The first hints of Microsoft making good on its promise of bringing the Zune platform to other devices than the current portable media players have come in the form of two job postings discovered today. The first is seeking a software development engineer for the Zune team to help deliver digital entertainment into the living room, while the other is hinting at the Zune service and Zune Marketplace extending globally.

The living room offering may include new hardware or perhaps existing platforms such as Xbox 360 or a new third-party hardware interface similar to the Apple TV and would deliver on-demand video and audio.

Microsoft has increasingly shied away from focusing on the Zune players themselves as the center of its strategy. While arguing that it ultimately needs to spread the interface, marketplace and other traits of the devices, the company has seen its year-over-year Zune revenue plummet without significant hardware revisions or expansion to other countries.

The TravelSound i80 for iPod nano is a slim, hand-held speaker that comes in a design that perfectly complements the iPod nano 3rd generation. With its powerful high-quality music output, you’ll always be eager to share music out loud with all of your friends, making it a great tool for social interaction. Bring the TravelSound along with you anywhere and start enjoying music, unrestricted by the need for earphones or headphones.

Product Features and Technical Details

Product Features

Technical Details

• Power Output: 700mWatts RMS per channel (2 ch)
• Frequency Response: 180Hz – 20kHz
• Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR): >80dB
• Playback duration: Up to 15 hours (at 10mW total output)
• Battery type (Built-in): Lithium Polymer (Li-Po)
• Product Weight: Speaker: 90g; Stand: 15g
• Dimensions (D x W x H): Speaker: 23mm x 58mm x 99mm; Stand: 56mm x 62mm x 18mm
• Color:Front: Anodized aluminum; Rear: High gloss white
• Full charge time: Minimum 2.5hrs via USB or power adapter
• Connectors: 30-pin docking connector; Mini USB

Big Sound, Small Package
Powered by four micro drivers and a Class D digital amplifier, the TravelSound plays your music out loud in high quality. Go easy on your ears after long hours on your earphones, and let the speaker soothe you with easy music listening.

Built-in Rechargeable Battery
Enjoy up to 15 hours of music on the move, thanks to the built-in high-performance Lithium-Polymer rechargeable battery.

The TravelSound’s tri-colored LED indicator tells you when your speaker is powered on, charging, or when the battery power is low.

Charge both your TravelSound and iPod nano (when docked) in a simple one-step process using the USB connection port. You can also sync with iTunes the same way.

For added convenience, a USB wall charger is also included, letting you charge both your speaker and iPod nano (when docked) easily.

Sleek Speaker Stand
The included intuitive speaker stand tilts your speaker, allowing you to view your photos or movies at a comfortable angle.

What’s in the Box
One-piece docking speaker, USB wall charger, Quick Start Guide, warranty and technical support booklet, speaker stand, pouch

Product Description
Listen to your iPod nano with friends with Creative’s small but powerful TravelSound i80 docking speakers. Looking great and sounding fantastic, they feature the best audio technology and couldn’t be easier to use – just slide your player into the sleek aluminum design, and that’s it! They’ll deliver fantastic audio for up to 15 hours and include a USB connection for recharging as well as downloading music, photos and video. If you want to enjoy your entertainment with minimum fuss and maximum style, you need these speakers!

The USB Dock for iPod shuffle gives you a quick and easy way to power, charge, or sync your iPod. Simply connect to the USB Dock by placing your iPod shuffle into the easy-access, top-load USB port. The four-foot cable makes sure you will no longer have to reach around to the back of your computer in order to connect your iPod shuffle.

Note:Requires 5V+ of USB power to charge your iPod shuffle. Compatible with power and audio accessories only. iPod photo accessories and car integration kits are not compatible with the Dock Adapter for iPod shuffle.

Features

• Charges your shuffle using your Dock Connector’s power cord
• Works with any Belkin TuneBase
• Provides pass-through audio

Apple eliminated the 4GB model on September 5, 2007, two months after the iPhone’s initial release date. We updated this review on January 17, 2008 to reflect the iPhone updates that Apple released at the 2008 Macworld. Subsequently, on February 5, 2008, Apple introduced a 16GB model. On June 10, 2008, Apple unveiled the iPhone 2.0 software update. Now available, the update adds Microsoft Exchange server support, third-party apps from the iPhone software development kit, and a number of other features.

From the moment Apple announced its iPhone at Macworld 2007, the tech world hasn’t stopped asking questions. Because Apple has kept many iPhone details under wraps until very recently, we’ve been forced to speculate. Until now. Is the iPhone pretty? Absolutely. Is it easy to use? Certainly. Does it live up to the stratospheric hype? Not so much. Don’t get us wrong, the iPhone is a lovely device with a sleek interface, top-notch music and video features, and innovative design touches. The touch screen is easier to use than we expected, and the multimedia performs well. But a host of missing features, a dependency on a sluggish EDGE network, and variable call quality–it is a phone after all–left us wanting more. For those reasons, the iPhone is noteworthy not for what it does, but how it does it. If you want an iPhone badly, you probably already have one. But if you’re on the fence, we suggest waiting for the second-generation handset. Even with the new $399 price for the 8GB model (down from an original price of $599) and $499 for the 16GB model, it’s still a lot to ask for a phone that lacks so many features and locks you into an iPhone-specific two-year contract with AT&T. We’ll be more excited once we see a version with–at the very least–multimedia messaging and 3G.

Design
On with the review: the iPhone boasts a brilliant display, trim profile, and clean lines (no external antenna of course), and its lack of buttons puts it in a design class that even the LG Prada and the HTC Touch can’t match. You’ll win envious looks on the street toting the iPhone, and we’re sure that would be true even if the phone hadn’t received as much media attention as it has. We knew that it measures 4.5 inches tall by 2.4 inches wide by 0.46 inch deep, but it still felt smaller than we expected when we finally held it. In comparison, it’s about as tall and as wide as a Palm Treo 755p, but it manages to be thinner than even the trend-setting Motorola Razr. It fits comfortably in the hand and when held to the ear, and its 4.8 ounces give it a solid, if perhaps weighty, feel. We also like that the display is glass rather than plastic.

Display
The iPhone’s display is the handset’s design showpiece and is noteworthy for not only what it shows, but also how you use it. We’ll start off with its design. At a generous 3.5 inches, the display takes full advantage of the phone’s size, while its 480×320 pixel resolution (160 dots per inch) translates into brilliant colors, sharp graphics, and fluid movements.

Menus
In true Apple style, the iPhone’s menu interface is attractive, intuitive, and easy to use. In the main menu, a series of colored icons call out the main functions. Icons for the phone menu, the mail folder, the Safari Web browser, and the iPod player sit at the bottom of the screen, while other features such as the camera, the calendar, and the settings are displayed above. It’s easy to find all features, and we like that essential features aren’t buried under random menus. Fluid animation takes you between different functions, and you can zip around rather quickly.

