Echostar owns around 20% of Archos stock, and they have just succeeded in buying a nearly national coverage of licences to deploy wireless broadband in the USA on the 700MHZ spectrum. Not only does that mean that Echostar can now deploy their own wireless broadband network to distribute video-on-demand directly to their set-top-boxes without being dependent on the established internet service providers, it also means Echostar can ask Archos to build for them a portable video player that will stream video directly over their 700Mhz WiMax networks.

They could also use their spectrum to build WiFi and WiMax mesh networks, thus blanketing the whole USA relativelty cheaply and rapidly with their own wireless broadband network. So customers who agree to install a little box outdoors next to their Dish Networks satellite dish, could then hookup to the central WiMax broadcaster and republish that signal to the whole nabourhood as Mesh networking of both the 700mhz signal and normal WiFi. Customers who would agree to install this free box could thus get a rebate on their Dish Network and wireless broadband subscription fees.

Another strategy could be for Echostar to use the established ADSL, Cable and Fiber networks that people already have gotten at home through established internet service providers and re-publish that Internet connection through the Ethernet plug of the set-top-box out to the nabourhood using the 700Mhz spectrum and WiFi. This way Echostar would basically just need to distribute set-top-boxes to cover a whole country with free wireless broadband. Other ISPs might complain that Echostar would be using their bandwidth, but that is the way Fon works today with a million users worldwide sharing their Internet connection using WiFi, and that way of doing wireless networking deployments might be approved and regulated into law by the politicians. As a means to lower the cost of deploying better and cheaper wireless broadband, supporting network neutrality which means ISPs should not be allowed to throttle or restrict in any ways how consumers use their internet connection.

Echostar should build their 700Mhz network in cooperation with Google, so that devices to use that 700Mhz spectrum also work in the unlicenced spectrum that Google is suggesting the FCC should be used for free wireless broadband.

Sources: Echostar’s 700Mhz spectrum, Google’s unlicenced spectrum proposition

Beware of this cheap A-Data 16GB SDHC class 6 card, I just bought two and they aren’t recognized by the Archos while they seem to work fine in my Sanyo HD1000 camcorder and other SDHC devices including SDHC card reader on the PC. You can read about SDHC card compatibillity in this thread: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?p=81448#81448

Amazon.com US has 16GB A-Data cards for $79, which is kind of nice to think about. Prices for those SD cards seems to go down about half every 18 months or something like that.

So for $250-279 you get the 605 WiFi 4GB with a 16GB SD card, thus 20GB of storage. And possibillity that you will buy more SD cards in the next couple of years that have 32GB each, and for a price of less than $1 per GB soon on the SD cards.

I think Archos is preparing the flash based solution nicely for when Archos will be able to include HSDPA in the devices. Then you could basically stream all the audio and video content directly from the Internet from everywhere, requiring that the battery consumption for HSDPA audio and video streaming is tested to be usable by the time that the Archos HSDPA devices will be released.

For sure there should always be the nice big fat hard drive Archos model options. Also considering that in theory Archos could put as much as 500GB in a PMP using one of those recent 500GB 2.5″ hard drives by Toshiba, Fujitsu, Hitachi and Seagate. 1.8″ and 2.5″ hard drives will certainly always be able to provide their advantage in capacity and cost per GB compared to flash based memory, as when there are flash innovations, we also see very rapid improvements in hard drive capacities and prices. So expect also that hard drives will double in capacity every 18 months. The comparison in price/GB and capacity/inch for hard drives and flash memory could stay the same for a while. So for uses where you can use a lot of local storage, high capacity and low price per GB of hard drives will continue to make sence, though with ubiquituous broadband connectivity, local storage on the pocket device itself might be less necessary.

Here in Denmark, http://3.dk just started providing unlimited bandwidth for 299kr (40€ = $60) per month, before that 7,2mbit/s download and 384kbit/s upload connection was limited by a 10GB per month bandwidth limit. Now they say that the limit is gone, so one can basically leech as much as one wants on the HSDPA network for a fixed fee now here in Copenhagen.

With Femtocells and stuff like that, HSDPA providers could quickly add more bandwidth to their HSDPA network to provide even more bandwidth to everyone.

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

It is going to be interesting to see what Archos official reaction is going to be to last month hacking of the 604 WiFi, 704 WiFi, 605 WiFi and 705 WiFi: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewforum.php?f=34

What if Archos let people run whatever they want on the ARM side of the product and still keep full unhacked control of the DSP side of the device? This way hackers cannot interfere with DRM, Macrovision, codecs and such since the ARM processor wouldn’t be powerful enough to run different codecs, and the platform might not make it possible to brake DRM, Macrovision, plugins and other secured systems of the device?

Just as with the PMA430, Archos offered an SDK to develop stuff that could use the ARM core of the Texas Instruments DSP chip, and never let developers really use the DSP chip which does all the multimedia stuff.

