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Archos' Upgraded AV500 Jukebox Detailed
An anonymous reader writes "According to a piece on Mobilemag.com, the Archos AV500, newly shown at Cebit 2004 in Germany, will be the all-in-one answer to the clutter of handheld devices - this is a PVP [personal video player] and PDA combo handheld around the size of a Jornada with 20 or 40 gigs storage. Watch movies, read emails, connect your digital camera for backup, the list goes on.." The piece also notes: "Archos also added EPG (Electronic Programming Guide) technology, to allow you to control the AV500 with a remote control as a video player/recorder."
What's the world coming to? Why can't we simply limit ourselves to portable music? Must we *always* have 2.9 billion forms of electronic media at our fingertips in the ever rare chance that our natural surroundings ever become boring?
Doesnt seem to support ogg from the article specs.
And whats this all about:
"Archos hasn't forgot about the big boss either, they have added Microsoft DRM support for WMA"?
A device that does all the things you want, and some you don't, very poorly. Mabye I'm just being a bit cinicle, but I've seen to many devices such as this that haven't lived up to expectations.
When anger rises, think of the consequences.
Confucius (551 BC - 479 BC)
Gotta admit, it looks pretty badass. I saw the older model a few months ago and I was really impressed, but I didn't see the real value in it.
http://www.rustyrazorblade.com
Poor Bill.
Perhaps we should think of Bill's thoughts on 640k ram and today's massive ammounts, as an analogy to closed source today and open source of the future!
-
Another 'PDA' with no battery life. For me the Palm III series will never be beat for PDA usage because it lasts up to six weeks on a set of good rechargables. My IIIxe has enough memory to fit a ton of programs, all of the appointments I could ever hope (dred) having, etc. I have used PocketPC's as portable computers (vertical app for my fathers business) but I would never champion them as a PDA. The need to recharge em every ~8 hours makes them impractical in that role IMHO.
There are 4 boxes to use in the defense of liberty: soap, ballot, jury, ammo. Use in that order. Starting now.
So a DVD Player is better at playing DVDs and video...
An MP3 player is better at playing MP3s...
A PDA is better at being a PDA...
And I am sure all of the above have a much longer battery life and are cheaper than this unit.
I really just don't see why anybody would buy this.
For this to be the ultimate handheld it would need cellular, gps, and WiFI. probably a couple other things too.
I might just bite if it had a cell phone.
Doesn't mention the battery life, but with the price of flash cards decreasing, it seems like all the things this can do could be done by a Palm Tungsten|E. I know there aren't 20gig MMC/SD cards yet, but something to consider. Again, depending on the battery life, I've heard palms don't come close to MP3 Players with regards to battery life.
Figures.
The day after I replace my dead Palm IIIxe with a new T2, THIS is announced. I could have gotten a $35.00 Palm III to tide me over if I'd known.
"Live Free or Die." Don't like it? Then keep out of the USA
The upgraded Archos 500V is cool and all, but does it run Linux?
... my coach and colleague does not stop telling me that most of her other clients (I prefer paper and pencil to keep my basic structure) are not very much aware about how to handle the current gadgets and many times loose all their data due to incom(not patibility but petence).
Well. What will the future bring to improve this?
CC.
TaijiQuan (Huang, 5 loosenings)
That's 640k songs, right, like 2TB of music? You can't possibly mean 640k movies, that'd be way too much.
Ceci n'est pas une signature
No keyboard -> No programming -> No fun
I hear there's rumors on the Slashdots
Without a standards based ansible this device is worthless to me. Try again Archos - I only want to carry ONE device.
- For the complete works of Shakespeare: cat
PDAs that Play MP3 and have digital cameras. Digital photo cameras that shoot video. Cell phones that have PDAs. MP3 players that play video. Laptops getting smaller -- sometimes loosing their keyboard (as tablets). Emulators, emulators, bringing the best from the past. Which you get for free as abandonware. Everything connected to high speed wireless data -- Bluetooth, 802.11g. Huge, enormous hard disks becoming ever so small. World becoming portable and inexpensive. Gadgets doing more and more and more for you.
