It seems Archos IT team keeps busy and serious about the Archos 5 Firmware updates, they recently released a new firmware update with the following fixes:

Version 1.3.05 – January 12th, 2009

Bug fixes:

• System: Sometimes the clock was wrong after a Suspend or a USB connection
• Audio: AC3 5.1 audio didn’t always work with SPDIF output (it was stereo only)
• Settings Wizard: It was not possible to select a month other than 10, 11 or 12
• Music: The display of the “Hard Drive” view is now faster when there are a lot of files or folders
• System: ARClibrary is not systematically rebuilt after firmware update anymore

You can download the new firmware from here:

Download Archos 5 and Archos 7 Firmware OS v 1.3.05 (53094Kb)

In digital media players not everything has to be Apple. Now it is the turn of Archos 5 which was kind enough to get my hands recently and that according to Archos is a device called “The Internet Media Tablet,” but beyond tradenames attractive, this proposal results in a strange combination of iPod touch tablet and multimedia.

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This review will test the Archos 5 and see if you have enough to put in consumer tastes.

The Equipment – Archos 5 60GB

Apple’s influence in the way it is presented is striking. The box in black stands out. Inside and very well wrapped an Archos 5 60GB hard drive (Flash memory is not like other players). The package includes a reference guide, an adapter for a dock that sells Archos, a flannel to clean the black player and earphones of questionable quality. If you want to read the manual, you will need to download the same player or the Archos web, this strategy seems sound, there is a saving on paper and thus avoid waste. There is also a USB cable tha is not standard, so careful about losing it.

The Archos 5G looks elegant . Its metallic gloss finish will be certainly a magnet for the curious glances and demonstrates the quality with which it was manufactured. The 4.8-inch screen adorns the front. But this beauty has its price, seems to attract grease stains from your fingers as, so it is but be very careful and bear the flannel cleaning everywhere.

A high quality display

It has a minimalist design even in the controls, only has one button on / off, volume, headphone port and a USB cable. The rest of the functions are controlled via the touchscreen, which is certainly one of the best decisions we have seen a similar gadget: 800 x 480 pixels.

Archos has decided to stop using the stylus to its previous versions and has created a completely touch, eye multitáctil is not like the iPod touch. Its glossy finish makes the screen in certain lighting conditions are too many reflections which can be annoying, but considering that all PMP and MP3 players continue this trend, at least Archos 5 has a higher resolution screen.

The Archos 5 inside

The options menu is fairly intuitive, but has options that are only commercial attachments you can buy the Archos 5.

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Play menu has all the options to play video, music, photography, games that are purchased on the website of Archos and applications in Flash. It’s pretty simple to use as well as intuitive. Video options shows movies or videos we have stored, and even has a small pre-animated just before you play, which while not very useful, no doubt grateful. It supports the MPEG-42 (AVI), and protected WMV files, including M-JPEG, quite regularly for my taste, and if you want to support H.264, MPEG-4 and WMV HD will need to buy a plug-in $ 20 .

The option of Music organized according to the digital library IDTags of music files. So that we can find our music by artist, album, genre, title or even years. You can also play in the order of the hard disk. Far from being an iPod interface touch, touch too many and needed to start playing a song, but it is a matter of time to get used to this interface. Salido cash supports MP3, WMA and WAV, few formats, but with a firmware update supports Flac and OGG. If you want to support AAC and AAC + files you have to pay $ 20 in another plug-in.

You can also display images in JPEG, BMP, PNG and GIF.

It is sad to have to pay extra (of which costs USD350 Archos 5 60GB), in order to have greater compatibility. According to Archos is to save on licensing, as I was to express our portfolio.

¿Internet Media Tablet?

The Archos 5 has a section devoted exclusively to the Internet, hence the name. Your browser uses Opera technology, and works as a full browser even supports Flash 9. The deployment of the pages is very fast and with the screen resolution is not required to make approaches. I managed to edit entries in WordPress banking sites and enter without any problem. The virtual keyboard works like the iPod touch or iPhone, but having a larger screen, the script is much easier.

It includes a mail reader with support for Gmail, and Yahoo accounts with POP3 and IMAP. Unfortunately the software is in beta and often fail constantly. Archos hopefully resolve this issue soon. In the Contacts section, includes all the contacts you add or imported from any other software. Nothing special here, but they appreciated the effort.

All Internet connections are made via Wi-Fi 802.11g. Generally, the Archos 5 usually detect the available networks without any problems and keeps in mind the networks used. When you open Opera or required to enter the Internet, the Archos 5 will automatically search for wireless networks if available.

A very complete gadget

For the AppStore, including the so-called Media Club, which are accessible to different music stores and movies online. It was strange that the integration with iTunes is the iPod, but applauds the attempt to create a better Archos experience from Archos and different content providers.

Opera also provides Widgets andalusia Archos 5, and includes a basic calculator, currency converter, RSS news reader, and prognosis of time, and more can be downloaded from the Internet Media Tablet.

We also found two sections that bring us little, if not nil, utility: TV & Add-ons. The TV section is activated only if you have a special attachment that allows us to use the Archos 5 as a TiVo or a DVR, while the section Add-Ons are only commercial all the extras you can buy. The worst of the matter is that there is no way to remove them, so we will always have these options completely useless.

The battery is Archos promises us 22 hours of music and 7 hours of video with the latest firmware update, but only got 18 hours of music and 4 hours of video, with some downloads and loads more, I hope to reach the figure promised.

Its dimensions are 127.5 x 78.3 x 12.9 mm for the 60GB model and weighs 250 grams.

Conclusions

For many this is the best multimedia device that can be bought, not far from it. Its operating system, a modified Linux, making the touch interface respond promptly, but needs to improve the stability offered. In addition, it paid more money by simply having more codecs I did not like.

Is it worthwhile to leave the iPod touch with a reliable Archos 5? If it is dependent on iTunes and is married to the iPhone OS X interface, it is better to stay there. But if you want one of the best screen for watching movies or series, and plenty of hard drive capacity to store music and photography, then the Archos 5 is a much better buy.

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