Archos unveils the 70b Internet Tablet packing Honeycomb for a dirt cheap £180

Tablets are expensive. Americans know this all too well, as many of them are still saddled with mostly unnecessary carrier contracts – see the recent DROID XYBOARD 10.1 and 8.2. That’s what makes devices like the Kindle Fire and Nook Tablet so popular. But it could be worse, yankees: over the pond in the UK, most tablets cost at least as much in pounds. Throw in a nasty conversion rate and Value Added Tax, and the £400 Galaxy Tab 7.0 Plus becomes a whopping $750 equivalent. Archos, ever ready to strike at the budget-conscious segment, is preparing its latest 7-inch tablet at a price well below the UK median.

The Archos 70b Internet Tablet will sell for just £179.99, about which works out to about $340 after taxes. Considering that tablets are primarily media consumption devices (which is a polite way of saying “toys”), a lower price is always preferable. For that price, you get a WiFi Honeycomb 3.2 tablet with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 screen, a 1.2Ghz processor and access to the Android Market and Google’s other proprietary apps. 512Mb of RAM means that it should perform much better than the older Archos 70, though that’s still a little pokey for Honeycomb. Storage space isn’t mentioned, so it will probably be available in multiple capacities. Archos’ press release did not mention an Ice Cream Sandwich upgrade, but industrious modders will probably have a version ready soon enough. The 70b Internet Tablet is not to be confused with the previous Archos 70b eReader.

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Archos 35 home connect now available

Honestly, we had expected the thing to be here before now. If you have been counting the days until you could get your hands on the device, it is now available at retail. If you don’t remember what the thing was all about, I doubt you are alone considering it has been about half a year since we fiddled with the gadget.

The Archos 35 home connects a little music box that is meant to sit on your nightstand or a desk. It can be used in other places too. It uses WiFi and offers web radio and alarm clock functionality to wake you to MP3s or web radio if you want. The device is customizable and allows the user to put apps on it that they want to use.
Archos promises that the sound quality is good and the device has a headphone jack and a touchscreen for navigation. You can pick one up directly from Archos or other web stores for $149.99. Chris at SlashGear did note in his hands-on that it felt a bit plasticy and cheap.
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Android 4.0 hitting Archos G9 tablets in Q1 2012

Both Archos G9 tablets should see Android 4.0 (Ice Cream Sandwich) in Q1 of next year. A successful update to ICS will not only make Archos look like an even more reliable manufacturer, but also show its customers they want their products to be the best they can be. Android 4.0 will bring a wealth of UI changes and help the G9 series compete with other tablets after the holidays.

Those of you looking to pick up one of the “turbo” editions, you will find them on sale just before Christmas for ~$469. These are already available in Europe, and sport a 1.2GHz TI OMAP dual-core processor and 512MB of RAM. The 10.1 version will have a 1280×800 resolution and 16GB of storage. It’s rather surprising Archos would charge so much for these particular devices, because the specs are almost already outdated. They are even close to Apple’s iPad 2 pricetag.
To take a look at its build and dimensions, go ahead and check out our hands-on from SlashGear. Its a very solid device, and though it won’t receive Android 4.0 until Q1- the included Android 3.2 is still a rock solid OS. Although, I advice waiting for the turbo version if you’re set on purchasing an Archos, they’re bound to perform better in every way.
[via The Verge]

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Archos shows off official Ice Cream Sandwich on 101 G9 tablet

Well lookie here: Archos isn’t letting anyone beat it to the Ice Cream Sandwich party. The French hardware company showed off an early build of Android 4.0 running on its economical 101 G9 tablet. The latest build from earlier today is demonstrated on what looks like a retail unit. Archos is planning on releasing the update sometime in Q1 2012.

From the demonstration, it looks like Ice Cream Sandwich is running extremely well on the 10-inch tablet, with nary a stutter or hiccup in its performance. By now we’re pretty familiar with the ICS tablet interface (basically a cleaner, faster version of Honeycomb) but this is a nice confirmation of other sources, like Nvidia’s demonstration of the Transformer Prime. It still needs a little work to get to a lag free experience, but you can see that Archos is well on its way.For the most part, ICS seems to be clean and free of bloatware.
For Ice Cream and French accents, check out the video below:




If you’re tempted by new software on current hardware, the 10-inch G9 tablet is currently going for about $350 at most retail locations. Extensive codec support and low price makes Archos a favorite among Android enthusiasts, so you’re likely to see a lot of community-authored ICS builds both before and after the official release.
[via ARMdevices.net]

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Archos 101 G9 “Turbo” 1.2 GHz dual-core Honeycomb Tab now available

We’ve been following Archos and their line of cheap and affordable budget Android tablets but lately their entire naming scheme is getting out of control. Today we have learned the new Archos 101 G9 “Turbo” edition is available now — in Europe. We got our first glance at the new Archos G9 series a few months back featuring a 1.0 GHz dual-core processor and Android Honeycomb. Today they’ve released the same devices only with the addition of “Turbo” to the name with a faster 1.2 GHz TI OMAP dual-core processor.

