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Anyone using Archos 70 as a sat nav?
advb69
01-12-2011
I was all set to get an Advent Vega refurb but PC World no longer had any stock of these either in their main website or the Ebay store. Perhaps they want to maximise full price sales before Christmas - but £200 is more than I want to pay.

I still want to get a Vega - I fancy having an unbrickable tablet to tinker with and the bigger screen is better for browsing and media playback at home.

Anyway, I am now thinking of the £99 Archos 70 as an stop-gap. I'm a bit put off by the 256MB of memory but it would be more portable as a "take anywhere" media player. And (finally getting to the point), I want it to double up as a sat nav.

I was thinking of getting a cheap bluetooth GPS receiver (like this http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B...d_i=B00008W5X5) and installing Navfree.

I know people have got Navfree working on the Vega but I can't find any posts with anyone doing this with the Archos 70. Has anyone done something similar with the Archos here? Or are there any practical issues that anyone can think of that might stop this working with the Archos?

Thanks!
freeview_user
02-12-2011
You can't. Unless you tether it to your phone. The Archos 70 has no 'built-in' GPS.

Glad to help
alanwarwic
02-12-2011
Am sure it could be made to work though a smartphone tether sounds slighly less hassle.

If you search the web there seems to be a £50 freebie off tablets at PC World this weekend.
The Achos 80 G9 might then be an incredible £150. It has GPS.
advb69
02-12-2011
Originally Posted by freeview_user:
“You can't. Unless you tether it to your phone. The Archos 70 has no 'built-in' GPS.

Glad to help”

Sorry - I didn't make myself clear. I know it hasn't got GPS built in (like the Vega) but some Vega users have reported success in using external GPS bluetooth receivers with the Vega. I just wondered if anyone had managed something similar with the Achos 70.
advb69
02-12-2011
Originally Posted by alanwarwic:
“Am sure it could be made to work though a smartphone tether sounds slighly less hassle.”

I don't have a smartphone so I was looking for low cost alterntives.

Quote:
“If you search the web there seems to be a £50 freebie off tablets at PC World this weekend.
The Achos 80 G9 might then be an incredible £150. It has GPS.”

Yes I saw that but all the PC Worlds near me are suddenly out of stock. Odd that!
SkipTracer
03-12-2011
I have one of those £5 Blue Tooth Wayfinder units that connects to my Vega as you described with no problems at all.

Can’t help with the Archos 70 at the moment but my grandson is having one of these for Crimbo so I could let you know how it works with that by Boxing day but this will be too late for you I am sure.
advb69
06-12-2011
Originally Posted by SkipTracer:
“I have one of those £5 Blue Tooth Wayfinder units that connects to my Vega as you described with no problems at all.

Can’t help with the Archos 70 at the moment but my grandson is having one of these for Crimbo so I could let you know how it works with that by Boxing day but this will be too late for you I am sure.”

Well, too late in the sense that I have now bought an Archos 70 but not too late as "she who must be obeyed" wants to give it to me for Crimbo so I have to wait

So it would be very useful if you did have a chance to test this on Boxing Day. Perhaps you can frame your grandson on some trumped up charges so his tablet privileges are revoked for an appropriate length of time

If it does work for you, it means my inevitable initial failures will be due to my ignorance of Android..... I can live with that!
SkipTracer
12-12-2011
Found this today which will be of interest to you.

http://pdadb.net/index.php?m=reposit..._update_2.0.54

If you read down the spec there is a bit about “external Bluetooth devices now supported”.

I think the current Archos 70 already has Android 2.2 so it should be all go right from the start.
advb69
17-12-2011
Thanks. I've just charged up the battery and upgraded to the latest firmware in anticipation of the grand opening on Christmas day! As you say, GPS should work.

All I need now is to find a cheap & cheerful BT GPS device. The days of the £5 devices seem to be over.....
Martintea
18-12-2011
Originally Posted by advb69:
“Thanks. I've just charged up the battery and upgraded to the latest firmware in anticipation of the grand opening on Christmas day! As you say, GPS should work.

All I need now is to find a cheap & cheerful BT GPS device. The days of the £5 devices seem to be over.....”

How did you download the firmware?I`ve been trying all day.

It`s rubbish for youtube/iplayer,or any video .And the battery life ain`t brilliant either.
paulyoung666
19-12-2011
Originally Posted by Martintea:
“How did you download the firmware?I`ve been trying all day.

It`s rubbish for youtube/iplayer,or any video .And the battery life ain`t brilliant either.”

you did get the 70it not the 70ht didnt you ......
SkipTracer
19-12-2011
Originally Posted by paulyoung666:
“you did get the 70it not the 70ht didnt you ......”

