The Archos 9 PCtablet has been somewhat overshadowed by its smaller, Android-based sibling, but the French company would like to remind you that, with the debut of Windows 7, the 9-inch touchscreen “future of netbooks” is now available to buy. £449.99 ($748) gets you a resistive touchscreen, Atom Z515 processor and integrated WiFi and Bluetooth, all in a device 800g and just 1.7cm thick.
Live Archos 9 hands-on gallery after the cut
Here we are again with another week in review, let’s jump right in. A new 160GB Apple TV has popped up with better integration with iTunes 9. This is a good thing, I have one season of Heroes in HD on my 40GB unit and the thing is almost full. Samsung unveiled a new home theater projector this week called the P410M. With football season now going, a projector is a great way to watch the game with life-size players, assuming your room is large enough.
Archos have announced a press event to be held on June 11th in Paris, France. While there’s no actual written confirmation of what the event might be about, the shadowy PMP/MID device visible on the invite and the bright green color-scheme has led to speculation that it concerns Archos’ Android-based Internet Media Tablet (IMT) phone.
The company announced that they would be developing an Android device back in February, with the IMT measuring just 10mm thick and having a 5-inch high resolution touchscreen. Connectivity will include not only WiFi, like existing PMPs from Archos, but 3.5G HSUPA/HSDPA for up to 7.2Mbps downloads.
They may look like old analog rabbit-ears antennas, but these are actually the digital-TV grasping tendrils of Archos’ Snap On TV accessory for the Archos 5 PMP. A narrow slice docking across the bottom of the touchscreen mediaplayer, the Snap On TV adds DVB-T reception to the PMP’s DVR functionality; Archos Lounge have been testing one out.
Archos have announced plans to launch an Android-based Internet Media Tablet, that would deliver not only the high-definition media playback of the company’s existing range, but offer voice communication, wireless connectivity and access to the Android Market of smartphone applications. The Android IMT measures just 10mm thick, and has a 5-inch high-resolution touchscreen, up to 500GB storage and uses Texas Instruments OMAP 3 platform for “laptop-like performance”.
If size is everything in PMPs, the Archos 7 Internet Media Tablet certainly has a lot going for it. With a 7-inch touchscreen, there are certainly a whole lot fewer rivals than its smaller Archos 5 sibling faces; still, that hasn’t stopped Archos from packing it with WiFi, a choice of 160GB or 320GB hard-drives, and internet browsing. JAMM have been testing it out (including holding the photoshoot with the iPod touch shown here) and the general judgement is good.
With AMD set to announced their netbook chipset strategy today, they’re not the only three-letter company looking to take a bit out of Intel’s Atom. ARM have released details of their own plans, collaborating with Canonical – the commercial sponsor of Ubuntu – to optimize the Linux distro for the ARMv7 architecture. ARM chips, such as the Cortex-A8 and Cortex-A9, are already found in multimedia and internet enabled devices like Archos’ recent Internet Media Tablets, and the company believes that this – together with the chipsets’ low power demands – will make them a force to be reckoned with in netbooks.
French carrier SFR has officially announced three 3G-enabled mobile devices, the Archos 5g Internet Media Tablet, the M! PC Pocket and a WWAN-enabled ASUS Eee PC 901. All have integrated 3G HSDPA modems, with monthly data subscriptions of €19.90/$25 (for existing subscribers; €24.90/$32 for new) on the Archos and M!, and €29.90/$38 (for existing subscribers; €34.90/$44 for new) on the ASUS Eee PC. The Archos 5g has a 30GB hard-drive and new, SFR-specific menus and widgets.
A few months back, when we wondered out loud about abbreviations, one of the easiest targets was the ultraportable device market. Mobile Internet Devices, Ultramobile PCs, Personal Media Players; as manufacturers rush to grant their gadgets more functionality, all seem to end up overlapping. The Archos Internet Media Tablet isn’t a MID, not by Archos’ own definition anyway, but it does offer internet access, on a touchscreen tablet, in a device that’s certainly mobile. Pocketables have been comparing the Archos 5 (soon to be available with integrated 3G WWAN, remember) with the Aigo P8860, a gadget which certainly does claim to be a MID.
Archos’ latest range of Internet Media Tablets, the 5 and 7, are on sale in many markets worldwide, but if you want the 5g version with integrated HSDPA you’ll have to head to France. SFR is so-far the only carrier to have publicly signed up to the WWAN PMP; their official launch is expected later this week, but they’ve been scooped by November’s issue of Stuff magazine.
Update: Stuff got the pricing wrong; see here for official details.
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