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With a rating of 3/5 stars from 70 Amz reviewers? [ http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Internet-Tablet-Android/dp/B002OL2PLU http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Inter

With a rating of 3/5 stars from 70 Amz reviewers? [ http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Internet-Tablet-Android/dp/B002OL2PLU http://www.amazon.com/Archos-32-Internet-Tablet-Android/dp/B... ] Maybe not. Or... maybe tech-no-media just didn't tell me about all the publisher relationships that 'droid manufacturers have been developing (à la Steve Jobs since January). It's not just the "cool" of the hardware that Apple plans to leverage - it's the store and retail relationships.

jrockway 17y ago
The 5" was a beta program that the users had to pay $400 to participate in. And oh yeah, nobody was told that before paying the $400. Needless to say, not all the Amazon reviewers were too happy about that. The reality is, Archos fixed the problems, and now that tablet is basically a desktop machine in terms of web browsing and video playing ability. You can connect a keyboard and mouse (for writing HN posts), if you want, and you can output and record 720p video / 5.1 channel audio. (And it plays real-world video formats, not just what Apple sells in its video store.) Honestly, I thought Archos was quite clueless when they released the 5" device, but they are doing better now. I emailed them asking why their media player app couldn't display Japanese fonts, and the next firmware update had a Japanese font. Of course, I would have been a lot happier if I had write access to my own filesystem... then I could have added it myself. I would also like documentation / code for controlling the DSP chip, so I can write a media player app that doesn't suck. Archos has kept the same codebase on all their devices, and while the video decoding works OK now, the UI code is just horrible. I think the whole app is a bunch of if statements like "if( volume > 0 && headphones_attached && phase_of_moon == FullMoon && ... )". Sometimes they forget to cover all the conditions, and weird stuff happens. (To be cynical, I doubt we will ever see the tools we need to write a good media player app, and that Archos will eventually be dead from buggy software and obscurity. If that happens, hopefully someone else will release a Linux-based music/video player, because I am tired of Apple dominating this market.) Or... maybe tech-no-media just didn't tell me about all the publisher relationships that 'droid manufacturers have been developing (à la Steve Jobs since January). Nobody is buying the iPad for the ebooks. You don't want to read a book on an LCD screen. But oddly, it seems that Amazon is deliberately shunning Android with their Kindle app. It works on Windows, Blackberry, and iPhone... but not on Android. WTF, Amazon? How hard is it to display plain text on a screen? (My DRM-stripped Amazon ebooks work fine in the stock browser.)
- DenisM 17y ago
  I participated in another $400 beta from Archos back in 2000. I see they didn't change much since then - it all looks very familiar. Later on someone developed an open-source firmware for the Archos mp3 player, so there is hope.
  - jrockway 17y ago
    Yeah. I thought I would give them another chance, but they are trying to be as controlling as Apple without having the ability to do it. They say they can't allow arbitrary firmware reflashes (or root access) because they want to sell DRM'd content. Well, their content library is like one home video. It sucks and reflects poorly on their company and shareholders. (Same with their DRM'd games and other crap.) It's time for them to realize, "we're not Apple", and to stop acting like Apple. Archos is a hardware company, but like many other hardware companies, don't get software. So they should just let the community write the software for them. (Remember Sony? They made awesome hardware, but their consistently bad software did in all their consumer electronics that run software.) Archos now lets you flash Angstrom Linux instead of Android, but the image they provide is just horrible. They seem like they're trying to improve, but sadly, I don't think they are ever going to make it.

jrockway 17y ago

The 5" was a beta program that the users had to pay $400 to participate in. And oh yeah, nobody was told that before paying the $400. Needless to say, not all the Amazon reviewers were too happy about that. The reality is, Archos fixed the problems, and now that tablet is basically a desktop machine in terms of web browsing and video playing ability. You can connect a keyboard and mouse (for writing HN posts), if you want, and you can output and record 720p video / 5.1 channel audio. (And it plays real-world video formats, not just what Apple sells in its video store.) Honestly, I thought Archos was quite clueless when they released the 5" device, but they are doing better now. I emailed them asking why their media player app couldn't display Japanese fonts, and the next firmware update had a Japanese font. Of course, I would have been a lot happier if I had write access to my own filesystem... then I could have added it myself. I would also like documentation / code for controlling the DSP chip, so I can write a media player app that doesn't suck. Archos has kept the same codebase on all their devices, and while the video decoding works OK now, the UI code is just horrible. I think the whole app is a bunch of if statements like "if( volume > 0 && headphones_attached && phase_of_moon == FullMoon && ... )". Sometimes they forget to cover all the conditions, and weird stuff happens. (To be cynical, I doubt we will ever see the tools we need to write a good media player app, and that Archos will eventually be dead from buggy software and obscurity. If that happens, hopefully someone else will release a Linux-based music/video player, because I am tired of Apple dominating this market.) Or... maybe tech-no-media just didn't tell me about all the publisher relationships that 'droid manufacturers have been developing (à la Steve Jobs since January). Nobody is buying the iPad for the ebooks. You don't want to read a book on an LCD screen. But oddly, it seems that Amazon is deliberately shunning Android with their Kindle app. It works on Windows, Blackberry, and iPhone... but not on Android. WTF, Amazon? How hard is it to display plain text on a screen? (My DRM-stripped Amazon ebooks work fine in the stock browser.)

DenisM 17y ago
I participated in another $400 beta from Archos back in 2000. I see they didn't change much since then - it all looks very familiar. Later on someone developed an open-source firmware for the Archos mp3 player, so there is hope.
- jrockway 17y ago
  Yeah. I thought I would give them another chance, but they are trying to be as controlling as Apple without having the ability to do it. They say they can't allow arbitrary firmware reflashes (or root access) because they want to sell DRM'd content. Well, their content library is like one home video. It sucks and reflects poorly on their company and shareholders. (Same with their DRM'd games and other crap.) It's time for them to realize, "we're not Apple", and to stop acting like Apple. Archos is a hardware company, but like many other hardware companies, don't get software. So they should just let the community write the software for them. (Remember Sony? They made awesome hardware, but their consistently bad software did in all their consumer electronics that run software.) Archos now lets you flash Angstrom Linux instead of Android, but the image they provide is just horrible. They seem like they're trying to improve, but sadly, I don't think they are ever going to make it.