Archos launches firmware update for G9 tablets

Archos 80 G9

Archos has rolled out a software update for the new Archos 80 and Archos 101 G9 tablets. The Archos 80 G9 went on sale this month for $300, featuring an 8 inch, 1024 x 768 pixel capacitive touchscreen display and a 1 GHz dual core processor. The Archos 101 G9 isn’t even available for purchase yet.

The update adds a number of features and fixes a number of bugs. Here are a few of the highlights.

Google Talk now comes preloaded.
The camera quality is now better in high and low light conditions.
There’s hardware acceleration for Adobe Flash.
There’s better support for upscaling standard definition video for a 1080p display.
You can create shortcuts to shared network drives for streaming media over your home network.

You can find the complete list of changes in the release notes.

The update isn’t yet listed on the Archos support page, but you can find a download link at the ArcTablet blog.

Archos 101 G9

Turbo

Buy from$289

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key specs
reviews • 1
prices

Form factorTablet
Operating systemAndroid (Honeycomb [3.x])
Screen size10.1 inches
Storage typeInternal storage (16 GB, Flash), Memory card
Camera (integrated)Yes
Dimensions0.5 x 10.87 x 6.59 in
Weight1.43 lb
Released10/11/2011

see all specs →

Archos 80 G9

Posted on Saturday, October 1st, 2011, 11:27 am by Brad Linder

Anonymous

Makes me considering getting a 80 even more. Love the itemized update reports Archos do.
Nards Barley

“You can create shortcuts to shared network drives for streaming media over your home network”

Got my Samsung Galaxy S Wifi 5.0 and Arnova G2 10 yesterday. The thing that has bugged me is how few of the videos on my desktop are actually supported as streaming media on my tablets. And the thing is, when I had my IPOD Touch, I remember being able to stream just about any movie to it. These same movies seem to play fine if I copy them to the device, however.
Logi

How’s 3rd party app support? I know for the gen 7 and 8 Archos devices, some app developers specifically point out that Archos devices are not supported because of whatever Archos added/not added to their tablets.
MikeS

I have a G8 and have issues with app compatibilty and stability too. I get similar responses from devs in that they don’t officially support my tablet because of various issues with Archos tablets.
Anonymous

This is a lot better than the 8th gen, updates where like over a month after release back then.

Probably helps they are using Honeycomb and not customizing the interface like they did with the 8th gen, which they added software android keys to the side of the screen instead of giving you capacitive buttons like most other tablets.

Google also allows more devices to get their market now, which wasn’t the case back with the 8th gen offerings.

While the dual core performance is quite a boost from the single core 8th gen as well.

Still a question of long term build quality. My dad’s old Archos 70 is not even a full year old and battery life is so low now that he had to carry the charger with him if he plans to use it for longer than a hour or two. Also the touch screen is less responsive around the edges now than when he first got it.
Anonymous

Archos had been traditionally a PMP company before getting into Tablets. So one thing their tablets are usually good at is playing media. So I’d be very surprised if these new models can’t handle most formats.
Anonymous

May be getting more or less standard Honeycomb. So compatibility should be better than the 8th gen. Things like the side software android buttons from the 8th gen are not there in these new models for example.

Though the number of apps optimized for Honeycomb is still growing…
Anonymous

I am guessing the streaming backend was itunes? As such, it may well be possible that Apple had it transcode it all into h264 before steaming “thanks” to quicktime…
Anonymous

Yea, they had to hack it a bit more to get around the phone assumptions back then.
Nards Barley

I recall I was using TVersity on the desktop and would then simply open a browser on my IPOD (or possibly an app) and begin watching the movie. Most of the videos were XVID avi files. I guess from your comment that maybe some transcoding goes on at the server during the streaming process. I have a new underpowered server with an AMD-350 processor. I also have new router that allows me to attach an external hard drive. I have tried streaming from the server and the router, and only these low quality Mp4v files stream.
Nards Barley

It plays the videos fine when transferred to the device. Just streaming I have problems, which may be a separate issue, especially since my new Galaxy S wifi 5.0 has the same problem.
Anonymous

