Archos last week announced a range of 5 Android Tablets, running from the £99 2.8″ Archos 28 tablet to the £299 16GB 10.1″ Archos 101.  In fact, the models have quite different specs, which are worth checking out:

The £99 4GB (or 8GB for an extra £10) Archos 28 (below) has a 320×240 pixels 2.8” TFT LCD with resistive touchscreen, ARM Cortex A8 processor at 800 MHz, USB2, WiFi, Microphone, G-Sensor, is 100 x 54 x 9 mm and weighs 68 grams.

Then there’s the £129 8GB Archos 32 (below), which has a 400×240 pixels 3.2” TFT LCD with resistive touchscreen (interestingly, Archos say the Archos 28 supports 16m colours, whilst this supports 256k colours, unless it’s a misprint), ARM Cortex A8 processor at 800 MHz with DSP, USB2, WiFi, Bluetooth (note it’s missing from the Archos 28), pre-installed applications (Deezer, Ebuddy, Mewbox, Raging Thunder Lite, Touiteur, Quickpedia), TV out (again not on the Archos 28, and the cable is an optional extra), Microphone, G-Sensor, and is 105 x 55 x 9 mm and weighs 72 grams. It also has a camera on the back.

Next comes the £199 16GB Archos 43 (below), which has a microSD card, a 480×854 pixels 4.3” TFT LCD with resistive touchscreen (back to 16 million colours), ARM Cortex A8 processor at 1GHz with DSP, USB2, WiFi, Bluetooth, pre-installed applications (Webbrowser, Email, Contacts, Appslib, Twitter, Wikipedia, Weather Channel, Ebuddy, Deezer, Mewbox, Racing Thunderlight, Weather Channel, World Newspaper), TV HDMI out (again the cable is an optional extra), Microphone, G-Sensor, and is 135 x 65 x 9 mm and weighs 130 grams.  This also adds an HD camera (although whether a 2MP camera producing 720p should really be called HD is another matter), and it has a built in kick stand for when you want to watch movies.

Importantly, all devices listed (the Archos 28, Archos 32 and the Archos 43 will be available in September), whilst the following two devices are due out in October:

Moving on further is the 8GB (£229) or 250GB (£269) Archos Archos 70 (below), which has a microSD card (only on the 8GB Flash version, not the 250GB Hard Disk version), a 800 x 480 pixels 7.0” TFT LCD with capacitive touchscreen (16 million colours), ARM Cortex A8 processor at 1GHz with DSP, USB2, WiFi, Bluetooth, pre-installed applications (Aldiko, Ebuddy, Wikipedia, Avecomics, HubKap, Deezer, Mewbox, Raging Thunderlite (a 3D car demo game), WordNewspaper, Touiteur, Fring), TV HDMI out (again the cable is an optional extra), Microphone, G-Sensor, and is 201 x 114 x 10 mm and weighs 300 grams for the Flash version, with the Hard Disk version is 4 mm thicker and 100 grams heavier.  This doesn’t have the rear HD camera, but does have a front facing VGA camera instead, and it also has the built in kick stand.

Finally, there is the 8GB (£269) or 16GB (£299) Archos 101 (shown at the top of the article), which is pretty much the same spec as the Archos 70, except the capacitive touchscreen is 1024×600 pixels with a 10.1″ TFT LCD, and is 270 x 150 x 12 mm and 480 grams.

All devices will have access to Archos’ AppsLib App Store for downloading (and purchasing) additional applications for these tablets, but if you don’t need 3G capability (or you have a MiFi device) then many of these may well suit, especially with all featuring Android v2.2 as standard.

There’s much more information, pictures, and full specs over on Archos’ website here, where you’ll notice the 8GB Archos 32 (£129) is already available for sale.  I will also add there appear to be a number of other standard apps included with each device beyond those listed.

giffgaff, the new entrant into the UK mobile marketplace have made a few changes to their deals, which seem worthy of mention;

• For those users not buying GoodyBags, the free 100MB a day internet has been extended to 1st December 2010
• If you buy a £10 GoodyBag, you now get 150 minutes, instead of the 100 before (plus all the other parts of the deal)
• There is a new £20 GoodyBag, which gives 600 minutes, unlimited texts and unlimited mobile internet (which will be available from next week)
• The £35 GoodyBag is now priced at £30 to be even more competitive for their unlimited option

These offers and price changes will be available from 6 September (ie Monday next week); until then the £10, £15 and £35 GoodyBags remain on sale at half price, so you need to work out whether it’s better to stock up at the sale prices, or take advantage of the new deals from next week.

