Category: Archos

Bodymedia Fit Armband BW

Posted by Charbax – January 8, 2011
Category: Other, Exclusive videos, Texas Instruments, CES, Archos, Android

It monitors your body 24 hours a day, you strap it to your upper arm, it’s not too heavy but could probably be lighter (I think they should make it a light and compact wrist watch). It has 3 axis accelerometer monitoring all movements, it measures sweat, it’s a pedometer, heart rate and body heat monitoring and based on your height and weight it can calculate calorie output/usage with 90% accuracy (so they say) using clynically approved methods. It’s available on Amazon.com

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Archos 101 Home Tablet, possibly cheapest 10″ capacitive ARM Cortex-A8 tablet

Posted by Charbax – January 7, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Rockchip, CES, Archos, Android

Rockchip RK29xx based 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.3 Gingerbread tablet. It may cost something like $199 at retail, price is to be confirmed by Archos once this product is ready to be released. Release depends approximately on Rockchip being able to mass manufacture and deliver their new RK2918 ARM Cortex-A8 high performance yet affordable processor.

Honeycomb user interface demo

Posted by Charbax – January 6, 2011
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Nvidia, CES, Archos, Android

I’m not really supposed to try to film this, but here it is. I try to click around in this pre-release Honeycomb Motorola Xoom tablet pre-production prototype instead of only letting it play the animated prepared UI videos from the gallery. Google is doing some awesome work in making software optimized for tablets. Like Archos has been doing it, they decided there’s no need for hardware Android buttons on Tablets. Other aspects of this UI suggests UI design that’s really being designed for high resolution touch screen devices.

Expectations for CES next week

Posted by Charbax – December 30, 2010
Category: Opinions, CES, Archos, Google, Pixel Qi

Between January 3rd and 11th, I am going to video-blog from CES 2011, make sure to often refresh my RSS feed and/or subscribe to my YouTube channel, (at last year’s CES I published 75 videos), I’ll try to feature the coolest ARM Powered devices that I can find at the show.

Have you got any scoop or ideas for what I should video-blog at CES? What questions would you like me to ask the representatives of which specific companies? If you read on any other blogs about any interesting products showing at this CES, please post your suggestions for what I should film here in the comments of this post. You can also send me an email: charbax@gmail.com or you can even sms/call me or leave a voicemail between January 3rd and 11th at my US phone number +1 (702) 238 8630 (only active when I am in the USA).

Here are some of the things I am expecting or hoping to video-blog at CES:

– Lots of Froyo, Gingerbread and Honeycomb stuff. Android in everything!

– Several dual-core tablets are rumored. Nvidia’s Tegra2 is rumored could be one of the stars of the show, rumored to be the “reference design” for Honeycomb. Sounds great, but I am also looking forward to all the other upcoming Dual-Core ARM Processor platforms and I am wondering if products featuring these will be shown at this CES already.

– How soon are the Dual-Core smart phones and tablets being released and at what prices? Will LG, Samsung, Motorola or other present phones at CES to beat Nexus S already?

– ARM Powered Chrome OS Laptops and Google TV Set-top-boxes, I will be looking for the first clues of these products.

– Tablets, more tablets? Any new design features to allow tablets to be used more for productivity? Are some Honeycomb designs like Archos without the hardware Android buttons? Designs with foldable/swivel keyboards?

– Pixel Qi 7″, 10.1″, big OEM announcements? Hopefully these LCD screens will be ready for Kindle-LCD, ipad2, samsung galaxy tab2 and more hopefully mass manufactured and everywhere within the next 3 months.

– Texas Instruments next generation nHD pico projector in all kinds of phones, tablets and other devices at CES? Or not to be shown before February at Mobil World Congress? I’d like to see this type of pico projector be used together with sensors to detect when touching in user interfaces projected for example on a table (see my video of a table-pico-projector prototype UI demonstrated at CeBIT 2007), this could turn any ARM Powered device, even pocketable, into a large screen computing device.

– New ARM Powered platforms for cheaper and better smart phones, tablets and laptops? Rockchip may show ARM Cortex-A8 RK29xx, Broadcom may show BCM2157 for sub-$75 Android phones, is it time for VIA and Telechips to show new faster or/and cheaper solutions for new cooler low-cost Tablets, Laptops and Set-top-boxes?

– Are the new ARM Processors capable of full 1080p at up to 60fps with full high profile and full high bitrates of every codecs?