They have the G9, the G9 Turbo, the Arnova series, and even a G9 G2 was seen at the FCC. Without getting you confused basically the original Archos 80 and 101 G9 series have now been improved with a faster dual-core processor and can be bought over in Europe with the title “Turbo” in the name — fun stuff right.
For a closer look at these budget tablets you can enjoy our Archos 80 G9 hands-on and unboxing to give you an idea of what to expect. The build quality may not be the best but you get an awesome tablet for a low price. Now they have a 1.2 GHz dial-core and Android 3.2 Honeycomb these make for a pretty good alternative to more expensive items available. With a 10.1″ 1280 x 800 resolution display and 16GB of internal storage you wont be missing any features from more expensive devices, although we only have 512MB of RAM on the Archos tablets instead of 1GB like the others. They also have a 1.5 GHz version in the works coming later this month but we are still awaiting more details on that front.

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Archos Arnova 7b and 10b G2 specs released

Official specifications of the Archos Arnova 7b and 10b G2 tablets have been released, and these economically savvy devices look to be decently equipped. Both tablets will ship with Android 2.3 (Gingerbread) on-board and available in 8GB and 4GB storage options. Front facing welcomes are included in both models, and they also include micro SD slots for expanding storage by up to 32GB.

Both will be powered by a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 single core processor; though not the most powerful tablets on the block, they should be fine running most applications smoothly. The Archos Arnova 7B G2 will last up to 8 hours and 40 minutes during video playback – 40 minutes longer on a single charge than the 10″ model. The 10B G2 will sport a TFT LCD supporting 16 million colors and a 1024×600 pixel resolution while the 7″ settles for a lower 800×480 resolution.

These slates will be excellent for watching movies in full HD, and have very decent specs for their low price tags. Surprising enough, you can actually choose if you would rather a capacitive or resistive touchscreen! I couldn’t imaging choosing a resistive touchscreen over capacitive, but I’m also sure there’s someone out there who would.
[via Notebook Italia]

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Archos Arnova 9 G2 budget-friendly tablet revealed

Honeycomb may be all the rage with Archos’ top of the line tablets, but they never miss an opportunity to make good with the low end as well. Behold the Arnova 9 G2, a Gingerbread 9.7-inch affair with tablet-friendly modifications to Android. Even so, the tablet packs in some respectable hardware with a 1Ghz ARM processor and 8 gigabytes of built-in storage.

In a strange move, the Arnova 9 G2 has a 4:3, 1024 x 768 LCD screen, just like the one found on the iPad and HP Touchpad. That’s a departure from the majority of Android phones and tablets, which use a 16:9 or 16:10 ratio. Because of the lower pixel density for a panel of that size and resolution, it’s probably a lot cheaper to manufacture than the ones we’re more used to seeing. Naturally WiFi is the only wireless option, though Archos continues its tradition of expandability with a microSD card slot, micro and full-size USB ports.As with most Gingerbread tablets, Google services and Android Market access are nowhere to be seen.
Gingerbread may be a buzzkill now that Ice Cream Sandwich is well and truly here, but Archos has a vibrant community of modders, so you can expect to see an ICS ROM show up once the Arnova is released. On that note, there’s no pricing or availability info just yet, but expect it to be considerably less than the already cheap G9 Honeycomb tablets. We’ll be keeping an eye out for other sizes in the Arnova G2 series.
[via Slashgear]

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Archos G9 tablets receiving another firmware update

The recently released Archos G9 tablets have only been on the market a short period and they are already receiving a few firmware updates from Archos. It’s nice to see them working so quickly to bring updates to their tablets and we can only hope the same applies for Ice Cream Sandwich. The Archos 80 G9 went on sale last month and received its first OTA firmware update early this month. Today Archos informed us another just 14 days later is available now for download.

Earlier in the month the update brought tons of new features such as native Google Talk with video chat and some improved memory management, it also fixed a few issues and bugs some early adopters were having. Today the update takes the Archos G9 series 80 and 101 tablets from firmware 3.2.46 to the latest version 3.2.56 and is available right now by checking for updates on your device. Archos said to just hit yes and enjoy the latest update, according to their Twitter and Facebook pages.
The new firmware improvements and features are:
– Further improved memory management
– Additional user agents available in browser settings
– Faster wifi reconnect after sleep/disconnect
– As well as many minor fixes and improvements
The big one here is the memory management. While we have a dual-core 1.0 GHz OMAP 4 processor on the Archos, we sadly only have 512MB of RAM and for that they’ve enhanced the memory management to keep things running smoothly. They’ve included their own application task killer, something I’ve not used since my G1 and claim that should help performance but on a dual-core tablet we shouldn’t have to use those anyways. We’ll take all the memory management and improvements we can get at this point. They also mention the low battery warning wont be so obnoxious and intrusive.
As usual you can manually go to settings > about tablet > check for updates to get the new firmware rolling — as well as manually download and update right from Archos.com and a full list of the change-log can be found by clicking here. Feel free to leave us any comments below regarding your experience with the new firmware. Enjoy!

