Archos is releasing a whole bunch of new cheap Mp3 and Mp4 players at the CeBIT 2010 consumer electronics show. Here is an overview of most of the new ones. It enables Archos to position itself as a low-cost provider of Mp3 players, with really good affordable value for retailers and to position the Archos brand broader on the market, interest people in then also checking out Archos higher end Android devices.

Follow my full CeBIT 2010 video coverage at my other site http://ARMdevices.net

Here’s a 4.3″ Archos PMP, it will playback most video formats and be sold for only 99€ in Europe. This may be one of the cheapest 4.3″ touch screen PMP devices on the European and US market.

Follow my full CeBIT 2010 video coverage at my other site http://ARMdevices.net

$179… 7-inch… New Archos Android Tablet… !!!

This is optimized for low power (up to 7 hours video playback on the battery), lower cost Android multimedia tablet features.

It is powered by a 600mhz Rockchip 2808 processor, does web browsing pretty well (for an ARM9 processor) and plays all video codecs at up to 720p video playback (at up to limited 2500kbit/s bitrates for 720p).

Archos is going to try to sell this device in all retail stores of the world at only $179 in the USA and 149€ in Europe (because European countries have more taxes they don’t just convert Euro prices to US Dollar prices), it may quickly become a best-seller and I think it is a great very low-cost alternative to the iPad.

For advanced users that absolutely want the fastest OMAP3440 ARM Cortex A8 800mhz processor, there is the Archos 5 Internet Tablet available today below $249 at Radio Shack http://www.radioshack.com/product/index.jsp?productId=3843254 or you might want to wait another few months (I am speculating) for Archos to release the next generations of ARM Cortex A8 or ARM Cortex A9 based tablet devices (probably also for a bit more expensive than this Home Tablet series) at all different screen sizes (I speculate and the interviews around the web point to clues towards from 3″ to 10″ Android Tablets starting at $100…)

For now, this Archos 7 Home Tablet is being released this next month or by May already and at this amazingly low $179 price for the 2GB version with MicroSD card slot. There will also be a 8GB version and maybe larger capacities for slightly more expensive. It also has a mini-jack to composite video-output using the headphones jack and micro-USB to USB host features built-in. The built-in stereo speakers are very decent for movie watching and the 7″ 800×480 resistive touch-screen is just very fine and does allow for fast text input.

Archos is still working on the Android software optimizations, it comes with special video player, audio player and file explorer applications by default. My guess is that the Google Marketplace could be hacked to work onto it by the open development community at http://forum.archosfans.com

Also, my expectation is that Google will release an Android 2.2 or so version which will provide the full Google Marketplace experience on all large screen Android Tablets and even on Android Laptop form factors and also to provide such for lower cost platforms than the latest ARM Cortex based ones. See my interview with Andy Rubin and Eric Schmidt about those speculations: http://armdevices.net/2010/02/22/i-interviewed-eric-schmidt-and-andy-rubin-at-mwc-off-camera-for-now-watch-eric-schmidts-keynote-video/

Here are some pictures of this device (click to see full sized version on Picasa):

You can discuss this video at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=59&t=31278

Related articles by Zemanta

• Archos has couple of Android-powered tablets in the pipeline (ubergizmo.com)
• Video Review of Hivision’s $100 ARM-Based Android Laptop (linux.slashdot.org)
• Archos Home Slate set to grace CeBIT with its family-friendly presence (engadget.com)

Check back within a couple of days, we will be providing you with full video coverage of all the Archos news from CeBIT 2010 right here on http://ArchosFans.com.

You will also be able to find about 50 videos of the best products shown at CeBIT 2010 on my other website http://ARMdevices.net.

You can discuss this video-coverage at http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=31264

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)

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

It’s been a bit more than a couple of weeks already since CES was over and I filmed 75 videos there for my site http://armdevices.net, I finally found the video file on one of my backup hard drives that I took of Archos 9 being featured at the Intel booth. I was told by other bloggers that the Archos 9 was featured at the Microsoft booth as well just 5 meters from Intel.

You can discuss this video in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=50&t=30053

And here is what you can find in all Radio Shack stores in the USA, the Archos 5 Internet Tablet (8GB) selling right there for a very affordable $249 price. If Archos markets this device the right way and provides a perfect Android firmware for it with full Google Marketplace integration, and soon announce 3G and 7″ versions and solutions for Camera and Compass, I think Archos has a huge opportunity right there to make a very big influence on the market.

You can follow my extensive HD quality video coverage from CES on http://armdevices.net during the next few days.

I am going to CES in Las Vegas on January 4th to 11th to film an extensive HD quality video coverage for my new site http://armdevices.net. I expect this CES to be an awesome one with many new ARM Powered Laptops, Tablets and Phones to be unveiled. But I am also, of course, very much looking forward to film for you some videos of the new Archos products that will be shown at the show.

