It’s been a while since I did one of these.
Archos kicked out another firmware update yesterday. Apparently they are really serious about this product.
However, with changes comes breakage — and this one is awful.
From jkkmobile:
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When YouTube recently stopped working with devices that output its API to a TV set, Chippy of UMPC Portal wondered if this would also affect the Archos 5 Internet Tablet — which can output to a TV screen. Let’s hope this is just a temporary glitch and not permanent.
Which brings up my pet gripes about Android: Why can’t do it MPEG video out of the box? Why hasn’t vlc or CorePlayer been ported to Android? Why must people go through contortions and uncertainty — or added expense — to play widespread video file formats?
I’m not about to convert all my DiVX/XViD MPEG videos to MP4. Then I’d wind up with two copies of everything. I don’t need that time sink or organizational headache — nor does the everyday user!
Let me rub this in the face of Android fans and Google too: I have TCPMP (the original free version of CorePlayer) on my LifeDrive. It can play DiVX/XViD MPEG video. For free. Free! Where is this capability for Android?
One other thing about Archos: Are they planning to come out with an Archos 7 Internet Tablet? Is there even any possibility of grafting Android onto the existing Archos 7 Internet Media Tablet? Spec-wise, it seems superior to the Camangi WebStation. And I’ve seen the Archos 7 IMT with a whopping 320GB(!) hard drive on sale at J&R for only US$319.99 at the time of this post.
There’s Something Happening with Android.
Look at this tweet from today:
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And this tweet:
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Hadrien of Feedbooks also chimed in with this:
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Are we beginning to see the 1980s Mac OS versus Windows battle play out again, this time with iPhone OS versus Android? Is a tipping point going to be reached at some point where people will begin to ask of Android apps, “Is there an iPhone version of that?” (At trade shows in the late 1980s and early 1990s, that was my question to many developers showing off nifty software: Is there a Mac version of that?)
The iPhone OS has already lost a distasteful but perhaps inevitable — if possibly even necessary — battle. The battle for pr0n. Here comes MiKandi.
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This also ties in with my earlier video gripe. Most pr0n is in MPEG and WMV formats. Very little is in MP4. To suck up as much money as possible, these providers will do the time sink headache of converting their videos.
Swinging back to the overall topic, here’s Chippy again over at UMPC Portal with: The problem with recent no-name MIDs out of Asia. He writes with authority, having risked funds to buy the Smart Q7 — which dropped dead on him after only a few months!
File this one under D for DUH!: Android And Palm Need Their Own iPod Touch, Fast — in which the Archos 5 Internet Tablet is brought up in the Comments and is then strafed to death.
Palm might wish it had gone the mini-tablet route:
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One more advantage of Android is this:
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Don’t diss the QR Code! Here’s an incredible example of them at work:
Finally, this: Ultimate List of FREE Android Apps – Part 1
Previously here:
Android OS/Archos 5 Internet Tablet Notes For Monday November 2, 2009
The eBook Test 