Related to the issues that I have mentioned regarding the inability to Bookmark a local HTML page, I have looked for a capability to save an HTML page to the file system. There does not seem to be any such ability in the device as it stands, nor have I seen it in a 3rd party App yet. This means that there is no ability to "save" a Web page for later reading offline. I could say that it is obvious that this ability is very useful particularly in a mobile device, with which one cannot be sure of having Internet access when needed, but more than that, it is very puzzling when one considers that any Wireless connection requires power, and as such, unnecessary Internet access is not "green". It is also possible that it will cost extra, both from unnecessary repetitive file accesses, and/or connection time. It also costed me a lot in terms of time I do not have to waste looking for such a basic capability. I expect that eventually, either through improvements to the OS, or via 3rd party Apps, enough of these capabilities will come to the Archos products (and for all I know, they may already be available in other Android devices -- I still have not looked into "Android Market"), but this is all the time I can spend on this issue. Since many other people would spend even less time looking for these capabilities, I think that they are worth addressing sooner rather than later.
With all that in mind, I have abandoned the idea of using the Archos 5
for the current job (holding reference material). I have also abandoned
the idea of using the Kobo eReader for the same use, for other reasons,
which I will probably provide later in a specific report on that product.
I have done some quick prepping and testing of my Nokia N810, and I have
begun to use it for now. I have already loaded a copy of my most
important current reference material onto the device, and done a small
amount of video file testing. It is odd to find that this 2007 - 2008
device is still better at this particular job. Eventually the Archos
products might catch up. Or, if not them, then another Android device
might be better suited to it. But having it available to use now is
important.
[2010/08/29]
I am still making up my mind whether I will use the Archos 5 to hold my reference library. I mentioned that I saw a couple of programs that might be able to create bookmarks to access local HTML files either from the desktop or from the Web Browser. I tried all that looked like they might work. Nothing helped. To use my "Startpage.html" is difficult.
Another problem that I have found is that it is unclear, how to [edited, removed "I cannot" 2010/09/06] remove link icons from desktop. It is easy to make new duplicate links to applications on the desktop. In fact, it is too easy. I have accidentally created a number of links on my desktop. To remove a link on the desktop, one touches and holds the link for a few seconds. It changes appearance. Also, a trashcan appears on the side "tab" which turns red. The link icon can then be dragged onto the trashcan, and it will be immediately deleted. [edited, removed "Unfortunately, there is no way to get rid of them." on 2010/09/06]
Aside from the above, I have corrected my previous posting to show that
my Archos 5 apparently does have Bluetooth support. However, I have not
devised a test for it yet, so I can only confirm that the necessary software
seems to be present.
[2010/08/25]
This is a brief comment on the Archos 5. Those of you who are keeping up with the situation -- are probably far ahead of me. But if you are far ahead of me, you are probably among a fairly small number of very knowledgeable people. On Aug. 22, 2010, I heard the news girl on 680News project that there might be good financial news coming this week because the iPad was introduced in the last quarter. She has no idea what is happening out there. By the end of this year, I expect she will, but I cannot really blame her. The rate of growth of Android is, as I have been saying, generally unexpected. I believe that right now, there are things that need to be said, because back-to-school Fall buying is starting, and there are going to be people who need to know what to buy. So this report is little more than a summary of what I have found and what advice I have to give.
As for the Archos 5 that I bought, it is quite good, but I bought the wrong one -- I will say more about this later. I am still in the process of wringing it out, but so far it appears to be adequate for my purposes. The "ThinkFree Mobile Office Suite" covers PDF viewing as well as the more common document handling. I might use a specialized "app" for PDFs later.
My system customizing has run into a problem. On a full computer and with Firefox in particular, I have a custom written "StartPage.html" which I use to begin my browsing. This is important because it is not on the Internet at all, so if I do not have an active connection, I can still use it as a base point for reading stored messages. I have not found a way to create a "Bookmark" to a local file like this. There is at least 1 third party App which appears [correction, not "claims" 2010/09/06] to do this, but I have not tried it. I am wary of the current App situation because Apps for the Archos pads in particular are still new, even compared to the rest of the Android market. Archos prefers people stay with their recommended "AppsLib" store rather than use [Correction 2010/09/06] the more general "Android Market" and for now, I think I agree with their approach. There seems to be large enough number of Apps in "AppsLib", and the user base is more focussed on the Archos products, which means they will be more reliable and on/or better adapted for Archos products.
