caught on camera making kittens sad (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 08 Mar 2010 10:36:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos Phone Tablet shelved due to lack of carrier support?

We’d already heard that Archos’ Android-based phone tablet might be in trouble if the company wasn’t able to line up at least two carriers to support it, and it looks like that unfortunate end may have now come to pass. While Archos itself still isn’t saying anything, French daily Les Echos is reporting that the company has indeed shelved its plans for the phone, and is apparently returning its focus to its line of non-phone internet tablets. Of course, the phone does still exist, so there’s always a slight chance that it could make a comeback, but the word out of CeBIT seems to be painting a pretty grim picture.

[Thanks, Chris]

Archos Phone Tablet shelved due to lack of carrier support? originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 16:11:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos announces new line of internet tablets for summer 2010

You thought that the Archos gang were goin’ wild with the svelte 7 Home Tablet (and its self-conscious digiframe-esque sibling), but believe us — the Android funfest is far from over. According to the company, this summer will see the range expand significantly, with new models featuring ARM Cortex processors (up to 1GHz) and “a richer set of features with screen sizes from 3- to 10-inches.” One thing that we probably won’t be seeing “any time soon,” at least according to the kind man we cornered at the Archos booth at CeBIT? An Archos phone. But that’s OK — we don’t even know how we’d find time to talk on the phone with all those tomatoes we have to slice.

[Thanks, Michael]

Archos announces new line of internet tablets for summer 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 04 Mar 2010 11:07:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos 7 Home Tablet (and PMPs) hands-on

Why hello there, Archos. My, what nice Android you have there. Tucked away in a little booth at CeBIT, the PMP maker was showcasing its latest 7-inch Home Tablet. Unfortunately, it was pretty barebones as far as content goes, but the vanilla Android 1.6 was running smooth, and if company precedence indicates anything, the video playback is still fairly solid. The selling point here, really, is a decent screen and that $200 or so price tag. No dice on espying Archos 8, though; we’ve passed by the company’s booth twice now, and both times it had yet to be sent to the show floor. Instead, on hand were the A14VG and AV15VS, but there isn’t a lot to say about music players with the same feature set you’d find in PMPs sold at grocery stores — there’s definitely a market, but it’s targeted at your wallet more than your desire for cutting edge goods. Video of Archos 7 after the break.

Continue reading Archos 7 Home Tablet (and PMPs) hands-on

Archos 7 Home Tablet (and PMPs) hands-on originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 03 Mar 2010 08:42:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos 7 and 8 Home Tablets are cheap, but you get what you pay for

Archos has just announced its brand new 7- and 8-inch Home Tablets, which both run Android and cost €149 ($203). For that layout, you’ll get a 600MHz ARM 9 processor, which won’t be breaking any (positive) records, but the Archos 7 you see above is a very svelte 12mm thin and weighs only 350g, making it an ideal web reading device if not a particularly potent multimedia consumer. You also get WiFi, 2GB of integrated memory on the cheaper versions and a battery that will last for seven hours of video or 44 hours of audio playback. The Archos 8 (pictured after the break) comes with a huge old bezel, hinting at its ability to double up as a picture frame, while sharing the 7’s other features, including price and thickness. The smaller device will be coming out in Europe this April, to be followed by its larger sibling in May.

Continue reading Archos 7 and 8 Home Tablets are cheap, but you get what you pay for

Archos 7 and 8 Home Tablets are cheap, but you get what you pay for originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 06:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos Home Slate set to grace CeBIT with its family-friendly presence

Watch out now, Archos is about to bestow a whole new category of electronic device upon us. It’ll still be a tablet to the knowledgeable among us, but the rest of the world will know the Home Slate as an FDA — a family digital assistant. Listed on CeBIT’s exhibitor guide, this new multimedia player cum home organizer will offer WiFi connectivity and a web browser along with the usual suite of photo, video and music playback options. We’d heard earlier that Archos was planning new tablets aimed specifically at in-home use, and the A70HB model number here would suggest that this might be the rumored Archos 7 Android tablet pictured above. Whether it be 7 inches or 17, you can rest assured we’ll be digging this up at CeBIT shortly to figure out if those family-assisting features are worthy of the highfalutin marketing that accompanies them.

[Thanks, David V.]

Archos Home Slate set to grace CeBIT with its family-friendly presence originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 01 Mar 2010 02:57:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos said to have two new Android tablets on track for CeBIT

We’ve already seen a whole slew of Archos renders leak ahead of CeBIT, and it looks like the company itself has now confirmed that it’ll have at least two new devices on hand at the show. Details are still pretty light, of course, but the company’s German PR firm has reportedly said that Archos will debut two new “low-cost” Android tablets that are “specifically designed for use at home.” One of those is rumored to be a new Archos 7 tablet, while the other remains a bit of a mystery — although the combination of “low-cost” and “home use” seems to suggest that 3G might be out of the question for either of them.

Archos said to have two new Android tablets on track for CeBIT originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 19 Feb 2010 18:26:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Slate Showdown: iPad vs. HP Slate vs. JooJoo vs. Android Tablets & More (UPDATED)

Everybody’s talking about tablets, especially those single-pane capacitive touchscreen ones more specifically known as “slates.” The iPad is the biggest newsmaker, but there are lots headed our way (most with built-in webcams). Here’s how they measure up, spec-wise:

Updated: We’ve added Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and Archos 9 Windows 7 edition—see below for more details.

