French miniature video player maker Archos has a new concept, the Internet Media Tablet, in effect a portable video player that also browses the internet by attaching it to an HSDPA cellular service. It has introduced the Archos 5, Archos 5G, and the Archos 7 all with those capabilities in multiple countries available this week.
These are ultra-thin tablets running on the Arm Cortex microprocessor, with the 5 as a high resolution 5 inch device and the 7 as a 7 inch touch screen version. It comes with its own email application, which lets you check and reply to emails and share attachments and can connect with either cellular broadband or wi-fi.
The systems still have high resolution playback with the HDMI output onto TV, storage capacity up to 320 GB and an onboard search engine facility to find files.
This is really Archos taking video the Kindle route, and allowing for wi-fi or cellular downloads in the background, as a way of acquiring content ‘ which this device would be just right for. The Amazon Kindle does this will eBooks.
The devices all have Adobe Flash 9 video support, you can natively browse video-sharing websites such as Dailymotion and YouTube.
The 5 and 7 models need connection to HSDPA by buying a PC dongle, while the 5G has a native connection built in.
The touch screen device has a virtual keyboard for typing. Archos says the tablets can give you access to 1,000 Web TV channels, 10,000 Web radio stations and 100,000 podcasts in less than 3 clicks and Archos has its own Media Club with video, games and music content on either buy or rent models.
All of these devices can also be used to record live TV, store and view later and can be bought with a GPS in-car holder which turns the Archos 5 into a fully fledged GPS. There is a TV Snap-on which will be available at the end of 2008, which turns these into digital TV sets. The Archos 5 and 7 become available in September and October and the 5g in early next year, for between $350 and $550 depending upon disk size.