Now, can someone please
COME UP WITH BETTER BATTERIES ???
Quem a paca cara compra, paca cara pagará.
Now, what I don't understand is how come Archos wouldn't get involved with the Rock Box guys and try to just use their OS, or buy it from them, or something. I mean, the Rock Box os fixes so many bugs, and adds all kinds of features. The whole problem with the world is that fools and fanatics are always so certain of themselves, but wiser people so full of doubts. -- Bertrand Russell (1872-1970)
Modest doubt is called the beacon of the wise - William Shakespeare
Last week there was a long Slashdot thread on the so-called "iPod Killer" proposed by Microsoft. That product was soundly critisized for missing the point -- the consensus among posters appeared to be that the product was too big and combined too many capabilities into one device, and thereby had lost the single-purpose elegance of the iPod. Now comes another product that appears to be conceptually similar to that Microsoft multi-purpose device. But this time it's being offered by a smaller company that a number of people like. I think it will be very interesting to compare the two threads. Was it just the words "iPod Killer" that prompted the strong opinions, or was it the underlying concept of a multi-purpose device?
osViews is holding a survey which asks that people rate their liklihood of buying one of these types of devices.
The results are very telling...
This thing is like a PDA with a Remote Control . If that ain't progress, brother, I don't know what is!
A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
Why isn't this termed an "iPod killer"??
I am of course concerned with battery life -- and the price -- but this could be my next PDA. I can't live without a PDA. But I'm getting tired of looking like Batman when I go hiking: GPS, PDA, phone, camera. One of the reasons I haven't bought an MP3 player is that it's one more barnacle on my hip or pocket.
If this puppy has a CF or SD slot, I can easily use it as my GPS. I don't see using it to replace my cam, but knowing that I don't need to get home to the laptop when it's full is a nice thing.
Now what someone needs to market is a WiFi casette so that audio can be received in my car.
Design for Use, not Construction!
But when will the it's remote control have a remote control? I'm not getting off the couch for that.
Too many Gadgets, too little time... This product is cool, if I got it for free... otherwise i would NEVER buy it. One thing I do want.. a tablet PC. THAT's the whole thing already...
This has been driving me nuts. Do cell-phone designers not realise that we are all trained by nintendo to expect d-pads on the LEFT side of things? There are a staggering number of "would be great for handheld gaming if only they'd move the d-pad" devices. PocketPC centers it. Treo 600 centers it. Sidekick/Hiptop puts it on the right. Even that shiny new Motorola MPx everybody's drooling over has the damn thing on the right. You'd think somebody besides Tapwave would figure out that putting a dpad on the left, buttons on the right, and a couple of shoulder buttons makes just about any PDA into an awesome portable gaming platform.
Oh well... I can dream.
If you're carrying your GPS, PDA, phone, and camera when you're hiking, then you need to rethink your recreation strategy. or are you the type that gets to the top of the mountain, or finds some quiet lake, and whips out their phone and yaks to all their friends?
I want to delete my account but Slashdot doesn't allow it.
Can be found on Amazon
3.5 hours of video
10 hours of playing mp3s
Not too bad, and at $500 it's not too much more than an iPod.
Thank you Mario! But our princess is in another castle!
But that's all the songs or movies anyone would ever need...
From the article: "The unknown connection method will support Ethernet, WiFi, Bluetooth, GSM and other add-on cards"
at first, i was with most everyone else in wondering where the market was for these devices. folks are pretty sharp in realizing that for the price, these things don't deliver commensurate ease of use and battery life, not to mention legal content.
but i believe very strongly that these devices are the precursors to what will, in the future, be a single catch-all portable device that does do all of these things
look at it this way: laptops keep getting smaller and more feature-filled, phones/PDAs keep getting larger and more feature filled. eventually both worlds will converge.
If I could make this sig kill you, I would.
