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Interesting iPad Competition
- Thread starter barkomatic
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Archos dimensions...
ARCHOS 80 G9 Flash series: 226 mm x 155.3 mm x 11.7 mm (8.90 x 6.11 x 0.46 inch) - 465g (17 oz)
ARCHOS 80 G9 Hard Drive series: 226 mm x 155.3 mm x 14.7 mm (8.90 x 6.11 x 0.58 inch) - 599g (21.9 oz)
ARCHOS 101 G9 Flash series: 276 mm x 167.3 mm x 12.6 mm (10.86 x 6.59 x 0.50 inch) - 649g (23.8 oz)
ARCHOS 101 G9 Hard Drive series: 276 mm x 167.3 mm x 15.6 mm (10.86 x 6.59 x 0.61 inch) - 755g (27.7 oz)
Taken from their website @ http://www.archos.com/products/gen9/specs.html?country=nl&lang=en
ARCHOS 80 G9 Flash series: 226 mm x 155.3 mm x 11.7 mm (8.90 x 6.11 x 0.46 inch) - 465g (17 oz)
ARCHOS 80 G9 Hard Drive series: 226 mm x 155.3 mm x 14.7 mm (8.90 x 6.11 x 0.58 inch) - 599g (21.9 oz)
ARCHOS 101 G9 Flash series: 276 mm x 167.3 mm x 12.6 mm (10.86 x 6.59 x 0.50 inch) - 649g (23.8 oz)
ARCHOS 101 G9 Hard Drive series: 276 mm x 167.3 mm x 15.6 mm (10.86 x 6.59 x 0.61 inch) - 755g (27.7 oz)
Taken from their website @ http://www.archos.com/products/gen9/specs.html?country=nl&lang=en
Agreed. Specs mean nothing without proper software to run on them. This is what other tablet manufacturers are failing to grasp. They are pushing "specs this" and "specs that" instead of user experience and its why they are failing.
4D. Hope you continue to have a fantastic day.
By the way, I'm a Commodore 64 cultist. Take that Fandroid.
By the way, I'm a Commodore 64 cultist. Take that Fandroid.
For the Archos 10.1 weights
24 ounces = 1.50 pounds
28 ounces = 1.75 pounds
So the SSD version isn't much heavier than the iPad 2.
Unless the specs are high enough that, the excitement and press generated by the specs draws devs and users in like moths round a flame.
Unfortunately this type of thing has not happened for many years.
Back in the days of the Amiga, all you had to do was to build and release a new machine with almost zero software that was so technically far ahead of the competition that the sheer fact of what it could do was all that was needed to make it a success.
No one has the money/balls to do that these days as it's all driven by money men and not tech people who want to make the best just for the hell of it.
Which is a great shame.
Tech people are obviously vital to innovation, but making "the best just for the he'll of it" is a rocket ship to oblivion. Imagine if Edison and others said " I just want to build a film projector with the best optics possible." I don't care whether there is ever any movies that can be shown with the thing.
Computers only have value because people do things with them. They are useless as objects of beauty.
And technology that is easily usable begins quickly and widely adopted. For now, not necessarily forever and always, Apple understands this better than it's competitors.
Actually, mobile devices do often use HDDs if they want to store a lot.
Back in the early 2000s, a lot of us used tiny drives in our PDAs' CF expansion slot.
A modern mini hard drive can use as little power as Flash memory and it's got far larger capacity. Onboard sensors prevent damage from G-forces. About the only downside they have is their usual inability to work above 10,000 feet.
Heck, Apple's harddrive-based iPod Classic has been on the market for a decade.
And out of every example you just gave how many of those devices were reading, writing, booting and loading from a device with a complete OS? I look forward to reading the reviews of someone brave enough to buy a tablet with an HDD from Archos. I can see it now... Okay turn on my new Archos tablet. Wait 2 minutes. I want to multitask on my Archos Android tablet, so I load a PDF reader, Internet and a game... Wait 45 seconds for the drive to find and load everything. But I wanted to show a friend something, so spin the tablet 180 degrees around... Oops, that upset the drive, causing a read error. Then of course, you're going to have to deal with defragging the drive from time to time.
As I said, bad idea for mobile devices and these are just possible issues. Even if the drive does function fairly well, multitasking and loading issues will remain.
Do a Google search for "Archos 70 review" and you can find several. Yes, there is a slight delay (one to two seconds usually) as the hard drive spools up when newly needed. In use data is cached (big system memory) most of the time so the drive stops to save battery power. That's why it does 48 hours of music playback (screen off), 10 hours of web browsing (WiFi and screen on), but only 7 for video playback. The first two use files that are relatively smaller and can easily be loaded into system memory. Video files keep the hard drive running. Now you know.
These new tablets aren't Archos' first portable touchscreen tablet with a hard drive. Heck, they've been making android tablets with a hard drive for 4 generations now.
and why no one buys them. Now you know.
FYI, last year, ALL of Archos tablets combined made up just 2% of tablets sales globally. The POS 7" Galaxy Tab made up 8%, while the iPad made up 85%. For a company with 8 generations of tablets at that time, and 4 models with HDD's, Archos doesn't seem to have a good grasp on how to sell. Or maye consumers just know not to buy anything from France.
By the way 4D, yes you can import and play DVD TS AND VOB files on the iPad. Just noticed it today. Not that i wouod ever bother, but the option is there.
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You say iPad competition, I say iPad fodder.
One more tablet in the ever growing list of wannabes, imitators and indistinguishable devices.
