Archos 70 – 250 GB Internet Tablet (Black) - Official New Excellent Gadgets, Tools & Accesories

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Diane C. Tycangco “dct” (dct) –

  

I am writing this review because I don’t want future Archos 70 owners to experience what I went through. I have had it for a week now and have contemplated throwing it down a deep ravine. Finally, thank God, I was able to get it to work. Here’s how:

1. Firmware must be updated to latest version – my Archos would connect and disconnect with the internet continuously. I thought it was because of a weak signal, but it is a firmware problem. How can you update the firmware when you can’t download it online because your Archos wifi does not work? In the Archos website, they have instructions on what to do using your desktop/laptop.

a. Download the latest firmware into your desktop/laptop.

b. Connect the Archos 70 to your desktop/laptop using the USB to micro-USB cord supplied. The Archos 70 will then ask you if you want to mount it to your desktop/laptop. Say yes.

c. Open My Computer on your desktop/laptop. It should recognize the Archos as an additional hard drive.

d. Copy the firmware you just downloaded on the desktop/laptop by pasting it on top of the Archos icon on the desktop/laptop. It will then load onto the Archos. When it is done, un-mount it on the Archos 70 then pull out the cord.

e. It will then ask you to plug the Archos 70 into the wall. It will do some other stuff and then you are done.

By the way, it is helpful to look at the “More Info” section of the download webpage. It shows you all the different versions of the firmware, when they were “issued” and what improvements they are supposed to make. This way, you can see how old your firmware is and what it is supposed to do.

2. Upload Android Market and Flash Player – the pictures won’t come up on the websites I went to. Buttons would be missing. Flash is not on the Appslib on the Archos 70 because Archos is not yet certified by Adobe to have Flash Player.

I found the solution on YouTube. See link below.

You have to follow the steps exactly. Your Android should be at least 2.2 Froyo. Anything older and you have to install Android 2.2 Froyo on your machine, which is a very complicated process.

If your Archos is already on Android 2.2 Froyo, this is what you have to do.

[...]

I would like to thank the person who posted this on YouTube. Here are his steps:

a. Go to Settings – Repair & Formatting

b. Reset Android – ok

c. Reboot – do not shut off Archos and then turn on. You must pick the “reboot” option

d. Startup Wizard comes up – go through the whole process, including connecting with your wifi.

e. Reboot – same as c.

f. Go to Appslib icon on home page

g. Type “arctools” (with no quotation marks) and install

h. Open Arctools

i. Click on “Default Apps & Market b 2.2.7″

j. Click on “Install apps”

k. Reboot – same as above

l. Market app icon should be on your home page, click on it and create your new Google account if you don’t have one;

m. Search for Adobe Flash 10.1, download and install

3. Go into Browser App

a. click on Options “button” on right side on screen (four white lines),

b. pick “More”, “Settings” and check “Load Pictures”.

I don’t know why it defaults to “no” which is really stupid.

4. By the way, if you download Flash from another source into your desktop/laptop and are thinking of copying it into your Archos, you need to do a special step. After your download Flash onto your desktop/laptop, make a copy of it but change the extension from .zip to .apk on the copy. You can then mount your Archos like before and paste the copy like normal. Be sure to paste it into the Files – Downloaded area or else you cannot install it into the Archos. Un-mount, and then touch the Flash file you just pasted into the Archos and it should start to install. If you don’t change the extension from .zip to .apk, it will just say “cannot open file” and you can’t do anything.

This caused me a lot of frustration.

5. One more thing. If after all this, you still cannot listen to stuff on the website, contact the website and ask how you can listen on an Android device (tell them which version). They might direct you to another website that carries their “station” for Android users.

After all this suffering, I love my Archos 70!!

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For starters let me just say that I’d love to rate this a 5 as it meets all of my requirements for a portable media player that just so happens to have access to the net (internet activity was not what I purchased this for). 5 stars would mean a perfect product and I have yet to stumble upon one; even from Apple.

