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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."
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)
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.
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.
I asked myself the same question (though probably in a different tone)... the device seems cool, but I have to wonder "why?"
Does anyone here see a future where every person has a PDA-type device, uses it for all kinds of communications, storage and features (entertainment)? I remember sci-fi stories that had these types of devices, but a lot of them were more like avatars or "digital companions."
With the slew of PDAs (I have an Axim) and "feature"-loaded cell phones, plus digital media players and whatnot... is this our future? All-in-one?
... 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!
There is a difference between using technology and being up to your neck with technology for the sake of having technology.
Allow me to explain...
Horse and buggy. Sure, maybe the environment would be better...but I like my car. We have cars. No big deal. But I don't want nor need my car to be the entertainment and living center of my life.
"Simplicity. Simplicity. Simplicity."
The swiss army knife tech toys are overdone. We let our toys with their options and media dictate to us users what we value and what we desire.
Variety is always nice. I have several pairs of scissors, a few different knives, even computers running different OSs! Imagine that. But I don't need a hand-held computer that can slice, dice, and make my bed for me.
Read back about the article on India's use of Email stations to send email that's printed and carried to residents high in the back mountains. Technology has changed their life, it's made it better for they can communicate quicker and more reliably.
However, their culture is unchanged. No power lines have been errected, no massive forests destroyed to build roads to maintain these infrastructures.
Can we improve our lives without destroying our culture? Can we be entertained without always turning to a video screen?
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.
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!
So if I have this correct, as long as *you* see the benefit for something, it's a good thing, otherwise, it is wasteful and a reflection on our society's dependence on TV? Gotcha.
I have no need for multiple pairs of scissors. So should I complain that companies make and sell different models? Can we be entertained without always turning to different forms of shearing devices?
Seriously, that's great that you have no need for some of this new technology, but why do you feel the need to complain that others do and some companies are catering to these individuals? Let it go. I fail to see the overwhelming social implications and cultural ramifications of this announcement. But maybe that's just me...
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.
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.
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.
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 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.
Must we *always* have 2.9 billion forms of electronic media at our fingertips
Yes, we must.
On Friday, I bought a 40GB iPod. I wanted an MP3 player that would hold a huge collection of music, and this one fit the bill perfectly. However, it isn't everything I want in a device. I also carry a cellular phone around everywhere I go, and I've completely outgrown it's "life management" abilities. It's useless for email and almost useless for taking quick notes. The calendar is great and helps me manage my life, but it takes too damn long to input things on the fly.
So I want a PDA. Now I've got three devices to carry around. See the problem yet?
The ultimate device for me, and many other geeks, would be something about the size of an iPod, but the entire front is a color touchscreen, just like a PDA. Built in bluetooth, gsm cellular phone, 40-60GB hard drive. Wifi would be slick, too. Standard PDA operating system. Now integrate bluetooth into digital cameras and other devices, and I can beam content right into this sucker without buying expensive memory cards, carry cables, etc.
With current battery technology this sucker would last all of 2-3 hours, so it would have to be bigger than an iPod if you wanted to use it all day. If you made it as big as a palm and as thick as an iPod, I think you'd have a real winner here.
The AV500 looks like it is almost my dream device. They need to actually integrate the wifi, bluetooth, and GSM, rather than use add on cards, but it's close. I am excited about this device because it's going to prompt the creation of similar devices. In a few more years when I'm ready to retire my iPod, I should be able to get something like this at any electronics store.
-Ryan, with the unoriginal sig
I've had an Archos Jukebox Recorder 20 for close to two years now. In fact, I'm listening to MP3s on it as I type.
I've dropped it about four times, banged it into walls, and taken it on my motorcycle numerous times. The thing still works great.
So I'm at least one person who says that their build quality isn't too bad. And it's also a great portable 20GB USB 2.0 drive!