Anandtech:

In our review of the Kindle Fire, we called it the best $199 tablet on the market, but Archos has given us a reason to reconsider that statement with their new 70b IT, the first Honeycomb tablet with an MSRP of less than $200. The IT stands for “Internet Tablet”, and this is Archos’ 8th generation internet tablet device.

The 70b IT is comes relatively feature packed, with your two Benjamins buying a 7″ 1024×600 capacitive touch screen, 8GB of NAND storage on board, Honeycomb 3.2, 512MB RAM, an HDMI out, and Archos’ multimedia suite. Conspicuously absent from the press blast is any mention of the SoC, with the Archos spec sheet only telling us that there’s a 1.2GHz processor under hood. Archos’ larger G9 Turbo tablets are running TI’s OMAP 4 SoCs clocked at 1.2GHz as well (interestingly enough, the Kindle Fire also runs OMAP 4), so that’s a distinct possibility, but without more details (core count, GPU?) it’s pointless to speculate. The display can’t match the 1280×800 resolution of the Toshiba Thrive 7″, but given the targeted price point, it’s an understandable concession to make.

We haven’t gotten an opportunity to take a thorough look at Archos tablets in the past, but that should change at CES next week when we’ll go hands on with Archos entire tablet lineup, including the 70b IT, the G9 Turbo 80 and 101, as well as the upcoming Ice Cream Sandwich update for the G9. Post-CES, we’ll follow up with full review on the 70b IT, which looks to push Honeycomb into the mainstream.

The prices have been dropping where 16 GB tablets are all falling down to the $200 mark. This is definitely good for us consumers. I think with all the competition and slow sales among them, it was natural that prices fall.

One thing I realize is that the software is just as important as the hardware. In these early tablets, they had different versions of android. Only recently did I understand the different versions of the o/s froyo, gingerbread, ice cream sandwich, etc. These were all phone android o/s that were adapted to be used on these tablets. Now they have the honeycomb which is a real android tablet o/s that is optimized for that device.

I have been interested in these tablets: Touchpad, Playbook, Kindle Fire and now Archos 70B. The difference is the last tablet has a true android tablet o/s with some great hardware. I get the feeling more tablets in the future will adapt to the android tablet o/s and that tablets in general will become even better.

T Nerd:

The tablet competition is getting stiffer by the day, and with the tablet adoption fueled by powerful tablets available for cheap like the Kindle Fire and the BlackBerry PlayBook, more and more hardware vendors are beginning to roll the dice.

Picture in focus: Archos 70b Internet Tablet. It’s the company’s first Android Honeycomb-based tablet and it’s available for an incredibly low price of $199.99 — just on par with Amazon’s blazing hot Kindle Fire.

But, the two have their differences which stretch much beyond the cosmetic appearance. The Archos 70b Android tablet is faster and powerful than Kindle Fire. In contrast, it has more features than the Fire, yet it will be selling for just about the price of the latter : $199.

Scheduled for a January release next year, the Archos 70b features a 7” display with capacitive multi-touch support, the tablet-optimized Android Honeycomb 3.2 OS, access to thousands of apps from Android Market unlike the Fire, and much more.

Under the hood, the tablet is home to about 8GB of internal storage with support for up to 32GB of expandable memory using a microSD card — something that’s painfully missing in Kindle Fire, but there’s a different view to that issue, anyway.

Other interesting features include a 1.2GHz processor, access to plethora of apps and services, and a HDMI out port for connecting the tablet to a HDTV for multiplied fun.

Here’s a quick list at its features:

An affordable price starting at $199 for 8GB
Smoother multi-tasking and faster web experience thanks to the upgraded RAM
Brighter colors with a high resolution capacitive screen
Android 3.2 Honeycomb, the Android version designed for a tablet
Access to a full array of apps with the Android Market and its 250,000 apps such as news, eMagazines, eBooks, social media, games and more
A full multimedia experience with upgraded multimedia ARCHOS apps for video and music
HDMI output, giving users full access to their Android experience on their TV including all the pre-loaded apps, video playback, 3D games, photos and all the Android Market apps
Expect the tablet to be display at CES 2012. We will keep you posted as more details surface. Stay tuned!

This video below is the Archos 70 with a android browser and not the up to date version. The newer version will look just like the one in the video.

UberGizmo:

Archos lays claim that their Archos 70b tablet is the first Android 3.2 Honeycomb-powered device in the market that does not surpass the $200 mark – anyone out there care to dispute this particular statement? Basically, if the Archos 70b sounds familiar to you, that is because this is an enhanced version of the Archos 70 IT Gen 8, sporting an upgraded capacitive touch screen display as well as a beefier 1.2GHz processor to get the job done. It is ideal to surf the Internet, not to mention doubling up as your portable media player of choice. Even the RAM has doubled to hit 512MB, while the display sports a higher resolution count at 1,024 x 600 pixels.

