Category: Archos

Archos Arnova Pocket Cam

Posted by – October 18, 2010
Category: Cameras, Archos

The flip camera type of product is a growing trend, a lot of consumers want these compact pocket camcorders.

Specs:

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

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

Archos Arnova Web Radio and TV

Posted by – October 18, 2010
Category: Other, Archos

Another cheap web radio player with speakers, also supports Web TV channels. Those are trendy as well for the kitchen or the bedroom, probably also works as an alarm clock. Probably cheap as well.

Specs:

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

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

Archos 70 Internet Tablet Review

Posted by – October 16, 2010

First unboxing and review of the Archos 70 Internet Tablet, a $275 alternative to the $499 iPad and the $599 Samsung Galaxy Tab. I was amazed by how thin and light it is when I first took it out of the box, at 300 grams, it nearly feels like it’s an empty case without any electronics inside.

Archos 70 Internet Tablet

The capacitive touch screen on an Archos tablet is cool, I need to get used to that. Hopefully I will learn to type on it as fast as I do with my finger-tips/nails on my resistive screens. My plan this winter is to carry this 7″ Archos Android tablet with me everywhere in the inside of my jacket pocket. In this video, I try to show you multi-touch, web browsing speed, email, facebook, Google Maps Street View, Live wallpapers, video playback, HDMI output and more.

This review model is still running Android 2.1, while Archos is putting finishing touches to their faster and more optimized Android 2.2 firmware, hopefully to be ready in like days or so for when this device and its 101 big-brother actually ships worldwide. As I showed you in my previous video, Google Marketplace works on these Archos Android tablets using the gApps4Archos.apk one-click installation file. All codecs up to H264 high profile high bitrate 720p MKV works even on HDMI output (still to be tested and optimized in firmware). It’s only 300 grams (vs 380 grams Galaxy Tab and 680 grams iPad).

Pictures available at Picasa:
Archos 70 Internet Tablet Archos 70 Internet Tablet vs Archos 43 Internet Tablet Archos 70 Internet Tablet vs Archos 43 Internet Tablet Archos 70 Internet Tablet vs Archos 43 Internet Tablet Archos 70 Internet Tablet vs Sony PRS-650

You can discuss this video in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=38513

Google Marketplace now works on Archos Gen8 Internet Tablets

Posted by – October 9, 2010

The full Google Marketplace with Gmail, Google Maps now works on Archos new range of Android Internet Tablets, it has been made available as a one-click installation file with the name “gApps4Archos.apk” in the ArchosFans forum by a forum user. In this video of the Archos 43 Internet Tablet, I also feature demonstrations of Skype (these Android tablets can be a perfect as cheap VOIP devices!), Bluetooth speakers, 720p MKV high bitrate video playback with DTS audio and a couple of action packed 3D games on the HDMI output.

Here’s a reminder of the new Archos Android Tablets that this Google Marketplace gApps4Archos.apk installation file works with:

Archos 28 Internet Tablet, 4GB, 2.8″ resistive screen: $99 (2.29x cheaper than iPod Touch!) (available next week)
Archos 32 Internet Tablet, 8GB, 3.2″ resistive screen, VGA camcorder, composite tv-out: $149 (available since a couple of weeks at certain online resellers like Amazon.com)
Archos 43 Internet Tablet, 16GB, 4.3″ resistive screen, HD camcorder, HDMI output: $199 (3x cheaper than Droid X!) (available next week)
Archos 70 Internet Tablet, 16GB, 7″ capacitive screen, front-facing webcam for video-chat, HDMI output: $275 (2.5x cheaper than Samsung Galaxy Tab!) 250GB version for $349 (available next week)
Archos 101 Internet Tablet, 8GB, 10.1″ capacitive screen, front-facing webcam for video-chat, HDMI output: $299 ($200 cheaper than iPad!) 16GB version for $349 (available next week)

Archos $99-$149 MiniTablet platform videoed

Posted by – October 1, 2010

In this video, I try to show you the quality and to demonstrate the value of the Archos 32 Internet Tablet with Android. It’s the 3.2″ $149 8GB big brother of Archos 28 Internet Tablet which is to be sold below $99 with 4GB of storage and a slightly smaller 2.8″ screen, of about the same size as the HTC Tatoo, Sony Ericsson X10 Mini, Acer beTouch 110/120/130. This video shows how the experience is on such WQVGA resolution small screen Android device.

