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

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.

Cliff Edwards from Businessweek reports from CES:

The Archos TV+ is a piece of equipment that houses a hard drive and connects to the television to record shows and download movies, either directly or from a network connection to a home pc, from services such as CinemaNow and Amazon Unbox.

Archos says the box will be updated later to record in HD

I think he meant to report that Archos says the box will be updated later to playback HD content.

Archos does not seem to have a regular booth at CES, so Archos probably has some private hotel meeting room or something like that somewhere, where Archos sales people can meet with US based retailers and show the latest products. We will keep you updated if we find any specific coverage of how Archos really is present at the CES 2008, and if they have any official things to say about the HD Plugin, Webradio plugin, Realmedia plugin, Opera browser update and if they have some comments about the recent Archos Hacking that has been going on. It seems Archos is mostly releasing the TV+ at this CES. This is the coverage that Archos is getting in the media and on tech news blogs:

• CNBC “Power Lunch” Broadcast – Cooley’s CES Picks - Brian Cooley of CNET showcased the ARCHOS TV+ in this TV segment as one of the Top Portable and Tangible Devices at CES this year. The segment ran today at 9:00am PST. “You can say it’s what the Apple TV should have been.” – Brian Cooley. Watch the video here

• CNN – Broadcast is also with Brian Cooley who will be showing the ARCHOS TV+ - segment will run today at 3:00pm PST.

• G4 TV Network – Broadcast will run today at 7:00pm PST and will be highlighting the ARCHOS TV+ and 705 WiFi.

• Canada’s Get Connected Radio and TV Shows – Broadcasts highlight the 705 WiFi and ARCHOS TV+. Both are scheduled to run sometime in the next day or two.

• US News & World Report – Products that Download Movies to TV. More info

• Engadget – ARCHOS TV+ WiFi-enabled DVR Gets Official. More info

• Digital Trends – ARCHOS TV+ DVR Touts WiFi. More info

• TV Squad – ARCHOS TV Gets Official: PVR + Online Video Device. More info

• SlashGear – ARCHOS TV+ is Everything the Apple TV Should Have Been. More info

• Ubergizmo – ARCHOS TV+ Wireless DVR, Media Hub. More info

• PC Mag – It is safe to call the ARCHOS TV+ a groundbreaking product. More info

• CNET – ARCHOS TV+ Wireless DVR, Media Hub. More info

Rémi Durand, who I also interviewed at IFA 2007, talks with Dave Graveline about the Gen5 at IFA 2007 which was a couple of weeks ago.

Found at ArchosLounge.net

Interview with Rémi Durand, Archos products manager and marketing director at IFA 2007 on the 4th of September in Berlin Germany. This video explains a lot of things about the Gen5, the new business model of the Archos Content Portal, the flash support, widgets, HD, the battery dock and more. This was filmed as a part of a bunch of interviews that I filmed of all the best companies and products that I could find at IFA 2007 and I am posting all the videos at http://techvideoblog.com/ifa/?year=2007

DivX HD: Play, Download, Stage6

Flash versions: Blip, Facebook, Google, Metacafe, Photobucket, Putfile, Revver, Sevenload, Veoh, Vimeo, Vsocial, Yahoo, Youtube

Archos compatible downloads: avi from Metacafe - avi from Blip

You can discuss this video in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?t=6547

Presenting the 704 Wi-Fi and the 204 for the first time on the Internet in High Definition. As you can see in this video, the 704 Wi-Fi has an amazingly good 7 inch 800×480 resolution touch-screen, the 204 is the cheapest and smallest 20GB mp3 player on the market. No confirmation yet if there will be features added in firmware like webradio, IPTV, VOD, HSDPA drivers, USB-keyboard drivers.. No confirmation about those features becomming available with the 4th generation or if they might not come before the 5th generation.

Watch the High Definition version: Play - Download

Those AV500E and AV700E have been released a year ago, though there is still no equivalent in terms of being able to transfer recorded DVR content easilly over on a PMP:

Google Video (5m58s) Play Download Page

HD (154mb) BitTorrent Play Download

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Check more of my video coverage from CES 2007 at http://ces2007.video-blog.eu

A long and interesting interview with Archos Products Manager Rémi Durand at IFA 2006 in Berlin about the Archos 604 Wi-Fi. This device is amazing. It is a powerfull multimedia device to enjoy video-on-demand on the go using Wi-Fi, as well as it comes with an Opera browser, shoutcast webradios, music on demand, IPTV for streaming video at home and on the go.

Google Video (17m02s) Play Download Page

HD (447mb) BitTorrent Play Download

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Archos has a nice booth at IFA 2006. Showing the 504 which is a 160GB PMP, the 604 with a 4.3″ screen, probably the best quality screen on any portable multimedia devices. The 404 which is a very small and thin PMP but still has a large 3.5″ screen. When we were about to film an interview with a representative demonstrating their 604 Wifi and 404 Camcorder, they had to go and receive an award for second most favourite Mp3 player in Germany after the ipod. So I will film the interview and provide you with information about the 604 Wifi and more exclusive information about its Browser and IP centric possibillities will be explained on a next video to be made available here.

Google Video (9m16s) Play Download Page

HD (243mb) BitTorrent Play Download

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