Asda offloads affordable Archos fondleslabs

Supermarket chain Asda is offering a low-cost tablet so folk on a shoestring can now pick up an 8in model for less than £100. The Archos Arnova 8 tablet is slightly behind the curve in tech-terms, running an outdated OS, Android 2.1 Éclair, on an 800 x 600 resistive touchscreen. Archos Arnova 8 The slate features built-in …

[@brykins]

More bad news for Android

No access to the official Market, slow processor, rubbish screen, outdated OS. It's devices like these that people will try, hate, decide that it's Android that's the problem and then go on to Apple.

[Anonymous Coward]

Re: More bad news for Android

The people who buy this will buy it for the price not features, they will not buy Apple.

[Fibbles]

Can someone please explain...

... why they're using a resolution with a 4:3 aspect ratio on a widescreen panel?

[Arnold Lieberman]

Not widescreen

The panel looks like 4:3 to me.

I wish someone (other than Apple) would come out with a 4:3 panel with a decent resolution, say 1024x768 or 1280x960. Would make reading ebooks and other misc PDFs so much nicer. Make it 7" and it would be light enough to be held single-handed.

[sabroni]

hp touchpad is that aspect ratio

1024x768

[Fibbles]

Re: Not Widescreen

My mistake, i should have looked more carefully. The icons do look stretched though.

[Anonymous Coward]

Since when was an iPad not 4:3?!

Therefore why should any other copycat not produce a 4:3 like Apple iPad?

[Anonymous Coward]

Legwork, please

Can you root the device, install other stuff? Does the vendor support firmware updates? Is there a community doing so anyway?

Why not add value to the article and indicate whether the punters are buying "disposable" stuff or whether this kind of thing has a decent lifespan (outside of shiny circles, of course)?

[Gordon 10]

Alternatively

If you are interesting in buying one why dont you do some legwork you lazy tosser.

[sabroni]

ooh, get her!

wrong side of bed this morning, mr. touchy?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Gordon

Yeeers... that's right.

A website is reviewing/previewing/???/telling us about a new product on the shelves.

Someone asks for more information.

Idiot Gordon replies saying do it yourself idiot tosser.

Something tells me Gordon is a grumpy arsehole this morning?

[David Webb]

Or...

Or you can get a Kogan with Android 2.3, 1Ghz CPU, Capacitive screen etc for £125 or something (got mine for 80), battery life is crap however so going to have to figure out how to change the battery for something decent.

[CADmonkey]

@ Gordon 10

At first I thought you were being a little harsh, but then 2 clicks from the article answered the first question, so fair comment.

The last question was plain bizarre. WTF is a 'shiny circle'? (I even did some legwork and came up empty)

[WonkoTheSane]

Shiny Circle?

Group of people who like shiny things?

[Dave Bell]

Another word from TV sci-fi?

I think "shiny", in this context, can be traced back to the short-lived TV series Firefly. A piece of invented slang that found a real-world use, a sort of tech-oriented "cool".

[Thuvia]

shiny

Firefly inherited the term "shiny" from Joss Whedon's earlier show, Buffy The Vampire Slayer (who also referred to her stake as "Mr Pointy").

[Gordon 10]

If I had to guess

I would say outside of shiney gadget circles.

I seem to recall there is even a gadget website called shinyshiny or similar (I'm too lazy to do the legwork to check.)

I like to think I'm harsh but fair. Plus the fact that the day isn't complete without gratuitous use of the word tosser.

[Return To Sender]

Shiny?

Presumably shiny, as in cat-like ability to be distracted from the task in hand by the appearance of a new shiny object. As in, "I've got three seconds to decide which wire to cut to stop this bomb going --- ooh, shiny pliers! Yay, ni<BLAMMM>"....

Rule #1 of shiny circle club - don't let the real world impinge on your pursuit of the latest and shiniest

[Anonymous Coward]

Perfect for the kids!

Given the choice of giving this or a £500 iPad to a 6 year old to play with, I know which one I'll go for!

If you're still wondering why, you've obviously never seen the bizarre substances that kids manage to summon from the bowels of Hell and, using just their dainty little pinkies, proceed to smear all over the front of any given touch screen device!

[Anonymous Coward]

even if....

even if I was dumb enough to spend the cash on a apple fondle slab, I doubt I would be dumb enough to let a 6 year old play with it....

and it does say a lot about the apple fanbois, they would consider buying additional kit in the three figure range to protect the beloved fondle slab...