Another 'PDA' with no battery life.
A while back, I bought myself an Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 because I let myself get caught up in a whiz-bang feature list (and a promised but never delivered Firewire add-on) when all I wanted was an MP3 recorder capable of taking 6+ hours of dictation in a single stretch. After using it for the first time, I learned that the device had a terrible limitation -- despite claims of 7 hours MP3 playback before needing recharging, I found out that it lasts no more than 90 minutes when recording unless you tether it to an outlet. Mea culpa -- I should've realized that encoding uses more CPU and thus more power than decoding.
However, the 7 hours claim is total BS. I've never seen it make it past 4-5 hours when using it as an MP3 player.
I've never actually tried to see what its battery life would be like when playing movies, but I do know that letting the screen come on while recording MP3s makes a noticeable drop in battery life. According to the specs of the latest model on their website, the AV380, battery life for MP3 playback is 10 hours, but only 3 1/2 hours for video playback. I seriously doubt that the newer models are going to be that much superior nor that they will actually live up to any of their claims for battery life.
(On the other hand, when it does have enough power to run it, the thing works like a champ. The screens on the newer models are really good looking. Just don't expect to get to enjoy it for long streches at a time without an AC adapter.)
If it's for-profit but free, you're not the customer -- you're the product (e.g., the Slashdot Beta's "audience").
Why do home audio receivers typically have a tuner built in? Why would anyone buy it when they can get better quality out of a separate amps and tuners?
Why do car stereos usually integrate CD player, amplifier, and radio? The quality of the integrated package sucks compared to separates.
Same reason as the PDA/MP3/etc. shit...
1. Separate components take up a lot more space.
2. People won't pay a lot more for only slightly better quality.
3. Sometimes tight integration is useful from a UI perspective (eg. it may be handy to share a filesystem between MP3s, photos, video, documents)
Yeah, right. Weren't those helicopters and missiles American made?
Aren't you glad that you have just participated in the murder of an elderly invalid?
the older archos jukeboxes were really poorly made. and the sound section really sucks (you hear hard drive spin-up whine quite loudly). and their plug-in jacks break quickly, too.
its hacker heaven (rockbox) for some of their players. but an ipod, it isn't. don't expect good build quality - that company has never figured that part out, yet.
fyi.
--
"It is now safe to switch off your computer."
Did nobody hike before then? Was it "too dangerous"?
I've had this discussion with tons of gadget freaks who say they just won't go anywhere without their cell phone and GPS, but what did they do before those things? Just stay at home and read National Geographic?
I think this does have it's place although it needs a better price point. I sometimes will go grab a bite to eat because I'm busy and eat in my vehicle and I could see watching something on the device while I'm eating.
How many people read in the bathroom?
How about watching something instead of reading and, this has to be mentioned, a portable pr0n device. I am serious this would be a great selling point but I know they'll stay away from it.
I can also see using the pvr function if you want to catch up on news/tv shows on the go if you are traveling or whatever. Seems to have plenty of legs for me but as far as a PDA it's too big.
Personally I don't think everything has to be combined on one device. For one it's overkill and tends to become bloatware. Companies just try to add functionality for the sake of saying it can do this and that without adding quality into the equation.
I say keep this a multimedia device and can the pda crap. The Ipod pda would be a good example of this argument because it's beyond basic and really serves no purpose other than to say it has the functionality.
I just might buy one of these things if the price becomes less prohibitive and reasonable.
You aren't free to do anything, until you've lost everything.
I bought (what is now an older) 20 Gig MP3 recorder/jukebox made by Archos. I haven't RTFA, but going by past experiences with my recorder and what i've heard from others, i'm guessing the firmware will be junk. Thank god for open source and the good people at Rockbox. These guys have made my MP3 player useable, and continue to develop a darn fine product.
dudes if you look at the pics i sware its running OPIE
the desktop for familiar(mobile linux) sweet this would so rock davidk
As an outdoors type of guy, I can definitely vouch for the security of bringing a cell phone and GPS. A small digicam is obvoiusly also a wonderful thing. I can even somewhat understand wanting to bring your iPod on long trips, although mine sits at home because I'm trying to get away from digital hell. But really (this is not a flame), why would you need a PDA? Isn't the entire purpose of going out there to leave behind the stress of contacts, appointments and deadlines?