Much has been made of the iPhone’s touch screen, and rightfully so. Though the Apple handset is not the first cell phone to rely solely on a touch screen, it is the first phone to get so much attention and come with so many expectations. Depending on what you’re doing, the touch screen serves as your dialpad, your keyboard, your Safari browser, and your music and video player. Like many others, we were skeptical of how effectively the touch screen would handle all those functions.

Touch screen
Fortunately, we can report that on the whole, the touch screen and software interface are easier to use than expected. What’s more, we didn’t miss a stylus in the least. Despite a lack of tactile feedback on the keypad, we had no trouble tapping our fingers to activate functions and interact with the main menu. As with any touch screen, the display attracts its share of smudges, but they never distracted us from what we were viewing. The onscreen dialpad took little acclimation, and even the onscreen keyboard fared rather well. Tapping out messages was relatively quick, and we could tap the correct letter, even with big fingers. The integrated correction software helped minimize errors by suggesting words ahead of time. It was accurate for the most part.

Still, the interface and keyboard have a long way to go to achieve greatness. For starters, when typing an e-mail or text message the keyboard is displayed only when you hold the iPhone vertically. As a result, we could only type comfortably with one finger, which cut down on our typing speed. Using two hands is possible, but we found it pretty crowded to type with both thumbs while holding the iPhone at the same time. What’s more, basic punctuation such as periods or commas lives in a secondary keyboard–annoying. If you’re a frequent texter or an e-mail maven, we suggest a test-drive first.

We also found it somewhat tedious to scroll through long lists, such as the phone book or music playlists. Flicking your finger in an up or down motion will move you partway through a list, but you can’t move directly to the bottom or top by swiping and holding your finger. On the other hand, the letters of the alphabet are displayed on the right side of the screen. By pressing a letter you can go directly to any songs or contacts beginning with that letter. But the lack of buttons requires a lot of tapping to move about the interface. For example, the Talk and End buttons are only displayed when the phone is in call mode. And since there are no dedicated Talk and End buttons, you must use a few taps to find these features. That also means you cannot just start dialing a number; you must open the dialpad first, which adds clicks to the process. The same goes for the music player: since there are no external buttons, you must call up the player interface to control your tunes. For some people, the switching back and forth may be a nonissue. But for mutlitaskers, it can grow wearisome.

Criticisms aside, the iPhone display is remarkable for its multitouch technology, which allows you to move your finger in a variety of ways to manipulate what’s on the screen. When in a message, you can magnify the text by pressing and holding over a selected area. And as long as you don’t lift your finger, you can move your “magnifying glass” around the text. You can zoom in by pinching your fingers apart; to zoom out you just do the opposite. In the Web browser, you can move around the Web page by sliding your finger, or you can zoom in by a double tap. And when looking at your message list, you can delete items by swiping your finger from left to right across the message. At that point, a Delete button will appear.

Thanks to the handset’s accelerometer (a fancy word for motion sensor), the iPhone’s display orientation will adjust automatically when you flip the iPhone on its side while using the music and video players and the Internet browser. Also, a proximity sensor turns off the display automatically when you lift the iPhone to your ear for a conversation. All three are very cool.

The January 2008 update added new customization options for the iPhone’s home screen. By pressing and holding any icon, all of the icons on the display will start to wiggle. You then can move the icons around and rearrange them at will. By moving them to the right, you can also access a second menu page, and you can add or remove on the “dock” at the bottom of the display. It’s clear that with this new feature, Apple is readying the iPhone for more applications, particularly as the company prepares for the upcoming SDK. To stop the icons from wiggling, just press the Home button.

Exterior features
The iPhone’s only hardware menu button is set directly below the display. It takes you instantly back to the home screen no matter what application you’re using. The single button is nice to have, since it saves you a series of menu taps if you’re buried in a secondary menu. On the top of the iPhone is a multifunction button for controlling calls and the phone’s power. If a call comes in at an inopportune time, just press the button once to silence the ringer, or press it twice to send the call to voice mail. Otherwise, you can use this top control to put the phone asleep and wake it up again. You can turn the iPhone off by pressing and holding the button.

Located on the left spine are a volume rocker and a nifty ringer mute switch, something all cell phones should have and which is a popular feature of Palm Treos. On the bottom end, you’ll find the speaker, a microphone, and the jack for the syncing dock and the charger cord. Unfortunately, the headset jack on the top end is deeply recessed, which means you will need an adapter for any headphones with a chubby plug. Is this customer-friendly? No.

Unfortunately, the Phone does not have a battery that a user can replace. That means you have to send the iPhone to Apple to replace the battery after it’s spent (Apple is estimating one battery will keep its full strength for 400 charges–probably about three years’ worth of use). The cost of the replacement is $79 plus $6.95 shipping. No, you don’t really need a removable battery in a cell phone, but like many things missing on the iPhone, it would be nice to have, especially for such an expensive phone. And just what are you supposed to without a cell phone during the replacement period? Contrary to earlier reports, the SIM card is removable via a small drawer on the top of the iPhone, but other AT&T SIM cards will not work in the iPhone. That’s especially troubling, as it completely defeats the biggest advantage of using a GSM phone with a SIM card. Some people have multiple phones and like to change the SIM card between their different handsets. Also, you can’t use the SIM card to import contact information from another handset.

Features
The iPhone’s phone book is limited only by the phone’s available memory. Each contact holds eight phone numbers; e-mail, Web site, and street addresses; a job title and department; a nickname; a birthday; and notes. You can’t save callers to groups, but you can store your preferred friends to a favorites menu for easy access. You can assign contacts a photo for caller ID and assign them one of 25 polyphonic ringtones. We should note, however, that there’s no voice dialing and you can’t use MP3 files as ringtones. Other basic features include an alarm clock, a calculator, a world clock, a stopwatch, a timer and a notepad. There’s a vibrate mode but it’s a tad light.

The calendar offers day and month views, and you can use the calendar as an event reminder or a to-do list as well. The interface is clean and simple, though inputting new appointments involves a lot of tapping. There’s no Week view, however. We were able to sync our Outlook contacts and calendar and our Yahoo! e-mail address book with no problems.

Bluetooth and wireless
The iPhone offers a full range of wireless functionality with support for Wi-Fi and Bluetooth connectivity. The Wi-Fi compatibility is especially welcome, and a feature that’s absent on far too many smart phones. When you’re browsing the Web, the iPhone automatically searches for the nearest Internet hot spot. Bluetooth 2.0 is also on board, which delivers faster transmission and a longer range than Bluetooth 1.2. You can use Bluetooth for voice calls, but you don’t get an A2dP stereo Bluetooth profile–another item that’s not necessary but would be nice to have.

Though Apple CEO Steve Jobs has explained the iPhone’s lack of 3G support by saying the chipsets take up too much room and drain too much battery, we’d like the option anyway. Yes, the Wi-Fi network is great when you can get it, but AT&T’s EDGE network just doesn’t cut it for all other surfing. EDGE Web browsing is so slow, it almost ruins the pretty Web interface. More on this in the Performance section.