Then perhaps, the next step would be Archos enabling through an SDK access to DSP stuff, such as enabling VOIP, live video-broadcasting, video-conferencing, web radio, but always making sure they keep unhacked control over DRM, Macrovision, plugins/software patents, and that Archos doesn’t facilitate any type of piracy.

I guess all this might be hard to manage, but I guess also it would be best if Archos could tap all the brain power from the software development community, perhaps even providing a monetization opportunity for people who would like to add the integration of third party software on the device and turn the Archos 4th and especially 5th generation into partly open Linux machines while still combining that with full access to all the types of secured and legal multimedia stuff that they are specialized in.

Question is, can Archos provide that balance? Can Archos prove to its partners that an official SDK doesn’t disrupt any of its contents, technological agreements, secured processes nor patent and software licensing agreements?

Apple seems to want to release their SDK environment for the iPhone and iPod Touch soon, so to counter that, I guess Archos probably should consider supporting third party software and support it with some SDK. But all that depends if Archos is able to keep its proprietary features under control and that Archos can prove that none of it should bother or disrupt any of Archos current content/technology/distribution partnerships but instead strengthen all of them.

Continue this discussion in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=11993

This could be the release of the revolutionary Archos HSDPA product that has been in preparation at the Archos R&D labs for three years.

It could be the unveiling of the product and its functionalities with or without the partnership announcements partnering with different HSDPA network providers in different countries. Rumors are it could be SFR for the HSDPA service in France. My guess or my hope is for Three of Hutchinson-Wampoa to be a partner for the UK, Australia, Italy, Sweden, Hong Kong and Denmark. Deutche Telekom could handle HSDPA service for Germany and the USA as T-Mobile.

Archos could release a product with a sim card slot for HSDPA service, still hopefully also keep the WiFi connectivity. And sell the device as is without the necessary HSDPA service plan included, so you could buy it and use any HSDPA sim card with it from any service provider in your country of your choice. http://3.dk for example in Denmark is providing a monthly 299kr (= 40€ or $58) HSDPA access plan with up to 7.2mbit/s download speed and 348kbit/s upload speed with a monthly bandwidth usage limit set at 10GB. I am very much a fan of this type of HSDPA plan. The question is, are those HSDPA networks ready to support a potentially massive usage of streaming video at high bitrates by a lot of customers who would be fascinated by this revolutionary technology.

Possible business plans:

- Archos has started selling the 605 WiFi 4GB with the DVR Station Gen5 for 1€ in France, with a 24-month 19€ per month non-cumulable content subscription to watching movies in the Archos Content Portal. Archos could very well simply use this exact same subsidizing deal to market the HSDPA powered Archos product in cooperation with the HSDPA provider who also wants to get a fair share of the overall potential product, add-ons, subsidizing, content and bandwidth revenues.

- Archos could do like Amazon does with the Kindle on the EV-DO network in the USA. They could sell the HSDPA powered device with or without a subscription that subsidizes the entry price of the bundle with the DVR Station Gen5, and subsequently charging for use of external bandwidth for browsing the Internet, downloading and streaming files that are not part of the content portal. As for the files on the Archos Content Portal, the bandwidth required to transfer those could thus be covered by the transaction required to access that content. So for example the bandwidth could be unlimited basically for streaming commercial content from the content portal, as well as the streaming that is going on might not be in full DVD quality, since that content might be re-encoded to lower bitrates and resolution suitable to view on the LCD, and suitable to save as much as possible on the HSDPA bandwidth usage. So there could be a special version of the Content Portal automatically switching depending on the HSDPA or WiFi connection being used.

- Archos could release a HSDPA Dock for all 605 WiFi users and a HSDPA firmware update to have the exact same features but in a slightly bulkier product than the product that will have the HSDPA module built-in.

I believe the HSDPA connectivity could be absolutely revolutionizing for the history of Archos in terms of the mass market appeal the product could subsequently have. Archos CEO Henri Crohas has previously hinted that making a cell phone was not a priority, but what Archos could bring with this product for the first time also is voice-over-IP on HSDPA. Which could help sell this product as a little free worldwide calling machine. “Get free worldwide phone calls”, “Use Skype”, Instant Messaging. Gmail in your pocket, remotely access and control your Archos TV+, remotely access your whole film and music file collection streamed over the Internet using a software like Orb or using an FTP server on NAS drives in your home if you have a decent upload speed, free unlimited music streaming from a built-in Flash 9 based Last.fm personalized music discovery service and on-demand music streaming and downloading over HSDPA and WiFi.