YES it runs linux.
I have a Zaurus SL-C760 (great PDA) and I reconize the
Qtopia interface in the pictures. The Qtopia PDA apps
aren't all that great but the do the job. The best
part is that they should be able to be easily replaced...
With the huge hard-drive, you may even be able to run
evolution on it.
So, will there ever be an all in one multimedia/communications/organizing device? In spite of the fact that people will continue to try to make them, the features by their very nature are contradictory and will result in units that may be decent at some tasks but mediocre at best with others.
...you own quite a few of these gadgets?
I would love this setup...
.. edited. (they redirect you to the homepage
now..grr..)
The linux webpage has been
So here is a pic of the AV500:
/ Main/ArchosRumors.html
http://www.shanebrinkmandavis.com/homepage/Archos
AND
http://www.jonescam.tv/lipstick_camera.html
Why do video camera manufacturer's insist that I need to carry around my video camera?? I don't want to!
Come on guys, can you hack one of these av300 or av500, and let me have my hands free video camera ?? I'll pay for it, really PLEASE?!?!?!
Thanks
Mabidex
(I am lazy, but so what)
A PDA with a hard drive! Someone has been listening to my prayers! Now if Apple would just add a color screen and a stylus, I'd be in heaven.
LS
There is a fine line between being a cultivated citizen and being someone else's crop. - A. J. Patrick Liszkie
I've never understood the interest in purchasing a stand alone DVD or video player. Instead of purchasing an all in one pda, divx, and mp3 player, wouldn't something like a Fujistu P-series make more sense?
Okay... I'll do the stupid things first, then you shy people follow.
[Zappa]
Doesn't look like it would fit in my hand too easily. No sale.
A lot of people here are complaining about their Archos MP3 players, so I feel the need to offer a contrasting opinion. I've owned an Archos Jukebox Multimedia 20 for the last nine months, and while it's needed a firmware update or two over that time, it's been a pretty reliable little MP3 and movie player.
The 1" screen is generally too small for watching most movies, but it passes in a pinch on an airplane, and I can plug it into a TV and watch it there if I want. Somewhere in my video folder you'll find a couple dozen Looney Tunes classics, a couple of movies and a handful of Firefly episodes, all in DivX format and ready to play at a moment's notice.
The camera attachment is crap -- 1 megapixel, no flash -- but I find use for it anyway, because I like the novelty factor and don't do much with pictures beyond posting them to the web.
So while Archos may not be the best company out there, their multimedia players are still pretty nifty, and if nothing else, a device like the AV500 -- which is definitely on my radar now -- might push the bigger players in the PDA and PocketPC market to add hard drives to their own units. There's obviously a market here for convergence in PDAs, or we wouldn't see devices like this. Hopefully, we'll start seeing more of them.
(And yes, hopefully we'll see better batteries to power them, too...)
Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
The earth shaking potential of this device will be the fact it is a portable blue tooth hard drive. If nothing else, this little guy will let your long battery life pda have easy access to 40 gb of data over the bluetooth. That rocks.
You should be able to use it to view videos or simply access its enormous amounts of data on small portable long lasting devices such as cell phones and even things like PDA Watches. This bulky fella could just sit in your backpack or be plugged into a powerstrip on your desk.
This device will also enable you to carry all your data between the office and home, and allow easy sync via bluetooth. Again it could just sit in your backpack, or maybe you just plug it into a power outlet when you arrive. While driving, your car stereo could play music off it again via blue tooth.
I wonder who is going to start exploiting the exciting potential of having 40 gb of data over bluetooth in your backpack whereever you go. Probably hackers like the Rock box crew.
www.wisdomproject.net The open source think tank.