While I am looking forward to see new Archos products unveiled officially at the CES, I would like to post here some of my speculations on what I expect we could see demonstrated and announced by Europe’s best consumer electronics company, Archos, during this CES event, that I would recommend them to show if they want to be again the Best of CES which Archos was several times since back in 2003 with the AV100. I would like to emphasize that those speculations are only based on my common sense and logical thinking, I have not been informed by any Archos insiders on these matters, I have followed every piece of news and rumors on Archos during the past months and years though, which helps me to formulate following speculations:

OMAP3640 and OMAP4?
Archos may announce products based on Texas Instruments 1ghz OMAP3640 or even Texas Instruments OMAP4 ARM Cortex A9 platforms. That is, if OMAP3640 is as I would speculate it to be, the next compatible Texas Instruments processor that Archos could easily implement in next generation of products without having to change the software, to thus achieve the 1ghz that Archos has previously announced would be shown in a new product at CES.

The advantages of the OMAP3640 are as far as I understand it not only the faster clock speed at 1ghz versus 800mhz, it is also the finer processor processed at 45 nanometer instead of 65 nanometer. Which means that this new Texas Instruments processor may be slightly smaller and consume less energy even though it would be more powerful. Which means Archos devices may achieve longer battery time and produce less heat with this processor.

If Archos decides to pre-announce the next generation based on ARM Cortex A9 processors of Texas Instruments OMAP4 platform, that could be a strategical decision of Archos to announce products that may not be available for 6 to 9 months. But in case Apple also announces a Tablet, this early Cortex A9 based announcement by Archos may be appropriate to continue to lead in terms of announcements.

A built-in mini-HDMI port would be nice. A custom design of a foldable keyboard to cover the screen would be cool to transform it as well into a Laptop form factor and if well designed the thin foldable keyboard could double as a screen protector instead of a leather case.

Pixel Qi screen?
While it would be unlikely that Archos will anounce any new product with the Pixel Qi screen, I would absolutely recommend Archos to consider contacting Pixel Qi to have their sunlight readable low power ereader LCD screen technology integrated in all Archos tablet products as soon as possible. Pixel Qi will only provide 10.1″ screen sizes for a start, but 4.8″ and 7″ sizes may be coming soon as well. I filmed Pixel Qi technology at Computex: http://armdevices.net/2009/06/07/pixel-qi-vs-kindle-vs-toshiba-r600-vs-regular-lcd-tablet/. In my opinion the perfect Archos 5 Android Tablet would use a Pixel Qi screen, this way transforming it into a Kindle as well, enabling one to read books and read blogs, emails and websites comfortably for hours on a battery, and have better use of it outdoors. Together with the Pixel Qi, capacitative touch screen technology would probably be required for optimal quality of the screen.

Built-in 3G, Compass and Camera
I would like to see Archos announce a version of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet, not only with the new 1ghz processor, but also with it having a built-in HSDPA sim card reader like on last year’s Archos 5G model which was only released to few consumers in France and the UK. The announcement of Archos of this 3G model also having a built-in compass and camera would be really nice and would thus make it totally compatible with most Android applications. I would really like to have Augmented Reality applications, Youtube uploading and live video broadcasting working on it.

Less screen bezel
Although the current Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android I think has a pretty awesome design already, the flash based model is amazingly thin and light, I would still like it to have even less bezel around the screen. It would be nice if Archos could keep the same sized screen but somehow make the device even more compact. The goal would be for the whole device keeping the same awesome 4.8″ 800×480 screen size yet to have a total device size closer to the size of all the existing 3.5″ and 3.7″ phones.

7″ Android Tablet
My guess is that it should not require too much work for Archos to provide all the Archos Android features in a 7″ sized tablet. Just as Archos has been able to do it every year since 2005 with the AV700, AV704, Archos 705 and Archos 7. Basically the 7″ Archos Android tablet should include all the same features as the 4.8″ version, just with a larger screen, usually more storage and a larger battery. Perhaps Archos would manage to include a higher resolution screen, perhaps 1024×600 or something like that which may be really awesome for web browsing. I would expect the 1ghz processor in this one, an amazingly thin form factor keeping enough battery for 10 hours of web browsing. For Archos to announce a 7″ Android tablet would provide Archos with huge attention from the press and media so it would be worth it just from a marketing perspective even if the launch of such 7″ Android tablet may not actually happen until March or so. A built-in full sized HDMI port would be nice. A custom design of a foldable keyboard to cover the screen would be cool to transform it as well into a Laptop form factor and if well designed could double as a screen protector instead of a leather case.

4.3″ Android Tablet instead of the Archos Phone
The Archos Phone might still be shown, though I would much prefer a basic Archos Android Tablet version with a 4.3″ screen. Thus it would be very compact, Flash memory based only and I think it could be announced for a very very cheap price. Perhaps as little as $150 or $200. Then I think Archos should be able to provide a 3G HSDPA version as well.

