"It is everything that our last MP3 player recorder could do, but now it can also play videos. This unit can have as much as 40 hours of video."
Archos marketing manager Gilda Eldridge. The four hundred dollar device can be used to record and listen to MP3 music, view digital photos or those videos.
"This unit can do everything that a hard disk based MP3 player can do, plus it has a built in microphone and therefore it can function also as a Dictaphone."
There are attachments on the way that can be used to transfer pictures from digital camera memory cards, in addition to a camera module that can take video or still pictures... .and another module for recording video from a VCR or DVD directly onto the hand held's hard drive. Archos has improved the menu system that it had on previous MP3 players. The real problem here... .is that when it comes to watching videos or looking at photos, the screen... .about an inch square... is too small. The unit would be better off with a larger screen that flips open. Archos will be getting competition in the months ahead from other manufacturers building handheld music and video players using Intel's XScale processors. Bloomberg Boot Camp, I'm Fred Fishkin.