Archos

The tablet business is pretty cutthroat (just ask HP), and with the release of the Amazon Kindle Fire just weeks away, it's only going to get scarier out there for would-be iPad competitors.

The timing of a tablet release is crucial, but does rushing a tablet to market to beat the wave of upcoming competition do more harm than good?

The versions of the Archos G9 tablets we originally received were not ready for prime time. They suffered from a malfunctioning camera, frequent lockups, and an overall buggy experience. … Read more

Editors' note: This post was updated with new pricing information.

Last month we briefly covered Archos' two new tablets, and now the company has seen fit to provide us with more details. Some of them are quite juicy.

Today, Archos officially announced its new Honeycomb 3.1-based tablets, the Archos G9 series. The G9 series will come in both 8-inch and 10.1-inch sizes, named simply the 80 G9 and 101 G9, respectively. Rather than designing yet another cookie-cutter Honeycomb tablet, though, Archos has decided to change things up a bit.

The company forgoes the obligatory inclusion of the Nvidia Tegra 2 CPU and has instead included the Ice Cream Sandwich-approved 1.5GHz Texas Instruments OMAP 4 processor. According to Archos, the OMAP 4 reduces Web browsing speed over the 1GHz Tegra 2 by up to 50 percent.

Each tablet will also come stocked with 250GB of storage via a built-in 250GB HDD from Seagate. The 8-inch G9 has a 4:3 aspect ratio screen at 1,024x768-pixel resolution, while the larger 10.1-incher provides a full 16:10 1,280x800-pixel screen.

Archos boasts that its tablets will be the only ones on the market able to decode 1080p H264 High Profile videos, and I for one can't wait to get review units to put that claim to the test. … Read more

A Philadelphia newspaper publisher is trying to steer more people to its online editions by offering a $99 Android-based tablet with a two-year subscription.

The Philadelphia Media Network, which is publisher of the Philadelphia Inquirer, Philadelphia Daily News, and Philly.com, launched its promotion today, kicking in 5,000 Arnova 10 G2 tablets on a first-come, first-served basis to people who open up digital subscriptions to both of its newspapers.

Those who sign up for a two-year $9.99-per-month subscription can scoop up the tablet for $99, while those who opt for a one-year subscription at a cost of $12.… Read more

The following statement will not qualify as the biggest news scoop ever published on CNET: Older folks are often uncomfortable with modern technology and gadgets.

It's too easy to look at the senior citizens around you and roll your eyes at their techno-hostility or seeming incompetence when it comes to using gadgets or adjusting to a world seemingly ruled more by gadgets every day. But, that's unfair when you consider the ever-increasing speed of gadget evolution we see now and how hard it is to keep up if you weren't born into the techno stream.

To give you a simple example of what your senior friends are up against, what we understand as the motor car (four wheels, internal combustion engine, etc.) emerged into public view around 1888 and was destined to change the world. But, the first successful mass-produced assembly line car in the U.S. (the Model T) didn't come along until about 20 years later. So, that's about two decades for folks to get used to the idea of motorized transport.

Comparatively, the iPhone--the first big salvo in the age of elite touch-screen smartphones that changed how we communicate, work, and socialize--was released in 2007. In just four years, we've had to get caught up on the concepts of the App Store, FaceTime, airplane mode, and Angry Birds. … Read more

First off, congrats to Jason B. of Morrisville, Pa., who snagged an XtremeMac Luna SST alarm clock with detachable speakers in last week's Crave giveaway. We're sure Jason will never be late to work again.

Now, on to this week's giveaway. If you've been wanting to join the tablet-toting masses, here's your chance to do it for free, nada, bupkis. We're offering up an 8GB Archos 101 touch-screen tab, one of a few Android 2.2 tablets with a large 10.1-inch screen.

The Archos 101 sports an ARM Cortex-A8 1GHz processor. Considering the tablet's low price of $299, extras such as Mini-HDMI output; USB host and sync ports; MicroSD memory expansion; and a front-facing camera that can shoot both video and stills at a VGA resolution of 640x480 pixels are impressive, says CNET tablet reviewer Donald Bell. Note that while the tablet can't record HD video, it can play it at 720p.

The tablet has a built-in kickstand on the back that folds out far enough to prop the device at a slight angle, which helps with typing; the stand can also be used to keep the tablet upright for videos or photo slideshows. Instead of the aluminum-and-glass construction of the iPad, the Archos 101 is mostly plastic, meaning it's lightweight (around 16 ounces), if not rugged. As long as you don't plan to use it as a hard hat, you should be just fine.

So how do you try to win this week's prize? Let me enumerate the basic rules. Please read carefully; there will be a test. … Read more

Here's something you can't get with an iPad: 250GB of internal storage. Archos' upcoming Android "Honeycomb" 3.2 tablet will pack a 250GB hard disk drive that's been tweaked to perform more like a flash drive.

The Archos G9 will sport a 250GB Seagate Momentus Thin 2.5-inch hard drive--a mere 7 millimeters thick. Though not as compact as a 1.8-inch HDD (like Apple once used in its MacBook Air and iPod), it's not as expensive either.

And Archos has tweaked the Seagate drive a bit to allow it to perform more like … Read more

Because of the high prices of solid-state drives, most tablets have limited storage. To keep the cost reasonable, manufacturers have to opt for offering low-capacity units.

And the main reason why tablets don't use hard-disk drives (HDDs) is the physical size: HDDs are generally not compact enough for the portability of a tablet computer. That is, unless, that HDD is Seagate Technology's Momentus Thin.

The company announced today that this hard drive, which is the world's first 2.5-inch hard drive with a 7mm profile, is now also the internal storage unit for the first HDD-based handheld tablets in the world, the 8- and 10-inch Archos G9 tablets. The new tablets, unveiled today, are among the first low-cost high-capacity tablets on the market.… Read more

Sure, they were released weeks ago, but the new iPods are still a hot commodity and will probably become even more sought-after as the holidays near.

Donald Bell and I take an in-depth look at the current iPod lineup, including the iPod Touch, iPod Nano, and iPod Shuffle. Rest assured, we make the requisite amount of funnies for a video starring the two of us.

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A few weeks ago, I posted a couple videos of Donald Bell and I saying unspeakable (!) things about the Dell Streak and the Livescribe Echo. We tried to do it in a real off-the-cuff, informal way.

We affectionately referred to those videos as "One on One" and we received lots of positive feedback. In light of that, we're going to try to produce such videos on a regular basis, but under the moniker "Crave Extras." We start with the media player that thinks it's a tablet, the Archos 32.

Most of what will be … Read more