What do you think about this Archos Android WiFi-connected PMP, at 2.3x cheaper than the iPod Touch? Don’t you think it will be a no brainer for mass market consumers, if given the choice in stores, that they will choose this type of Android alternative to the iPod Touch?

Archos 43 Internet Tablet compared to Archos 5 Internet Tablet

Posted by – October 1, 2010

An overview of the difference in screen size, touch screen quality, web browsing speed. More on video playback support including a test on streaming video over Samba file sharing.

Archos 43 Internet Tablet Reviewed

Posted by – September 28, 2010

It packs everything you can think of into 130 grams, with 4.3″ highly responsive touch screen, $199 price point for 16GB, no monthly subscription fees required (makes it much cheaper but similar in performance to Droid X), it can access 3G on Mifi or using Bluetooth tethering. In this video I demonstrate awesome HDMI output to browse the Internet on your HDTV, to play amazing 3D video games using the accelerometer or perhaps using bluetooth gamepad controllers too, and of course, to playback HD quality videos.

My unboxing of Archos 43 and 32 Internet Tablets

Posted by – September 27, 2010

This is my unboxing video of the Generation 8 Archos Android tablets:

Archos 43 Internet Tablet (16GB) for sale soon for $199 in the USA and 199€ in Europe. (yes A43 is confirmed to be $199/199€ for 16GB Capacity). The Archos 43 Internet Tablet basically offers the same Android experience on a large yet very pocketable 4.3″ touch screen as on a Droid X using the same Texas Instruments OMAP3630 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz processor but for $199 all inclusive (no $599 unlocked pricing or $2000 with 2-year contracts), no monthly subscriptions required, though for 3G access and VOIP you need to use a Mifi or Bluetooth tethering. It comes with HDMI output and full video and audio codecs support up to MKV 720p high profile and high bitrate support (which I will test in my upcoming next videos).

Archos 32 Internet Tablet (8GB) for sale now on Amazon.com for $144 in the USA and 158€ on Amazon.de in Europe. This MiniTablet range by Archos offers basically a similar experience to the iPod Touch but for an amazing price starting at $99 for the Archos 28 to $149 for the Archos 32 which thus has slightly larger screen, a VGA camera and Composite tv-out.

In this video, I unbox them and boot them up for the first time:

Consider European prices include ~20% VAT taxes which is why the EU price of any consumer electronics devices is always higher than US prices which don’t include taxes.

You can discuss this video in my other forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=37752

Archos CEO keynote video presenting its Generation 8 series of Android Tablets in Beijing China

Posted by – September 23, 2010

I’ve said it before, I am an Archos fanboy, and I am really looking forward to their 5 new tablets coming out on the worldwide market during these next few weeks. I briefly filmed those tablets at IFA, see my videos of the 101, 70, 28, 32 and 43 tablets. Here is the full keynote video of Archos CEO Henri Crohas, showing the Gen8 Archos Android Tablets a couple of weeks ago in Beijing China:

$299 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 10.1″ WSVGA capacitive Android 2.2 tablet 8GB. $349 for 16GB version
$275 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 7″ WVGA capacitive Android 2.2 tablet 16GB, $349 for 250GB version
$199 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 1ghz omap3630 4.3″ FWVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 16GB
$149 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 800mhz omap3630 3.2″ WQVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 8GB
$99 ARM Cortex A8 45nm 800mhz omap3630 2.8″ QVGA resistive Android 2.2 tablet 4GB, $119 for 8GB version

I think those new Archos Android tablets are very good value for money. Google Marketplace can very likely be installed on all of them as the previous Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android which was released October 2009, got the Google Marketplace on it through a solution released since November 2009 in the http://forum.archosfans.com

No matter what Google or anyone else says, Android 2.2 is great for tablets, most of the apps from the Google Marketplace, probably 99% of them will work just fine on the Archos series of Tablets, apps requiring a back-facing camera, GPS/Compass, 3G or hardware buttons are a minority. Archos can playback most video formats, including h264 MKV high profile at up to 720p with high bitrates (to be tested and confirmed if that reprensents more than 90% of all 720p movies currently traded on p2p networks).

