Disclosure: Some links on this page are monetized by the Skimlinks, Amazon, Rakuten Advertising, and eBay, affiliate programs. All prices are subject to change, and this article only reflects the prices available at time of publication.
French company Archos has bee selling Android tablets since before Google officially supported tablets. In the early days Archos tablets were among the few options available for folks that wanted Android on a device that wasn’t a phone.
When other device makers started getting in on the action, Archos still stood out for a while due to the low prices of its devices.
These days Archos tablets have to compete with dozens, if not hundreds of dirt cheap Android tablets… so there’s not really much to help the company’s latest products stand out. Still, that hasn’t stopped Archos from bringing new models to market year after year. Now the folks at ArcTablet have uncovered some details and pictures for 7 new Archos tablets and a few new phones.
Here’s a roundup of tech news from around the web. You can keep up on the latest news by following Liliputing on Twitter, Google+ and Facebook.
- Archos has more tablets on the way
Probably the best thing you can say about these new tablets with 7, 8, and 10 inch screens is that it looks like they’ll all run Android 4.4 KitKat. [ArcTablet] - Is T-Mobile getting ready to launch a device unlocking utility?
The wireless carrier has been making a lot of “uncarrier” moves to change the way customers pay for and use their phones. It looks like an upcoming change could be a tool that makes it easy to unlock your device. [TmoNews] - Firefox 31 is out: Here are the release notes
New features include a search bar on the new tab page and a malware blocker for downloads. Firefox for Android also now lets you re-order homescreen panels and refresh synced tabs on demand. [Mozilla] - Google offers a $1 million bounty for shrinking a kW-scale power inverter into a small laptop-sized box
The Little Box Challenge could help make it possible to deploy electricity in remote locations or use your car battery to power your house, among other things. [Google] - Amazon: rate of app submissions to the Amazon Appstore has doubled since the Fire Phone was announced
It’ll be interesting to see if the trend continues once the Fire Phone actually starts shipping and developers figure out whether people are actually using their apps. [Amazon] - Did HTC leak their upcoming smartwatch in a “behind the scenes” video?
The company’s expected to launch an Android Wear watch at some point. An unannounced watch made a brief appearance in the background of an unrelated video from HTC. Some folks say it was “leaked” on purpose, although it’s not inconceivable that someone just forgot to move it before shooting the video. Or maybe it’s just an ordinary watch (with a blank screen). [HTC Source] - You don’t have to sign in twice to use 2-factor authentication to login to a Google account on Android anymore
This probably affects folks like tech bloggers more than the general public, but if you find yourself constantly signing into different Android devices with your Google account you can now type your username and password just once even if you use 2-factor authentication. [Android Police]
I’d still love to see them resurrect the 5/48 as a media player (including the DVR attachments). Something near the original form factor with updated specs and options for a 1TB HD or a 240GB SSD would be fantastic, and would really set them apart.
There has to be a corner of the market that still wants to travel with more of a media library than can be loaded onto a 64GB MicroSD.
Does Archos plan on making Windows devices again? Beyond smartphones, I’m done with Android and iOS.
Watch out Archos, HP might come knocking and want to slap it’s logo on your products and claim them as their own.