Messaging and e-mail
For your messaging needs, the iPhone offers text messaging and e-mail. As on many smart phones, a text message thread is displayed as one long conversation–a useful arrangement that allows you to pick which messages you’d like to answer. The January 2008 update added the ability to send a text message to multiple recipients. It was a welcome addition, but truly, that capability should have been there from the start. If you use another function while messaging, you can return to pick up that message where you left off. We just don’t understand, however, why Apple doesn’t include multimedia messaging. Sure, you can use e-mail to send photos, but without multimedia messaging you can’t send photos to other cell phones–pretty much the entire point of a camera phone.

The iPhone’s e-mail menu includes integrated support for Yahoo, Gmail, AOL, and Mac accounts. You can set up the phone to receive messages from other IMAP4 and POP3 systems, but you’ll need to sweet-talk your IT department into syncing with your corporate exchange server. It’s rumored that Apple will update the iPhone to support ActiveSync but Apple hasn’t confirmed that as of this writing. Yet the iPhone does offer a way to connect with your VPN. You can read–but not edit–PDF, JPEG, Word, and Excel documents. Worse: you can’t cut and paste text when composing messages.

iPhone’s iPod
Sandwiched between all the iPhone’s features lives Apple’s most amazing iPod yet. The display, interface, video quality, audio quality–all of it is meticulously refined and beautiful. Unfortunately, it’s trapped within a device that will cost you more than $1,000 a year just to own. CNET recently reviewed a Rolls-Royce that had a top-notch umbrella hidden inside its passenger door. Buying the iPhone for its iPod feature is a lot like buying that Rolls-Royce for its umbrella. Regardless, the iPhone is an exciting glimpse into what Apple hopefully has planned for its sixth-generation iPod. Apple has redeemed itself following the Motorola Rokr E1 debacle.

On paper, the iPhone’s iPod doesn’t offer any features not already on a fifth-generation iPod: podcasts, videos, music, and playlists are all here, and content management with iTunes is identical. The difference rests entirely in the iPhone’s interface. We’ve used other MP3 players that use touch interfaces, such as the Archos 704, iRiver Clix and Cowon D2, but the iPhone’s unique integration of multitouch technology and a graphic user interface put it in a category all its own.

From an iPod perspective, Apple’s biggest triumph with the iPhone is the fact that it has returned album artwork back into the music experience in a way that goes beyond a token thumbnail graphic. Physically flipping through your music collection in the iPhone’s Cover Flow mode really brings back the visceral feel of digging through a CD or record bin. It’s a tough feeling to quantify, but the real music lovers out there will appreciate how well the iPhone reconnects their digital music to a form that is both visually and physically more vivid. Even iTunes users who may already be jaded about using the Cover Flow mode on their personal computer will be surprised at how the experience is changed by using the iPhone’s intuitive touch screen.

Truth be told, there is one feature that is new to the iPhone’s iPod–the integrated speaker. While the iPhone’s speaker sounds thin and is prone to distortion, it works in a pinch for sharing a song with a friend. Apple was also smart enough to manage its speaker volume independent of the headphone volume, so if you’re listening to the speaker full-blast and then decide to plug in your headphones, you won’t be deafened.

The bad news is that the iPhone’s iPod leaves out the ability to manually manage the transfer of music and video content. Unlike any previous iPod, the iPhone does not allow an option for manually dragging and dropping content from an iTunes library directly to the iPhone device icon. Instead, the iPhone strictly uses defined library syncing options for collecting and syncing content from your iTunes library to the device. This should work out fine for most people, but for a device with limited memory the inability to manually manage content seems like a misstep. Our 8GB iPhone was already a quarter full after only a few hours of testing, giving us the impression that users will need to be vigilant at grooming their iPhone library. An external memory card slot is another one of those “nice to have” features.

The iPhone’s music sound quality seems right in line with our experience using the 5G iPod. All the same EQ presets are available, only now they are found on the iPhone’s main Settings tab. The included iPhone earbuds did a passable job for casual listening in a quiet environment. Unfortunately, the iPhone’s recessed headphone jack prevented us from using many of the test headphones we’re familiar with. We were just barely able to squeeze the plug of our Etymotic ER6i earphones into the jack to do the comparison.

Watching video on the iPhone is not quite as luxurious as a Creative Zen Vision: W or Archos 504, but its wide screen and bright contrast beat the fifth-generation iPod by a mile. As with previous iPods, video playback is automatically bookmarked so that playback resumes where you left off. And because the iPhone is a phone, it includes an airplane mode that will keep the music player activated while turning off the call transmitter. Thanks to the January 2008 update, you can also browse movies by chapter as well as view subtitles. Other changes include the lyric overlays on music tracks, support for the new iTunes movie rentals, and the ability to redeem iPhone gift cards from the device using the wireless iTunes store.

Safari browser
The Safari browser really sets the iPhone apart from the cell phone crowd. Rather than trudging through stripped-down WAP pages with limited text and graphics, the browser displays Web pages in their true form. It’s a completely and surprisingly satisfying experience to see real Web pages on a screen of this size. Our only regret is that the browser does not support Flash or Java. To pan around a page, just swipe your finger across the display, and the page moves accordingly. Tap your finger on a link to open a new page and double-tap your finger to zoom in and zoom back out. You can use the arrows on the bottom of the display to move back and forth, while a multifunction button at the bottom of the display lets you open new pages and flick among them.

The Apple iPhone comes with the Safari Web browser.

Google search is the iPhone’s default search tool, but you can use Yahoo search as well. When searching for information or typing URLs, you use the onscreen keyboard. It’s just like typing an e-mail except that the spacebar is replaced with Web-appropriate language like “.com” and a slash. That’s a nice touch.

The January 2008 update brought the ability to add bookmarks to the home screen in the form of icons. The process is easy enough–when viewing your favorite site, just tap the bookmark icon and you’ll find an “add to home screen” option. You can add multiple icons (thanks to the new second menu page), move them around, and delete then. It’s useful as it will save you a few clicks later.

Thanks to the accelerometer, you can tip the phone on its side for a more comfortable landscape view. It doesn’t matter which direction you rotate the phone, as it will work either way. It’s also nice that the onscreen keyboard appears in landscape mode when using the browser. Most Web pages looked great on the screen, but visually busy pages like CNN.com can be too crowded. And because you can zoom in only a set amount, some text can still be too small to read clearly. You can store bookmarks and sync your favorite pages from your PC, but it works only for Internet Explorer and not Firefox.

YouTube
You can activate the iPhone’s integrated YouTube player straight from the main menu via a colored icon. Videos are organized using many of the same criteria as on the YouTube site, including Featured Clips, Most Viewed, Top Rated, and Most Recent. You can read the information attached to a video, such as the date posted and the poster’s name, but you can’t read comments. It doesn’t appear, however, that the YouTube connection updates in real time. We uploaded a video of our own, and it didn’t show up until a few hours later.

The Apple iPhone has a built-in Google Maps application.