I gave a warning here in these forums a few weeks ago about Tesco selling the 70 HT at £99 while the CPW were selling the 70 IT for the same price (now out of stock) and the 70 HT at £75.

It’s an easy mistake to make with tabs having very similar looks but different innards and this has been compounded even more by Tesco because they have issued an in store catalogue of their high tech stuff which only shows the 70 IT but in the store (not sure if this is all stores) it only has the 70 HT at the same price.

I don’t think they realise them selves that they are two complete different machines.
advb69
19-12-2011
Originally Posted by Martintea:
“How did you download the firmware?I`ve been trying all day.

It`s rubbish for youtube/iplayer,or any video .And the battery life ain`t brilliant either.”

Well, assuming that it is the Archos 70IT that you have, you can just initiate a firmware update from the setting menus once you are connected to the network. It's back in the box now until Christmas day so I can't tell you the exact process.

As far as the battery life is concerned, I charged it up fully and then left it at the initial setup screen. It lasted for about 6 hours. Obviously, it wouldn't be working hard with just the setup screen displayed but it didn't go into any power save either.

I didn't try anything else - because I don't officially get it until Christmas day - so I can't comment on Youtube, Iplayer etc yet.
paulyoung666
19-12-2011
Originally Posted by SkipTracer:
“I gave a warning here in these forums a few weeks ago about Tesco selling the 70 HT at £99 while the CPW were selling the 70 IT for the same price (now out of stock) and the 70 HT at £75.

It’s an easy mistake to make with tabs having very similar looks but different innards and this has been compounded even more by Tesco because they have issued an in store catalogue of their high tech stuff which only shows the 70 IT but in the store (not sure if this is all stores) it only has the 70 HT at the same price.

I don’t think they realise them selves that they are two complete different machines.”

fell for that one as well , managed to take it back for a refund and get the it from CPW
Martintea
20-12-2011
Originally Posted by paulyoung666:
“you did get the 70it not the 70ht didnt you ......”

Yes

Originally Posted by advb69:
“Well, assuming that it is the Archos 70IT that you have, you can just initiate a firmware update from the setting menus once you are connected to the network. It's back in the box now until Christmas day so I can't tell you the exact process.

As far as the battery life is concerned, I charged it up fully and then left it at the initial setup screen. It lasted for about 6 hours. Obviously, it wouldn't be working hard with just the setup screen displayed but it didn't go into any power save either.

I didn't try anything else - because I don't officially get it until Christmas day - so I can't comment on Youtube, Iplayer etc yet.”

Downloaded a youtube `app`which helps,video still a bit jerky as opposed to unwatchable.
Found the firmware update thanks.
advb69
21-12-2011
Originally Posted by Martintea:
“Downloaded a youtube `app`which helps,video still a bit jerky as opposed to unwatchable.”

I'm not certain but I think there may be various YouTube apps out there. If so, I suspect some will be better than others.

For example, on my netbook, iPlayer via the browser is OK but prone to freezing even at standard definition. If I use XBMC instead, HD plays perfectly.

Obviously, I know the Archos 70 is completely different but there may be some apps that get the most out of its hardware. I'm afraid I can't find anything definitive on the web. Maybe it is worth posting something on one of the Archos forums on http://forum.xda-developers.com/forumdisplay.php?f=876 or http://forum.archosfans.com/viewforum.php?f=73&start=0.
alanwarwic
21-12-2011
Originally Posted by SkipTracer:
“ and the 70 HT at £75.
.”

Does the 70HT exist?
I know the 7 HT is out there and a confusing low spec 70b.


I'm sure someone will end up doing Archos tablets in Mastermind.
advb69
09-01-2012
Just a quick update on my original post. I bought a cheap Vodafone bluetooth GPS receiver and it is working perfectly with my Archos 70 and the free Navfree GPS software.

I haven't done any long journeys yet but I think it will meet all my needs.

So far, I am fairly impressed with the Archos 70. I haven't got video to work on Skype yet (it start but closes when the person at the other end accepts the call) but everything else I have tries has worked well.
alanwarwic
09-01-2012
Well I bought what may have been the very last Odys Loox tablet on Amazon.
At £68 it seemed worth a play for its high spec SOC.

Its an amazing device, feels massive being a 4/3 screen but there is no bluetooth in the kernel!
One of the reasons I bought it was for the GPS. Maybe an old wired GPS will work?

However it does works quite brilliant, and iPlayer seems fine with a choice of both 4/3 and 16/9.
I had an old E1550 3G dongle which once I'd done a quick unlock just plugged in and worked immediately. The other strange thing is that it only connects to infrastructure via wifi, thus my quick 3G test.
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