Archos 101

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.