The price in Europe seems to be 149 euros, it might be around $179 in the USA, bhphotovideo.com has it for sale at $189. It’s using the new Rockchip RK2818 processor that can run at up to 1ghz but may be limited at 800mhz for heat/battery consideration, it runs Android 2.1 with better features and more hardware/software optimizations, the DSP and graphics are faster to improve video and web browsing. I filmed it here demonstrated by the Rockchip engineers:

You can discuss this product in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=63&t=44736

The performance of these Texas Instruments processors is very relevant to us Archos Fans. In this video I interview Atul Aggarwal, Director of Product Marketing at Texas Instruments, about the performance, hardware acceleration, software support for their awesome OMAP3 series of processors.

Android 2.1 is thus said to have been “available for developpers” just only about 2 weeks ago and it is demonstrated to run beautifully on both OMAP3430 based Zoom2 and the OMAP3630 Zoom3 development devices.

OMAP3430 is similar to the more powerful OMAP3440 that Archos is using in the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android. Thus I try to get some informations from the Texas Instruments representative about which kinds of hardware acceleration limits in terms of Video playback and 3D rendering and other graphics accelerations that we might see in firmware updates. Of course the firmwares that Archos can release for us do not have to feature all the latest from Texas Instruments, but the latest stuff that TI can demonstrate, logically Archos engineers might also be working with those tools for our firmware updates.

Not that I am able to exactly confirm what kinds of hardware acceleration upgrades and Android upgrades we might get in the next firmwares, but I can tell you that I heard lots of very exciting stuff from the Texas Instruments engineers and product managers at the Mobile World Congress, as I was there to film 55 video interviews for my other site http://ARMdevices.net

I am meeting with Archos soon, the CeBIT is coming up in just one week and I will be there filming 50 videos as well. So look forward to more very exciting updates on the hardware acceleration updates for Archos Android that are coming!

You can discuss this video at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=31121&p=206299#p206299

Related articles by Zemanta

• Texas Instruments talks about Archos at Mobile World Congress 2010 (armdevices.net)
• Archos said to have two new Android tablets on track for CeBIT (engadget.com)
• Archos posts ‘full’ Linux distro for Android tablet (go.theregister.com)

Ameet Suri, Strategic Marketing Manager at Texas Instruments, explains some of how Texas Instruments is working with Archos on powering the awesome Archos 5 Internet Tablet series running Android, what kind of work goes into it, he tells a bit about how TI supports Archos and how Archos innovates impressively in the industry.

This is one of about 55 videos that I filmed for my other site at http://armdevices.net at Mobile World Congress 2010 last week in Barcelona.

I spoke with the Texas Instruments people a lot off camera as well about Archos, and I think there is a lot of very interesting updates that you can be looking forward to coming up. For more ideas about what type of Texas Instrument technologies you may look forward for Archos to implement look for my upcoming OMAP3440 video running Android 2.1, comparing it to the 1ghz 45nm performance of OMAP3640 and also check out my amazing OMAP4 video, even look forward to my Texas Instruments nHD DLP Pico Projector video.

You can discuss about this video at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=31121

Wow, this is cool. JBMM.fr and ArchosLounge.net have made a really cool interview with Archos CEO Henri Crohas which they are publishing as 7 episodes with a new episode published each day. Today’s episode has truly fascinating infos on our upcoming Google Marketplace firmware upgrade, Archos relations with Google, on upcoming cheaper Archos Android products, on the feasibility of Archos Smartbooks, Ubuntu netbooks and more.

Consider, this interview was made on October 22nd at the Archos headquarters in Paris by JBMM.fr and ArchosLounge.net, since then they took the time to transcribe the audio recordings of the interview, so the “within weeks” of the Google Marketplace and Google Apps availability might mean “within days” at this point.

As per simple logic, Google probably skipped providing support for 800×480 and 1280×720 screens on Android 1.5 Cupcake version of the OS which is the one Archos is currently using. Though with the Android 1.6 and 2.0 updates, which Archos has confirmed to be working on, Google officially provides support for Archos 800×480 medium density touch screen resolution, so logically, Google will then be able to provide Archos with a full access to a customized version of Google Android Marketplace and the Google Android Apps like Gmail, Google Maps, Google Listen, Google Contacts, Google Latitude and Google Maps Navigation.

Archos CEO Henri Crohas also announced that Archos is soon to release a broader ranger of Android products to democratize the use of Android, starting this January or February with different screen sizes, at 100-200 dollar in 2010 and in 2011 below 100 dollars!

What is important in Android, is that the opening of the platform is open to all applications. Today, we don’t yet have the Marketplace, but we nevertheless hope to have it and, anyway, we will continue to develop our AppsLib because all Android products will not necessarily have the Marketplace. Now we will go further than today’s market positioning, where we are now competing with the iPod Touch in the same price range (roughly between 250 and 350 euros).

Why is this a big revolution? I think we can make the Android products at $100 to $200 in 2010. In January / February, we will introduce new products that are not 5 inches, but will be differentiated products and sold at less than 200 euros. And I think in 2011 we get to reach below the 100 euros price with such products. This means Android will invade an entire class of new markets such as photo frames, PMPs with larger screens, even clock radios … Android will therefore enable us to deploy a much broader range.