It’s nice to see giffgaff continue to refine their prices and deals.  Also, if you are a Symbian phone user and also a giffgaff customer, then head off to the Ovi Store and pick up the giffgaff application (produced by one of the users, not giffgaff themselves), which provides an RSS application that displays a condensed version of the giffgaff blog, the giffgaff welcome and news board and the giffgaff notice board (which means it includes information on any current or planned outages that have been posted to the giffgaff website).

Update: The app may be temporarily unavailable, but should be back in the Ovi Store soon.

After the successful launch of the Revo Ikon (released last year), Revo have now added another touchscreen DAB radio to their portfolio, and have released this unit as the first “under £200 colour touchscreen digital radio with multi-format reception”. What does that really mean? It means DAB radio (and DAB+), FM radio, Internet radio, ability to play Last.fm music streams, ability to play music from a PC, ability to play music from an iPhone / iPod attached via it’s dock, and if that’s not enough, it’s got an AUX socket and stereo RCA sockets for piping other music to the device.

The radio features a 3.5″ TFT colour touchscreen, with a similar user interface as that used on the Revo Ikon, and has an 8W amplifier and NXT’s Balanced Radiator loudspeaker technology.

I like the range of technologies that Revo put into their DAB radios, and expanded their touchscreen range makes sense, especially by introducing a cheaper device (although with a less powerful amplifier and it appears to not have the stereo speakers of the Revo Ikon).  As with the Revo Ikon and the PURE Sensia, the device only comes with a limited trial subscription to Last.fm (in this case, 31 days), so to continue to use the streaming facilities you’ll need to pay £3 per month.

The Revo AXiS will be available from 1st October 2010, and be sold at £199.95.

Others have already covered the launch of the Canon EOS 60D last week, but one thing that caught my attention was the Eye-Fi support that Canon have added into this camera.  Although not the first Canon to support Eye-Fi, it’s nice to see Canon bringing Eye-Fi support to their DSLR range too.  If you don’t know, Eye-Fi are SD memory cards with additional features such as built in WiFi for automatically uploading photos, and some even have limited GPS support too.  For the WiFi upload to work, the camera must be turned on, and the main function of including Eye-Fi support in the camera’s firmware is that it can keep power to the memory card until the transfer is complete.  The support often also includes the ability to configure some of the details of the Eye-Fi card too (although I wasn’t able to confirm what level of control Canon offer).

So, the Canon EOS 60D takes the Canon EOS 50D and builds on it, adding a number of new features; the main features of the camera are:

• 18 megapixel self cleaning sensor
• supports EF and EF-S lenses
• shoots at up to 5.3fps
• 63 zone metering with 9 AF points
• captures 1080p video at up to 30fps
• the tilt and twist LCD screen of many Canon compact digital cameras is included
• the built in flash can act as a remote Speedlite trigger

The Eye-Fi support is quite key on this device; previous EOS DSLRs supported Canon’s Wireless File Transmitter, whereas Canon have stated the Canon EOS 60D is not compatible with the previous WFT devices, and no new WFT device is planned, therefore the only self-contained solution available to users is the Eye-Fi option.  In fact, Canon have also announced a number of new PowerShot cameras with Eye-Fi support too, and Nikon’s new D3100 supports Eye-Fi too, so it looks like this is the “must have” new feature for this year…

The Canon EOS 60D will go on sale in the next few months and has a UK retail price of £1099.99 (inc. VAT), although I expect that will quickly drop to a lower level.

Launched last week, this is the Vodafone Mobile WiFi R201, which is designed to rival 3UK’s MiFi device (or Novatel’s Intelligent Mobile Hotspot (also called MiFi, but outside of the UK).  The Vodafone offering, being brand new to the market is currently only available on a contract, but I suspect it will be released as a PAYG option in due course to provide true rivalry to the 3UK MiFi.

