Technofile: Archos, which makes some of the best portable media players available, has unveiled its latest offering, writes Mike Butcher
The 704-WiFi model is slightly heavier than average, but it sports a seven-inch, 800x480 pixel touch screen display, 80GB hard drive, 802.11g WiFi, support for playback of MPEG-4, AVI and WMV video files as well as MP3 and WMA audio files.
As if that weren't enough, you can also view PDFs on it, listen via stereo speakers, browse the web and even record programmes direct from the TV. Not out in the shops just yet, but certainly one to keep an eye out for.
• For some reason Nikon thinks there is a growing market for budget SLR digital cameras, so the latest follow-up to the recent D40 is the D40x. The major difference between the two is that the D40x has 10.2 megapixels, four more than the D40. One major advantage of these budget SLRs is that they are usually compatible with the high-end lenses used by the professionals, which is the case with the D40x which will take the 55-200mm VR Zoom-Nikkor telephoto from Nikon.
• The Ricoh Caplio R6 appears to be more than just a point and shoot digital camera. It'll enlarge a photo 16 times, has a decent internal 54MB memory, face-recognition and file recovery for over zealous deleters. The 7.1x zoom and an amazing 28-200mm telephoto lens should cover just about every eventuality. All for about €440.
Not to be outdone, Sony is releasing seven new Cybershot cameras. Among them, the W80 and W90 are in the budget range with 7.2 and 8.1 megapixels respectively, while the W200 packs 12.1 megapixels. All have a 3x optical zoom, HD-output and Carl Zeiss lenses.
• Is Google developing a mobile phone? That's the rumour coming out of Silicon Valley right now, and it even has the code name "Switch" allegedly. Quite why a search engine wants a phone is not clear. But the speculation is that, with Google Talk, Gmail and a plethora of other applications such as word processing and spreadsheets, taking Google with you when you go mobile may not be such a dumb idea after all.
• Mobile provider O2 will soon market the BlackBerry 8800 with GPS and Qwerty keyboard. In its latest quad-band incarnation the legendary "Crackberry" comes with a high definition screen, MicroSD slot, 64MB flash memory and a battery life of up to 22 days on standby and five hours talk time.
• Apple has updated iTunes and its Quicktime software in preparation for the launch of its Apple TV product which will stream iTunes movies, television shows, music and podcasts from your Apple computer to your TV.
ITunes 7.1 supports a new full screen Cover Flow, which allows you to browse albums visually.