You can find a collarobative effort in correcting the Google Translation of this interview at: http://wiki.archosfans.com/index.php?title=Better_Translation_of_Archos_CEO_interview_Episode_3_of_JBMM.fr_and_ArchosLounge.net

You can discuss this interview at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=27462

Original interview Episode 3 in French: http://www.jbmm.fr/2009/11/11/episode-3-l%e2%80%99archos-5it-rupture-ou-simple-transition/

Translated to English: http://translate.google.com/translate?hl=en&sl=fr&tl=en&u=http://www.jbmm.fr/2009/11/11/episode-3-l%25E2%2580%2599archos-5it-rupture-ou-simple-transition/

CrOvax and Ulrich from http://frandroid.com are Android fans at the Archos event in Paris, reporting about their reaction to the fact that Archos is not zet showing the Android device/devices publicly but only a bit talking about them at this point, and annoncing only officially about the Archos Android September event that will be coming up.

The Archos 13 Laptop at Archos event in Paris is probably one of the coolest thin 13″ laptop designs on the market.

The Archos 10S is probably one of the markets best Intel based slim and light netbooks.

Here is a HD quality close-up look at the Archos 9 PC tablet device as shown at the Archos Event in Paris which was also live streamed and which is now available as a recording at http://archosfans.com/2009/06/11/archos-event-video-recorded/.

About the price, you have to consider that EU prices in Euro include an average of 20-25% VAT taxes that people have to pay in Europe. So the US price often is about the same amount just in US dollars. I also think that I remember clearly that Archos announced this as a 450€ or 500 US dollar device. So converting the Euro price to US dollars is not the correct way to guess the US targetted suggested retail price for this product. Thus expect this to be sold unlocked cheaper than 500 US dollars in the USA, thus cheaper than the current price of an unsubsidized iphone (599 US dollars). Also consider than until the release, Archos may find HSDPA networking partners in many countries around the world to ship this product to consumers at a subsidized price (for example I’m just guessing 199 US dollars) when bundling it with a long term HSDPA data service package for it.

Videos of the Archos 10S, Archos 13 and some talk about the Archos Android device/devices to be shown and released by Archos in September will be uploaded later today.

Until Archos will release the official high quality video from Henri Crohas the CEO of Archos’s Keynote [edit 18th June: Archos has released the officially dubbed version of the official keynote video] with guests on stage such as Alain Madelain President of the World Fund on Digital Solidarity for the Archos 9classmate launch, Presidents of Intel France and Microsoft France as well launching the new line of Archos Intel/Microsoft products, you can see here the 2 hour long video that we broadcast live from Paris today filmed using an Archos 10′s built-in Webcam using ustream.tv. You can scroll this video forward to 57 minute to see the English speaking live video coverage from the Archos showcase of all the new products, including interviews of Archos representatives, discussions among the Archos bloggers and more :

There is also a second part of this broadcast, where we continue to go up close with the products:

HD hands-on videos are being uploaded right now. If my Hotel’s internet upload is fast enough, you will have the videos posted early tomorrow morning. Otherwise I will upload them during the next couple of days.

Archos Android products will be shown later, in September, by the 15th of September 2009, Archos will have the Android event with one or more Android products shown. Sorry, I thought that Archos was going to show the Android products at this event.

Thanks to BenMars for borrowing his Archos 10 laptop to enable us to do this live video streaming from the event today!

We have launched a real-time friendfeed account for all Archos related news and discussions at http://friendfeed.com/archosfans and a new twitter account at http://twitter.com/archosfans for ArchosFans.com updates. Here are some of my suggested instructions for you to start using it:

1. Sign In on http://friendfeed.com/archosfans (you can use your Google or Facebook account)

2. Subscribe to http://friendfeed.com/archosfans and start posting whatever you want in there (kind of like you would in a chat)

3. Install the friendfeed notifier on your Windows/Mac/Linux desktop and receive real-time popup notifications on your desktop when other users post in the http://friendfeed.com/archosfans channel. You can then easilly click to go reply and discuss the topic there.

4. If you think that your forum posts are very interesting for a broad friendfeed channel audience to look at anmd to get updates about, you are welcome to promote your forum.archosfans.com threads on http://friendfeed.com/archosfans by simply explaining them briefly and linking to them.

5. If you have an Archos related blog, twitter account or anything like that, we can add your feed to http://friendfeed.com/archosfans and thus try to improve the amount of real-time coverage that we can all have for Archos related news, discussions, ideas and whatever else.

6. I am not saying that I believe this twitter/friendfeed stuff will work great in the future, I just think friendfeed looks a little more usable than twitter. Their new real-time AJAX interface backend could be really interesting to basically make some kind of mix between a Chat, random twittering, RSS aggregating Archos related feeds and discussing whatever actual topics are Archos related on the Internet. Any Archos user can post questions and get real-time answers on there. Promote the forum’s most interesting threads and discuss them there. Post new Archos Youtube videos as soon as they are made and plenty more. Eventually we can also record ArchosFans podcasts using audio, perhaps even live video streaming from events.

7. Eventually we will all subscribe to this http://friendfeed.com/archosfans channel on our Archos Android devices, which will then popup real-time notifications on our Archos HSDPA device everytime something new happens in the Archos universe. Later I expect friendfeed to also implement all kinds of relevancy filtering so you will be able to filter how much of the noise that you will want to be notified about in real-time.

You can discuss these features in the forum at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=35&t=23541