android_borgcubeAndroid is getting some additional attention but this time by Archos (Texas Instruments). They announced yesterday that they will releasing an Internet Media Tablet running Google Android.  Archos is one of the first mainstream devices that will be running Android and is not strictly a phone based device.

  • PC-like Internet experience enhanced by a high-resolution 5″ screen and full-width page viewing
  • Adobe FlashTM and Flash VideoTM support, full screen
  • Access whenever and wherever to TV, movies, photos, music and games
  • Uncompromised TV recording and High Definition (HD) playback, all formats
  • Hundreds of hours of video storage, up to 500 GB
  • Innovative design: compact 10-mm ultra-thin tablet
  • Long battery life, 7 hours’ video playback
  • 3.5G 7.2 Mb/s HSUPA
  • Laptop-like performance from the first implementation of OMAP3440 processor based on the ARM(r) CortexTM superscalar microprocessor and DSP

If these features are still in the final device this could be a killer device.  With the screen size, hard drive (500 GB!!!), HD Video, 7 hours of video playback, all of this just screams portable DVD player killer.  With the addition of Wireless Internet coming to many airline carriers this is looking more and more like THE device to have for a traveller.  Overall this is a good jump forward for Archos and could possibly give them a much larger market share in the portable device market.

There have been a few other devices that use Android for media but none look as promising as the Archos. With Android being a highly customized version of Linux it is becoming a distribution with a lot of followers and as such is getting people more comfortable with the idea of Linux.

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