Archos is now shipping its 3.2 inch handheld Android tablet. The Archos 32 runs just $149.99 from the Archos Store.

I’ve been running a story a day this week about the 5 new Android tablets Archos introduced last week. I just so happened to run the Archos 32 story earlier this afternoon, without realizing that this would be the first of the new tablets to go on sale.

With 8GB of built in storage and a 3.2 inch display, the Archos 32 is sort of an Android equivalent of the iPod touch — but cheaper. You do get what you pay for in this case. The iPod touch starts at $229 and has a 3.5 inch, 960 x 640 pixel capacitive touchscreen display, an A4 processor, two cameras, HD video recording capabilities, and a sturdy metal case.

The Archos 32 has a 3.2 inch, 400 x 240 pixel resistive touchscreen display, an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, a VGA camera, and a plastic case.

That said, the low price isn’t the only thing the Archos tablet has going for it. This little guy has a composite video output for connecting the tablet to a TV. It can also support a wide range of audio and video formats that would make the iPod touch choke, including WMV, DivX, Xvid, MKV, WMA, OGG Vorbis, and FLAC as well as H.264, MP4, MP3 and AAC.

The Archos 32 is currently shipping with Google Android 2.1, but Archos says Android 2.2 will be available in October. The tablet does not come with the Android Market or Google apps such as Gmail preloaded. Instead it comes with the third party AppsLib market which includes about 5,000 free and paid apps which are available for download — all of which should work on the Archos 32 even though it doesn’t have 3G, GPS, or telephone capabilities.

thanks Stephen Merritt!

The Kno is a crazy ambitious tablet with twin 14 inch touchscreen displays. The device is aimed squarely at the education market, where it could replace textbooks, laptop computers, and paper notepads in one fell swoop. It’s not really meant to be a tablet for general consumers, and at 5.5 pounds, it’s not really in the same class as the Apple iPad or a typical netbook. But it sure does look cool.

If you were worried that the Kno, with its NVIDIA Tegra chipset, $1000 price tag, and twin IPS LCD displays was nothing more than vaporware, well it’s still not ready to go just yet. But the company behind the Kno tablet has announced that it’s raised $46 million in financing, which brings the total raised to $55 million. That should give Kno a pretty good head start on making its product real, and Kno says it’s due for release later this year.

This year. As in, by the end of 2010. Now if only the company could do something about that expected $1000 price tag.

via GigaOm

Acer has introduced the latest member of its Aspire Revo nettop family. Like its predecessors, the Aspire Revo 3700 features an Intel Atom chipset and NVDIA ION graphics processor. But the new model features the latest and greatest of both.

The Acer Aspire Revo 3700 totes a 1.8GHz dual core Atom D525 CPU and NVIDIA’s second-generation ION graphics platform which supports 3D graphics acceleration, HD video playback, and accelerated Adobe Flash video.

The nettop also ships with a 500GB hard drive, up to 4GB of DDR3 memory, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and VGA and HDMI output.

Acording to Engadget, the Aspire Revo 3700 is expected to sell for about $580 when it’s launched later this year.

Netbooks and Tablets

• Refurb Acer Aspire One AOD250 w/Atom N270, Win 7 Starter for $240 + free shipping – Buy.com
• Archos 5 Internet Tablet (8GB) w/Android 1.6, 4.8″ display for 90 – J&R (via Amazon)
• Acer Aspire One 521 w/AMD Neo K125 CPU, Radeon HD 4225 graphics for $334 – Amazon

Accessories

• Iomega eGo 1ZTB USB 2.0 external hard drive for $79.99 – TigerDirect
• iPod touch 4G Cases for $4.99 and up – Handheld Items
• Dell Portable USB Stereo Soundbar for $20 + free shipping – Dell (today only)
• All-in-One USB Memory Card Reader for 59 cents + free shipping – Meritline (via Dealnews)
• Coupon: 15% off no minimum, $15 maximum discount – SuperBiiz

You can find more deals on netbooks, gadgets, and accessories in the Liliputing Deals section.

The Archos 32 is a handheld device running Google Android. It has a 3.2 inch display and a super-slim design. It’s one of 5 Android tablets and handheld devices Archos introduced recently, and while it’s a little bigger than the 2.8 inch Archos 28, the Archos 32 still looks more like a phone than a full sized tablet.

I find that it’s best to think of this little guy as a media player that’s capable of running apps instead of thinking of it as a full-sized tablet. The resistive touchscreen is quite responsive when it comes to browsing the web or launching applications, but entering text with the on-screen keyboard is a bit of a chore. And while the new Apple iPod touch which starts shipping this week can run 250,000 third party apps from the iTunes App Store, Archos bundles the Archos 32 with the AppsLib store which has just about 5,000 Android apps — although you may be able to install other apps from the Android Market with a little bit of elbow grease.