– Nintendo 3DS is coming in February/March, any other manufacturers to mass manufacture products to use that parallax barrier 3D screen from Sharp that doesn’t require 3D glasses?

– Are ARM Powered NAS boxes and Pogoplugs/Sheevaplugs going to be powerful enough to download and seed BitTorrents at full speed, allow for full speed gigabit LAN file sharing even on the cheaper solutions?

– How much is going to be LTE, how soon and are anyone showing anything to do with White Spaces yet? How soon could that be deployed and at which cost and with what range and authentication features?

– I’d like to see Sanyo release a HD3000 with WiFi/Bluetooth and optics and sensors closer to that of a DSLR. Or it will be interesting to see more DSLR type optics and sensors in more video camcorders and see how affordable those setups can become. It seems Sony, Panasonic and all other major camera makers are going in that direction for the next generation of best HD camcorders.

Please post your expecations/hopes in the comments or send me an email!

Rockchip RK2818 and RK29 demonstrated and explained

Posted by Charbax – December 27, 2010
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Rockchip, Archos, Android

Rockchip released their next generation of ARM9 based processor RK2818 and are teasing their next generation ARM Cortex-A8 RK29 to be shown by CES. RK2818 can be made with up to 1ghz frequency, supports more and faster RAM memory, comes with a fast DSP and GPU core to accelerate graphics and user interfaces. This new Rockchip processor makes it possible to run up to Android 2.1 on cheaper tablets such as the new $149 (possibly $179 with margins) capacitive Archos 7 Home Tablet v2, and have them perform better for web browsing than their previous generation ARM9 RK2808 processor, video playback and other things are also improved. Rockchip’s next gen RK29, to be showcased at CES, they say is ARM Cortex-A8 better than Apple A4, with 1080p encode/decode, 30 million triangles.

anandtech.com: Benchmark of top ARM Cortex-A8 SoC GPUs

Posted by Charbax – December 19, 2010
Category: Texas Instruments, Qualcomm, Samsung, Archos

Check out this interesting GLBenchmark 2.0 at anandtech.com, they compare the performance in benchmarks for following devices:
– Nexus S and Samsung Galaxy S using SGX540
– myTouch 4G and T-Mobile G2 using Adreno 205
– iPhone 3GS, iPhone 4 and iPad using SGX535
– Nokia N900 and Motorola Droid using SGX530
– Nexus One, Optimus One and HTC EVO 4G using Adreno 200

Not in the benchmark, Droid X, Droid 2 and the Archos Gen8 Tablets have SGX535.

It will be interesting to see what will happen once possibly more competition comes with ARM Mali-400 in the upcoming ARM Cortex-A9 dual-core processors and where its performance might be. Also I’d like to know what kind of performance Tegra 2 does for this 3D stuff. What Qualcomm Adreno 220 is cooking for its upcoming dual-core Snapdragons. And what 3D on-die GPU Marvell is going to use (supposedly does 200 million triangles per second) in its upcoming 628 Tri-core processor.

Find the full GLBenchmark 2.0 article over at: anandtech.com

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Backstage at Leo Laporte’s Twit Cottage

Posted by Charbax – November 19, 2010
Category: Exclusive videos, Archos

A few days ago, I visited Leo Laporte’s Twit Cottage to bring him some Archos tablets (featured thus far in This Week In Google 69 and MacBreak Weekly 221) and I filmed these few seconds back stage as they were finishing the recording of the quite funny This Week In Tech episode 274. This has got to be one of the most advanced, most successful and most famous live and on-demand video podcasting studios in the world at the moment. They are expanding the Twit Network and moving into even larger studios soon.

Archos 70 Internet Tablet on Leo Laporte’s This Week In Google episode 69

Posted by Charbax – November 19, 2010
Category: Tablets, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

As I told you in yesterday’s MacBreak weekly 221 post, last Sunday as I was in the Silicon Valley to video blog the ARM Technology Conference for my http://ARMdevices.net site, I had fun traveling up to Petaluma and bring Leo Laporte some of the Archos Gen8 tablets (70, 43 and 32) so he could test them out and let his Twit gang also play with them. So that they could compare those with Apple and Samsung tablets. The time code in this “This Week In Google” episode 69 where they start talking about Archos is around the 5th minute.

