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Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod)
Not all Android devices are phones: here's an extensive review of the Archos 5 tablet (part 1), (part 2) on the Anything but ipod site. "The Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android is a very touchy subject for some people as its part awesome, part scrap. On one hand, you have excellent hardware (with the exception of the resistive touch screen, which should have been capacitive) and awesome support for video and a giant market of apps to put on it, but on the other hand you have a device thats so unstable I legiimately wish it had a big giant red reset button on the back instead of a tiny reset hole."
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Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Feb 28, 2010 14:57 UTC (Sun) by cde (subscriber, #46554) [Link]
I haven't tried the latest Archos tablets, but I do have an older Archos 605 Wifi media player. It is built on free software (Linux, Samba and others), but uses cryptography to prevent tinkering with it, and the only option to run code is inside the (proprietary, slow) Flash VM. An exploit was found in firmware 1.7.13 and was patched two weeks later by Archos. Once updated, it is not possible to switch back to an older firmware.
The reason for these restrictions? Compatibility with the Windows Media Player DRM...
In addition, the 605 wifi has a proprietary USB connector, and it takes 5+ hours to fully recharge the device over USB. The alternative being to buy their "DVR station", which costs between $60 and $100...
Long story short, I'm not going to acquire another device from this company (even though I'm French, and Archos was founded in France also).
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Feb 28, 2010 19:47 UTC (Sun) by DOT (subscriber, #58786) [Link]
Tivoization at its best. I wish Linus would change his opinion on that one.
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Feb 28, 2010 23:28 UTC (Sun) by HelloWorld (subscriber, #56129) [Link]
Even if Linus changed his opinion, it wouldn't really matter. Thousands of developers have contributed to linux, it would be impossible to get everyone to agree to change the license, especially if you consider that some developers have disappeared or perished since.
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Mar 1, 2010 1:22 UTC (Mon) by treed (subscriber, #11432) [Link]
It isn't clear that we would really have to get all of those thousands of developers to agree. There has got to be a workaround that would stop the tivoization. All we really need is for all code going forward or perhaps even just a few critical pieces of code not allow tivoization while remaining compatible with the rest of the kernel. Even changing the license on a piece such as just the kernel scheduler would make life very difficult for the likes of Tivo as the years marched on.
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Mar 1, 2010 8:14 UTC (Mon) by drag (subscriber, #31333) [Link]
The GPLv2 is incompatible with the GPLv3...
How much code you'd have to change in the kernel to override the wishes of
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Mar 1, 2010 13:33 UTC (Mon) by leomilano (guest, #32220) [Link]
Ditto, this is the worst electronics purchase we made in my household in years. Everything we buy is open and runs Linux, and is a pleasure to use. This is an obfuscated, closed device where getting anything done is very painful. So, we are left with a very expensive movie player with a small (5 inch) screen, heavy as a brick, and terrible external speakers. It has wifi but you can't rip the benefits of internet access. Again, worst purchase in years, even though we got it at half price!
If they would at least allow Android on it!
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Mar 1, 2010 21:25 UTC (Mon) by leomilano (guest, #32220) [Link]
Well, they apparently only allow you to install Android if you get the tablet. Pretty annoying. Also, if you get to the page of your (Linux based) Archos 5, you get a nice ad saying that they recommend you to use Windows 7. How I love these people:
http://www.archos.com/products/windows_7/index.html?count...
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Feb 28, 2010 17:19 UTC (Sun) by dowdle (subscriber, #659) [Link]
Those things cost as much or more than an Atom-based netbook that has so much more capabilities. Yes, the form factor is much smaller but I don't see much value in an Internet Tablet that expensive and that small.
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Mar 2, 2010 11:26 UTC (Tue) by nye (guest, #51576) [Link]
I've never used a touchscreen device that I can recall, but I keep seeing people dismissing resistive touchscreens as if they're inexcusably bad. Why is this? The wiki article doesn't indicate why they should be particularly worse than capacitive screens.
Archos 5 Internet Tablet with Android Review (Anything but ipod) Posted Mar 6, 2010 0:33 UTC (Sat) by bronson (subscriber, #4806) [Link]
Because you need to push a lot harder to get it to register reliably.
Resistive just tends to be more fiddly.
All you commenters aren't reading the screen... Posted Mar 9, 2010 17:53 UTC (Tue) by Baylink (guest, #755) [Link]
This is not about the "Archos 5".
It's about the "Archos 5 Internet Tablet". Which *comes* running Android.
I know this isn't Slashdot, but apparently, even here we don't read the blurb completely, much less TFA? :-)
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