Click on the image to view it larger

As you can see, they have different strengths and weaknesses, some of which will become more clear in the coming months as we learn more about each tablet. (That Dell Mini 5 is especially inscrutable right now.)

The iPad has the most storage, cheap 3G, the time-tested iPhone OS and its mountain of apps, and a serious amount of Apple marketing juice behind it. But it’s also famously lacking features common to the other tablets, such as webcam and multitasking (only first party apps like music and email can multitask). The Notion Ink Adam is perhaps the most interesting of the bunch, with its dual-function transflective screen from Pixel Qi: It can be either a normal LCD or, with the flick of a switch, an easy-on-the-eyes reflective LCD that resembles e-ink. Its hardware is also surprisingly impressive—but it remains to be seen if Android is really the right OS for a 10-inch tablet.

The Dell Mini 5 and forthcoming Android edition of the Archos 7 tablet are two of a kind, almost oversized smartphones in their feature sets. Is an extra two or three inches of screen real estate worth the consequent decrease in pocketability? Perhaps not. And finally, there’s the maligned JooJoo, formerly the CrunchPad, a bit of an oddball as the only web-only device in the bunch. It doesn’t really have apps, can’t multitask, and pretty much confines you to an albeit fancy browser, sort of like Chrome OS will. The JooJoo is also the only tablet here to have no demonstrated way to read ebooks.

Update: The two new additions in v.2 of this chart, the Lenovo IdeaPad U1 and Archos 9, are both unusual. The Windows 7-powered Archos 9 has been available since September, is the only slate here that lacks multitouch, and is the only one with a HDD instead of solid state memory of some kind. It’s more related to the older tablets, but there’s no keyboard, just a 9-inch touchscreen. It doesn’t even have specific apps like the HP Slate‘s TouchSmart, it’s just a Windows computer.

The Lenovo IdeaPad U1 is even weirder, in that it’s actually two computers—the specs listed in the chart are for the tablet detached, but when it’s attached to its base, it switches both hardware and software. In its attached form, it’s a Windows 7 laptop with a full keyboard and trackpad, Core 2 Duo processor, 4GB of memory, eSATA, VGA- and HDMI-out, and all the other amenities you’d expect from a modern thin-and-light. We just have see what it’s like when it ships in June.

Data Sources:
Apple iPad: [Gizmodo]
HP Slate: [Gizmodo, GDGT; Tipster]
Fusion Garage JooJoo: [Gizmodo]
Notion Ink Adam: [Slashgear]
Dell Mini 5: [Gizmodo, Gizmodo]
Archos 7 Android: [DanceWithShadows, Gizmodo]
Lenovo IdeaPad U1: [Lenovo, Gizmodo, Gizmodo]
Archos 9: [UMPCPortal, Archos]

A quick word about “slates” vs. “tablets”: These are tablets, and it’s a word we prefer. The sad fact is, it’s overused. There’s no way to say “tablet” without including every godawful stylus-based convertible laptop built since 2002. (Thank you, Bill Gates!) And even the new touchscreen tablets come in single-pane and keyboard-equipped laptop styles. So “slate,” good or bad, is the more apt term.

Six supposed new Archos models rendered for your speculative enjoyment

Five supposed new Archos models rendered for your speculative enjoyment

Archos hasn’t seemed to secure much love for its latest, the Archos 9 tablet, so maybe it’s going back to what it does best for its next suite of products: a quintet of mostly straightforward players along with a titillating new flavor of the Archos 7. First is the simple and cheap Archos Key, a €20 device with 4GB of storage and microSD expansion. Then there’s the Archos Vision Slim, a slenderized and button-free version of the original Vision, again packing just 4GB of storage but going for €40 this time. Next is the Archos Yamaha Vision 2, with an internal amp from Yamaha, integrated stereo speakers, and undisclosed storage quantity and price. Next we have the Archos 4 Vision, a 4.3-inch touchscreen model with TV output, microSD expansion, and what was previously understood to be 16 and 32GB of storage. Finally, perhaps the most interesting, is the Archos 3 Vision Camera, an 8GB player with an integrated camera that could make this into a Flip-replacing media player — depending on the quality of the video, naturally. Oh, and did we forget to mention the purported Archos 7 with Android? It’s worth restating. All are decidedly rendery looking and naturally this is all unconfirmed, but golly don’t they look pretty.

Six supposed new Archos models rendered for your speculative enjoyment originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 27 Jan 2010 11:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Archos 5 gets Android 1.6 update, for real this time

Archos disappointed quite a few users last month by pushing out an Android 1.6 (a.k.a. “Donut”) update for its Archos 5 internet tablet only to yank it shortly thereafter due to a “last-minute major issue,” but it now looks like it’s finally set things right — the update is once again available for download, and it apparently works just fine this time. Among other things, the update optimizes applications for the Archos 5’s high resolution screen, and adds features like Quick Search to help you find music, contacts and other information more easily. Hit up the link below for all the necessary upgrade details.

[Thanks to everyone who sent this in]

Archos 5 gets Android 1.6 update, for real this time originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 21 Jan 2010 12:23:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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