Someone needs to create something that captures the consumers attention. Oh wait, I think it's called an iPad.
One more tablet in the ever growing list of wannabes, imitators and indistinguishable devices.
Someone needs to create something that captures the consumers attention. Oh wait, I think it's called an iPad.
OK, so which one is the truth? 360,000 tablets is not no one, no matter how I do the math.
Just to be fair, I was a TI-99/4A cult member.
OK, so which one is the truth? 360,000 tablets is not no one, no matter how I do the math.
Just to be fair, I was a TI-99/4A cult member.
Okay, granted. Archos sells a few tablets.
Now on to something more important... Your TI. I started out with an 8 mil tape drive and a 100 baud modem with my C64. I think that was in 1984 or 85ish. Wasnt many BBS's then, but was able to move up baud rate and to a 5 1/4 drive shortly there after and was coding in DOS. And you?
OK, so which one is the truth? 360,000 tablets is not no one, no matter how I do the math.
Just to be fair, I was a TI-99/4A cult member.
Archos ended 2010 with 83MM Euro in revenues and a net loss of over $2MM Euro. They are pretty much going for broke and they'll either stay alive in their little corner of the tablet market or disappear. But 360,000 units sold is not a empire-building number.
Bought my TI in 1981, and eventually added their giant disk bay, a cassette tape drive, a dot-matrix printer, and 50 or so cartridge programs. Typed in BASIC programs to run on it, saving them to the tape drive. Didn't get into assembly until I had a PC clone in 82 or so. Experience with the TI got me assigned to "figure out" what good that PC might be for. I think we had WordPerfect, some spreadsheet (VisiCalc maybe?) and a simple CAD program (MicroCAD maybe?) bundled with it.
Ah yeah dotmatrix printers... Loved having to always adjust the paper as the holes in the paper would come off the spindles from time to time. Wordperfect was THE word processor. Good memories. Going to have to dig in the attic during this summer now and see if my C64 still works. Doubt any of the 5 1/4 discs survived nearly 3 decades though.
That has nothing to do with Flash vs HDD. It takes a long time to boot an iOS device from scratch, too.
That's why both iOS and Archos simply suspend when not in use. They don't boot each time you hit the power button to turn them "on".
Btw, the Archos has 2GB of internal memory for the OS. The drive is for apps and media.
An HDD is as fast or faster than the Flash used in iOS devices. However, it's true that there can be a second or so delay at times as the disk spins up. People who use the HDD version obviously consider this a worthwhile trade-off in return for the huge capacity, same as those who buy iPod Classics.
Flash has its own defrag issues. Do you know what Flash wear leveling involves? To prevent a 256K block from going bad, its entire contents must be copied to another block.
Nothing major. Reviews have been positive as far as the HDD part goes.
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No. It is really quite simple. Any desktop, laptop, tablet or other device sold today that has a USB port should support USB 3.0.
Did you just say that a HDD is just as fast as an SSD? Okay, everyone is just wasting their money on SSD's. They have no advantage over HDD's. I feel silly now for installing one in my MBP.
I'd be curious to see you load 10 apps simulataneously on an Archos with HDD and the same 10 apps simultaneously on an iPad and see which one finishes first. (Of course, gonna have to wait til iOS5 when real multi-tasking is available on the iPad.)
Please quit arguing about drives, etc.
It isn't about anyof this CRAP. The consumer tablet (and enterprise as well) is about functionality. The iPad has it.
As I posted earlier, none if the challengers thus far have distinguished themselves from the pack. Until they do it's Apple's game to lose.
The average joe doesn't give a crap about specs, HDD, spinning platters, USB.
The paradigm has shifted. Jobs and Apple did it again. They lead a revolution in the market. And please, don't give that iPad wasn't the first tablet, blah blah. It's the first tablet that mattered.
Apple doesn't just have a new, innovative, market capturing, seminal product, they have a vision for that product. That's why all the fandroids and naysayers have been so wrong about many things.
Yes, there will eventually be a leader of the pack among androids to challenge iPad but it's not here yet and it sure isn't this Archos tablet.
When Arhcos or some other product has demand far outstrip supply, huge buzz, and enterprise clients peeing on themselves to find ways to the use an android tablet product then stop the presses.
It isn't about anyof this CRAP. The consumer tablet (and enterprise as well) is about functionality. The iPad has it.
As I posted earlier, none if the challengers thus far have distinguished themselves from the pack. Until they do it's Apple's game to lose.
The average joe doesn't give a crap about specs, HDD, spinning platters, USB.
The paradigm has shifted. Jobs and Apple did it again. They lead a revolution in the market. And please, don't give that iPad wasn't the first tablet, blah blah. It's the first tablet that mattered.
Apple doesn't just have a new, innovative, market capturing, seminal product, they have a vision for that product. That's why all the fandroids and naysayers have been so wrong about many things.
Yes, there will eventually be a leader of the pack among androids to challenge iPad but it's not here yet and it sure isn't this Archos tablet.
When Arhcos or some other product has demand far outstrip supply, huge buzz, and enterprise clients peeing on themselves to find ways to the use an android tablet product then stop the presses.
Archos don't understand the tech market even slightly. They're a cheap Chinese device manufacturer who happen to be based in France.
Anyone who thinks you approach product design by putting in the biggest specs you can and then install some software on it is doing it wrong.
Apple designs end user experience first then works backwards down to the transistors last. Every single other manufacturer is doing the oppositeArchos being among the worstand this is why they fail.