There are features in products that are really useful for salesmen to sell the products, but in the real world of day to day use are just plain silly. One of the big "silly" features for digital picture frames in particular is the "Slide show." I expect that most people end up turning off this feature after they realize that it just annoying. When I look at pictures, I get a cascade of memories and associations. I would rather enjoy those thoughts than have them interrupted by a mechanically forced jump to the next picture. I will look at the next picture when I want to thank you! Now all picture displaying devices and programs have slideshow capabilities. As long as I can turn them off, fine. . . . Yes, the Archos 5 picture display program has a slideshow function.
The automatic orientation is another one of these "great features" [see Jobs, Steve] which have little use in the real world. When I am moving around, or even sitting, and reading something on a page display, it is really annoying when the page reformats simply because I let my hand relax a bit and the right side of a pad dropped below the "bottom" edge. I have turned off the automatic orientation on the Archos 5, but there are times when some applications seem to still use the ability. This may be a system bug, or a bug in the individual Apps. If it is the former, then it should be fixed fairly soon, but if it is the latter, then it is going to show up in various Apps in the future. It is better to have a manual switch that is easily accessed, to re-orient your screen. The Archos 5 does not have such a switch.
With the little that I have written, I am jumping straight into purchasing advice, because that is what most people need right now.
There are a few Archos tablets on the market right now, (and a few other Android products, mainly in the US). The Archos 5 is their current "flagship" Android device. It has almost all their features, which includes GPS reception, the inertial sensors which trigger the automatic re-orientation, FM receiver, and FM transmitter (but no microphone or Webcam), and through various attachments, TV (audio-video) recording (but not reception) and playback. The touchscreen is a resistive type (like the Palm devices, not like the iPhone). There is also either a MicroSDHC card slot or a hard drive, BUT NOT BOTH. The hard drive version addresses the hard drive as if it were and SD-Card (which is the opposite of how most people would think about it) and no card slot is available at all. There is also an "Archos 7 Home Pad" which though bigger, is cheaper. The "Home Pad" is a stripped down version lacking most of the above features (but with the same type of touch screen), which can be adequate for some people, but I recommend getting an "Archos 5".
Note that both feature WiFi (but are missing Bluetooth) [Correction 2010/08/25: Apparently the Archos 5 has Bluetooth. Support programs are there, but I have not tried it yet.], but the 7 clearly has B/G and the latest 5's seem to have B/G/N. As of today, the Archos website lists the 5's as only B/G. There is no indication on the box of my unit whether it is N, so I will assume I have B/G and that the B/G/N units will be marked. Actually, I bought mine through TigerDirect.ca, and when it arrived it was clearly a "repack". Not only that but there was an obvious dead pixel in the screen. If I had bought it in a store, I would have opened it and turned it on, and rejected it. As it is, I will keep mine. "TigerDirect.ca" advertises "opened box" items at a discount, so I should be able to argue that I should have gotten the discount. But this is part of the risk of doing business in this fashion.
But which 5? Put simply, the only reason to get one with a hard drive is to capture and re-play television broadcasts. I bought the 160 GB hard drive version because I thought that I might want to run a dual operating system, but have looked more into the situation, I now know that I will not be doing this. As I have said, the currently available Apps appear to cover my needs at a minimal level and the future appears to indicate that better apps will be here soon enough. The only alternative OS right now is very base level Linux for hobbiests and for serious dedicate device developement -- not for "end users". Moreover, even if I was developing for the Archos 5, I would not be writing the program on the device. I would be writing it on a desk computer and then transfering the result to the Archos 5 via USB. Since I have no current interest in capturing TV on the Archos 5, the hard drive is pretty useless. On top of that, I would have liked to have an SD-Card slot even with the hard disc drive. At least 1 App downloaded data onto the hard drive where I could not offload to my main computer. Luckily, I did not pay for that App, nor the data, though it did cost me "Internet access" (my account has a byte limit).