The unit will currently cost you £15-£25 per month on an 18 month contract (with most tariffs having a small upfront charge too), offering 3-5GB of data per month, although unless the Vodafone network is key to you, the 3UK MiFi has more competitive pricing (you could nearly buy the 3UK unit on PAYG for less than the upfront charge on the cheapest contract, so if you don’t need a lot of data every month, it can work out a lot cheaper!).

The Really Mobile Project have managed to get their hands on one of the devices, and have written up their opinion (especially useful as it compares it directly to the 3UK MiFi v2), so head here to read it.

Overall, it’s interesting to see true competition in this market with a choice of 3 key units now, and all offering a similar one button experience to use.

Although it’s been delayed, today Twitter finally switch off the ability to use a username/password combination to access the Twitter API (used by many third party applications to access your twitter account).  Instead, a more secure system called OAuth must be used.  Now, many twitter clients have either moved to OAuth, or offer a choice of methods.

So, from today, the old method will no longer work; if your preferred twitter app has stopped working, first of all, check to see if there is an OAuth option, and if not, you might want to check for a software update to see if that resolves it.

Some apps will simply no longer work; fring have announced that in the short term their twitter addon for the Android version of fring will no longer work.

Of course, with many manufacturers building in twitter (and facebook) support into their phones, and many of those vendors being less helpful in providing any form of firmware update service, it’s possible your mobile phone app will no longer work either.

It’s not all doom and gloom though; when twitter were last planning this, I did a little research, and found that the majority of the mobile phones built in applications seemed to be using OAuth, and hence would not be affected.  Have you been affected? Has your preferred twitter client stopped working, and there’s no update? Let us know via the comments…

Screenshot of Gravity on Symbian courtesy of nokiaaddict.com (now gerrymoth.co.uk), and we should point out that Gravity has supported OAuth for some time, so as long as you are using a fairly up to date copy, you shouldn’t have any problems with Gravity.

Over the last month or so, Pure Digital have been busy.  They’ve launched two new radios, updated the PURE Sensia software, and have now released a new service, Pure FlowSongs, which is a very interesting (and nicely integrated) service for some of their Internet radios…

Firstly, the Pure One Mi (pronounced Me), only costs £34.99, and includes DAB and FM radio, a clear digital display, 16 presets, multi-lingual menus and a USB socket for future updates, and is one of the more compact models they have ever produced.

They’ve also release the Pure Oasis Flow, a weatherproof and splash resistant, rechargeable internet-connected digital radio, costing £169.99, which features DAB and FM radio (as well as the internet radio via Wi-Fi), and should work for up to 15 hours on DAB.  It also supports the new Pure FlowSongs, covered below.

The PURE Sensia update is interesting.  When the radio first launched, I wondered how many additional plugins we would see over time for this device, and whether Pure would be able to continue to support it with new features.  Well, last month, Pure added Picasa support to the Twitter, Facebook and Weather applications already available.  This allows you to login to your online Picasa account and view a slideshow of your online pictures, either in the smaller visual panel, or full screen.  Some photo information can be overlaid on the picture, and you can change the timing of the slideshow, as well as pause it.

However, the most interesting item is Pure FlowSongs, which was announced this week.  This is only available in the UK (as a public beta), and is supported on the following radios:

PURE Sensia, PURE EVOKE Flow, PURE AVANTI Flow, Pure Oasis Flow and PURE Siesta Flow

The new software to support Pure FlowSongs will be released on Monday (16th August) and will allow you to identify, and then purchase any song you hear on the radio.  Importantly, you can be listening to the DAB radio, FM radio, or an Internet radio station (the software is limited to the internet-connected radios due to what happens next, not that the radio source needs to be internet based); the radio will then use a Shazam service (well known for their mobile application to detect what music is being played) to identify the song.  In the case of the PURE Sensia, there is an addition button on the screen (see below) whereas other radios will need a button combination to be pressed.

