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American Airlines offering PMPs to upper class fliers
Bored and lonely first class and business class transcontinental fliers on American Airlines will now be treated to branded Archos players to while the time away with pre-loaded video and audio programming. Such premium fliers will be able to opt for an Archos 704, while all passengers on MD-80 flights between LA and Chi-town can get an Archos 605 to play with -- though the economy peeps have to pay. AA is packing the 704 with Bose Noise Canceling headphones, and the 604 with "high-end" earbuds, and has feature films, TV, news, music videos, AA radio and music CDs pre-loaded. Right now American Airlines is running a four month test of the service, which is sure to incur a few more thefts then those headrest-mounted displays cropping up on certain airlines, but a nice bit of good will from discerning portable media consumers.[Via PocketSynch]
The 2006 Engadget Awards: Vote for Portable Media Device of the Year
Now's your chance to cast your ballot for the 2006 Portable Media Device of the Year! Our Engadget Awards nominees are listed below, and you've got until 11.59PM EST on Sunday, April 15th to file your vote. You can only vote once, so make it count, and may the best tech win! The nominees: Apple iPod shuffle (2g), Archos 604, Creative Zen Vision:W, iRiver clix, Microsoft Zune, and SanDisk Sansa e200. %Poll-246%
Archos unloads source code for all Generation 4 devices
Tinkerers, it's time to rejoice. Archos has gone and released the entire source code to its Generation 4 lineup of products, giving open source gurus yet another avenue to exert their tweaking skills. The ISO is reportedly quite thorough, including makefiles and documentation, but interestingly enough, the files still seem to lack signatures, which has the folks over at ArchosFans a bit bummed. Still, those rocking a 404, 504, or any flavor of the 604 should head on over and give this thing a download, and do tell if anything substantial can be exploited / enabled, cool?[Via ArchosFans, thanks Rick R.]
Archos 604 WiFi 30GB portable media player reviewed
If you've ever gazed at the Archos 604 and longed for wireless connectivity, you can want no longer. Reviewers at CNET got their palms on Archos' latest gig, the 604 WiFi model, and gave it the usual rundown. Mimicking the review given to the 802.11-less flavor earlier this year in a myriad of ways, reviewers felt that the "awesome video playback," removable battery, built-in kickstand / speaker, and "vibrant widescreen display" were all unsurprisingly top notch, but the web browsing itself (along with opening files and navigating around the GUI) was deemed "sluggish" due to the lackluster processor speed. Apparently, however, Archos didn't learn from the previous gripes regarding the lack of extra accessories right in the box; the WiFi unit requires additional purchases to get a power adapter, recording equipment, and plug-ins for certain types of video files. Furthermore, reviewers felt that the inability to "feed the device content in an easy way" (considering the Linux-based environment), the meager 30GB hard drive, and the "substantial hit" that enabling wireless took on the battery were all disappointments. Overall, however, the Archos 604 WiFi got dinged on details that won't matter much when you experience all the things it does well, and it was deemed the "the answer to many mobile users' idealistic dreams" if they don't mind waiting around a bit for the GUI to catch up.[Thanks, Nanatech]
Archos unveils Helmet Camcorder for Generation 4 PMPs
Apparently snapping shots on a whim to tell your life story just isn't good enough these days, as folks are writing scripts to take unplanned photos of their groggy faces and strapping head-mountable cameras to their skulls in hopes of producing the next worldwide YouTube hit. Jumping on the "record everything, everywhere" bandwagon is PMP-producer Archos, and its aptly-named Helmet Camcorder gives you on-the-go recording ability that reportedly plays nice with the company's 404, 504, 604 and 604 WiFi units. The "plug-in mini-cam" records directly to MPEG4 and sports a built-in microphone / remote to somewhat control the insanity, and can presumably be channeled instantly to your Archos PMP or transferred to your PC via USB 2.0 for future editing. The company claims "DVD quality" (640 x 480 resolution) results from the 0.25-inch Sony Super HAD CCD, and the entire webcam gets its juice from the mighty Archos device that it's plugged into. So if you still haven't gotten around to using your PMP for television recording, you can make a few comedies of your own this winter for just $149.99.[Via Tech Digest]
Archos 404 PMP reviewed
After putting the Archos 604 through its paces, the folks at CNET have now thankfully seen fit to give the PMP's smaller, squarer sibling, the 404, a once-over as well. As with the the 604, they were especially impressed with the 404's video capabilities, offering support for MPEG-4 ASP up to 720x480 @ 30fps, WMV9, WM DRM and -- despite no stated support from Archos -- DivX, which they say works "flawlessly." Of course, you'll have to settle for watching all that on a 3.5-inch 4:3 screen as opposed to the 4.3-inch widescreen display on the 604. A fair trade-off for portability, although CNET says that the smaller screen is lacking in more than size, with a more pixelated image and less vibrant colors than the 604's. They also lamented the absence of the all important kickstand as well as the lack of a removable battery, both of which the 604 has. So unless you really need that extra bit of pocketability, it seems you may want to spring the extra fifty bucks and snag yourself the widscreen model.[Thanks, Old Surinam]
Archos releases 404 Camcorder, 504 and 604 WiFi
This morning, across the pond, Archos had a press conference where they presented the rest of Generation 4 of its personal media players. Those lucky French got the first crack at the latest three additional Archos models, the 404 Camcorder, the 504, and the 604 WiFi. So here are the deets: the Archos 404 Camcorder (359€) is your 404, but armed with a 1.3 MP camera and will be able to take 640 x 480 MPEG-4 videos and save them to its 30GB drive (remind you of anything?). The 504 (399€ - 699€), essentially the same unit as the 604 with its 4.3 inch screen, but it comes in 40, 80 or 160GB sizes, and packs a bigger punch too. The 504 is lightly thicker (22mm) and has a better battery life, up to 17 hours of audio or five hours of video. Which brings us to the 604 WiFi (499€): same as the 604, except with touchscreen capability (either with its stylus or your fingertips). It's designed to last for 16 hours of audio, five hours of video, and four hours of WiFi, using the Opera-based browser. According to Henri Crohas, president of Archos, the 604 WiFi will soon be compatible with IPTV. Archos also demoed some of its accessories, including the DVR Station, which turns your Archos PMP into a mini-TiVo for the cost of a cool Baroque bridge (i.e. 100€). In addition, it announced a Docking Adapter and DVR Travel Adapter for 29€ and 49€ respectively. Archos seems to raise its own bar each time it comes out with one of these -- we can't wait to get our hands on 'em.