Archos also released this animation illustrating their advantages in hardware design over the iPad:

This keynote presentation is available as a slideshow with prompter subtitles at: http://www.archos.com/_pres_hc.html Here are a couple of some of the best slides:

Pixel Qi 7″ screens coming too

Posted by – September 20, 2010

Pixel Qi is the single most revolutionary LCD screen technology, adding the benefits of low power, reflectivity, long form and outdoor readability all the while providing a switch on the side of the device to provide full color backlight mode to the screen as well. Thus combining Tablets with E-readers, making 50-hour tablet battery runtime without increasing battery size a possibility and bringing full color video, web browsing and full Android UIs to E-readers. The 10.1″ screen will be announced soon for more products than just Notion Ink and Innoversal:

We will be announcing other products carrying Pixel Qi screens here in this blog; stay tuned.

Pixel Qi provides some insights into the reason why several tablet projects including the ones to use Pixel Qi have been delayed because of the success of the disruptive iPad:

Tight supply chain and 100% factory usage this spring and summer coupled with Apple’s disruptive iPad effectively had a 1-2 punch impact: delaying most tablet makers from coming to market as early as they wished. The situation has eased: the supply chain is more robust and factory capacity is widely available. Many of our device makers used this downtime to refine their designs with the result being even more exciting offerings that are highly differentiated from the iPad with options well beyond ATT for carriers. These device maker partners will be making more announcements coming this fall.

And so, a screen that I think would be perfect for the Archos 70 Internet Tablet, the Samsung Galaxy Tab and the Foxconn ARM11 Powered 7″ Tablet reference design, Pixel Qi is announcing the development of the 7″ Pixel Qi screen size. Here’s also who needs to absolutely use the 7″ Pixel Qi screen, the $35 Indian HRD Tablet Project!!!

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.

In my opinion, everyone in the industry with 7″ and 10.1″ LCD tablet projects, all need to be a part of this revolution and need to use this amazing screen. Hopefully with mass manufacturing and large serious orders, the screen will be cheap enough to be close to the price of a normal LCD, hopefully the yield and the long term performance in use will be just as good as normal LCD.

Source: http://pixelqi.com/blog1/2010/09/17/pixel-qi-tablet-availability-diy-screen-success-and-other-updates/

PocketBook 360 review (part 1)

Posted by – September 18, 2010

Here is an overview of the design and the size of the PocketBook 360 e-ink e-reader. This e-reader device has a nice compact 5″ e-ink screen with a nice screen cover design making it pocketable unlike the Kindle. This device is widely available on the worldwide markets such as for $193 on Amazon.com and remains one of PocketBook’s best selling products thus far, making PocketBook the third most popular e-ink e-reader manufacturer. In my next part of this review that I will post in the next few days, I will show you the user interfaces of the latest firmware update. Wouldn’t it be cool if such pocketable e-ink e-reader device was to get 3G/WiFi/Bluetooth as well as a Wacom-style digitizer screen or Sony’s new infrared/laser touch screen technology?

My top-15 videos filmed at IFA, Best of IFA 2010

Posted by – September 12, 2010

The IFA consumer electronics show was cool, from September 2nd to 8th in Berlin Germany, I video-blogged 65 videos of the best products that I could find at the show. Here, as my Best Of IFA post, I would like to list the top-10 videos of the top-10 products of IFA 2010 that I filmed:

1. Archos 101 Internet Tablet, first 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 Froyo ARM cortex A8 45nm Tablet to be sold below $299. It’s really thin, at 480gr it’s 30% lighter than the iPad yet offers 12% wider screen surface (better for movies and TV shows). HDMI output and USB host and full video and audio codecs support. All that for $200 cheaper than the iPad.