Basically, I think that the possibilities become endless with such a HSDPA product and I have been waiting for it for years. Now I am just hoping that the HSDPA providers will be enthusiastic to give such possibilities to their customers using their 3G networks which they often invested so much money in acquiring licenses for and for which they mostly haven’t yet found the ways to recoup on their investments. So hopefully many HSDPA providers will want to try to do it this way, agree to let people use VOIP on it, agree to leave the WiFi on it, agree that it supports all those codecs, resolutions and bitrates, agree to let people access any content they want over the Internet. And so many other Worlds Firsts that this device would bring. This would I also think make the Flash based Archos more usable to still have access basically to a huge music and movies collection be it your personal collection simply streamed over the Internet from online storage or from your home storage or to every single piece of music and every single movie and TV show streamed on-demand from the Internet legally from services such as the new Last.fm and an equivalent for free unlimited streaming video access.

Thanks to cajl at jbmm.fr for the tip.

In the latest investors update, Archos is confirming that their next development will be to release a HSDPA powered Archos device in collaboration with HSDPA service providers. They are also planing to phase out Mp3 players and players that are not connected to the Internet, such as the 105, 204 and 405.

These are the features which I expect from the HSDPA device, which Archos could perhaps announce at CES on January 5-11th in Las Vegas, to fit the announcement nicely just before the MacWorld, but I guess that Archos might prefer to not show it yet since it might also still be in development to integrate advanced features such as:

- VOIP if not able to convince Skype to work with them, then SIP for sure,
- GPS or somekind of mobile antenna triangulation for providing positionning services
- A more compact form factor (smaller buttons on each side of the touch-screen)
- Google Android integration for access to Android apps on HSDPA,
- WiFi should also still stay (deals can thus only be with HSDPA providers that allow WiFi and VOIP),
- Device for 1€ with a 6-12-24 month 20€ per month subscription to the Archos Content Portal and to services such as VOIP-out,
- More VOD content providers including services that provide film and music subscriptions for unlimited access to all content, possible content providers for the Content Portal in the EU, in Asia and in the USA such as Circuit City, Best Buy, WalMart, Amazon and Vongo.
- Better VOD integration, easier than through current HTML and Javascript navigation to get access to the whole web’s video content,
- Powerful Social Networking integration layers in more than just Widgets such as “Party Finder”, “Sports Meetup”, “Politics Meetup”, “Dating”, Facebook apps, Instant Messaging, Chat, Twitter/Jaiku, Open Social with GPS and more..
- Archos needs a deal with Nintendo for legal pay-per-game access to all NES and SNES games through emulation, requires buttons are on each side of the screen to provide a usable interface for gaming.

Hopefully that all current 605 WiFi owners will also have access to all these HSDPA features through firmware updates and the possible availabillity of a new HSDPA Dock that would look a bit like the Battery Dock, and comes to add HSDPA connectivity to the 5th generation. Although the next generation Archos device with built-in HSDPA will be the more compact and better optimized solution.

How soon will this device be officially unveiled and be launched around the world? I wouldn’t be able to know exactly, it may be unveiled as soon as CES, and it may not be released for many months, but I think Archos has been working on 3G integration for more than a year already, so perhaps the technology is about to be ready for them by now.

Perhaps the only barrier to launching would be interesting bandwidth deals with the established HSDPA providers that exist today in most countries. I think Archos may do it a little bit like Amazon does it with the Kindle on EV-DO. Provide the machine for an attractive price with a 20€ content subscription and the HSDPA bandwidth being included since the money to pay for that bandwidth is included in the price of the VOD content. That does require that HSDPA bandwidth will be sufficient to support video streaming, so perhaps there will be lower bitrate versions of some videos optimized for HSDPA delivery from certain VOD stores, while I guess streaming Flash video bitrates at around 300kbit/s should be ok for using on HSDPA today. Thus for access to free content, there would be a prepaid per-100mb bandwidth fee, 1€ or less per 100mb, perhaps even 1€ per GB, if that can cover HSDPA bandwidth costs, then that would make this business model very attractive.

Right now, the Archos 5th generation has the hugest potential of any consumer electronics out there. For sure the momentum is probably growing these days while more and more people are discovering the proposition. And the Archos Content Portal certainly provides huge opportunities to any of the partners that want to provide good content on it at good prices.

The streaming videos currently are launched from the browser, currently by clicking on links to videos in any format such as .avi, .wmv, .mp4, .m4v, .mov and .flv and currently only embedded .flv using up to Flash 7 video such as Youtube, Dailymotion and Google Video work just fine. Archos should add recognition of embedded .avi, .wmv and .mov to launch those formats just as it currently launches .flv such as when the embedded .flv is detected on a Youtube page.

What Archos should provide as well is a special markup language for features to work overlayed on top of the videos. Such things as chatting with other users that are watching the same video or that are in a same channel, rating of videos, changing certain viewing preferences such as choosing keywords, tags, channels, sources, formats. The rating of videos should provide a personalized video experience based on the world wide webs content available in the compatible formats. The searching technology could just be based on Google video search in the background, but also with a layer of proprietary ratings, recommendations and social networking engine.

