one for the road
If you travel a lot but loathe missing your favourite television shows and must-see movies, a portable media player (PMP) should become an essential part of your travel kit.
Apple's newly released iPod classic and iPod nano may look great, have plenty of storage and provide brilliant audio, but their small screens and limited number of compatible formats make these devices less than ideal as video players on the road.
French connection Archos, a French electronics manufacturer, aims to meet the needs of travellers with the release of its fifth-generation, flagship PMP - the Archos 605 Wi-fi.
It has a 4.3-inch touch-screen liquid crystal display featuring 800 x 480 pixel resolution - a larger screen and better resolution than many other PMPs provide. The combination also enables viewing a Web page in full-width mode.
Archos founder and chief executive Henri Crohas says 'comfortable Web surfing requires at least 800 pixels on the line'. A PMP with a screen displaying 480 pixels on the line allows a user to see about half of a web page, which means a user must constantly zoom forward and back.
Flash gadget As you may have deduced from its name, the Archos 605 Wi-fi also supports internet access via wireless local area networks.
The device's Opera Web browser supports the Adobe Flash Player multimedia program, which is used by the majority of websites for animation and streaming videos online. This allows a user to download internet content directly to the PMP.
It can also play a variety of audio and video formats, including MP3, DivX and JPG. If you plan to stream video from the PMP to a television an optional cable is required.
Record ability Another optional accessory is the DVR Station Gen 5. This allows the PMP to record TV programmes and play them back on a TV set. The DVR station includes a remote control with small keyboard for easy internet browsing. Also available is the DVR Travel Adapter, which connects to a digital camera and records video directly to the PMP's hard disk.
The Archos 605 Wi-fi is available in 30-gigabyte (HK$2,680) and 80GB (HK$3,280) models. A beefier 160GB version is slated to be released soon.
