Archos brings Wi-Fi to PMPs

Stephen Withers
Wednesday, 07 March 2007 11:33

Your IT - Entertainment

If you don't like to squint and you're fed up with tangled cables, the Archos 704 may be the personal media player you've been waiting for.

The 7in, 800 x 480 pixel touchscreen is a much more eye-friendly choice than the smaller screens fitted to other devices such as Apple's iPod, but you're unlikely to have a pocket big enough to comfortably hold the 182 x 128 x 20mm (7 x 5 x 0.8in), 630g (22oz) device - unless you're wearing a winter coat.

Buyers can choose either a 40 or 80G drive, the larger unit is said to hold up to 100 movies, 800,000 photos or 40,000 songs.

Standard codecs are MPEG-4 and WMV for video, and MP3, WMA (including protected files) and WAV. Optional software adds support for H.264, MPEG-2, AAC (unprotected) and AC3.

Files can be transferred via USB (from Windows, Mac OS X and Linux systems) or Wi-Fi. The 802.11g interface also allows the playback of files directly from the network plus web access via the built-in Opera browser.

Other useful features of the 704 include the ability to transfer photos directly from a digital cameras, while the optional DVR Station allows recording directly from video sources such as TV tuners, DVD players or cable set top boxes.

The claimed battery life is 25 hours for music playback or 5.5 hours for video - enough to watch a couple of movies on that long-haul flight.

It is due to ship later this month for $US550.