I got an Archos 101 this past Tuesday. I’ve had my eye on this device since I learned about it on my favorite  tech blog. I found this particular device on Craigslist for $300. Overall I’m happy with what I think of as my starter tablet. The price was certainly right.

Here are the pluses and minuses as I see it, so far.

1. Some reviews and forum posts have complained the Archos 101 looks cheap and feels flimsy. I don’t see it that way. The screen is fabulous, with great viewing angles.
2. The accelerometer sucks, flat out. At first, it speedily changed orientation every time I moved the device. Then it started getting stuck in the exact orientation I didn’t want. For instance. The device comes with a nifty kickstand. So naturally the orientation would lock up-side-down making the kickstand useless. Sometimes the orientation caught up after 15 seconds or more, sometimes not at all before the screen shuts off. Some users fixed this by calibrating the accelerometer until it finally resolved. I did this about three times with no noticeable affect. Maddeningly, each recalibration also resets the device, leaving all files but changing the settings back to out-of-box default. This is not for me. I finally turned off the auto-rotate screen. It remains locked in the landscape orientation to match the direction of the kickstand. I use it that way the most so this is no hardship. But it still irks that the accelerometer is so faulty.
3. There is no access to the Apps Market. It comes with the sub-standard AppsLib. Well, mine didn’t but my research indicates it was supposed to. Thanks to ArchosFans.com‘s forum I found the APK for download. Naturally it force quits each time  and is useless. As is the Apps Market APK which I found on the Google site, stuck in an endless loop of force quits and restarts until I quickly cancelled and uninstalled. This causes me problems because the main purpose of this device is to read Kindle, eBooks and PDFs. Most websites don’t make their APK available for download, instead tell you to go to the Apps Market. I will keep looking until I bust out of this loop.
4. No Flash or PDF Reader. WTF? I read in several places that Adobe has not signed Archos’ version so the device shipped without. Lame. Again, thanks to ArchosFans.com I found an APK for the Flash which actually worked. I did this first, good thing  because some of this other stuff is discouraging. I found a tolerable PDF reader but I hope for a better one in the future.
5.  The device is the most recent (Froyo) iteration of the Android OS, good.
6. Archos is known for its media devices so the video and music quality is tip-top. The speakers, on the back of the device, work really well.

For now, that’s my stopping point. I’ve got to get the reader issues fixed and I will. From previous posts we know I’m in love with the Android OS and that love is not diminished by my new tablet’s disheartening implementation of it.

UPDATE 01/25/2011

Something really irritating is happening with my device. Three times now, I’ve been unable to revive my dead soldier, with no idea how it got so dead since the last time I turned it on there was at least 50% juice. Last night I was using it, all’s well. I shut it off with 70% battery life. I innocently turned it back on an hour later. Nothing. No amount of plugging in will revive it. The forum on Archos Fans rescued me once again.

Inexplicably, this device absolutely WILL NOT charge if it (the device) is cold. What a prima donna. Now, you may note that I live in Phoenix, AZ. We are not exactly known for our lack of warm weather. But it is what passes for winter for us. Meaning, it drops below 60 degrees at night. I haven’t got the heat on at the moment and this morning it was 61F in the house. This, apparently, is too cold for the Archos.

To get it to charge, I left it in the bathroom with the door closed and a space heater on, not pointed right at it but in the general direction. Don’t want to melt its royal highness . Once it was toasty, I plugged it in and am charging successfully.

Now I learn, again thanks to the real Genius Bar, that is, Archos Fans forum, that running Market with the wi-fi location enabled may be the underlying reason it’s discharging its battery so quickly and completely. I side-loaded Market since, as earlier stated, it doesn’t come on the device.  I finally found an APK that wouldn’t cause endless force.quit loops. That way I was able to get the real PDF Reader, Kindle, and a couple other apps I use on my Android phone.

I’ve got to get this figured out soon as I was planning to take my Archos 101 to WordCamp this weekend.

I’m obsessed with the Android operating system right now. I’ve had my Galaxy S for over 4 months now. It’s not perfect; I’ve used all the major OSes for smartphones (Palm, BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, in that order) so I have some basis for comparison. But I’m planning to purchase a tablet very soon and it will not be an iPad. I’m done with Apple for a while. Too expensive and Apple seems really snotty toward its customers. A litte holier-than-thou. I’m in the market for an Android tablet and that got me thinking about what I would change, if I could, to make Android the perfect OS.