Widgets
The iPhone has a widget for accessing Google Maps. You can see the satellite view–nice–and get turn-by-turn directions between two points, with traffic information. We tried mapping routes from CNET’s offices to various places and received accurate directions. As the iPhone lacks standard GPS, it couldn’t provide location information for the first six months of its life. But with the January 2008 update, it gained the ability to tell you approximately where you are. When you tap the new icon in the lower-left corner of the touch screen, a circle will show where you should be on the map. But rather than connecting to a satellite, it finds you by connecting to nearby Wi-Fi hotspots and cellular towers and pinpointing their location (sort of a backdoor locater). You then can find directions using your pinpointed location.

When I gave it a go, the location service was off by several blocks on my first attempt. Though even standard GPS systems aren’t perfect, the margin of error was still too big. Also, the area that the circle covered was much too expansive (when I tried to zoom in, the circle disappeared). Fortunately, the second time I tried the location service it was much more accurate. Also, I like that the circle covered a smaller area. Yet it’s worth noting that the functionality won’t work when you’re away from wireless civilization, which typically is a time when location services come in really handy. Also, the lack of audio instructions will limit its usability while driving.

The next mapping feature is pretty cool. By pressing the new icon on the lower-right corner of the touch screen, you can drop a pin wherever you like on the map. You can move the pin around, save it as a bookmark, and use it as a location for determining directions. The map interacts well with the calling functions; you can find a point of interest and ring it in just a few taps.

Additional widgets point to stock information and weather reports. You can program your own tickers and get information like a share gain or loss and see the chart of a share price over time. The weather function gives you a six-day forecast for your choice of cities. For more options, there is already a selection of third-party iPhone apps. No games are included on the handset

Visual voice mail
One of the most intriguing features on the iPhone is the much-touted visual voice mail. iPhone’s voice mail works much like a text-message folder in that it displays the caller’s name or phone number and the time. What’s even more fantastic, however, is that you can listen to the message instantly by pressing the individual message–you don’t have to call your voice mail first.

The Apple iPhone has a 2-megapixel camera on the back.

Camera
The iPhone’s 2-megapixel camera offers a spiffy interface with a graphic that resembles a camera shutter. You’re offered no camera editing options, which we didn’t expect. That means you can’t change the resolution, choose a color or quality setting, or select a night mode. There’s no flash either, and with no self-portrait mirror, those vanity shots are going to be tricky. The camera performed well in our tests, however. Photo quality was excellent with rich, bright colors and distinct object outlines. White looked a bit too soft, but we approve overall. On the downside, you can’t shoot your own video, which is disappointing on a phone at this price.

As we said earlier, the photo menu is attractive and easy to use, particularly due to the pinching motion. You can also flip between photos by swiping your finger across the display. When selecting a photo, you’re given the option of assigning it to a contact, using it as wallpaper, or e-mailing it to a friend.

Call quality
We tested the quadband (GSM 850/900/1800/1900) Apple iPhone in San Francisco using AT&T service. Call quality was good for the most part, but it wasn’t dependable. Though voices sounded natural, the volume was often too low, and the microphone has a sensitive sweet spot. When we moved the phone away from our ears ever so slightly, the volume diminished noticeably and we had to move the phone back to just the right place to hear clearly. The volume wasn’t so bad that we weren’t able to hear a friend who was in a crowded bar, but it just could be better. The speakerphone was also too quiet though conversations weren’t too muffled.

CNET users have also reported volume problems, and a few people we called said they heard a slight background hiss. We didn’t hear the hiss on our end, but more than one of our friends said they noticed it. Automated calling systems were able to understand us, but only if we were in a quiet room. On the whole, the call quality stayed the same in most environments.

Browser speed
Our first test with the Safari browser was over CNET’s internal Wi-Fi network. Web pages loaded in 5 to 10 seconds, though sites with heavy graphics took longer. It was a smooth experience overall, though it not quite as zippy as we had hoped. We thought that could be due to CNET’s network, but it seemed to be more or less the standard. Pages took about the same time to load on a home network and just a couple seconds longer in a cafe. When not using Wi-Fi, you’re stuck with AT&T’s EDGE network, which is just too slow to render the lovely Safari interface enjoyably. With speeds in the 50-to-90Kbps range, it reminded us of a dial-up browser. In other words, it’s pretty intolerable. CNET Labs tested the speed of the EDGE network against the Wi-Fi connection by comparing repeated results of the download time for a 9.4MB file. After two days of testing, EDGE resulted in an average download time of 15 minutes, 41 seconds for the file; Wi-Fi on average required a mere 1 minute, 11 seconds. In the end, our test results indicate that the iPhone’s Wi-Fi connection is 13 times faster than using EDGE, although results will vary depending on location. We can only hope Apple adds 3G soon, especially since AT&T has a robust UMTS/HSDPA network.

Music downloading
We tried purchasing music through the wireless iTunes store, which was announced in September 2007 (originally we knocked the iPhone for not allowing wireless downloads). You’ll need Wi-Fi to use it (sorry, EDGE isn’t sufficient), but on the whole it was a satisfying experience. You can view featured songs and the top 10 tracks by genre. If you have specific music in mind, you also can search by song name. We found our track quickly, and we liked that results surface as you’re typing. Once we selected our chosen song, it downloaded in less than a minute, and it appeared directly in our iTunes folder.

Activation
Activation was easy using iTunes 7.3. Our computer recognized the iPhone right away, and the activation system started automatically. After a few prompts, it asked us if we wanted to automatically sync contacts from Yahoo and Windows mail and contacts from Outlook. It also asked us to if we wanted to sync Internet bookmarks but, as we said earlier, it won’t import Firefox bookmarks. The integration with AT&T’s account service is also seamless. We were able to select a plan and indicate whether we were a current AT&T customer. It even asked us if we wanted to port a current cell phone number. In all, it’s much better experience than dealing with AT&T.

It’s important to note that the iPhone is little more than an expensive paperweight until it’s activated. You can make emergency calls, but you can’t use any other functions, including the iPod music player. What’s worse, if you cancel your AT&T contract, the iPhone becomes a paperweight again.

Battery life
The Apple iPhone has a rated battery life of 8 hours talk time, 24 hours of music playback, 7 hours of video playback, and 6 hours on Internet use. The promised standby time is 10.4 days. When we tested the iPhone with the Wi-Fi function turned off, we got about 7 hours, 45 minutes of talk time. When we tested it with the Wi-Fi activated, we came away with 4 hours less. Video time, however, clocked in at an impressive 7.3 hours. Music-only time was also satisfactory. We got 28.4 hours of music playback time on a single charge. Just keep in mind that it’s rare you’ll be using just one feature for hours on end. As such, your battery life will vary widely as you switch between functions. Large color screens such as the one on the iPhone tend to be battery drainers, so you’ll most likely need to charge your handset every couple of days. According to the FCC, the iPhone has a digital SAR rating of 0.974 watts per kilogram.