If you want to use the service, your radio needs to be registered at the Pure Lounge, and you’ll need to provide a credit or debit card to topup your online account, but then you’ll get a free 90 day trial of the identification service (normally £2.99 a year), and if you decide to purchase a song, they will cost an additional 79p to £1.29, and this uses the 7Digital music service.  The purchasing function on the device will be protected by a 4 digit PIN for security.

Once purchased, the song can then be downloaded (as an mp3) to your PC or Mac, but it will also be located within your Lounge account, allowing you to stream the song to your radio too.  Pure Digital also state the songs can be uploaded to an iPod, and have stated the mp3 files are DRM-free, allowing them to be played back on any mp3 device.  When you stream, the mp3 will be 128kbps, but the downloaded files will be up to 320kbps.

The integration of the Shazam service to allow you to identify any music being played is a very powerful extra facility for these radios; over the last year I’ve been impressed with both Pure Digital and Revo for adding support for Last.fm into some of their devices, and I think this ability to identify and even purchase songs adds even more to the experience.  Even better, although not yet available as part of the beta, Pure Digital are looking to enable you to buy whole albums using this method, which is likely to work out better value.

Future Checkin, a third party Apple iPhone application that utilises the FourSquare API provides an interesting feature.  If you provide it with a list of your favourite places, then it sits in the background (now that iOS4 allows background tasks), and when you arrive at your destination, it will check in for you!  However, to save battery, it’s not instantaneous, and checks the GPS on a configurable basis, and then (to prevent it being used to cheat your way to mayorship status), it only checks you in once every four hours, and never to the same place twice in a row (plus you need to have been at the location for over 3 minutes).

Apparently the author is planning to add Gowalla support too (once they release their API).

If you are interested in the (non-free) application, then search for Future Checkin in the Apple App Store.

If you are an Android user and feeling left out, then try a search for HopScotch, which claims to offer a similar automated checkin facility for Android devices (and although maybe not quite so feature rich as Future Checkin, is free).

Symbian users, of course, are left out in the cold For you, it’s manual checkin only (using either the free SociallyApp, the very powerful and useful Gravity application, or there is a new beta of a FourSquare touch only client we covered earlier this week).

Some information courtesy of TechCrunch.

Although a number of applications (SociallyApp and Gravity) include support for FourSquare, there’s no standalone Symbian client (in the same way there is for BrightKite).  Now, although not developed directly by FourSquare, ThinkChange have announced a beta test for their FourSquare client called Symbian FourSquare.  You can either download an unsigned copy from their website and sign it yourself (if you have a certificate specific for your phone allowing you to sign apps), or you can apply to join their beta test and they will create you a version specifically for your phone.

This is a Touch only client (this is true of the BrightKite client too), so if you have a non-touch phone, there’s no point in applying for the beta programme, but if you do, then it might well be worth a look; if you are coming to Symbian from another platform, you may well find this FourSquare client looks similar to those on other mobile platforms, and it’s nice to see that there’s a common feel to the FourSquare clients.

It’s also nice to see that since originally announcing the beta trial, the unsigned version has been released, and also they’ve already updated the Symbian FourSquare website to show that it also works on the Nokia C6, which is starting to appear in shops.

Just occasionally someone points out an application to you, and you go wow, that’s really useful; Tasker seems to be one of those such applications.  Designed along similar lines to Locale (which has so many plugins from different people now, and all charge for them, it’s difficult to see the good and bads ones anymore), it offers the ability to create rules and control a whole raft of different functions on your Android phone. It’s not free (it costs £3.99), but this seems well worth given the range of controls it has.

I particularly like the ability to make system changes when you run particular apps, so, for example, you can keep the GPS generally turned off (to preserve battery life), but then when you run Google Maps you can turn on the GPS, and turn it off again when you exit.  In fact, the range of triggers is fascinating; Application, Time, Day, Location, State or Event.

LifeHacker here has a tutorial on how to set up the auto GPS function, how to create an alarm in the morning (that also fires up your favourite apps), and to create a “Face Down” task which shuts off GPS, WiFi and Bluetooth, and makes the ringer quieter.