Between the 8 GB version and the 32 GB version (I have not seen a 16 GB version in
Canada), If you do not use the GPS map system, then the 8 GB could be adequate for
most people. I have not tried the map system, but past experience tells me that
such a capability can be a substantial -- actually nearly infinite, space eater.
I do not know where the map data is stored, but I would expect it would go into
the main internal storage first, and might be further expandable into the SD-Card.
Most other Apps are written for cellphone use first. They are oriented to small
memory and relatively small storage. So, if you avoid the GPS software, you might
be happy enough buying the 8 GB version and adding a 16 GB Class 4 MicroSDHC card
(about $40 Cdn. as I write this). Of course, even aside from the GPS software,
experience tells us that it is always possible to eat 32 GB on any general computing
device. With this in mind, all I can say about buying a 32 GB version is that if
you can afford it, it will certainly do no harm.
[2010/08/23]
I received my Archos 5 Internet Tablet on the 18th., and spent quite a lot of time working with it to see if it would fill a role in my array of equipment for work. I think it will do fairly well. It is not ideally suited for my work, but few things ever have been. Actually, I suppose nothing has ever been "ideally suited" for my work, if I am being picky about it. But the point is, that preliminary testing of thew new device is what pushed this report back to Thursday.
"Android surges, mobile Linux slides, in Gartner report", By Eric Brown, 2010-08-13 http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/Gartner-2Q-report-and-AndroidLinux-fork/ summarizes a number of survey reports which combine to show the current importance of Android compared to other operating systems in the field. The common finding, as broughout out clearest in the Gartner figures, is that Android is somewhere in the range of Apple's iPad/iPod system ("iOS") and RIM's Blackberrys in terms of current sales. Symbian is still more than double any of the next three, but it is clearly falling. In terms of installed base, though, it must still be trailing, though its current rate of growth could see it eclipse Apples complete installed base in as little as a year or two (depending on whether production can keep up).
Among the Mobile Linux projects that were roughly contemporary to Android, so far, Moblin seems to be continuing, but "LiMo" appears to be in the process of going dormant. "LiMo-based First Else smartphone bites the dust" By Eric Brown 2010-06-30 http://www.linuxfordevices.com/c/a/News/First-Else-cancelled/
Counter-balancing this wildly positive trend is the fact that it might all come to a fairly abrupt road-block in the form of an Oracle law suit based on Java patents. "Oracle sues Google over Android and Java" by Tom Krazit, August 12, 2010 5:18 PM PDT, http://news.cnet.com/8301-30684_3-20013546-265.html
I hope the above puts the current situation in perspective. It is hard to express
the surprise I feel having watched all this happening. Aside from the immediate
utility which the Archos 5 might provide, I felt that it was imperative that I
catch up to the current situation and obtain some first hand experience with a
real Android device. Between this, and the recent demise of my last Palm TX (which
I am mentioning here for the first time) and the surge in eReaders, I have a lot
of potential writing to do. I will not promise a lot, but there will be a few
reports in these areas.
[2010/08/19]
Sometimes the world drifts along at a fairly even rate, Economic and business forecasters
rely on this. Then occasionally, everything changes suddenly, and relatively unpredictably.
We seem to be at one of those points. A year ago, I considered Android an "interesting
possibility" which might eventually take its place among the more popular systems. Things
have changed radically. It appears that Android will supplant Apple's iPad/iPod system.
It has already clearly eclipsed Palm's new WebOS, Microsoft's Windows CE and the Moblin
system, which was a contemporary. With these changes have come a number of changes for
my own technology. I have been looking for the Pandigital Novel, though I do not want to
use it as a book reader. As I have said about the iPad, a colour backlighted screen is
not a good technology for an eReader device. However, it is an inexpensive, large,
Android device. I gave up on it and ordered an Archos 5 Internet Tablet in its place.
That will be my first Android device. I expect I will write more on what is going on
in the future. Meanwhile, have a good week.
[2010/08/15]