Archos Targets touch With 3G Touchscreen PMP Comments

Have you heard of the iPhone 3G? It's an iPod Touch with 3G connectivity, who would have thought it?!

have you also heard? the 3g iphone is also an mp3 player you pay a monthly contract for... because of the phone bit?

anyway, what kind of touch screen is it? captive (like the iphone) or that plasticky touch film (like everything else). just interested

too expensive it will be a gimmick toy and apple will continue to own all

bring on the next challenger

the plus point of Archos players like this, though, is that the resolution of the screen means that you can play back DVDs at their native resolution without having to re-encode them - hell they even support playing the .vob files directly so don't even require ripping.

Can you say the same for iPod touch or iPhone? They have a lower resolution screen and only support one video codec, meaning transcoding every video you want to put on that you haven't already bought in piss-poor resolution from the iTunes store.

It's a shame Archos has priced themselves so high with these new players, their 605 wifi range is at a great price-to-ability point - plus they also have touchscreens...

They look ok (I'm not a fan tbh) the codec support is pretty good (though Archos are still charging you for some of them...). However seeing the rated battery life killed it for me. 12 hours for audio and 4 for video is pretty bad, combined with the really high price tag makes these a very niche product.

I have never seen anyone out and about in the UK using an Archos - what kind of market do they have in the UK? And, what are the support services like? Does it have some kind of online store or it it merely an add-on bit of kit to allow you to use an already existing media store/library?

On the design side...
What the rock is that Nav doing? I do honestly believe that my ass and a crayon could do better - they could have really made exceptional use of the space and created a really sweet and beautiful interface that would really enhance the user experience.

Apple have set the bar for this kind of thing and I think if you are shelling out £400 for a gizmo the interface has to be at least nearly as wondrous as that now otherwise you might have that nagging "wish it looked more like an iPod' kind of thing at the back of your mind. Yes it is neat and tidy but so is a bus timetable. A digital device really needs to inspire not just serve up the bare minimum in terms of user interface. I think perhaps they need another revolution over there and this time 'chop chop' for all the bad designers. Seriously though you people who have written here on this thread - don't you think that you could imagine a better interface right now with just 5 mins thinking time? Nuff said.

Gordon, you've had this device in your hands, right? the website information says that the 5 series has a kickstand built in, but it's not obvious on the rotating 360º view on the website. Can you confirm the existance of it? Is it thin and to one side or does a large section of the back flap out?

am i missing something £269 gets u 16Gb of ipod touch and this for £279 gets u 60Gb with 3.5G for internet everywhere and loads better codec support and TV recording. why is everyone saying it is priced out of eveyones league?