2. Archos 43 Internet Tablet, nicely priced below $199 alternative to HTC EVO and Droid X, with no expensive contracts needed for this 4.3″ Froyo Android 2.2 experience

3. Archos 28 Internet Tablet, first ARM Cortex A8 45nm Android 2.2 Froyo device to be priced below $99 with no contracts needed, that’s 2.3 times cheaper than the iPod Touch

(yup, I am an Archos fanboy.. but so is ARM and Texas Instruments too..)

4. Toshiba AC-100 ARM Tegra2 Powered Android Laptop, this is the first mass produced ARM Cortex A9 powered laptop to be brought to the market, it is a significant product. Toshiba has done a super good keyboard and mouse-pad design for it and it is really thin and light. Now of course, all that is needed, is better software for it. I don’t think it is enough for them to just take open source Android and port it to it and add few custom widgets on top. They need to port the full Chrome web browser to Android. They need to officially support a triple-boot configuration on this ARM Powered laptop with Chrome OS for ARM and with Ubuntu for ARM also being optional OS to boot into. Also, I do think the $299 price point is a bit high. The idea with the ARM powered laptops is that they are going to be much cheaper and better value than the Intel powered ones. I think the relatively high price is only due to Toshiba being the first to market and them wanting to enjoy larger profit margins while they wait for all the other manufacturers to join the party. Also, once they get the Pixel Qi screen in there, the battery runtime will be close to 40 hours on such a device.

5. PocketBook 903 Pro, I really like the idea of 3G/WiFi/Bluetooth and Wacom-style digitizer in an A4 sized e-ink e-reader. I would like Chrome-to-phone like features, to throw any article and ebooks from my web browser directly onto such more readable display, and then I would also like to see connected annotation collaboration and communication features added, all those things are just software things.

6. Sony Reader PRS-650 Touch Edition, I am impressed with Sony’s new touch screen technology for their new e-readers. Although I would say it is a bit sad that Sony never updates their e-reader firmwares, that this 229€ version does not include WiFi nor Bluetooth nor 3G for connectivity. Still, the finger and stylus laser based touch screen technology is great for UI navigation and for annotations. I also like the fact that Sony is marketing it to be supporting free library borrowing of all e-books, I much prefer borrowing all ebooks for free and legally than paying $10 per ebook or pirating them. The electronic ebook library concept will be fascinating way for people to access all ebooks for free.

7. Samsung Galaxy Tab, for sure one of the big highlights of this IFA is to see such a huge company as Samsung going all in with the 7″ capacitive Android tablet market, I can’t wait to see how successful their marketing will be with this against the iPad. The whole area of discussions around Google supporting of Android tablets, it is simply fascinating. Of course, obviously, the Samsung Galaxy Tab is highly overpriced at 799€ without contract and 1359€ with 2-year contract. But it sure is a nice product and the tablet market really makes me happy.

8. UMEC Freescale i.MX51 based 7″ Android tablets, I like the features and possibilities of this hardware. See my other Freescale tablet videos such as the one running Chromium OS on it, it should be totally possible.

9. iMuz 5″ Android tablet, this South Korean company seemed to me to have pretty good Telechips ARM11 based Android tablet devices on display.

10. Sharp’s Parallax Barrier 3D screen, it’s pretty amazing to experience it at the trade show on display. This is the 3.8″ WVGA 3D screen that the Nintendo 3DS is going to use. It really works, although probably best with 3D games once the Nintendo comes out than with low quality built-in 3D cameras. You have to hold the screen in the middle and around exactly 30 centimeters from your eyes, my guess though with the Nintendo, this might become easy to get used to hold it like that and I also like Nintendo will have a slider on the side that will enable to lower or to completely remove the 3D effect of the screen.

My follow-ups:

11. Interpad’s Tegra2 Powered Android 2.2 Tablet, a really nice Android tablet too, to be priced 399€. I think it is based on the Malata Android tablet design that I filmed at Computex.

12. Toshiba Folio 100 Tegra2 Android tablet, yet another Tegra2 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 Tablet to come out, also priced above 399€.

