http:\/\/www.archos.com\/products\/nb\/archos_9\/index.html?country=us&lang=en<\/a>) is has more of a widescreen look than an Apple iPad. It\u2019s a little heavier and it produces more heat when in use. But, it also has more buttons and features. The webcam is useful for taking pictures and using Skype. The usb port is incredibly useful \u2013 allowing connectivity to printers, flash drives, 3G cellular modems \u2013 all things USB. There is a dedicated button to turn on the onscreen keyboard. And there is a small trackpad on the right side as an alternative to using the built-in stylus or your finger to move the mouse around the screen.<\/p>\nBut, what you don\u2019t see is also important when judging the usefulness of this device. It runs Windows 7 Starter. That means that any Windows program you have can run on it, including Microsoft Office. The speed is similar to today\u2019s netbooks \u2013 running on the Intel Atom processor. So, it\u2019s no speed demon. But, it does have a 60Gb hard drive built-in. It has wifi AND bluetooth. So, I can get on the Internet and use a bluetooth wireless keyboard, mouse or printer.<\/p>\n
Windows 7 Starter is missing some of the oooh\u2019s and aaah\u2019s of Windows 7 Home or Professional. But, it has to run on 1Gb of RAM \u2013 not upgradeable. This is ok, but then I found out I\u2019m also missing the tablet extensions\u00a0 \u2013 not available in Windows 7 Starter edition. This includes screen rotation utilities, hand writing recognition and more. However, I was able to find a rotation utility free that runs on Windows 7. The screen doesn\u2019t rotate automatically when you tilt it.<\/p>\n
The Archos is a replacement for your laptop \u2013 sort of. For touch typists like me, I miss a real keyboard. I could carry around a small bluetooth wireless keyboard, but then I lose the advantages of the portability of the slate. And it\u2019s not as fast.<\/p>\n
But is it better than an iPad? Again \u2013 the answer is sort of. I find it is more useful. I have more options. I can plug in a small portable docking station that gives me a vga port to use with a projector. I can attach anything USB. I can run any Windows program that\u2019s not a memory hog. I can multitask \u2013 run more than one program at a time. I can access websites with flash content. But, the battery life is brief compared to an iPad. I can get 3-4 hours. That\u2019s less than the 10-12 hours from an iPad. And, it doesn\u2019t have the instant-on ability that gives a slate it\u2019s own true category.<\/p>\n
I\u2019ll keep using the Archos until something better comes out. It was only $549. That makes it a real value compared to a laptop or an Apple iPad. And something better is coming out \u2013 the HP Slate. But, there\u2019s no ETA yet.<\/p>\n
If you have questions about the Archos 9 Internet Tablet \u2013 feel free to leave a comment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Well, I finally have it. In fact, it arrived last week. I wanted to try it out before giving my opinion on it. It\u2019s not an Apple iPad, but it\u2019s more than that too. I suppose one way to value a new gadget in your life is to use it …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[7,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-73","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-business","category-slates-for-work"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2gH3K-1b","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=73"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":75,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/73\/revisions\/75"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=73"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=73"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ericstechblog.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=73"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}