Other hardware specifications include a 3D graphics accelerator, Wi-Fi connectivity, HDMI output to enjoy high definition videos over a compatible display, and a microSD memory card slot for expansion purposes. You will not be able to find the Archos 70b under your Christmas tree this year, considering how this will hit the stores from January next year onwards at $199 a pop.

liliputing:

If you make sure to install the gApps package for Android, you can also download thousands of apps from the Android Market and use the official Gmail, YouTube, and other Google apps. Some apps may not appear in the Market though. I couldn’t find the Facebook, Twitter, or Dolphin Browser HD apps — possibly because they’re not optimized to run on devices with 1024 x 768 pixel displays.

On the other hand if you happen to have the APK installer packages for those files you can load them on the tablet manually. I extracted all three apps from my Google Nexus One smartphone, emailed them to myself, and installed them on the TouchPad with no problem. Bear in mind, these apps are designed for phones with small screens and don’t look great on the TouchPad’s 9.7 inch display. But they do work.

Since the TouchPad doesn’t have the Home, Back, and Menu buttons you’ll find on most devices running Android 2.3 Gingerbread or lower, the CyanogenMod team has tweaked Android to include on-screen buttons that show up at the bottom of the display. This is also where you’ll find notifications. You can swipe up from the bottom to view notification details.

While there are still some bugs to work out, most of the important features are now working. The TouchPad supports automatic screen rotation, WiFi, Bluetooth, audio, and video playback. You can even install and run the official Netflix app for Android. The camera isn’t fully functional yet, and rebooting from webOS to Android is a bit of a pain. But future updates may address some of the remaining issues.

Sometimes when resuming from standby, I’ve noticed that the TouchPad doesn’t automatically connect to my wireless network. But disabling and re-enabling WiFi seems to fix this problem.

CyanogenMod is built on open source software — which is why the TouchPad software is based on Android 2.3 Gingerbread instead of Android 3.2 Honeycomb. Google has never released the source code for the tablet-friendly Honeycomb operating system. Google is expected to release the source code for Ice Cream Sandwich once that version of Android is available. ICS will be optimized to run on both phones and tablets, and although it will probably take a few months, CyanogenMod developers hope to integrate ICS code in future versions of their custom ROMs for the HP TouchPad and other phones and tablets.

I have read that upgrading your hard drive to one of these drives will increase your speed dramatically. I have watched a ton of videos on these so my expectations are high. I will let you know more after I install it. Just for your information, I bought a used one because the price is so much lower.

The Sony commercials are always cool. Check this out.

Product Features

• Android Honeycomb Operating System
• NVIDIA Tegra2 Processor
• Front and Rear Camera. Front 0.3 Megapixel. Rear 5.0 Megapixel
• Bluetooth Integrated Stereo
• Full-size SD Card slot (for media exchange only)

Processor, Memory, and Motherboard

• Hardware Platform: PC
• Processor: 1 GHz
• Number of Processors: 1
• RAM: 2 GB
• RAM Type: DDR2 SDRAM

Hard Drive

• Size: 16 GB
• Type: Serial ATA

Cases and Expandability

• Size (LWH): 9.5 inches, 6.8 inches, 0.3 inches
• Weight: 1 pounds

I do wonder what price they will sell these new run of tablets for. They cost over $300 to make so will they sell it at a loss again?

Reuters:

HP slashed the price of its tablet to $99 from $399 and $499 the weekend after announcing the TouchPad’s demise on Aug. 18, part of a raft of decisions intended to move HP away from the consumer and focus on enterprise clientele.

That ignited an online frenzy and long lines at retailers as bargain-hunters chased down a gadget that had been on store shelves just six weeks.

“The speed at which it disappeared from inventory has been stunning,” the company said. “We have decided to produce one last run of TouchPads to meet unfulfilled demand.”

HP may lose money on every TouchPad in its final production run. According to IHS iSuppli’s preliminary estimates, the 32GB version carries a bill of materials of $318.

“We don’t know exactly when these units will be available or how many we’ll get, and we can’t promise we’ll have enough for everyone. We do know that it will be at least a few weeks before you can purchase,” HP said in a blogpost.

Critics have blasted HP for wavering on pivotal decisions, such as its original stated intention to integrate its webOS software into every device it makes, followed by a decision to stop making webOS gadgets, including the TouchPad.

The storied Silicon Valley giant is struggling to shore up margins as smartphones and tablets eat away at its core PC business, the world’s largest. On Aug. 18, HP said it was also considering spinning off the PC division.