If I were in charge, here is what I’d do:

1. Stop the battery drain. I’m not whining; I know and revel in the fact that I’m holding in my hot little hands a device powerful enough to land the space shuttle (if I knew how to land a space shuttle). I’d just like it to lose less power when idle. I had an app that did a good job of keeping my device operating at normal usage (a few short calls, check email, Facebook, calendar, play Trivial Pursuit) without needing a charge. Right now, it seems to lose about 30% every 4 hours even when it’s off (because I am asleep). The app I had that did such a good job is no longer supported. The free version stopped working and I don’t cotton to the idea of paying for the full version of an unsupported app. So I’m back on the hunt for better battery management.
2. Notification on top. One thing I miss about my Treo was that if I missed a call, text or reminder, it popped up large as soon as I turned on the phone. I have gotten used to looking at the tee-tiny little area at the top-left of the screen of my Droid to see if I’ve missed anything. However, in a perfect world I would prefer to get that first, even before the security pattern. Sort of like a busy assistant giving my my messages and reminding me where I need to be as I make my self-important way to wherever that might be. My Blackberry did a better job of this, too. Some people may want to include email notification in there but in my idealized version, I would be able to select what apps could notify. I get way too many emails across four accounts to be notified of each one. I shudder.
3. A different password protector. I’ve used SplashID with all four OSes. I used to love it for Treo but it has sucked a bit more with each OS until now I hate it. It takes FOREVER to load the password challenge, then forever to get to the Force.Quit notice which it never actually does before it (usually) opens. Sometimes it really does force quit but I haven’t detected a pattern. Then I have to type in what I’m looking for to search which isn’t quick. For an real-world-use example, the library where I work has a password for the staff elevator. I can’t usually remember it when it changes so I put it in SplashID. Sometimes it takes so long to pull it up someone has come by and taken pity on me. This was never a problem with my Treo or BlackBerry. I only had my iPhone for about six months but I remember being disgusted with SplashID on that, too. In my idealized version, the security challenge wouldn’t automatically start with the Caps turned on. My password doesn’t start that way and the app shouldn’t assume it does. Once inside, there would be a drag select option like there is in the Contacts, where a large letter appears and it’s quick and easy to get to the entries beginning with that letter. And it would be an absolute deal breaker if this phantom app didn’t have a desktop version. I maintain hundreds of websites with hundreds of random passwords; I cut and paste A LOT and doing so from the desktop version is the way it should be.
4. Easier word selection. I am at times moved to violence when trying to select a word on my Droid. Word selection on my iPhone was even worse. It was a dream on my Palm and Blackberry. I do miss the stylus from my Treo. I even find myself making my letters the way I did in Graffiti. But I digress. First of all, it took me time and a trip to the user manual to figure out how to copy a word. Then I’m asked if I want to select some or all. Then I try to drag-select and it usually takes f4-5 tries before I’m successful. This, my friends, is horse crap.
5. Better music player options. One reason I got an iPhone (besides that I just really wanted one) to replace my BlackBerry is so I could carry one device instead of two. I had a 2G iPod that I’d had forever. It still works; I gave it to my mother and she’s still using it. I checked during my last visit. Anyway, the best thing I can say about an iPhone is that it does have a really nice music player. I miss using the little dongle I bought that I used to turn it on and off, quickly pressing twice to instead forward to the next song. This dongle does not work with my Droid. I tried DoubleTwist’s player and found it to be unacceptable. I paid for bTunes which is just OK. I don’t like how it takes forever to load the 10GB of songs I have loaded. When I get in the car, my primary listening spot, I’m usually running late. I miss being able to plug in my tunes, press play and rely on my dongle if I didn’t like what came up first. And, speaking of shuffle, bTunes does a terrible job with “random” shuffling. It always starts with bands starting with an A or B. It is making me not love A3 and the Black Crows.
6. Better apps. I know this is coming. I read on CNN’s Tech page that Amazon is preparing to launch an Android App store. And the apps available now are not bad. But this is an idealized world I’m living in. I don’t like that some of the apps I have don’t work as well as visiting the actual site on the browser. Kind of defeats the purpose. For example, I can start a Yelp review through the app but I need to finish and post on a browser. That’s lame.
7. Native notes that synch somewhere. I didn’t realize how extensively I used Outlook Notes until I can’t use it anymore. It worked great on my Treo and Blackberry, not so much on the iPhone and not at all on the Droid, for obvious Gmail reasons. Evernote is pretty good as a note taker except the longer the note the more it irritatingly scrolls to the top even though you’re working at the bottom. Its app only lets you append notes rather than direct edit. I’mstill using and liking it but this is not ideal.
8. Where are my contacts? I can never find my contacts when on Google Calendars. I’d prefer to update my contacts on a desktop as I’m still ham-handed when it comes to using the keyboard on my device. I make a lot of mistakes and find it easier to update via a desktop. Also, I spend a lot of time on a desktop (really a laptop but the idea is the same). 

I was shooting for 10 improvements but this is all I have. I really do love my Droid and have high hopes for whatever tablet I buy.