Probably a bandwidth issue then. If network is too slow then the video is treated like it’s corrupt.
Anonymous

Did some checking and it seems TVersity was accessed on a iPhone via the web browser. As such it most likely transcoded the video stream as the only video format the iPhone browser handles is h264 (that i know off).
Dan

I have a G8 tablet too and suffered several app incompatibility issues. Devs also gave me the same response as you. I’d probably spend a little more and go with another company or make use of your store’s return policy and test out the apps you use.
Lotte

On my G8, streaming from a network share using 802.11n is very jerky on 2 Mbps (video + audio) videos (1 foot from the router). For comparison, My netbook streams all my 2-10 Mbps videos fine using 802.11g (1 floor away from the router).
Nards Barley

Now I am annoyed because every time I initiate a download on my Arnova G2, whether with ES File explorer or an FTP app, the download gets interrupted every time the screen automatically shuts off (I guess that is sleep mode). It doesn’t happen with the Samsung Galaxy S wifi, however.
robarino

More horrible devices from Archos. Quality has ALWAYS been an issue with them as are firm release dates…

I am on my 3rd Archos 101. What a piece of JUNK!!!
robarino

More horrible devices from Archos. Quality has ALWAYS been an issue with them as are firm release dates…

I am on my 3rd Archos 101. What a piece of JUNK!!!
Nards Barley

I got it working. I installed an application on the desktop called Plex Media Server and then a Flex android app on the device. It apparently uses ffdshow to do the transcoding: http://ffmpeg.org/

It uses a lot of my system’s resources. My dual core amd e-350 Foxconnn desktop seems to handle it, but barely.
Nards Barley

I got it working. I installed an application on the desktop called Plex Media Server and then a Flex android app on the device. It apparently uses ffdshow to do the transcoding: http://ffmpeg.org/

It uses a lot of my system’s resources. My dual core amd e-350 Foxconnn desktop seems to handle it, but barely.
Anonymous

i will never understand why AMD opted to disable the use of the GPU part as a video encoding accelerator on their bobcat APUs.
Anonymous

Because they want you to buy their higher priced systems to do things like video editing.

Intel does the same thing, and only make exceptions for specialty products. Like their mobile Moorestown and now Medfield has hardware accelerated encoding but that feature is lacking in all other ATOM products.

In a way it’s not a wrong choice, because things like video editing require a lot of CPU performance as well. While they also tend to adjust pricing according to what features they leave enabled and the more they give us the higher they would have to price it.

Though of course we would prefer if they left it enabled or at least left a way to enable it.
Dan

Have had a lovely time with my Gen8 Archos and I’m considering the Gen9 Turbo to get a noticeable spec upgrade. Hanging at the different Archos fora there is usually solution specific usage problems shortly. The Archos media stack is usually enough to run all and sundry media. Sometimes though one has to either fork up cash for the extended codec support or transcode audio and/or insane bitrate encodings.
Anonymous

Prior to making tablets, Archos was more or less a PMP company. Their tablets are aimed at the mid-range market. So good for the price but they cut corners to keep it at the price range and the company doesn’t have the resources of the bigger companies like Samsung for customizing the OS, etc.

The Arnova goes even further into the low price market segment. So will use cheaper parts and cut more corners.

Just look at the processors for example. Rockchips, used in the Arnova, have traditionally gone into low end MIDs and PMPs. Though generally good on the graphical side they are not intended for high end use. While Archos is using the more powerful TI OMAP series 4 for it’s 9th gen tablets.

According to Charbax, they’re even going up to 1.8GHz next year with the TI OMAP 4470, though original announcement only indicated the 1.5GHz TI OMAP 4460… Difference besides 300MHz is the GPU switches from SGX540 to SGX544 for a 2.5x improvement and the ability to run OS like Windows 8. So Archos may be expanding its horizons next year.

In the meantime, companies like Samsung cater to more premium users, though most of that goes into the body of the devices with the high end screens, etc. But you can generally expect better performance from one of their products than the lower cost devices.

Though none are immune to having at least some issues… We’re still awhile away from them perfecting the technology enough to be even mostly bug free.