13. Philips GoGear Connect, one of the first non-3G Android devices based on the Freescale i.MX51 ARM Cortex A8 processor with official Google Marketplace support but price is likely going to be above 249€.

14. Samsung YP-G50, another lower cost Android media player device, also to compete with the iPod Touch, with official Google Marketplace support and a slower Samsung ARM11 processor, the price is also likely to be at least the same as the iPod Touch.

15. Mobile Tech 5″ Android Tablet, this company is also making some interesting Telechips ARM11 based Android tablets.

If you have any other preferences for Best of IFA, you are welcome to post those in the comments.

Impressions from Google CEO Eric Schmidt’s keynote at IFA 2010

Posted by – September 7, 2010

Video cameras were not allowed during Eric Schmidt’s keynote at IFA, so I didn’t try to film it, you can stream the full keynote video now on http://ifa-tv.de and probably that Google will post it later too on http://youtube.com/google. I didn’t get ask my major Google questions during the Q&A, but you can find my question and guessing to their reasoning below. Here are my major impressions:

1. Speech to Speech translation in Android is awesome. They did an on stage demo with an english speaking Google engineer (Hugo Barra, Product manager of Android) and a German speaking Google engineer. They had a fast conversation from one to the other, where the Android system would translate speech from one language to the other. Simply fantastic and awesome! Soon enough, one will be able to approach another user who speaks another language with an Android phone, preferably wear a headset, and simply start talking to each other with a second delay until speech is translated and synthesised in own language.

2. The new version of Street View for the new version of Google Maps on Android is also awesome. The little Street View man can be dragged around on the screen, Google knowing all 3D aspects of all buildings and streets, then it provides a video game like effect zooming in on further down on the street thus potentially navigating around Street View much faster and in a cooler way. It will be fun also once Google starts adding into Street View all the publicly published pictures and videos that any Android user could make, thus improving Street View to include user-submitted more up-to-date imagery from the whole world. Would allow even for entering buildings (with proper rights I imagine opt-in included). Augmented Reality is cool and I think Street View will merge with it.

3. Google TV will revolutionize TV. I spoke with Logitech and Sony representatives here at IFA. My impression is that it will hi-jack TV networks and eventually replace the need for TV channels with a choice for viewers to get access to any video content from anywhere. I also think BitTorrent and live p2p streaming support on Google TV cannot be blocked, so that too will be awesome. HD Video Conferencing should also be included with the box, I expect Logitech will include that as an option but they would not confirm the specifics of it (how their HD webcam would work on the only Intel Atom processor of Google TV, perhaps dual-core Intel Atom I am guessing, but still far lower system configuration than currently required for Logitech HD webcams to use for HD video conferencing.

Here is the question I would have asked Eric Schmidt during the Q&A:

1. I have filmed 100s of Chinese/Taiwanese/korean/french manufacturers showing cheap Android tablets, laptops and set-top-boxes at IFA and at all the other consumer electronics trade shows the past year and a half. None of these devices are allowed by Google to ship with the Google Marketplace. Why isn’t there a special version of Google Marketplace for all these devices? Why doesn’t Google offer an .apk download of Google Marketplace for anyone to download on any Android device for free on Google’s website? The cheapest Chinese Android tablets/laptops are $100, while the Samsung tablet is 799€, Dell tablet is 599€ (both unlocked), the Toshiba laptop is 299€ (no Google Marketplace either). Can’t Google monetize products without GPS/3G/compass just as well? Why require such expensive hardware components if Google’s declared goal (during the keynote) is to reach 3-4 billion people with Android in the next 5 years? Is Google also planning to do just as much evil requiring expensive hardware for access to the application stores on Chrome OS and Google TV?

My guess the answer to this which they wouldn’t have provided would be something like following:

– Google has partnered with major hardware manufacturers for Android, and as an exchange for such huge support for the Android platform, Google promises not to allow for faster disruption in the market to not leave these major manufacturers enough time to make as much profit margins as they can. Basically Android is not much cheaper for the end consumers than Apple iPhone is. While Carriers are making more money with Android than with iPhone (because of lower cost of purchasing the device with more competition in the Android market), the major OEM manufacturers are helped by Google to keep as high profit margins on these Android products as possible. All these companies are jealous of Apple and want to have as much money as possible selling these products.