I prefer Archos VOIP to Archos Phone
Although it may very well happen that Archos will launch an Archos Phone in partnership with several international telecom carriers, where you pay some unreasonably huge amount of money over a 2-year contract to use it. I would though much much prefer if somehow Archos decided to instead focus on what it does best, focus on the Tablet aspect and instead make a really big splash and announce that Archos will optimize all the firmwares to support the best possible Android VOIP applications and support those in the best possible way. Supporting VOIP perfectly is not a small and easy task. I for example have not yet really been able to experience suitable Android VOIP experience on my Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android. The way Archos should implement VOIP is by supporting VOIP standby by hardware and firmware. Meaning, using very little battery, the Archos should be able to constantly be available on a VOIP version of Google Voice, on Skype, on SIP networks and on Google Talk and other voice-enabled Instant Messaging platforms. Sure, the VOIP part are all done in Android applications that some are available and others probably will be available soon for Android. On the other side though, Archos would really need to implement very optimized power management to be able to go into deep but connected standby and be able to *ring* on incoming phone calls.

My hope is that Archos can announce more than 20 hours of connected standby in this mode. What this would mean is that one can save tons of $$$ by using Archos for VOIP instead of using a regular phone with very expensive phone subscriptions. I think Archos would profit much more from disrupting the telecom industry than by simply playing the same game as all the other phone manufacturers. If some telecoms try to block VOIP usage on their 3G networks, then that should not be Archos problem, that should quickly become the telecom’s own problem because Archos should then help to point out which telecoms are behaving badly and public pressure maybe even Government intervention through Net Neutrality regulations would prevent VOIP drop-outs and bandwidth throttling from happening.

Android 1.6 firmware release
My expectation is that Archos will soon be able to release the Android 1.6 firmware update. With it, Google will hopefully allow Archos to include the Google Marketplace by default. Really, I find that there would be absolutely no reason for Google not to authorize it at that point. Android 1.6 and 2.0 officially provide the support for 800×480 screen resolutions.

Android 2.0 firmware announcement
Perhaps only a few weeks or so after the Android 1.6 firmware update, I expect Archos may already have a 2.0 firmware update available. This Android 2.0 firmware update would also come with full Flash 10.1 support, that is if Adobe manages to make it available by then.

Archos 9 pctablet broad release
Something may have delayed the full release of the Intel powered Archos 9 pctablet. My guess is that the issue may have been related to a BIOS bug related to the way Archos is implementing the Intel Atom processor for the first time in this exact type of form factor. Also, perhaps that Microsoft has contributed a few software fixes to the Archos 9 tablet experience over the past few weeks. For example, perhaps that Microsoft is contemplating to include cheaper access to the Windows 7 Tablet features to the Windows 7 Starter Edition that Archos includes on the tablet to save costs. In either way, if Windows 7 Tablet features only come on the more expensive Ultimate edition (or however it’s called), perhaps Archos could announce that consumers may have an official way to upgrade for a specific fee to a different version of Windows 7 if they so choose to. Releasing the Archos 9 broadly worldwide should provide Archos with plenty of good and enthusiastic press coverage and enthusiasm from fans of Intel based tablets.

I think Archos should announce ARM Powered laptops
Archos has done some Intel powered netbooks. Now I think would be the appropriate time for Archos to announce that they will also design and release some ARM Cortex powered laptops as well! Although for Archos the timing may be a bit early to announce any ARM Cortex powered Laptops, I am sure Archos will do it eventually. I am really going to be looking forward to all the ARM Powered laptops that will be shown at CES and follow all my videos of those that I will post to my new site http://armdevices.net

Archos to unveil cheaper Android devices
I think Archos may show a new generation of the Archos 3, 4, 5 and 7 Vision which may all use Android and WiFi, yet they may not come with GPS, Bluetooth and only be PMP centric and provide provide only basic WiFi functions. Thus the Archos 3 Vision Android would be sold at $80, Archos 4 Vision Android at $100, Archos 5 Vision Android $125 and Archos 7 Vision Android $150. Those may all come with 8GB built-in storage and a SD card memory slot for storage expansion.

You can discuss these speculations in the forum: http://forum.archosfans.com/viewtopic.php?f=47&t=28779

Related articles by Zemanta

• Android Market VoIP by Fring (techstartups.com)
• Google Acquires VoIP Company Gizmo5 (ubergizmo.com)
• Fring launches video VoIP for mobile (venturebeat.com)
• Archos phone tablet teased: Android, 4.3-inch touschscreen, 1GHz ARM processor (engadget.com)
• Chip designer ARM leads Android alliance (news.cnet.com)
• In bid to upstage Intel, Arm boosts processor speed (infoworld.com)
• Skype CEO to Keynote the 2010 CES Leaders in Technology Dinner (share.skype.com)

Geek superstar Chris Pirillo films this video review of the Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android, after I had met him at LeWeb conference in Paris last week (where I filmed several video interviews). He didn’t yet hack it for the Android Marketplace, but he likes that one doesn’t need to subscribe to a telecom carrier to experience Android (only $249 for the 8GB at RadioShack.com), he mentions the large screen, Youtube HD playback and other of the exclusive features:

Related articles by Zemanta

• Android OS on an Archos Tablet (chris.pirillo.com)