The event yesterday in London was a closed press event by Archos, possibly showing the next generation, possibly announcing pricing and partnerships, but we will not know for now. The invited journalists and bloggers are under NDA embargo for now.

This could be Gen6, this could be the revolutionary HSDPA generation.

UK press has got an invitation which you can read about at http://www.pocket-lint.co.uk/news/news.phtml/15814/16838/archos-3g-pmp-incoming-rumours.phtml

The 10th of July is the day before Apple releases the 3G iPhone in 22 countries. So hopefully, Archos will have the next generation to unveil at that event on the 10th of July, that’s just one week from now.

We’ll keep you updated as soon as we hear anything about that release event. And we’ll try to have the whole ArchosFans.com community updated to version 2.0 by then. You can discuss this at: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=15876

It seems Blockbuster thinks that the Archos and CPFK Moovyplay system is a good thing with a huge potential. So now that Blockbuster is taking over Circuit City for $1 billion, they are planning their huge brick and mortar transition to VOD using digital video technology. Archos and CPFK seem to have developped the best solution in the world and it’s said to be well patented.

Although this version of the in-store movie download system is said to be developped by NCR Corp, which may or may not be in anyways involved with french CPFK group in developping this solution. The Blockbuster CEO noted that Blockbuster plans to rely on third-party partners to minimize the company’s investment in these initiatives.

The Blockbuster CEO says the plan is to charge approximately $10 per month (it could be a Netflix-type unlimited movies subscription), and people would receive the Archos for free in that deal. Subscriptions is definitely a plan here. So imagine this, users paying $10 or $20 per month for a certain “Blockbuster Unlimited” movies deal, the $10 per month deal might not include new releases (each new release might cost an additionnal $2 or so) while the $20 subscription would include all movies among up to tens of thousands of titles. And with that 1 or 2-year subscription deal, people would be getting for example an Archos 605 WiFi 30GB or an Archos Moovyplay 40GB/80GB for free.

So the deal here is that this would replace the DVD, Blockbuster can fit tens of thousands of movies on a touch-screen kiosk that takes up just a couple of square feet. Download times connecting the Archos to that kiosk is about 30 seconds per movie, which makes it faster then most broadband download connections and especially faster then BitTorrent piracy. Also, up to hundreds of movies can be loaded on the Archos for free and only a subscription would need to be paid each month for the “Unlimited Blockbuster” movie kiosk service, and without the subscription, the movie rental payment can be made remotely over WiFi or using an SMS code at home. Also, this system could seamlessly also begin to work directly over the Internet for the users who have fast enough broadband connection at home for streaming the movies.

The kiosk prototype will begin testing within the next three weeks in Dallas, Texas, download time for movies will be about 30 seconds.

You can discuss this in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=15385

Dish Networks is working with Alcatel-Lucent to test the DVB-SH standard on its 700mhz spectrum in the USA. This evaluation will take place in DISH Network’s laboratories in Atlanta, Ga. from May to August 2008.

“As is our history, DISH Network continues to explore new, cutting-edge technology for consumer applications,” said Nolan Daines, senior vice president of Strategic Initiatives for DISH Network. “Considering the global momentum of DVB-SH, we decided that performing a critical analysis of this new open standard was the right thing to do for DISH Network. We look forward to working in tandem with Alcatel-Lucent during this testing phase.”

“DVB-SH is today the most powerful mobile broadcast open standard leveraging the DVB-H ecosystem and enabling an efficient delivery of TV services to all mobile devices ranging from handsets to Personal Multimedia Players and in-car units,” added Olivier Coste, Chairman of Alcatel-Lucent’s mobile broadcast activities. “This is why Alcatel-Lucent is committed to the success of DISH Network’s DVB-SH tests in the U.S., and, more than ever, to the expansion of the DVB-SH ecosystem worldwide.”