Apple today announced the new iPhone 3G now with 3G/HSDPA at a much lower price than the original iPhone

Two days ago, the Apple Store sold the original iPhone 8GB for $399 and 16GB for $499 with a two-year activation agreement with AT&T. Today you can pick up the iPhone 3G for $199. Too bad if you bought the iPhone v1.0 last week.

Other changes to the iPhone is a slightly thicker but a little lighter exteriour. The back cover now has a curved form factor. The old iPhone meassures 115 x 61 x 11.6 mm while the iPhone 3G has the following dimentions: 115.5 x 62.1 x 12.3 mm. The old and new charging craddle might not be exchangeable.

Apple has added Google Maps software and GPS hardware in the iPhone 3G. Maps on iPhone 3G combines GPS, Wi-Fi, and cell tower location technology to create a moble map application. This is called Assisted GPS.

Other than the above mentioned, we can’t see any other major hardware changes.

The screen is the same old excellent 3.5 inch 480×320 pixel touch display. iPhone 3G also has the same camera resolution of 2.0 megapixels. iPhone 3G is cheaper than the previous version resulting in little new on the hardware side.

iPhone 3G will be available in three versions on July 11. iPhone 8GB in black and 16GB in black or white.

Press release:
Apple today introduced the new iPhone 3G, combining all the revolutionary features of iPhone with 3G networking that is twice as fast* as the first generation iPhone, built-in GPS for expanded location based mobile services, and iPhone 2.0 software which includes support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync and runs the hundreds of third party applications already built with the recently released iPhone SDK. In the US the new iPhone 3G is priced at a stunning $199 for the 8GB model, and just $299 for the 16GB model.** iPhone 3G will be available in more than 70 countries later this year, beginning with customer availability in 22 countries—Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Netherlands, New Zealand, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, UK and the US—on July 11.

“Just one year after launching the iPhone, we’re launching the new iPhone 3G that is twice as fast at half the price,” said Steve Jobs, Apple’s CEO. “ iPhone 3G supports Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync right out of the box, runs the incredible third party apps created with the iPhone SDK, and will be available in more than 70 countries around the world this year.”

iPhone 3G gives users ever faster access to the Internet and email over their cellular network with quad-band GSM and tri-band HSDPA for voice and data connectivity around the world. iPhone 3G supports Wi-Fi, 3G and EDGE networks and automatically switches between them to ensure the fastest possible download speeds. The new iPhone 3G also makes it easier to multi-task with simultaneous voice and data communications, so with iPhone 3G you can browse the web, get map directions, or check your email while you are on a call.

iPhone 3G includes the new iPhone 2.0 software with both the iPhone SDK and key enterprise features such as support for Microsoft Exchange ActiveSync to provide over-the-air push email, contact and calendar syncing as well as remote wipe and Cisco IPsec VPN for encrypted access to corporate networks. The iPhone SDK allows developers to create amazing applications that leverage the iPhone’s groundbreaking Multi-Touch user interface, animation technology, accelerometer and GPS technology on the world’s most advanced mobile platform.

iPhone 3G includes the new App Store, providing iPhone users with native applications in a variety of categories including games, business, news, sports, health, reference and travel. The App Store on iPhone works over cellular networks and Wi-Fi, which means it is accessible from just about anywhere, so you can purchase and download applications wirelessly and start using them instantly. Some applications are even free and the App Store notifies you when application updates are available. The App Store will be available in 62 countries at launch.

Additional features available with the iPhone 2.0 software include the ability to do real-time mapping and track your progress with GPS technology, mass move and delete multiple email messages, search for contacts, access a new scientific calculator, turn on parental control restrictions for specified content, save images directly from a web page or email them to your iPhone and easily transfer them back to your photo library on your Mac or PC. iPhone 3G delivers an amazing 10 hours of talk time on 2G networks and 5 hours using 3G, with up to 5 to 6 hours of web browsing, up to 7 hours for video playback and up to 24 hours for audio playback.

iPhone 3G takes advantage of MobileMe, a new Internet service that pushes email, contacts, and calendars from an online “cloud” to native applications on iPhone, iPod touch, Macs and PCs. With MobileMe email, messages are pushed instantly to iPhone, removing the need to manually check email and wait for downloads, and push keeps contacts and calendars continuously up-to-date so changes made on one device are automatically updated on other devices. With iPhone, you can even snap a photo and post it directly to a MobileMe Gallery to share with friends and family.

iPhone 3G will be available in the US on July 11 for a suggested retail price of $199 (US) for the 8GB model and $299 (US) for the 16GB model in both Apple and AT&T’s retail stores and requires a new two year contract with AT&T for qualifying customers. iPhone 2.0 software will be available on July 11 as a free software update via iTunes 7.7 or later for all iPhone customers. For further information about iPhone 3G pricing and availability in the US and internationally, visit www.apple.com/iphone.

*Based on 3G and EDGE testing. Actual speeds vary by site conditions.
**Based on iPhone 3G (8GB) and first generation iPhone (8GB) purchases. Requires new two year AT&T rate plan, sold separately.

Apple ignited the personal computer revolution in the 1970s with the Apple II and reinvented the personal computer in the 1980s with the Macintosh. Today, Apple continues to lead the industry in innovation with its award-winning computers, OS X operating system and iLife and professional applications. Apple is also spearheading the digital media revolution with its iPod portable music and video players and iTunes online store, and has entered the mobile phone market with its revolutionary iPhone.

Last year, Apple did everything imaginable to generate hype for its first mobile phone, the iPhone (iLounge rating: B+). It spent months teasing people with crumbs of information, transforming its favorite journalists into spokesmen for the product, and encouraging customers to form long lines at its stores. The result was a tidal wave of free publicity that instantly established the iPhone as another amazing icon of Apple design, but once the dust cleared, it was obvious that the hype hadn’t translated into iPod-like sales: high prices and slow data speeds had kept mainstream customers away. Price drops in the United States and overseas spurred additional demand, but it was quickly apparent that something more was needed.

Apple’s release of the new iPhone 3G ($199/8GB, $299/16GB) is proof positive that the company—despite what some of its most ardent apologists or detractors might claim—is capable both of making big mistakes and learning from them. It is a rapid second attempt to get closer to the product that customers actually wanted, namely a device with the same interface, only cheaper, faster, and more widely available, and though it makes some significant stumbles of its own, it mostly achieves these goals. Inside are new cellular chips and antennas, while the outside has a sleeker but less expensive-looking body, and the box is familiar, yet marked with a lower initial price tag. It is, perhaps intentionally, what the iPod 3G was to the original iPod: mostly the same thing, but cheaper to make, cheaper to sell, and capable of much more than its pre-installed software would suggest.

Unfortunately, the iPhone 3G’s improvements are offset by regressions that make it less of a joy to use than its now-discontinued predecessor. Just like the iPod 3G before it, battery life has fallen behind to a startling level, and the screen quality has taken a step backwards; there are other surprises that Apple, in a continuation of a disturbing trend that began last year, tried to keep quiet until as late as possible. All of these issues, and much more, are discussed in our comprehensive 10-page review of the iPhone 3G, which includes extensive testing results from four of our editors located inside and outside of the United States. To ease reading, we’ve included both links to individual pages and convenient executive summaries of their contents. Enjoy.

