The Archos Content Portal

The Archos Content Portal (ACP) is a content marketplace that enables Archos media player owners to download music, TV content, and video content directly to their portable devices. Partnerships with a number of content providers means that ACP users have quick and easy access to a varied range of media.

If you use a WiFi enabled Archos portable media player you can download content directly to your portable device without having to go through a PC or other device. The ACP website is designed especially for use by Archos WiFi owners and has been optimised to offer the best mobile experience.

New additions are being made to the service, which have recently included video games that can be downloaded and played either directly on the Archos portable device or on a Television using the PMP as a sort of mobile games console. According to one report, there are some huge names also being lined up to be a part of the Content Portal.

According to the Archosfans website several high profile names including Best Buy, Circuit City, Amazon, AOL, YouTube, and more are listed in a provider.xml file in the system folder of the Archos. These are obviously major content providers that would represent a huge amount of content to ACP users.

Pimp Your PMP

A PMP, or Portable Media Player, enables you to play all of your media while on the move. Video streaming, audio playback, and even TV recording offers portable media that is especially useful for those that lead hectic lives but still want to enjoy some of the finer things. The Archos line of PMPs represent some of the best that money can buy and now in their fifth generation, they are among the most advanced.

The 605 series features a 4.3” touch screen display offering 800 x 480 pixel definition. Depending on your own preference you can choose from a 4GB model with expandable SD memory slot, or a 30GB, 80GB, or 160GB model. By adding the DVR Station you can even record TV shows so that you can watch them back at a more convenient time.

The Archos 605 is also WiFi enabled so that you can connect directly to the Internet. As well as being able to stream content from your PC, using the ARCHOS Content Portal you can directly download music and video content or you can browse the Internet and share your content with friends and other devices.

Because Archos PMPs are now in their fifth generation of production, they do everything well. They support the greatest number of formats and include some unique features. As well as being able to view photographs and images you can edit them, add music, and create slideshows to share with others or transfer to another device. A huge collection of accessories and plug-ins can also be used to further extend the device’s functionality.

If you have particularly itchy feet and are constantly moving from one place to another then the Archos 605 GPS combines all of the above features with state of the art GPS software.

While the 4GB version does include SD memory, it also costs about £125. The 30GB model, which obviously offers a lot more on board storage, costs £160. You will need to fork out £200 or more for the 80GB and about £250 for the largest 160GB model. For the GPS model with 30GB of storage you should expect to pay £300.

Our advice if you want one of these is to really shop around because online prices can fluctuate ridiculously with a disparity of as much as £100 in the mid range categories, and more in the high end range.

Robots Imitate Life

As well as letting you see a number of the eco gadgets we’ve recently highlighted, the Gadget Show on channel 5 last night reported from an incredible company called Festo. Ordinarily, they produce manufacturing machinery used in factories and on production lines around the world. However, they also have a certain penchant for creating robots that mimic natural movement.

The Bionic Learning Network showcases some of the finest looking robots conceived. The Aqua Jelly, a robotic and intelligent jellyfish, is perhaps the most impressive of them all. The Air Jelly is a similar design but is a remote controlled flying version. Airic’s Arm is a complex mimic of a human arm using 30 muscles to mirror human movements.

The Aqua Ray pictured here is an incredibly lifelike manta ray that looks and moves alarmingly like the real thing. Again, Festo has created a helium filled version that is remote controlled and uses the same drive principles but in a completely different environment.

The robots that Festo makes aren’t designed simply to look good, though look good they most certainly do. By considering natural movement, Festo hopes to improve the methods used to drive automated robots but it also hopes to improve the symbiotic relationship in production machines. Again, we turn to the Aqua Jelly, which uses numerous sensors to determine the direction it needs to move to avoid others.

Clearly, the Aqua Jelly isn’t likely to have a genuine place in production, but future robots and manufacturing machines could well use many of the innovations led by Festo’s Bionic Learning Network and it would look in an aquarium in a particularly futuristic Take Away.

The Alienware Area51 7500 Gaming PC

Alienware is to PC gamers what page 3 is to teenage boys. The hardcore PCs have long been popular because they are designed, developed, and manufactured with gaming in mind. While the Alienware brand has been purchased by Dell and the website now even boasts Business PCs you’d be hard pressed to find a better gaming rig. What’s more they tend to look pretty cool in a neon transformers hybrid kind of way.

The name of the latest Alienware PC, the Area-51 7500 should give you some kind of clue as to what it’s going to offer. The design is truly unique offering four primary colours of space black, conspiracy blue, cyborg green, and saucer silver. You can even customise the colour of the little Alienware alien head logo.

The Core 2 Extreme offers quad processing power, a completely unparalleled and largely unnecessary addition, unless you’re a hardened online gamer that only plays the very latest in games. Doubling up doesn’t stop there, either, with a choice of dual NVIDIA SLI graphics card or the new GeForce 8800GTX. 4 terabytes of storage should be more than ample to store the data belonging to most people in your county, never mind your house. Finally you also get up to 4GB of DDR2 SDRAM.

Alienware also customises your operating system and software installation to exactly match your requirements. Choose between Vista or XP and let Alienware do the rest for you.

Make no mistake, packages like this don’t come cheap. For the absolute minimum setup (which is still an incredible piece of kit compared to most entry level computers) you’ll pay around £800. For a top of the range system including such things as liquid cooling, system lighting, Blu-Ray drive, and the maximum available of everything you’ll need to pay just short of £5,000 excluding monitor and other such peripherals. You have to be fairly serious about your gaming.