Maybe the rest of the non-invited lower cost Android industry should partner up around alternatives to the Google Marketplace, such as the Archos http://appslib.com marketplace. App developers should be convinced to submit their app on at least one such alternative marketplaces.

Maybe the media needs to be more involved in critisizing this lack of openness in the way the “with Google” branding happens in the Android ecosystem. Maybe major media should demand an answer from Google and this may speed up the rate of Google responding by simply opening up access to the Apps on Marketplace to all devices for free without unfair hardware requirements.

The other question I would have liked to ask:

2. Is Google TV going to work on ARM Powered devices too? Is Google waiting for ARM Cortex A9 for that announcement to happen?

– I know Google TV will work on ARM Processors too, I see no reason that it would not be supported. As Chrome OS is developed for ARM, as Android runs on ARM and as Google TV is a mix of Android and Chrome technologies. HDMI input and output and the IR blaster can be added to likely any ARM set-top-box device with also preferably powerful web browsing processing support. The overlay features on HDMI throughput might require pretty advanced GPU acceleration.

– I believe ARM Powered Google TV can be made for much cheaper than Intel Powered Google TV. $99 for ARM vs $299 for Intel.

Look at this leaked picture and video of the Logitech Revue Google TV set-top-box, rumored for $300 in the USA (maybe with required cable/satellite package subscription plans) when Google TV launches during the next couple of months in the USA:

Source for these Logitech Revue Google TV images: http://www.digitaltrends.com/home-theater/logitech-revue-google-tv-hands-on-impressions/

Archos 43 Internet Tablet, $199 4.3″ Android Tablet

Posted by – September 2, 2010

This 130gr super compact FWVGA 854×480 Android 2.2 tablet with ARM Cortex A8 1ghz 45nm omap3630. Although it’s a resistive touch screen, it is the most reactive and best looking resistive touch screen that I have seen thus far. This Android 2.2 device is extremely compact, offering comparable Android 2.2 experience to the HTC EVO and Droid X, though at a fraction of the price, for $199 for the 16GB model, it comes with HDMI output and support for all video codecs at up to 720p and with pretty high bitrates even for advance profile encodings. In this video I also try to demonstrate some of the performance for web browsing.

Archos 101 Internet Tablet, 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 Froyo $299 Tablet

Posted by – September 2, 2010

Probably one of the most affordable 10.1″ capacitive Android 2.2 ARM Cortex A8 45nm tablets, with beautiful built-in HDMI output and full sized USB host, it’ll come starting at $299 for the 8GB model with MicroSD slot, it’s amazingly thin and light, 480gr that is 30% less heavy than the iPad and it’s got 12% more screen surface area than the iPad.

Archos 28 $99 Android Internet Tablet

Posted by – September 2, 2010

The world’s cheapest Android 2.2 device with ARM Cortex A8 45nm processor. It’s got a 2.8″ QVGA resistive touch screen. But, it can really do most things basic Android users want. It’s less than half the price of the iPod Touch.

Archos 70 Internet Tablet

Posted by – September 2, 2010

Archos first 7″ capacitive Android tablet, with ARM Cortex A8 omap3630 1ghz processor, it’s 300gr in weight, very thin and it costs $275, that is less than half the price of the similar Samsung Galaxy Tab.

Archos 32 Internet Tablet, sub-$149 Android 2.2 3.2″ iPod Touch competitor

Posted by – September 2, 2010

This is the new Archos 32 Internet Tablet, with a 800mhz ARM Cortex A8 omap3630 processor based on 45nm process, it playsback all video codecs at up to 720p requiring no video convertions, suport composite video output, bluetooth, WiFi b/g/n, comes with 3.2″ resistive (but good) touch screen.