Archos 404 and 604 now on pre-order
Yep, in typical Archos fashion, their new 404 and 604 media players are on their site for pre-order, due to ship (presumably) September 1; you'll have to pony up $299 or $349 to get 'em while the gettin's good, but at least you'll be the first on the block to get this mid-to-late-summer / early-to-mid-fall's kinda-must-have portable media player, um, du jour.[Thanks, Scott]
Archos officially announces all five Generation 4 devices
Not too many surprises here -- after all, we've already seen a full review of one of these new models -- but now PMP pioneer Archos has officially taken the wraps off of all the so-called Generation 4 devices we initially spotted over two months ago. First out of the gate will be the 3.5-inch 404 and 4.3-inch 604 media players whose specs and performance have gradually been revealed over the last few weeks, and all we really had wrong about the two thirty giggers was their prices: the former will go for $300 while the latter will set you back $350 when they ship next month (though pre-orders are already being taken). Coming later in the year will be a version of the 404 with an integrated camcorder as well as a touchscreen, wireless-enabled iteration of the 604 (for downloading internet content), and like all the Gen4 models, these will require a separate DVR docking station in order to record content from and playback content to external sources and monitors. Last but certainly not least is the surprisingly capacious 160GB 504 (we originally thought it would sport only a 40GB HDD), although at this point Archos is keeping mum on such deets as screen size, pricing, and availability. All-in-all a very exciting new crop of PMPs, and like previous products from the company, these will likely continue to be the media players against which all other competitors are judged.
The new Archos 604 gets a hands-on look
Archos is looking like a winner with their new 604 PMP. T3 got some hands-on time with the new player, and they have nothing but praise for the unit. For starters, they much prefer the new rocker key control setup to the confusing layout of Archos' AV500, and find the 4.3-inch screen to be much sharper and glossier than that device as well. There's also a kickstand for propping the 604 up on a desk, and little enhancements like interface tweaks and USB charging. With the weight loss and other refinements, T3 finds the 604 to be "infinitely more portable than its ancestors," but that approximate $510 launch price might keep this thing from mass market aspirations all the same.[Thanks, Ash]
Archos to launch new 404 and 604
We're getting a clearer picture of Archos's new line of portables on the horizon, and we like what we see: the 404 (aka the Page Not Found) media player looks to be equipped with a 3.5-inch QVGA 4:3 aspect ratio display, while the 604 packs a 4.3-inch 480 x 272 16:9 aspect ratio screen. Both should have 30GB of storage to work with in their 0.6-inches thick frames, and support a video-capturing DVR-Station and travel DVR adapter, camera add-on (on the 404), and play back MP3, WMA, WAV, MPEG-4, XviD, DivX 4/5, and WMV9 (don't rule out PlaysForSure capabilities at all). We should know more any time now, since it seemed like they were on target for a July / August launch, last we heard about this new series. Oh, and for what it's worth the 404 is listed to be going for about €350 (about $450 US), and the 604 for about €400 ($510 US)
New Archos PMPs appear online
A trio of new PMPs from Archos have been popping up around the web courtesy of a snapshot from the Trois Suisses winter catalog, but details are still scarce as all that's known about these models comes from the little big of information we can glean from the included French description. Making matters even more confusing is the fact that the so-called 604, with its 10.9-centimeter screen and 30GB hard drive, appears to cost about $130 more than the $500 504 which has the same screen but 10GB greater capacity -- although its seemingly slimmer design may account for some of the disparity. Meanwhile, the 404 sports an identical drive to the 604, but only an 8.8-centimeter screen, and is supposedly priced at $440. Both 30GB models are said to be scheduled for a July release, while the 504 should be available in August, but we'll do our best to get specs on these before then, because we like knowing about stuff before anyone else does.[Via GenerationMP3]
