Archos announced the new Archos PMA400 at the CES 2005. I4U has a PMA400 video report from the show floor showing the new Archos in detail.
Archos offers the PMA400 for pre-order on their site for a whopping 799.99 Euros. The new player ships on January 31st.
Archos describes the PMA400 with:
"The Pocket Media Assistant PMA400 is the the first Linux®" -based 30GB HDD device allowing you to record directly from TV, listen to music, browse the Internet and stay connected, for entertainment or productivity anytime, anywhere. A new generation of ARCHOS smart portable devices, the PMA400 combines full audio and video capabilities, WiFi connectivity and a personal information manager in one slim, pocket-sized device."
In some ways that is very competitive to the Sharp Linux PDAs especially because Archos also offers a SDK. See the Archos PMA400 specification below.
Archos PMA400 Specification:
| Capacity: | 30GB¹ |
| Interfaces: |
High-speed USB 2.0, compatible USB 1.1, PC & Mac USB Host port compatible Mass Storage Device Built-in WiFi connection (802.11b technology) IRDA 115 kb/s port |
| Operating system: | Linux Qtopia™ with embedded ARCHOS multimedia applications |
| Video playback: |
MPEG-4 SP with MP3 or ADPCM stereo sound, near DVD quality up to 704x480 @ 30 f/s (MTSC), 720x576 @ 25 f/s (PAL), AVI file format² |
| Video recording: |
MPEG-4 SP with MP3 stereo sound, near SVCD quality (optimised resolution for standard TV through composite video line-in) with up to 512x384 @ 30 f/s, in AVI format² |
| Music playback: |
Stereo MP3 decoding @ 30-320 kb/s CBR & VBR, WMA (including Microsoft® PD DRM protected files), WAV |
| Music recording: |
From any analog source into MP3 or WAV (PCM) format Voice recording with built-in microphone |
| Photo viewer: | JPEG , PNG, GIF or BMP |
| PIM functionalities: |
Qtopia™ software to manage your address book, agenda, calendar, calculator. PDF viewer |
| Games: |
Qtopia™ embedded games and Mophun™ game engine to play games downloadable from Archos web-site |
| Display: |
3.5" TFT transflective touch screen (QVGA) 320x240 pixels, 262,000 colors and TV output |
| AV connections: |
Composite Video/ E Earphone/Line Out jack. Built-in microphone and speaker. TV cradle to connect to TV with analog audio/video In & Out to RCA jacks, S-video In, and IR receiver for remote and IR emitter for tuner control, SCART In & Out for European version. Travel audio-video kit in option to record audio and video analog source on the move |
| Battery life: |
Up to 4 hours* for video playback or 9.5 hours* for music Removable battery; additional battery available as an option |
| Scalability: | Download firmware updates from www.archos.com |
| Power source: | Internal: rechargeable Li-Ion batteries External: AC charger/adapter |
| Dimensions: | Approx. 125 x 78 x 20 mm (4.9" x 3.1" x 0.8") |
| Weight: | 280 g (9.9 oz) |
| System requirements: |
PC: Pentium® III 800 MHz or higher, Windows 98 SE (with driver downloaded from ARCHOS web-site), ME, 2000 or XP. 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) with USB port and CD-ROM drive Mac: 9.2 or X (10.2.4) USB Manager version 1.2 or higher with USB port and CD-ROM drive |
¹1 GB = 1 billion bytes. Formatted capacity is less. *On average |
This article was originally posted to http://www.pvp4u.com/archives/2005/01/archos_pma400_3.html