Archos 32 is a sub-$149 ARM Cortex A8 Android 2.2 iPod Touch competitor

Posted by – August 11, 2010

Archos has always been at the forefront of embedded ARM innovations in portable gadgets (full disclosure, I am also the webmaster of ArchosFans.com and Forum.ArchosFans.com). Archos newest generation 8 line of devices is to be announced and released within a month or two from now, which are to include at least 5 tablet sizes, with Android 2.2 compatibility, based on the new Texas Instruments OMAP3630 45nm ARM Cortex A8 processor, same as in the Droid X and Droid 2, to provide even more advanced OpenGL 3D acceleration and improved video decoding and encoding features.

So as at least 5 different skews or sizes of Android tablets are to be released by Archos from 2.8″ to 10″ with planned pricing between $100 and $350 unlocked and out of any required contracts. This is why I think that this new series of Archos Android tablets is probably to be the cheapest ARM Cortex A8 based Android tablets to be available broadly on the market thus far.

This new Archos 32 (8GB), to be priced at and below $149, comes with a 3.2″ 400×240 WQVGA touch screen, WiFi and Bluetooth, composite video output, USB host, support for all video codecs including Mpeg4, H264, WMV, Mpeg2 and more at up to 720p and 12mbit/s bitrates and including audio codecs support such as Mp3, Flac, WMA and Ogg Vorbis. It is I think basically placed as a cheaper alternative to the iPod Touch, using the latest Android and being more opened in the way it interoperates with Windows, Mac and Linux machines not requiring synchronization through a software like iTunes, but connecting as a standard USB mass storage device.

While it would be best for these Archos Android tablets to receive the permission from Google to come with the Google Marketplace pre-installed on them, it may be that Google might still not allow it. Though it is then also very likely that users of the product will easily be able to find a Market4Archos.apk file on the Internet to easily install the full Google Marketplace, Gmail and other Google Apps experiences to this device exactly as if the feature was pre-installed officially. I am still confident that Google will soon expand Google Marketplace to many new types of devices, not only to $500+ Android smart phones, but also to Tablets, Laptops with the Chrome browser icon and Set-top-boxes.

Find more pictures and more descriptions at: ArchosFans.com

You can discuss this at: Forum.ArchosFans.com

Source: fcc.gov
Found via: liliputing.com

Texas Instruments licences ARM Eagle series

Posted by – August 10, 2010

Texas Instruments has had their awesome OMAP3430 series on the market now for around two years in the Archos 5, Archos 5 Internet Tablet, Motorola Droid, Palm Pre and with their new 45nm OMAP3630 version in Archos Generation 8, Droid X, Droid 2 and a bunch of other products to come. The ARM Cortex A9 based OMAP4 is to be expected in products for a bit later, maybe starting next year with amazing 1080p encoding and decoding and with extremely fast multi-core ARM processing built-in.

Building on its rich heritage of collaboration with ARM, Texas Instruments Incorporated (TI) today confirmed that it was the first company to partner with ARM in the conception and definition of the next generation ARM® Cortex™-A series processor core (also known as “Eagle”) to be announced later this year. TI intends to use the new processor to further strengthen and extend its future OMAP™ platform offerings.

Now, Texas Instruments is the first processor maker to announce that they are licencing ARM’s next generation named the Eagle platform, possibly reaching products within a couple of years.

“We are thrilled to know that our customers will be the first to leverage the new ARM processor core’s far-reaching innovations via our industry-leading OMAP products. Successful mobile industry achievements revolve around the ‘high-performance, low-power’ mantra, and we believe the results of our collaborative effort echo the importance of this must-have balance.”

The names may be ARM Cortex A10 and Texas Instruments OMAP5 series.

What do you think may be the improvements for this ARM Eagle platform? Higher performance quad-core 3ghz 28nm or 32nm High-K Metal Gate processors at even lower power consumption and lower prices? ARM Cortex A8 does 2DMIPS per Mhz (2’000DMIPS at 1Ghz), ARM Cortex A9 does 2.5DMIPS per Mhz (6’000DMIPS at dual-core 1.2Ghz), how high is Eagle going to go? Is it A9 is 3x faster than A8, and Eagle is 8x faster than A8 solutions when running well multi-threaded code? Does Eagle go as high as 15’000 DMIPS on a quad-core design? You can discuss this in the comments.

Source: ti.com