For even more options, this LifeHacker post goes further and discusses the following options: reading out SMS messages (for when you are driving), limited data usage overnight, pop up a menu of music apps when headphones plugged in, mark and find your parking place, and most importantly, it links to the Tasker Wiki, where a whole range of users have added information on their suggested profiles.

There’s also lots of information about the application, including a tour of some of the features on the Tasker website here, which is well worth a look too.

This is one very comprehensive application, which looks like it has the power to really customise the way you use your Android phone.

Although it’s been a while in coming, Mapomatic have updated their free UK OpenStreetmap based Garmin IMG files for use on Garmin GPS units.  Although they are still having some trouble with producing the canal map and cycle map versions, they have released an updated (July 2010) main map of the UK for general use (or for use in adding vital extra detail when you are out geocaching).  Importantly, with this release, they’ve also created a version with routing information (although that does make for a large download). I’ve been running Mapomatic files on my Garmin GPS for some while (since they started), and am grateful for the detail it gives; it seems a lot of the early OpenStreetMap footpaths were actually added by geocachers, so whilst last year you would often find the obvious footpath to a geocache on the map (and often stopping at the cache, as they turned round and went back the same way), this year a lot more footpaths (and roads in general) have been added; it’s still not complete (OpenStreetMap that is, the source of Mapomatic’s data), but it’s a lot better than it was.

If you are interested in loading up UK OpenStreetMap files onto your Garmin then head over to Mapomatic to download the files, especially if you haven’t yet gone on holiday this year, and want to improve your GPS maps.

I’ve already covered many of the key benefits to the new 3 MiFi unit (in my first looks), although I will restate that it’s a joy to use now it’s a single power button to set everything up, and the wireless encryption key being only numbers makes it easier to quote to people to share the connection.  For the full review, click on the full article below.

So, in the final part of this series, I wanted to concentrate more around the other changes; notably the management interface; the first device used a custom Windows program, and you had to be connected to the device via USB, whereas this version is fully managed via a web browser, making it easy and convenient.

Firstly, you can either select http://192.168.1.1 (unless you change the IP address ranges on the devices), or, and much more easily, simply select http://3.home and you will be taken to the management homescreen.

From here, you can can access a range of functions (including the SMS text messages, something that was pretty impossible on the old device), and then login to the administration further. Here, for example, is the data usage information, showing not just the session information, but also the totals.

Now, once logged in, you can access a whole range of things to control;

3

This screen, for example, shows the Advanced Settings, and shows that this device has as much control as many of the Home Broadband Internet Routers available on the market, allowing control over the DHCP settings, as well as the finer points of the Wireless settings.

In fact, it’s nice to see there are even settings such as UPnP settings, showing the real power behind this device.  I have to say though, that although I checked all the settings on all the screens, I felt that actually the “out of the box” settings were pretty spot on in terms of using the device, and I didn’t actually need to tweak anything whilst I had the device.

Although I didn’t get a screenshot of it, the device can actually recognise mobiles, and presents a more compact mobile friendly option:

Screenshot courtesy of Liam Green-Hughes

I had no problems with the device in marginal signal areas (I even managed to conduct a Skype video call for over 15 minutes in an area where you are lucky to not have the signal drop down to zero every few minutes), and had no problems at all with the battery life (it charges via microUSB like many of the modern mobile phones, so that’s one less charger you need to carry around).

Overall, as I’ve said below, this is a very powerful device, and at the price (currently £49.99 or £69.99 with 3GB of data to use over 3 months), the 3 MiFi should certainly be something everyone should consider; after all, a year or two back, and we were all paying more than that just for a USB dongle, and now you can get a device capable of supporting 5 devices at the same time (as well as working on those locked down corporate build laptops without needing to install any applications).

Thanks again to 3MobileBuzz for the loan of the device.

Some people are BlackBerry fans, and others aren’t (personally, after using one for 15 months I fall into the latter category), but the new BlackBerry 9800 Torch seems to be trying to turn that round, and offer a solution for everyone.  As well as the traditional QWERTY keyboard (although now provided on a slider), it also features a touchscreen featured on some of the newer BlackBerry devices, and it also has the optical trackpad now common to most new BlackBerry devices too.  Add in the obligatory GPS, WiFi, 3G, 5 megapixel camera and 8GB of memory, and the latest BlackBerry OS6 featuring some inbuilt social networking functions, and it seems to be a nice all round device.