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Archos 80 and 101 G9 Tablets receiving firmware update

The brand new Archos G9 Honeycomb tablets have only been out a short time and Archos has already started pushing a firmware OTA update to the devices. The new update from Archos fixes plenty of bugs, and adds some new features like Google Talk so head on past the break for full details.

The Archos G9 tablets are their first entry into the Honeycomb tablet game and are aiming at the low priced segment. Our hands-on (linked to above) shows plenty of the new tablet from Archos and our full review is coming shortly. Like most updates it adds a number of features and fixes a number of bugs. Here are a few of the highlights right from Archos:
-Google talk is now part of the firmware and comes pre-loaded.
-Improved volume control (better volume range, less glitches on notifications) leading to faster gaming experience on some 3rd party applications
-Improved camera quality in high and low light condition
-Added Flash acceleration support
-Better quality SD video upscaling (e.g. on 1080p display)
-Improved memory management for smaller memory footprint
-more
For more information you can head over to the Archos support page and see all the changes in the change-log by clicking here.

The latest Archos Firmware version 3.2.46 is available now for those who already own the Archos G9 tablet and can be updated right from the device. Head to menu > settings > about tablet > then just hit “Firmware Update” and start the download. It should only take but a few minutes and upon rebooting you should be on firmware version 3.2.46 and be able to enjoy all the bug fixes, Google Talk and more.

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Archos and TigerDirect build cheap, custom tablets for publishers

It was estimated in 2009 that if the New York Times sent every one of its paying subscribers a free Amazon Kindle, they would still save half the cost of physically printing and delivering the newspaper every day. It looks like Archos and TigerDirect are taking that thought experiment into the real world. They’ve begun a program that lets publishers customize and brand an Android tablet to their subscribers’ needs, then subsidize the cost of the tablet for cheap, efficient e-reading.

The first model of the tablet appears to be a heavily modified version of on one of Archos’ 10-inch tablets. It features a webcam and (I suppose) a wifi connection for reloading regular content. The program, named PubTab, utilizes Archos’ manufacturing expertise and TigerDirect’s customer support infrastructure.

So far only one publisher has jumped on board: Philadelphia Media Network Inc., owner of Philly.com and various local print publications. Their version of the tablet features four apps that automatically fetch the latest daily or weekly version of the print magazine they’re paired with. The concept is and interesting one, and as electronics become more inexpensive and powerful, expect similar ventures to start popping up in all sorts of industries. The New York Times may not be abandoning its paper pages for many years, but when it does, you might just be holding an NYT-branded e-reader.

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Archos G9 Honeycomb tablets hit pre-order September 20th

The upcoming Android 3.2 Honeycomb tablets from popular maker Archos are set to finally be available for pre-order soon. The new G9 tablet series was first announced in June, then quickly spotted on video a few days later. New details have confirmed they will both be available for pre-order starting September 20th.

This is the new G9 series offering both the Archos 80 and the 101, one being an 8″ Android 3.2 tablet and the other a 10.1″ standard sized tablet.  With optional 3G/4G modem stick slots and extended storage up to 250GB in hard drive space these offer both a competitive price, and unique features most tablets don’t have to offer.
Both tablets feature dual-core processors and Android 3.2 Honeycomb combined with a slim package and much better viewing angles compared to previous Archos products. The Archos 80 G9 8GB series will start at $299 and is now available for pre-order and the rest should be available shortly at popular online retailers such as Amazon, Newegg, and more starting September 30th. Other model pricing has also been revealed at:
ARCHOS 80 G9 16GB – 1.5 GHz at $329
ARCHOS 80 G9 250GB – 1.5 GHz at $369
ARCHOS 101 G9 16GB – 1.5 GHz at $399
ARCHOS 101 G9 250GB – 1.5 GHz at $469
We will be sure to get some more hands-on with these in the near future and check out all that Archos has to offer.
[via Engadget]

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Archos' Arnova 7 G2 and 10 G2 tablets launch in Hong Kong, taste like Gingerbread

8-incher at the FCC, and now our brethren at Engadget Chinese are offering up a hands-on with two more second-gen Arnovas: the Arnova 7 G2 and 10 G2. These made-over slates best their predecessors with Gingerbread and capacitive touchscreens. The original 7-inch tablet ran Froyo while its big brother came with Eclair; both sported resistive displays. The pair will also see a spec bump in the processor department, with the inclusion of a 1GHz ARM Cortex-A8 -- likely the same processor found in their 8-inch sibling. While we do have Hong Kong pricing -- HK$1,680 (or $215 US) and HK$1,980 (about $250 US) -- we've yet to land a release date. So, for now, we'll just stick with "coming soon to a retailer near you?" If the wait is too much to bear, hop on past the break for some hands-on love from our Chinese counterparts.

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