PROS

- LARGE storage! As long as Archos continuous to give customers a choice on large capacity players they will remain in business; companies are forgetting that’s people’s library of media is only increasing not decreasing

- Support for a ton of video including hi def rips (ie. MKV and H.264 with subtitles)

- Music layout is pretty darn good

- Multi-touch screen is responsive, maybe not as much as an Apple product, but it does the job

- Battery lasts! Very surprised on the life of the battery before it needs a re-charge

- Great e-book reader (with access to Kindle and Nook readers from the market)

- Impressive screen

- Kickstand in the back; I can enjoy a video on my lunch break without having to hold the player.

- External speakers

- HDMI out (no longer a need to purchase silly docks to connect to a flat screen)

- Web is better than I thought. I was able to pick up my home network with ease

- Can install the Google market via hack (real easy to do)

* Don’t be fooled by so-called “professional” reviews which state that the device feels cheap in your hands; it does not by any means. If anything it feels super light.

CONS

- VGA camera is a joke. I have had camera phones from years ago that were better than this

- There’s supposedly a 35,000 music track limit

- Wallpaper feature, using actual personal photos, doesn’t scale correctly for whatever the reason in either view

Conclusion

I had the 8gb prior (returned because I thought I could manage with the amount of storage but I needed the extra space) and for 250gb it is STILL a really light device in your hands. At about $349 you can’t beat this in terms of functionality & features. For the e-book reader and web surfer get the 8gb. For the media buff (ie video, music and pictures) get yourself the 250gb as I did.

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D. MATRANGA (Samarkand) –

  

I’ve owned this since January. I wanted an ereader that could handle moving pdf’s around, without the slowness or blinking. I enjoy a lot of out of copyright materials, basically older literature, travel narratives, etc. This tablet is great for that. Much lighter than the color nook (though, that’s not a bad option), does video, music, pictures, internet, a few games, word files that I’ve converted to pdf. I got the 70 because it’s lighter and put 16gigs microSd into the side slot (I wouldn’t recommend taking that in and out, as it’s tricky, use the cable to transfer files, it is much easier). I’ve also converted a lot of text files to pdf and using those has made it an even more responsive reader. For instance, I’ve downloaded Ulysses to a text file, printed it to micromedia flashpaper, so now it’s on my Archos as a pdf a few mbs large that I flip through it as fast as I could a desktop, or probably even the hardcover for that matter. The nice thing is that just sits in there, with the 50 or so other titles on my sd card. You might want to consider a file labeling system where the author’s last name comes first, then the title, that way scrolling through the list makes a bit more sense.

There is a lot of support out there with this product and with the patient googler, most anything is possible. I’ve got some backgammon, a nice pdf reader (which turns the words white and the background black, basically making eye fatigue a non-issue), weiqi, a phases of the moon thing-a-ma-bob. People make fun of me for buying a French product but they are nimwits who deserve the Jobs kool-aid they are doled out in the annually emperor’s new clothes style charades. It’s a sorry state when there are no tablets out there for a regular user who doesn’t want a dataplan or itoons or someother intrusive element. This country is just not as innovative when it comes to technology as it likes to think it is. I did like the wifi only Samsung Tablet when I played around with it at Staples a few months ago, but don’t regret purchasing this handsome little bugger at all.

It also makes for a decent music player. The speakers are more than adequate; if you are in a room with a few friends, shuffle up some mp3s and let it ride. My Uncle was piqued: “What’s that,” he said, “looks like an oversized iphone?”.

Also, the iPad is hugely over-rated. So heavy that you simply cannot hold it comfortably for long, so you are back to hunching over flat surfaces or buying a stand for it. It wasn’t any faster than the Archos either, especially loading or navigating webpages. Besides with a little motion of your finger you can easily increase the size of whatever you are looking at, so tablets the iPad size are just inane tomfoolery for the product toters. And the iphone, despite being a convenient phone/internet experience, is just too small. Touching some of the weblinks, you’ll accidently hit the one right next to it and boom you have to go back…the keyboard buttons closest to the edge, like the letter “P” never work either without tapping 5 or 6 times, even then it puts the letter “O” in or whatever, then you have to try and hit backspace, etc.,etc.,…I use dolphin browser on my Archos and it’s been a pleasing web experience.

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