The Archos 32 will run about $149 when it starts shipping in a few weeks, and if you’re wondering why you’d spend the extra $50 to get this model instead of the Archos 28, it turns out the screen size isn’t the only difference. The Archos 32 also has a slightly higher resolution screen, a camera, video output capabilities, and ships standard with 8GB of flash storage. Like the other Archos tabelts, it can also handle a wide range of audio and video formats including H.264, MP4, WMV, MP3, WMA, AAC, FLAC, and OGG Vorbis.

The handheld device has an 800MHz ARM Cortex A8 processor with support for 3D graphics and 720p HD video playback. The Archos 32 has a 400 x 240 pixel 3.2 inch TFT LCD display. It has a VGA camera which can take still shots or record VGA video. There’s a G-sensor which automatically rotates the display when you reposition the handheld. It also helps out with video games. There’s also a USB port, composite video output for connecting to a TV, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, and Bluetooth 2.1.

The Archos 32 measures 4.1″ x 2.1″ x 0.3″ and eighs just 2.5 ounces.

If you scroll about 7 and a half minutes into the video after the break, you can see Archos VP Ron Ferguson demonstrate the video output capabilities of this device. While the composite video output looks a little silly on a big, HD television set, the overall gaming experience is quite decent. I’m also impressed at how Archos designed its tablets to function as touchpads when you plug in an external display, making it easy to interact with the Android interface on a big screen.

The Archos 32 is now shipping — making it the first of the new Android devices from Archos to show up in the Archos Store. It currently ships with Android 2.1, but an Android 2.2 update should be available in October.

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Qualcomm is working on a new 1.5GHz dual core Snapdragon chipset. We’ve known that for a while. What we also know now is that it won’t ship in 2010. Instead, Qualcomm says it it probably won’t be out until close to the end of 2011.

On the other hand, we should start seeing devices with 1.2GHz Qualcomm Snapdragon processors in the first quarter of 2011. The new 1.2GHz chip should be a bit snapper than the 1GHz Snapdragon processor powering phones including the Google Nexus One and HTC Incredible as well as the Compaq Airlife 100 smartbook.

There’s also a dual core version of the 1.2GHz CPU which will be released during the first half of 2011.

via Netbook News.de and Slashgear

If you’ve been waiting with baited breath to find out whether India would actually be able to produce a Google Android powered tablet for students for just $35 per unit, it looks like you won’t have to wait all that much longer. LiveMint  reports that the Indian government is working with HCL Technologies to produce the $35 Sakshat tablet starting in January.

At launch the tablet is expected to come with a 7 inch display 2GB of internal storage, WiFi, a camera, and  USB port.

While early indications were that the Indian government was hoping to crank out a million of the tablets, HCL has been contracted to produce just 100,000 at first, with delivery due by January 10, 2011. They’ll be tested in different parts of the country and if they’re up to snuff then the government will acquire a million units to distribute to college and graduate students throughout India.

via Technically Personal and Engadget

There’s a company in Germany that will tell you Smartbooks have been around for years and will continue to be so — but that company happens to be named Smartbook and it pumps out fairly standard looking notebooks, as well as the occasional tablet. The rest of the tech industry has taken to using the word smartbook to refer to a semi-mythical device with a low power, usually ARM-based processor which can connect to 3G and other mobile broadband networks. Think of a smartbook as a cross between a smartphone and a notebook.

Chip maker Qualcomm first started using the word last year to define the category. But here we are more than 15 months later and there are very few commercial smartbooks available for purchase. The Toshiba AC100 sort of fits the bill, as does the Compaq Airlife 100, but neither of those devices are very widely available. And the Lenovo Skylight which was unveiled in January still hasn’t made it to market.

So what happened? According to Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs, tablets happened. While Qualcomm introduced its smartbook concept long before the Apple iPad was officially unveiled, tablets have pretty much filled the niche that smartbooks were aimed at. The Apple iPad, like the perfect smartbook is an always on device with all-day battery life (assuming you consider 10 hours to be all-day battery life).

Of course, there are certainly some folks who would prefer a physical QWERTY keyboard for touch-typing, but odds are these people are picking up netbooks — perhaps with 3G capabilities, or maybe iPads with Bluetooth keyboards.

I don’t know that Qualcomm is busy crying over spilled milk though. Tablets, smartbooks, smartphones… really as long as hardware makers are pumping out devices with ARM-based chips, there’s opportunity for Qualcomm to succeed.