Source: alcatel-lucent.com, via Engadget

Archos is one of the hardware partners to Alcatel-Lucent in developping those PMPs that will be able to receive the DVB-SH signals. You can see my interview with an Alcatel-Lucent representative about the DVB-SH technology at: http://techvideoblog.com/ifa/alcatel-lucent-dvb-sh/

Dish Networks invested $10 million dollars in Archos in 2005 and today owns about 25% of Archos shares.

Read more speculation on Dish Networks and Archos using DVB-SH at: http://www.forbes.com/technology/2008/04/25/mobile-services-dish-tech-wire-cx_ew_0425dish.html

Le premier Archoscast en vidéo enregistré le 22 Avril 2008 au Musée Dapper à
Paris, après la conférence de presse d’Archos sur le GPS In-Car Holder,
TVportation plugin, WebTV et WebRadio plugin et le Flash9.

Featuring Thocan of http://archoslounge.net, Valentin of http://archostest.fr, Pince and Bysus of http://jbmm.fr

Filmed by me.

DivX 640×360: Download here (297mb) (playable and streamable on Archos with fast forwarding)

Youtube link: http://youtube.com/watch?v=7zHPpxbBxG8 (playable on Archos)

According to the financial document that Archos released this week, SFR is the only big telecom company to have announced the HSDPA partnership to cover France thus far, but Archos says they are counting on releasing the HSDPA devices with at least two other HSDPA telecom providers before the end of the year.

Who might those other two telecom partners be? Does Archos have advanced talks with someone in the USA thus far? I think it would probably be one of the US telecoms that is not ATT which has this exclusive deal with Apple for the iPhone. So I would think any of Sprint, Verizon or T-Mobile could potentially be a good telecom partner to launch the HSDPA device in the USA at attractive prices. Especially, as far as I know, in the USA you have to have an agreement with the telecom provider to even be allowed to use their HSDPA network, in the USA, you cannot have a product and put any HSDPA SIM card in it for it to work.

How about telecoms to cover other countries in Europe? Does Archos have advanced discussions going on with a german telecom? How will it connect in the UK? I would say that an agreement with Hutchinson Whampoa would be a good way to cover the UK, Sweden, Denmark, Italy, Austria, Hong Kong and Australia in one device distribution and content monetization agreement with Three. Something could go on with telefonica for Spain?

In any ways, I hope that Archos can quickly get nice agreements in place with HSDPA providers to cover every country in the world that has got HSDPA networks. Or at least that any HSDPA SIM card could be used in the remaining countries where there wouldn’t be a distribution agreement in place yet at the initial release of the HSDPA products.

When Archos initially announced the 605 WiFi and TV+ in June of 2007, they clearly were talking about a plugin to support 720p content:

Archos has been saying HD was not urgent but would come when video-on-demand in HD would be available.

I think that the key reason for the delay of the release of HD support could be the requirement for DRM to work for HD. And the solution to 720p HD video DRM for Archos might be in the recently announced partnership with Widevine: http://www.webwire.com/ViewPressRel.asp?aId=60960

Which basically allows Archos to sell HD content in the Archos Content Portal encoded in other formats then WMV. The basic thing that could have delayed the release of the 720p plugin could be that WMV does not work on the current generation Texas Instruments DaVinci chip, but that only less processor intensive 720p Mpeg4 Simple Profile such as Mpeg4 DivX or Mpeg4 XviD would work. So now, hopefully, with Webvine as a DRM technology partner, now the DRM for HD video content could be using any codecs including Mpeg4 Simple Profile.

The simple fact is sure a few people have DivX 720p content (like I have published 1000 DivX 720p videos on my video-blog the past 3 years), but most people do not have DivX 720p content. And content providers, the big movie majors will not allow Archos for one second to put unprotected DivX 720p movies on their content portal. But if they get a technology like Webvine to somehow put DRM on DivX or other types of Mpeg4 Simple Profile 720p, then that could be the solution that we have been waiting for.

