It has been clear for some time that Adobe were working with the ARM and Intel community and would eventually acknowledge that there are components on many devices that can decode H.264 better than a CPU. The Menlow platform has always supported H.264 decoding in hardware but the YouTube experience has been extremely poor because Flash doesn’t known about DXVA (Direct X Video Acceleration.) The same applies to many smarphone platforms too. OMAP 3 for example (as seen on N900, Archos 5, Palm Pre) has the silicon dedicated to this […]

three device mobility Originally uploaded by umpcportal.com Nokia N82 in the pocket: Camera, GPS, BT, HSDPA, Voice, SMS, MP3, mobile web in the pocket. Archos 5 IT (Android) in the hand: Quick-snack web browsing, video, navigation, ereading, emergency computing. Gigabyte Netbook on the table: Productivity, 3G and storage. This is getting very close to my ideal setup. 3G in the Tablet would probably be as close as it’s possible with today’s technology. I’m currently testing out the Archos 5 Android Tablet on UMPCPortal. https://www.umpcportal.com/2009/10/archos-5-android-internet-tablet-first-impressions-long/ It’s a bit unstable but I’m […]

Twitter is not just about a simple client application and 140 characters. With something like 50% of those simple 140-character tweets carrying a link to a web page, if you haven’t got a fast internet connection, a quality browser and a powerful CPU, you’re missing out on half the experience.

The Archos Internet Tablet needs 3G to be a first-class mobile twitter device but even in it’s current form, it shows how much of an advantage screen real-estate and a quality browser platform are. The 4.8” 800×480 screen is perfect for portrait-mode usage.

The Archos 5 Internet Media Tablet is a 4.8” 800×480 tablet device running Android and Archos Media Player software. Prices start at 230 Euro (8GB) but I’ve got the 32GB version here (bought myself) and I’ve had been pounding it hard since I got it last Friday. So far I’m loving its capability and excited by its potential but am frustrated by the amount of crashes and lock-ups I’m experiencing. At this stage I’d advise customers to hold-off on a purchase and take the time to do some more research and to monitor my ongoing experiences with the device before diving in.

Read on for an extended first-impressions post.

wvga tablets, originally uploaded by umpcportal.com. All of these, from the 3.5″ Samsung Omnia Pro to the 7″ SmartDevices Q7, are 800×480 resolution devices. Three of them have hardware keyboards (N810, Omnia Pro, Everun.) Only one of them is based on X86. All the rest are ARM-based devices. What do you think of the devices? 3.5″ to small or perfect for the pocket? 7″ too big or perfect for sofa-surfing? I’d personally love to have a super-slim Everun with an Archos 5 Android tablet inside. What form factor interests you […]

Here’s the Archos 5 Internet Tablet (Android edition) Unboxing video. So far i’m really liking what I see. No flash support in the browser but YouTube plays vie the built-in video player in excelent quality and the general browsing speed is really impressing. I threw a load of videos at it and they were all recognised (some need an HD plugin) and there’s a bunch of exciting apps in the app store. It’s early days but I’m feeling really positive about this. If only it had 3G!

On Friday evening at 1900 GMT JKK and I will be LIVE again.

For the first time ever it’s an ARM-only show featuring Cortex CPUs from Freescale and Texas Instruments. The Sharp Netwalker will be there and, if Mr DHL does his job, the Archos Internet Tablet (Android version) too.

It was a pleasure to join three smartphone experts yesterday evening for a podcast about the Omnia Pro and the reasons why someone who focuses on MID and UMPC devices is messing around with a Windows Mobile smartphone.

We have a good discussion over 1hr 25 mins (wow, I thought our Meet:Mobility podcasts were long) about the Omnia Pro B7610 and then drift into some good discussion about UMPCs, the Archos product range, Android and Moorestown.