You can discuss this video in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=40903

I want a Bluetooth remote on my watch for my tablets, yes 50€ Sony Ericsson LiveView is here

Posted by Charbax – November 19, 2010
Category: Other, Archos, Android

It’s out now on Amazon.de for 50€, I want something like this. This could be perfect with my Archos 70 Internet Tablet and my $48 Sony DR-BT100CX Bluetooth Stereo Headset. The idea is to answer VOIP calls on the wrist watch and use the Bluetooth headset without having to take out the Android Tablet from the pocket.

Archos 7 Home Tablet teared down by EETimes at ARM Techcon 2010

Posted by Charbax – November 18, 2010
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Rockchip, ARM TechCon, Archos, Android

Before interviewing me on my interests in ARM Devices, EETimes editors Brian Fuller and Patrick Mannion went ahead and opened up the Archos 7 Home Tablet in front of a large audience of about 100 people at the ARM Techcon 2010 exhibitor area theater stage. They talked about the features of some of the processors that are used.

Archos 70, 43, 32 Internet Tablets on MacBreak Weekly 221

Posted by Charbax – November 18, 2010
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

As I was in California to video-blog the ARM Technology Conference in Santa Clara on my http://ARMdevices.net, I thought I’d suggest Archos send me some extra Gen8 so that I could use those as excuse to bring them to the Twit Cottage in Petaluma, as I am a fan of the Twit podcasting network, the most advanced high quality production quality podcast network, I watched most of the Twit and Twig shows since 2006. The weekly Twit podcasts (they do about 20 weekly, some even daily podcasts!) are some of the most influential and popular technology audio and video podcasts worldwide.

In this episode of MacBreak Weekly, Leo Laporte, Alex Lindsay, Merlin Mann and Andy Ihnatko discuss the Archos 70 Internet Tablets versus the iPad and Samsung Galaxy Tab. In the embed below of MacBreak Weekly episode 221, I forward the video to about the 1h01m30s time code when they start talking about the Archos tablets (they mention the Archos 7 Home Tablet Amazon pricing for a few minutes).

You can discuss this video in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=40794

I am interviewed by EE Times about my interest for ARM devices

Posted by Charbax – November 12, 2010
Category: Tablets, Opinions, ARM TechCon, Archos, Android

Here I am video interviewed by EE Times Editors Brian Fuller and Patrick Mannion on the subject of ARM Powered tablets where I get to talk about Archos and what I think of the tablet industry in general.

You can watch this video at this link: http://link.brightcove.com/services/player/bcpid631791731001?bclid=598319351001&bctid=672346903001

7″ Pixel Qi may be shown at CES

Posted by Charbax – November 5, 2010
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Displays, Archos, Pixel Qi

According to the new Pixel Qi products page at http://pixelqi.com/products, the 7″ version of the Pixel Qi screen, thus suitable for more portable tablet form factors and e-readers, may be on display and perhaps available as samples starting this January at the CES trade show.

7″ samples for CES 2011 possible

And according to their September 17th blog post:

New Screen Development: 7″
We are developing a 7” screen for tablets and ereaders that is planned for mass production in H1 2011. Samples will be available earlier, perhaps by late Q4 2010.

As I am typing this post on my awesome 7″ Archos 70 Internet Tablet, I can imagine how it would be to have the device be even lighter (than its current 300 grams, vs 380 grams Galaxy Tab and 680 grams iPad) with a smaller battery or to have it last upwards 50 hours with a reflective screen suitable for e-reading. Kindle 4 should definitely use this, and this is I think the reason for Amazon to be secretly preparing their alternative Android application store.

Source: pcworld.com

Android 2.2 Froyo on Archos Gen8 Tablets

Posted by Charbax – October 28, 2010
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

I have been secretly testing this for the last week (together with cajl of http://jbmm.fr and Thocan of http://archoslounge.net), it works pretty much awesome. Few optimizations and few bug fixes still to be done before Archos can release this cool firmware update.

Also check my video review of the Archos 70 Internet Tablet in multiple parts: Part 1 and Part 2.

7″ Android Tablets are awesome

Posted by Charbax – October 20, 2010
Category: Tablets, Exclusive videos, Opinions, Archos, Google, Android

Steve Jobs is saying that 7 inch Android Tablets can’t be popular. I think they can. This Archos 70 Internet Tablet fits in most Jacket Pockets and thus is the largest screen size that can be carried around without using a bag. Also, this one is half the price/size/weight of the iPad, it comes with HDMI output, full video/audio codecs support, USB host and a built-in Webcam for video-chat all which iPad lacks. This tablet at 300gr and 201x114x10mm may be the lightest and most compact 7″ tablet yet, but I think with optimizations and designs that use less bezel, the weight and size could further be optimized to make it even more jacket pocketable. Basically, Android tablets will provide choice for consumers, from small pocketable ones to larger ones that may mostly stay at home.