The Phone, Package, and Pack-Ins

Executive Summary: While Apple has preserved the core features of the original iPhone and its packaging, and added new internal hardware, the iPhone 3G has stepped downwards in both casing and pack-ins from the original iPhone.

“Don’t mess with a good thing” is about as perennially wise as maxims get, and Apple generally knows as much: for years, it has kept its MacBook and MacBook Pro designs generally the same as their iBook and PowerBook predecessors, the Mac Pro hardly changed from the Power Mac G5 that inspired it, and the Mac mini looks the same as it did three years ago. Sure, Apple makes tweaks here and there, and certainly has new enclosures in the works, but the company no longer discards its best designs after only a year on the market—unless there’s a reason.

With the exception of the phone itself, the rest of Apple’s iPhone 3G package looks incredibly familiar: a small, attractive cardboard box opens to reveal the plastic-wrapped iPhone 3G on top of a tray, on top of a small collection of manuals, on top of a handful of accessories. Most of the iPhone 3Gs manufactured are black 8-Gigabyte models, with 7.1GB of usable storage capacity; the rest are either black or white 16-Gigabyte models with 14.6GB of empty space. The black ones come in black boxes, and the white ones in white ones, each with the identical front of the iPhone 3G on its face. Silver is used to represent the device’s front bezel, as well as the iPhone 3G and Apple logos on its other sides. Capacities are indicated only on the back of the box; they have not doubled since last year.

There is little remarkable about the contents of each package. As with the prior iPhone and all of its iPods, you get a USB cable and stereo headphones, brief instructions, and a couple of Apple stickers. There’s also a black screen cleaning cloth, a metal SIM card removal tool, and in the United States, a redesigned version of the 2006 USB Power Adapter.

This one is smaller and easier to carry than the last, but usable only in countries with identical wall blades, a potential inconvenience for foreign travelers. International versions of the phone include the old Adapter, with blades specific to their countries. Gone from all of the packages are the original iPhone’s Dock, which has been redesigned to fit the iPhone 3G and is now sold separately for $29.

That brings us to the iPhone 3G itself. Praise for the original iPhone’s physical design was unanimous last year: without question, Apple had found a way to make a touchscreen-based phone classy, relatively resilient, and completely intuitive. Matte metal and plastic rear and side casings were offset by small touches of chrome and a glass screen cover that all proved scratch-resistant, though not completely scratch-proof—like the MacBook Pro, it was a major step up from the company’s easily marred iPods and MacBooks. Its crowning feature was a 3.5-inch, 480×320-pixel display that was considerably better in every way than the ones in then-current iPods, perfectly sized for watching movies, viewing album art, and even playing games. Though some had hoped that Apple would release a smaller flip phone, the broad consensus was that the original device was perfectly sized and shaped for a smartphone, particularly given its ability to browse full-sized web pages.

With the iPhone 3G, Apple has kept most of the elements in the same general places as last time, but otherwise has regressed aesthetically from the original case design. We will glide right through the dimensions, which buck recent Apple trends by measuring larger in every dimension than the original iPhone, if only slightly: the original iPhone measured 4.5” (115mm) tall by 2.4” (61mm) wide by 0.46” (11.6mm) deep, and weighed 4.8 ounces (135 grams). iPhone 3G measures 0.5mm taller, 1.1mm wider, and 0.7mm thicker, and weighs an also imperceptibly different 4.7 ounces (133 grams). To offset these changes, Apple has used a more tapered casing, which is thicker at the center than at the edges; the result is that iPhone 3G no longer lays flat on a table, instead rocking back and forth on its arched back.

None of these changes, which result in the iPhone 3G’s still black, still glass face having a little more of each on the left and right than before, really matter; it’s the rear casing that provokes negative reactions. Gone is the just-right matte silver and black casing, replaced by decidedly cheaper-looking glossy black or white plastic. As suggested before, Apple wouldn’t have discarded the original iPhone’s classy casing design in favor of this one without a reason, and you can decide for yourself whether that reason is “cost reduction” or “because there are so many wireless antennas inside that there’s no way to use a partially metal shell any more.” We lean heavily towards the first theory.

The black and white iPhone 3G models both attract fingerprints to an unprecedented degree, but the black version is much worse, despite the fact that we otherwise prefer the color. We would normally be reluctant to use the word “nauseating” in a discussion of Apple products, but the way that our iPhone 3G looked when it arrived at our office—covered in the fingerprints and smudges of the AT&T employee who opened the box and activated it—was just that disgusting. These photos show how the iPhone 3G looked straight out of the box when we began our photography session; it’s obvious why Apple was so afraid to let people photograph it after its WWDC unveiling.

There is some good news. The included cleaning cloth can bring the black iPhone 3G closer to cleanliness—assuming you carry it around—and if you don’t mind seeing your phone constantly looking dirty, the black version is fine. Unfortunately, our chrome Apple logo was already permanently scratched by the time we opened the package ourselves; expect the same thing to happen if your phone, like ours, is left on a hard surface during an in-store activation process.

A better option is to buy either a protective case or the white iPhone 3G. Everybody thought that Apple was moving away from white plastics when it discontinued the first-generation iPod nano and fifth-generation iPod, but the iPhone 3G’s white version has rejuvenated the color. Though it still picks up fingerprints, they’re nowhere near as obvious as on the black version, so you won’t notice blemishes unless they’re from something other than finger oils.

To offset the cheapening of the iPhone 3G’s shell, Apple has swapped the original iPhone’s black side and top buttons with polished metal ones, preserved the chrome front bezel, rear Apple logo and metal-ringed rear camera, and added a chrome ring to the top headphone port. It has also added all but invisible metal mesh inside the ear speaker, bottom speaker, and bottom microphone ports, most likely for the protection of these elements rather than for visual reasons. Though the changes don’t make up for the rear casing, they’re all welcome improvements. Two screws are now found on the unit’s bottom alongside the Dock Connector port, the first fasteners to be visible on literally any of Apple’s iPod or iPhone devices; only obsessive industrial designers would mind.

Less conspicuous are are other hardware changes: Apple has shifted the device’s proximity and ambient light sensors from above the ear speaker to its left, as well as adding new wireless antennas, a GPS chip, and a redesigned headphone port that sits flush with the rest of the unit. We discuss each of these changes in the sections below.

While parts of the iPhone 3G are superb, there are still some big features missing from this device. If you add up the extras the iPhone doesn’t seem like a phone that everyone can afford.

How do you review a phone with this much hype swirling around it? If the iPhone was on trial for murder, no one who had followed the iPhone’s progress would be allowed to join the jury for fear of their pre-conceptions influencing the verdict. In Australia we have the advantage of not having seen an official iPhone release last year, but there’s been plenty of first-gen iPhones to play with before now.