I’ll admit my main problem with BlackBerry devices is the limitations enterprise companies place on the device (normally preventing the installation of applications, which also prevents other things such as themes), but of course if you buy it as an individual, you won’t have that restriction, and will be able to customise the device with the correct apps needed to enjoy the experience.

Even better, despite the device only being launched last week, 3UK have already announced they will be selling the device later this year.

Although it’s still just getting the final approval by Nokia, very shortly the new Tesco Shopping App will be available from the Ovi Store.  This not just allows you to perform the whole shopping order (from selecting a delivery slot to selecting the items and handling the checkout), but, as it links into the Tesco Shopping API, also allows you to make minor adjustments to an existing order.  So imagine, you prepare a large shopping order on your desktop and select a delivery slot a few days in advance, and then, the next day, you are out and about and suddenly remember you need to add another item; instead of needing to go home, instead of starting a new order, you can use your mobile phone to add and update the existing order.  That’s a nice feature, and the sort of integration we like here at UK Gadgeteer!

For lots more screenshots and a better understanding of how the product works, head over to the Tesco R&D blog here to see it in action, and look out for it in the Ovi Store soon.

On Friday, the Barclays London Cycle Hire scheme was launched, with many of the sites and bicycles now available for those who have pre-registered their details, and have been supplied a personal key for accessing the bikes.  Over time, the ability to walk up and purchase hire with a credit card will be added, but right now, users need to be registered with a hardware key.

I think this is a brilliant scheme; if you take the £45 annual access option (plus £3 for the hardware key), then for less than £50 you can hire a bike for up to 30 minutes for free, and that sounds a more interesting option than the overcrowded and hot (although air conditioning is slowly coming over the next few decades) tube lines in central London.  In fact, if you put the bike back and wait at least 5 minutes (go get yourself a coffee, and drink it), then you can hire another bike for another 30 minutes for free.

To support the scheme, a number of clever individuals / companies have developed mobile apps for the London Cycle Hire scheme.  I have to stress none of these apps are directly sponsored or supported by Transport for London, although much of the functionality of these apps comes from published APIs, although some isn’t…

These mobile apps don’t just show you the places where the bikes can be hired from; they are often taking data from the Cycle Hire website and also including how many bikes are available (and equally how many empty slots there are for returning your bike).  In fact, this area is one where I’m glad to say they have thought about the problem of a full cycle rack and come up with a solution; if you arrive at your destination bike rack and it’s full, you can select on the touchscreen terminal an option to see where there are available slots nearby, and if needed, you will also get an additional 15 minutes of free extra hire time to get the bike to that location.

Firstly, there’s an iPhone app from London Cycle App, which includes the information on the numbers of bikes / slots available, and I also note it uses the OpenStreetMap data for the mapping, which is a nice touch too (screenshot above). In fact, they have also included the ability to plan a cycle route through London too, which is a nice extra feature.  The app is available to download here.

Cycle Hire App is another option, which also uses OpenStreetMap maps, and like the London Cycle App, has these maps available when offline (or for use on an iPod Touch).  One nice feature is the ability to request a search for bikes available near London attractions, as well as tube and train stations, and general locations (postcode based).

Another alternative is Bixou (for the iPhone), which although originally developed for the BIXI bicycle hire scheme in Montreal, now has support for the London scheme too (in fact it also supports the Melbourne and Minneapolis schemes too).

For Android, there’s a widget, which has been produced by Little Fluffy Toys.  When first touched, the widget will display the details of the 3 nearest hire locations, with their status (Ok, not enough bikes, not enough spare slots, closed), and when touched again, provides a detailed view of the information.  This app is interesting though; instead of as well as taking the bike / slots details from the TfL website, it uses crowdsourcing to collect the information; as a nice touch, if you open the details screen within 50 metres of a hire location, you are asked to provide an updated status for all other users.

Update: Thanks to Kevin for pointing out Bixou as an alternative option.