Review: Archos 70 Internet Tablet (part 2)

Posted by Charbax – October 19, 2010
Category: Tablets, PMPs, Exclusive videos, Reviews, Texas Instruments, Archos, Android

Testing some cool features, Dolphin Browser HD multi-tabs, video-chatting, RDP, video-games, I just did a 37 minute VOIP call using SIP on Fring and using my $8/month 1GB/month SIM card in my Huawei Mifi and it works pretty much perfectly. For some reason audio in Skype and in Fring video-chat is still buggy, but I am sure Archos will fix this in a firmware update imminently. Also see Part 1 of my video review of this product.

Archos 50 Vision, cheapest 5″ WVGA 1080p PMP

Posted by Charbax – October 18, 2010
Category: PMPs, Archos

Touch screen based PMP with full codecs support up to 1080p. No Android, no WiFi, but surely may be very cheap. Possibly cheapest such PMP to be broadly distributed at retailers in Europe and the USA. How cheap is to be confirmed. It seems to be Rockchip RK2818 ARM9 based. It comes with 250GB and 500GB of 2.5″ hard disk drive storage and MicroSD card expansion.

Thanks BenMars for your reports from the Hong Kong Sourcing fair!

Source: http://www.jbmm.fr/2010/10/17/hong-kong-7-archos-5o-vision/

Archos 35 Vision, cheapest 3.5″ 1080p PMP

Posted by Charbax – October 18, 2010
Category: PMPs, Archos

Archos is bringing a new line of cheap 1080p-capable PMPs. The reason they are bringing those to the European and US markets is because they can provide a really cheap attractive price, how cheap it will be sold for is to be confirmed. I guess it must be running the Rockchip RK2818 ARM9 processor which has HDMI output and up to 1080p video playback support.

Thanks BenMars for your reports from the Hong Kong Sourcing fair!

Source: http://www.jbmm.fr/2010/10/17/hong-kong-4-vision-generale-des-produits-archos/

Archos Arnova 10.2 inch Samsung 533MHz ARM Powered Laptop

Posted by Charbax – October 18, 2010
Category: Laptops, Samsung, Archos, Windows

It’s launched now, available in stock at Amazon UK for £126. 128Mb RAM, 2Gb ROM, it runs Windows CE 6.0. If it could run full Chrome OS, at this price, (probably ARM Cortex A9 is needed though) this type of product will be perfect.

The price is likely below 129€ in Europe and below $129 in the USA! USA does not pay taxes on consumer electronics.

Specs:
Processor: Samsung 533 MHz
Memory: 128Mb RAM, 2Gb ROM
Operating System: Windows CE 6.0
Display: 10.2 inch TFT LCD Digital display
Audio: Integrated speaker, 3.5 mm Stereo Headphone Jack
User Interface: Buttons (Power on/off, Reset on/off), LEDs (AC/DC Power, Battery status)
Interfaces/Ports: Standard SD card slot (up to 32 Gb), 3 x USB 2.0, RJ-45, DC-in
Wireless Network: WLAN 802.11 b/g
Battery: 2100 mAH
Dimensions (WxDxH): 182.5 x 270 x 31 mm
Weight: 1.1 Kg

Thanks BenMars for your report from the Hong Kong Sourcing fair!

Source: http://www.jbmm.fr/2010/10/17/hong-kong-5-arnova-art-nouveau/

Archos 70 eReader, sub-95€ 7″ LCD e-reader

Posted by Charbax – October 18, 2010
Category: E-readers, Archos, Android

5 million e-readers were sold in 2009, 15 million are expected to be sold this year. Most are e-ink based e-readers, but LCD based ones are coming as well (soon enough with Pixel Qi based LCDs as well). This one runs Android with a custom UI optimized for e-readers, may come with a touch-screen, WiFi and video codecs support as well even though it’s to be sold below 95€, to be confirmed.

Thanks BenMars for your reports from the Hong Kong Sourcing fair!

Source: http://www.jbmm.fr/2010/10/17/hong-kong-6-archos-7o-ereader/