Design
Simplicity is the key, and typical of Apple’s product range. Physically and in regards to the interface, simplicity is what drives its design, and for the most part it works well. Apple is so confident of the design that it doesn’t include a manual in the box. We’re not ashamed to admit we’ve needed Google several times to show us how to perform certain tasks.

The iPhone 3G feels as good as it looks. Its slick glossy exterior fits perfectly in your hand, and feels comfortable against your face. The 3.5-inch display is bright and clear, and never leaves you wishing it were bigger or easier to read.

The much-lauded interface is a pleasure to use with finger-friendly buttons and charmingly designed icons. Screen real estate in most applications are dedicated to what is most important, without menus or settings to distract you. Physical input is well thought out and is reasonably intuitive. Gesture controls using the multi-touch screen are great and easy to pick up.

Far less intuitive is the integration of some of the key applications. For example, images can’t be attached to an email while typing the message, the only way to do this is by selecting the option in the photo gallery. If you decide to attach an image after punching in the message, it’s tough luck — without copy and paste you’ll be left re-typing the entire message again. Similarly, most settings for the individual applications are only located in the General Settings pane, meaning you have to exit an application to change one of its settings, then re-enter the app to continue your work.

A point of contention for the original iPhone was the on-screen keyboard. Apple has worked hard to include a slew of business-focused functionality in the iPhone, but we predict a lot of business people will shy away from a smartphone that’s without a full, physical QWERTY keyboard. After using the iPhone for several days we have got much better at bashing text into messages and search fields; however, it’s still considerably more cumbersome than using a BlackBerry, or similar.

3G, Wi-Fi, connectivity
3G is such an important selling point for Apple in this second release that it becomes part of the iPhone’s product title. Yet it’s hard to congratulate Apple for including a feature we see every other day of the week in the phones that cross our desks. No 3G in the first generation was an astounding omission, its inclusion in this release is simply a correction to this oversight and allows the iPhone to compete with the growing range of excellent smartphones in the market.

We’ve been lucky to have been able to test the iPhone 3G on Telstra’s Next G network, making our review unit one of the world’s fastest iPhones. However, we’re yet to see data speeds faster than those that are being reportedly delivered by Optus and Vodafone. On average we’ve experienced data throughput of about 1Mbps, which isn’t mind-blowing.

As with the first generation, Wi-Fi is the saviour. Setting up a connection to a Wi-Fi network is as easy and painless as it can possibly be, and the results far outshine the 3G throughput, equating to about three times faster downlink speeds.

And what about all the terrible things you’ve heard about limited Bluetooth profiles and no MMS messaging? It’s all true. Out of the box you can only use Bluetooth to connect to a hands-free headset, so no A2DP stereo Bluetooth, file transfers or internet sharing. Pictures you take can be emailed to friends, but not sent directly to another mobile device. Though, with the dismal quality of the camera this is not such a great loss — but more on that later.

Web browsing
Believe the hype: the Safari browser is fantastic. Web pages render quickly, and most importantly, clearly. Pinching, spreading and panning finger gestures are some of the most intuitive controls imaginable and as much fun to use as they are efficient. The browser also incorporates one of the best tabbed browsing solutions we’ve seen on a mobile device. Though it’s not without its hiccups. The popular Sydney Morning Herald website struggled to render correctly and inexplicably crashed the browser twice in the space of five minutes, sending us back to the Home screen.

Worse still, on our first day of testing, the iPhone crashed twice and needed to be hard reset. Once was during Web browsing while we tried to view a large image on a Web page. The second crash occurred when using a program we had downloaded from the App Store called SnapMyLife — a geotagging photo blogging application.

GPS and location-based services
After the official iPhone 3G announcement, experts agreed that GPS would be the most important improvement for the iPhone. In fact, analysts have been speculating whether a GPS enabled iPhone would be the death knell for stand-alone navigation devices. However, to strike this nail in the coffin of personal navigation devices the iPhone needs navigation software, and we were disappointed to discover this type of software is not pre-installed.

What is installed is an iPhone optimised version of Google Maps, which we love. Updating your current position is a one-click operation, and searching for local businesses is a breeze. Best of all is how Google Maps is integrated with other iPhone functions, like being able to call a business directly from its Google Maps entry. That said, Google Maps is more a Yellow Pages substitute than a true navigation solution and doesn’t offer any sort of voice-guided turn-by-turn navigation, making it nearly useless for travelling with in your car. The software can plot a course, but checking your progress while driving would be extremely dangerous.

Also absent is any form of GPS statistics including signal strength or the amount of data used by the phone to triangulate your position using Assisted GPS (A-GPS). The latter is troublesome considering what a sticky issue mobile data allowances are in Australia at this time, and is compounded by there being no option to turn A-GPS on and off.

It’s quite a shame as the GPS hardware is superb. Within moments of opening Google Maps outdoors, the iPhone pinpointed our position and was tracking our movements with outstanding accuracy. Hopefully the rumoured TomTom mobile navigation software for the iPhone is nearly complete — though expect to have your credit cards ready for that one.

Calling, messaging & email
We weren’t surprised to discover that the iPhone does all the basics well. The calls we made were loud and clear, and we enjoyed good, strong reception. SMS messaging includes threaded messaging — where consecutive messages to a single contact are listed like an instant messaging conversation — and is a feature also available in BlackBerrys and the soon-to-be-released Windows Mobile 6.1.

Email can be automatically configured if you use one of the listed compatible email services; MS Exchange, Apple’s MobileMe, Gmail, Yahoo or AOL. Otherwise you have to go through the arduous process of entering your mail server settings manually. We were disappointed to find that Windows Live Hotmail accounts aren’t apart of the list of known email servers, considering the popularity of this service in Australia (although Hotmail is accessible through the Safari browser).

The iPhone 3G supports push email for MS Exchange and MobileMe. All other services are updated manually when you open the email pane. Reading your email is exactly as it should be; the messages render clearly and the iPhone is capable of viewing numerous attachments such as images, some MS Office documents, and PDF files.

Specifications:

• Price as Tested: $349.99
• Player Type: Hard Disk MP3 Player, Portable Media Player
• Radio: Optional
• Recording, Voice: No
• Recording, Line In: No
• Music Playback Formats: AAC, MP3, WAV, WMA
• Photo formats: BMP, JPEG, PNG, GIF
• Video Formats: MPEG4, WMV
• Audio Battery Life: 25 hrs. 23 min
• Screen Resolution: 800 x 480 pixels
• Screen Size: 4.8 inches
• Storage Capacity: 60 GB
• Dimensions: 5 x 3.1 x 0.5 inches
• Weight: 8.8 oz

The Archos 5 is a beautiful touch-screen media player offered in several high-capacity models (60GB, 120GB, and 250GB). Archos made a splash with 2007’s 605 WiFi, an Editors’ Choice winner and one of the first portable media players to offer a full Web browser along with a host of video and music playback features. The features we loved in the 605 WiFi are still here in the Archos 5, but there are some notable drawbacks that prevent the product from realizing its potential.