Life Size Gears Of War Products Coming Soon

Branded products based on films are always at the back of the publisher’s mind and with recent video games outstripping their movie alternatives in terms of turnover and popularity, it’s little surprise to learn that TriForce Sales LLC has purchased the rights from Epic Games to produce life sized replicas of weaponry and armour from the award winning game.

Gears of War was heralded as being the greatest game of its time and it has remained one of the most popular games since its release in 2006. DC Comics has also announced that it will produce a Gears of War comic based on the characters in the game while Gears of War:The Pendulum Wars is a book based on the game due to be published by Del Rey Books.

So, you’ll be able to don your home made C.O.G. Armour and grab your replica assault rifle and head over to the TriForce website in order to pre-order Gears of War gear from the beginning of July. Designs are based on a personally sculpted set created by Sid Gerrand of Nightmare Armor Studios – an individual and company renowned for creating lifelike and popular replicas of similar equipment.

French Fry Holder For Your Car

It is one of the most common problems that modern drivers face – where do you put your McDonalds fries when your driving back to work after your lunch? Make no mistake, this could turn out to be the most useful car gadget you ever buy. Forget about the first aid kits or the LCD traffic cones and throw away the LCD display signs and mp3 docks because the fry holder will take the crown.

The base of the fry holder fits easily and snugly into pretty much any existing cup holder (which, of course, begs the question of what to do if you have fries and a regular Coke, but we’ll ignore that niggling doubt for now). Once in place, the rubber grip means that it won’t slip around and your fries will stay in place until they’re all gone or too cold to enjoy.

In front of the fry holder is a little tray for storing your ketchup pouch as well. Now all we need is a little robotic arm that feeds you the fries while you’re driving and you might even manage to avoid the sirens for “dangerous driving”.

The Philips Eco TV

In a continued bid to bring you details of the latest green, eco-gadgets, this has to be the ultimate. Forget your wind up DAB radios and your shake torches and can crushers, the Philips Eco TV is the swingers. You don’t have to shake it to use it and it isn’t powered via solar panels on the back of the unit. However, it does cut energy consumption massively when compared to a standard LCD TV.

The Philips Eco TV doesn’t sacrifice in quality, either. The 42 inch HD display shows crisp images and using one of the eco features will actually improve the display even further in dim lighting sequences.

There’s a whole host of different energy saving features and when they’re all implemented and being used, the Eco TV will use just 75W of power (that’s less than some of the bulbs in the average home). Even the standby is designed to consume less energy than other devices and to cap it all off, Philips uses lead free materials and delivers it in a recycled box.

Considering the energy saving features, a price of £1,000 really isn’t that expensive for a 42” LCD TV. Especially, one made by Philips and you’ll be able to watch TV in the knowledge that you’re doing your bit.

Email Flood Warnings From Fujitsu

Picture the scene – you log onto your computer and start checking emails. Having sifted through 23 offers of “male extension products”, numerous notifications of having won the Azerbaijan online lottery, and ignored the Nigerian doctors that would like your bank account details to forward you tens of millions of dollars, you find one email that really stands out.

“Flood Warning”

According to ZDNet, Fujitsu has been providing the Floodline Warnings Direct system for a few years now and alerts those services that need alerting when a flood is imminent. Not only has that contract been renewed but concerned individuals will be able to register by the end of the year for an online warning service whereby they receive email alert notification of impending doom. Read more

Bang & Olufsen Beosystem 3

Bang & Olufsen have long been manufacturing some of the most jaw droppingly incredible home cinema and audio systems available. The Beosystem 3, aside from using some equally jaw droppingly ridiculous terminology, represents one of the latest and greatest systems they offer. It is a “stage manager” for your home and because it’s designed to be modular you can keep adding new equipment when you’ve got the cash to splash.

It includes a “picture engine” that allows you to control both a projector and flat screen TV. The “Home Cinema Control Module” intelligently determines which screen you are watching and then tracks you down to deliver perfect surround sound through as many as 12 speakers. With 5.1, 6.1 and 7.1 surround sound support that’s some serious surround sound.

Bearing in mind you’re looking at a price tag that only falls slightly short of £5,000 and you don’t actually get a TV or projector screen the BeoSystem 3 stage manager isn’t for the faint hearted. It’s also fairly unlikely that many of us will have opportunity to take advantage of the dual display management feature, but it does give serious bragging rights despite looking like a futuristic radiator. It is infinitely more affordable than the $6m home theatre system we looked at a couple of days ago.

Sony SRS-Z510 Speakers

Sick of the tinny sound emanating from your computer? Want to watch YouTube videos with clear audio? You need to get hold of a set of desktop speakers. They don’t need to be expensive but you can bet your onboard soundcard that they will improve the quality of the audio on your PC. Upgrade your sound card as well and you can blast your neighbours with heartfelt Celine Dion choons all day long.

For less than £40, which is still in the budget range of speakers, you can buy a set of Sony SRS-Z510 desktop speakers. 2 way audio input enables you to plug your PC and your mp3 player in at the same time so you can enjoy 7W total output from any music source. Detachable guards enable you to choose between the industrial natural look, and the desktop look while the Mega-Bass provides you with a powerful bass sound and improved overall sound quality.

If you’ve been relying on your tower speakers and you want a little more richness from your audio then buying an inexpensive set of speakers is the way to go. Alternatively, upgrade to 5.1 or 7.1 sound card and buy a multi-channel set of surround speakers to get an even heavier, crisper, and neighbour-annoyingly loud experience. The Sony SRS-Z510 speakers offer a sensible and affordable solution.

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