The Archos plays Flash video from Youtube wonderfully, even though that is a bit lower than standard definition TV broadcasts, it is very watchable even on a big screen TV. The problem currently is that all those millions of Youtube videos aren’t fast and easy enough to access on the Archos Gen5. Not only because there isn’t yet a section in the Archos Content Portal with the full optimized access to Youtube through HTML and Javascript interfaces, there also isn’t yet an automated streaming web video playlist manager.

One should be able to type in a few keywords, search queries and have all the Youtube search results play one after the other automatically, without having to load any HTML pages between videos. Overlayed on top of the video should be the features such as logged-in Ratings, comments, Add to favorites and Add to playlist features. As well as a Skip button to go directly to the next video. Such a feature as the Last.fm webradio, there should be a Love and a Ban button for each video. So out of this data, Archos should be able to generate a personalized laid back Internet video experiences for each user.

It’d be nice with a user-friendly mashup engine a bit like http://zude.com which would let us take any interactive website, do somekind of code replacement mechanisms, and thus output a different version of for example http://apple.com/trailers/ which would load for example smaller pictures, and provide only direct links to the most compatible h264 encodings from there. Anyone know how we could collaborate to reformat the dynamic web to make it better fit on the Archos also in terms of reformatting the way video sources are displayed? Should Archos release an SDK for making Gen5 optimized interfaces?

And imagine the same kind of mashup system so we could be working on simple compatible versions of stage6, simplified user interfaces to make all of Youtube, Google Video, Kewego and others look as simple as the way Dailymotion looks in the Archos Content Portal.

Basically, what we need, is somekind of filter system which let’s us explain to the script where to look in the HTML code, and how to simply change the pages to make the page smaller, more user friendly on a smaller screen as well as only providing direct links to compatible videos instead of all this embedded stuff which doesn’t work and which is only suitable for large screens.

Maybe there already exists some systems like this that have been developped to let users collaboratively reformat web 2.0 to make it fit better on mobile phones, PDAs and such, and probably that there already exists filters that simply changes embedded videos into links. Most probably that filters like this are also under development for the iPhone.

You can post your tips and comments about this in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=6045

It’d be nice for Gen6 or with a bluetooth module for Gen5 to have a bluetooth watch that works as a remote control to the Archos that could stay in the pocket. The watch could have a color screen, but try to stay as thin as possible. And it would be charged overnight with a watch charger dock that could stay by the bed, and thus it could also replace the alarm clock.

Click more to see some pictures of what it could look like:
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Here while I’m waiting for the 5G to be officially unveiled on the 14th of June, this is a design I have been thinking about for the past year, so I have decided to visualise it using Google Sketchup. It is an idea for an Ebook mobule using E-Ink which I think Archos should work with http://eink.com to provide as an add-on module:

Cause what is happening with Archos is that people are more and more watching videos instead of reading newspapers and books while in transit using the public transportation. So I think this Ebook module should provide a great second screen for users who want Video, Music, Pictures and also Text in one unique pocket device.

The idea for this Ebook module is that it can flip to cover the main TFT LCD (thus the main LCD is then off), it can also flip to face inwards over the LCD thus to protect both screens, in this mode the Ebook Module doubles as a LCD protector, replacing the need for a leather case when carrying around the product in the pocket. And it can also flip underneath the Archos player, thus adding 5 millimeters underneath the Archos when in normal color TFT LCD mode.

The Ebook module accesses power, memory, processing and connectivity through the Archos module connector, but it should also have a very little on board memory, processing and power so that it can function while the main Archos battery, memory, WiFi and processor are in sleep mode. Thus the Ebook mode should function for days on one charge of the main Archos battery, while having quick wake-up from sleep mode access to all the processing, memory and connectivity of the Archos itself.

I think this E-Ink Ebook module should cost less than $200 to be popular, if possible it should include a magnetic touch-screen using a special magnetic stylus, thus one could take notes on the E-Ink screen, notes which are stored on the main Archos memory or transmitted for example directly using the main Archos WiFi connection.

In the main Archos interface, there could be a text selection, book collection, pdf documents, blog feeds, Google Gears for Google Reader, Google Gmail, Google News where content would be automatically downloaded from the Internet upon a WiFi internet connection and would be automatically added to the Ebook playlist. Thus when going to Ebook mode the whole playlist is loaded into the small Ebook memory letting the main Archos go into standby mode to save energy. A menu in the Ebook mode lets the user choose throughout some contents that are cached on the Ebook module or to wake up the main Archos to access any content from the main memory or from the Internet. Though selecting content to add to the playlist is easier from the main TFT LCD before changing into Ebook mode.