ArchosFans.com

Listen here to the latest New York Times Bits Tech Talk episode about Google and its Rivals, for the Archos 32 review, you need to scroll forward below or on their website to the time code 7:55 to start listening to New York Times reporter and high tech reviewer Pedro Rafael Rosado saying that the Archos 32 Internet Tablet is great value.

Boom, it knocks your socks off! Color screen, very pretty. Every format you can imagine! Audio, Video and Flash! It is actually a very impressive piece of gear.

What they’ve done, which I think is a very good idea to try to keep that controlled app environment, they have created their own apps store they call it AppsLib and there’s an icon on the desktop. But you can also use the Google Marketplace! So you’re not just limited to what they are offering in their Archos store, you can go off and take your chances with whatever is out there in the wild. It’s like Linux repositories, you can download from different repositories should you feel the need to.

Finally, a major tech reviewer takes the time to see the obvious that Archos 5 Internet Tablet released October 2009, has had access to the full Google Marketplace since November 2009 and so it only makes sense this Archos 32 Internet Tablet and the whole upcoming Archos Gen8 series of tablets, of course, all will have full Google Marketplace support as well. Even as users may or may not have to do a Google Search for “Google Marketplace on Archos 32″ to find the solution, depending on the will of Google to allow Archos users easy 1-click or slightly less easy 3-click installation of the full Google Marketplace experience.

What I found impressive was the Bluetooth reception. With Bluetooth 2.1, the headphones experience was pretty decent. You can walk away 15-20 feet and it would still be good stereo bluetooth.

Sounds cool. Now I want to buy some decent Bluetooth headphones too! Imagine just clipping some nice compact Bluetooth headphones to the top of your jacket, and just easily be able to pull them to your ears just when you want. No more tangling around bulky cabled headphones anymore. The fact that Bluetooth support seems to work great, it auto connects to all known Bluetooth peripherals in a second.

Archos is branding the Archos 28 as the first sub-$100 tablet. They are positionning that one as their flagship on their smaller end. So if you want to be connected to the Internet using Android but you don’t want a big tablet you can get the 32 or the 28, small screen, small price.

The Archos 28 Internet Tablet, at only $99 should be a massive super market super success, first Android device on full ARM Cortex A8 45nm sold below $100 without contracts, as long as they can convince major retailers to put some commercial mechanisms into effect, showcasing the Archos alternative in as many stores as possible and as long as Archos manufacturing planning can keep up with the demand that would then follow.

Archos understands what their core audience wants and that’s a pleasant media experience. The audio experience is excellent. Which has been a hallmark of every Archos product since the very beginning. These guys, they are not “Johnny come late” into this business. They claim to have come out with the first hard drive media player back in 2000. They know what they are doing when it comes to media support. The most impressive thing of the whole Archos 32 experience was the fact that it can handle every format that you can throw at it. MKV videos, AVI, DivX, audio wise it handles Flac, Mp3… Overall, I would really recommend this if you are not buying into the whole Apple experience, if you are avoiding the Apple ecosystem, this would be an excellent choice for you. It’s a great media player, first and foremost. It is a servicable Internet Tablet, although it’s too small to be used as a productivity tool. It does stuff that the iPod Touch won’t do. You can update the firmware right on the fly. You can run multiple apps. For a $149, you really can’t go wrong! I was really impressed with the Archos 32, just the range of formats will probably make a lot of people consider it, plus you factor in that you’ve got the Internet at your disposal.

It is really refreshing to hear from a non Apple fanboy in big American media and blogs review Archos products once in a while! I hope Pedro Rafael Rosado and Bettina Edelstein are ok with me quoting such large parts of their audio podcast review. This could be a start of major tech media embracing Archos new Generation 8 as the best alternative to the world’s second biggest company, you know who, which by the way, made it’s ginormous fortune, in my opinion, largely by copying and “mainstreaming” what Archos always has been doing first and in my opinion always done best for the past decade.

This episode of NYT Tech Talk podcast was released at: http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/09/29/tech-talk-google-and-its-rivals/

You can discuss this podcast review in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=65&t=37849