Design
Archos is promoting the Archos 5 as a Wi-Fi Internet tablet, but its chromed plastic enclosure and 5-inch touch screen look more like a luxury GPS unit. In fact, for an extra $129 you actually can use the Archos 5 as a relatively sophisticated in-car GPS system. Unlike its predecessor, the 605 WiFi, the Archos 5 is controlled almost entirely by its touch screen, with the exception of a power button and volume rocker on the top edge of the device. A 3.5mm headphone output is located midway up on the left edge, making the gadget more awkward to hold than the 605 WiFi. Thankfully, a built-in kickstand folds out from the back of the Archos 5 for hands-free viewing.

The Archos 5 measures 5 inches wide, 3 inches tall, and 0.5 inch thick (or 0.75 inch thick for the 120GB and 250GB versions), making it not much bigger than the 605 WiFi. Despite its similar size, Archos was able to squeeze an extra half-inch of screen onto the Archos 5 by removing the redundant physical controls found on the company’s previous players and placing the integrated speaker on the right edge of the device instead of the front.

Another surprising design change from Archos is the use of a glossy-coated screen instead of the matte, antiglare screens that have been a hallmark of its previous products. Combined with the Archos 5’s glossy, reflective enclosure, Archos has created an ideal breeding ground for fingerprints and smudges.

Another small, but significant design feature that distinguishes the Archos 5 from previous Archos PVPs is the use of new proprietary dock connection. We’ve given Archos some flack before on its use of a nonstandard connector for its USB cable, but the upshot of the unique dock connection has been its compatibility with Archos accessories such as battery packs, FM tuners, video cameras, and AV docks. The introduction of a new dock connection on the Archos 5 has severed its compatibility with existing Archos accessories, with the exception of the in-car GPS cradle. Archos is busy making new accessories for the Archos 5 (including the new Archos 5 DVR Station); however, early adopters have only a few options currently and users looking to upgrade from older models may feel some resentment over replacing their existing accessories.

Features
The Archos 5 has plenty of features to brag about, including music and video playback, a photo viewer, Opera Web browser, Flash 9 video and game support, a PDF reader, e-mail support, and an integrated video download store. You also get optional support for digital video recording and output through the latest Archos DVR Station, and support for 3G and 3.5G HSDPA wireless connections through the use of USB modem dongles offered by your mobile carrier.

Despite the manufacturer’s protest that Archos 5 shouldn’t be categorized as a mere portable video player, video playback is the Archos 5’s strongest feature. Out of the box, the Archos 5 offers support for AVI, WMV, MPEG4, and Flash video content with no transcoding necessary for videos sized at or below 640×480. Although Archos makes no mention of it, we were happy to see that DRM-protected WMV videos from Amazon’s Video On-Demand service played on the Archos 5 with no problem. For an extra $20, you can outfit the Archos 5 with a high-definition software plug-in to enable 720p video playback from WMV HD, MPEG4, or MPEG-2 files (including VOB and DivX formats). To play h.264 videos, you’ll need to throw another $20 at the Archos 5 for a Podcast media plug-in, which also enables AAC audio playback.

The music player of the Archos 5 is essentially identical to the 605 WiFi, although the design is more elegant. By default, the music player supports MP3, WMA (including DRM-protected files), FLAC, Ogg, and WAV files (with format support for AAC available as a $20 plug-in). You can also set up the Archos 5 to stream music over Wi-Fi from nearby computers or stream conventional Internet radio stations (sorry, no Pandora). During playback, the Archos 5’s music player displays album artwork, allows for your music library to be sorted by ID3 tags, and gives you the ability to bookmark long files such as lectures and audiobooks. A five-band graphic EQ is included, but the 605 WiFi’s independent bass boost setting is not.

The Archos 5 is clearly more than a portable video player, but it is no more deserving of the Internet Media Tablet moniker than Apple’s iPod Touch. Like the Safari Web browser used on the iPod Touch or iPhone, the Opera Web browser included on the Archos 5 provides an above-average mobile Internet experience, but there are some blind spots. Because the Flash 9 support on the Archos 5 exists outside of the Opera Web browser as an independent application, many Web sites and services are incompatible. During our tests, we found that simple Flash video sites such as YouTube worked fine, while sites such as Hulu, CNET TV, ABC, and Comedy Central, stalled the browser or played only the preroll advertising associated with the video.

Flash-based interactive online radio stations such as Pandora, Slacker, and Last.fm suffered similar fates, loading incompletely or not at all. For all of the complaints laid against Apple for not offering Flash media support on the iPhone or iPod Touch, Apple’s use of dedicated applications offers users a workaround for streaming content from many of the services mentioned above.

An e-mail application is also included with the Archos 5, however, at the time of this review the e-mail program launches with a disclaimer that it is still in beta development. Beta may be an understatement, considering we could never successfully send or receive e-mail without witnessing an error message or complete crash of the application. We easily setup our POP and Gmail accounts using the Archos 5, however, sending and receiving e-mail is a little slow and browsing large volumes of e-mail isn’t pretty. That said, if the Archos 5 wants to earn a reputation as an Internet tablet, it shouldn’t ship a product with an admittedly half-baked e-mail application.

Performance
Video playback on the Archos 5 is stunning. The 800×600 resolution display on the Archos 5 is bright and crisp, rivaled only by the Cowon A3 when it comes to clarity and color. We’re not thrilled with the decision to ditch the matte, reflection-fighting screen of the 605 WiFi, however, the glossy screen does make the Archos 5 a more attractive-looking product.

Audio performance is improved slightly over the 605 WiFi, with noticeably better detail, volume output, and stereo imaging. An assortment of EQ presets are included, along with a custom five-band EQ and balance controls.

The overall snappiness of the Archos 5 user interface is much better than previous efforts, because of the 600MHz ARM Cortex processor at the heart of the system. Applications launch faster and the lag time of the touch-screen keyboard is noticeably better than the 605 WiFi.

Unfortunately, the increased processor speed and screen size of the Archos 5 could take a toll on battery life. Archos originally estimated the Archos 5’s battery life at a pitiful 12 hours of audio and 4 hours of video, however, a firmware update (version 1.1.01) promises to nearly double battery life up to 22 hours of audio and 7 hours of video. We’ll update this review with battery drain results from CNET Labs once testing is complete.

Final thoughts
In the end, the Archos 5 is burdened by the same problems we found on the equally ambitious Cowon Q5W: the product promises more than it can deliver and it’s expensive (especially after investing in software and hardware add-ons). Granted, the Archos 5 is much prettier than the Cowon Q5W, but compared with Apple’s iPod Touch, the Archos 5’s larger screen and deeper capacity aren’t enough to recommend it over the iPod’s superior interface, accessory compatibility, and Web browser.

If you’re just looking for a portable video player with a large screen, broad file support and plenty of storage, don’t overlook Archos’ own 605 WiFi simply because it’s a year old. The comparable Cowon A3 is also worth a look, if you can live without Wi-Fi in your PVP.

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