I don’t know if the Dish Networks type 720p or 1080i Mpeg2 recorded content will work. Hopefully it will work, and that would be protected by Dishes own DRM system which is already implemented for non-HD content.

Adding HD support and HD content to the Gen5 could be absolutely huge. This could be a move from Archos to directly compete with Blu-ray and become a product of choice for customers who have HDTVs and HD projectors.

French blog PC Inpact claims to have gotten some informations from a reliable source about the upcomming Archos 606 HSDPA to be released after the summer hollidays. The rumors are as following:

- The case is totally black. (following the Apple trend of iPhone case color)

- The size of the device is about the same as the 605 WiFi but contains no buttons on the front of the device, instead uses a 1-2cm larger touch-screen. The whole interface is touch-screen based. There are still buttons on the side of the device, just not on the front of it.

- The price would go from 150-300 euros with or without subsidization by the HSDPA provider which in France is SFR. The HSDPA could be used for wap Internet access (whatever that means), and subsidized versions with 15-30 euro per month subscriptions would include access to features such as SMS, MMS, Yahoo messenger, streaming HSDPA TV and some other stuff. Non-subsidized model would go for 300 euros.

- While the Archos might or might not support VOIP, for telephony on the SFR network in France, users might have to get at least a low-cost simple mobile phone with another HSDPA sim-card perhaps within the same monthly fee on the same HSDPA user account. So to do your telephony you’d use one of those 10 dollar phones that do a good job saving battery power and providing good telephony functions, while Archos is best for all the multimedia and Internet features.

The source of this rumor is http://www.pcinpact.com/actu/news/42348-archos-SFR-eeePC-internet-illimite.htm

Just a bunch of fun logos…

Imagine having ubiquituous wireless broadband connection to your Archos, streaming videos from anywhere not only on WiFi hotspots, integrated Voice-over-IP, an open applications platform (perhaps with some Google Android compatibillity), remote personal video recorder program guide control and ArchosLink synchronisation, instant global access to all the music of the world streaming through a service like unlimited Last.fm (currently available ad-supported in the USA, UK and Germany), full ubiquituous access to the Archos Content Portal, to your personal collection of files stored on your personal server or on a p2p file storage service such as http://wua.la.

This is not to be available yet, and Archos doesn’t seem to have a device they want to show yet. But the deal is now signed with the first HSDPA 3G+ provider to cover all Archos HSDPA consumers in France. HSDPA 3G+ providers in other countries could come next: Three? Deutshe Telekom? Telefonica? Swisscom? Vodafone?.. Consider the partner could appeal to HSDPA providers who did not sign with Apple yet, who would be seeking a better hardware and business model alternative…

So far, the official date is “before the end of 2008″. This could mean that the product starts to be unveiled soon, and released later, so the unveiling could perhaps come a bit before an eventual 3G iPhone release, by the time Google Android, Sony Ericsson’s Xperia and Nokia’s successor to the N810 are going to be released later this year.

A HSDPA Dock for the Gen 5 is not mentionned by Archos so far, but it would be nice, so that Gen 5 owners can get access to the ubiquituous multimedia in the pocket experience. VOIP was not mentionned eigther, and eventual subsidy of the hardware cost for content and data service subscriptions can only be assumed will be part of this deal.

Archos has not yet released many of the features of the Archos Gen 5 wishlist: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=5046. Such promised features as the HD Plugin, Webradios and the FM Remote Control are still expected by the Archos Gen 5 Fans. And an open SDK policy by Archos as a reaction to the hacking activity would be a nice move by Archos if they have got the ressources to bring all these things to the already released product generations. So we are still waiting for official announcements and actions by Archos on these features.

Sources: http://www.lesmobiles.com/actualite/3413-sfr-signe-un-accord-de-partenariat-avec-archos.html

http://www.tekit.fr/breve-sfr-et-archos-partenaires,4074.html