Jornada? hp stopped making Jornadas two years ago.
The first archos unit was ok, a bit bulky, but its main probelm was it's inabillity to support most currently encoded Divx files. You'd have to re-encode them to a lower resolution to get them to play. If this one lives up to spec, it will have solved both of those problems soundly -- since the average divx file usually clocks in at 640x480@30fps.
.
I guess all you ipod owners must live much more active lifestyles than me -- since you talk about not being able to watch video while jogging or other such nonsense. I want one of these for when I'm *sitting*. I want to kick back and watch a movie or some anime when I'm sitting on a plane waiting for it to go somewhere, or when I'm sitting on my ass waiting on something. I know I'm not alone when I Look at all these announced PVP's and drool. I've personally put off buying an ipod waiting for a pvp to come out that wouldn't require me to reencode my existing divx files (as both the lyra and the archos would).
The only real downside to this one, which appears to be by far the slickest one announced, is a little tidbit left out of this particular article: It won't be out until the christmas season. Whereas almost all of the competetion is scheduled to come out between April-June.
Still, It might just be worth waiting a few extra months to see if archos can deliver on this promise. .
An old girlfriend of mine used to work in internal customer service for a major pharm company. She dealt with a lot of reps who kept doing the wrong thing and blame the CS people for it. The motto around her office was, "It's not my fault that you're stupid."
I think that motto applies here.
Visit me on the web at Permanent4.com.
A PDA that can store the geocache descriptions (often critical for the tougher finds) is a lot more portable than a sheaf of printouts, and more ecological too with rechargable batteries. The camera is also useful for the same sport. The phone? I don't plan on calling anyone, but sometimes someone needs to get a hold of me.
Actually, the new Garmin 60CS can store cache comments (old models couldn't), and has some PIM functionality. The Garmin iQue has similar features, as it's integrated with a Palm. Both have insufficient storage for video or camera data, and don't play MP3s worth squat.
Design for Use, not Construction!
"I also carry a cellular phone around everywhere I go"
How does it feel to be the slave of whoever wants to reach you *right now*.
Oh wait, you're a kid, you're a lot smarter than people twice your age.
If only this could hold some Irish Whiskey...
fuel cells will be the answer.
If you're like me... wait until it's tried and true, most of the bugs have been worked out (I'd say all the bugs, but that's a pipe dream), and the price has dropped in half. Then you can buy something that will meet your meeds without driving you crazy, and without making you feel like a dolt for paying twice as much just to get a buggier version 6 months sooner.
I am not a luddite. I am just a wise man who lets the fools rush in first.
- Greg
Start a happiness pandemic
If you read the article it says:
The new PVP and PDA combo device with docking station will be released before the end of 2004.
Which means it's just an engineering prototype. This could change significantly by the time it finally goes on sale. IF it ever actually goes on sale.
Personally, even though I own an Archos MP3 player I wouldn't consider buying one of these. It's gotta be more $$$ than their current devices, which are already up in the $600-900 range. It's very much a niche market for something like this that isn't really compatible with anything for that kind of money. If it was half the price, I might consider it.
I'm working on something sort of like this myself except I'm taking a different approach to it. My box has no screen or keyboard. It's a brick that sits in a backpack or my car or somewhere near me, and provides access to everything through a 802.11b connection with an Apache server. I control it from a small PDA with a wireless card and a browser. Portable data storage, mp3 server (did I mention it's got an FM transmitter built in?). The beauty of this method is that I can use bigger batteries and a bigger hard drive because it's not supposed to be handheld.
yo, dude, you have no clue. why keyboard? your hands will be busy with something else ...
but,
imagine a beowulf cluster of these...!
hey someone had to say it.
feh.
Along with the Internet, he invented what he calls "Lock Box"
Hello, I was at CeBIT.. if you follow source link on mobilemag.com article you find my website: http://archos.charbax.com Get DivX using BitTorrent of 15 minute interview with Archos Marketing Products Manager about this new device..