Just google "complaints about archos" and you'll see a plethora of comments that trash Achos products of any sort. This looks like a big loser.

editorkid wrote:Google Maps already lets you do this, although the interface is awkward and the feature as it's implemented is considered beta. You long-press on the part of the map that's displayed and the bubble that pops up lets you cache the map, to a certain extent. But I've done it and it works.

Does this model acquire GPS satellites' signals? Or does it triangulate via wifi signals and cell towers?

yes it has actual gps radio, according to specs. so not just triangulocation. (edit due to weird woot language filter replace?!)

I had not heard about google maps will soon allow to dl/cache content as someone mentioned earlier, or that is now even currently beta available as you said - that is pretty cool. thanks!

on my android phone I use 'igo my way', generally updating with latest navteq maps/poi/etc. (several gigs of files) which works pretty well when you are without wifi or data signal. but if google is finally providing same service out-of-band, that's great news. (and free!)

I do agree though that google maps is clunky and annoying, and it always seems to end up running + taking up memory/cpu even when there is no conceivable reason for it to have started lol.

fxfuji wrote:Thought very hard about this one... in the end, it came down to the amount of RAM. I'd like to try other ('bigger') operating systems (e.g. Debian) on it and was concerned that 512 MB would be too limiting. And there have been too many complaints about multiple versions of ICS 4.0.6 out in the field for me to be entirely comfortable that upgrading would go smoothly.

That said, should Woot offer a similar deal in the future with a 1 GB RAM version and/or a lower price, I might reconsider, especially if Archos gets its version act together.

Yeah, I've been thinking about this since last night--I'm going to side with caution and you though. 512 MB just doesn't seem to be enough RAM to operate comfortably, despite the assurances I could close recent apps. Maybe I wouldn't want "the option of killing tasks using the recent apps button."

Thanks to everybody who shared, including the company guys--this is a tough crowd sometimes

therealjrn wrote:Thanks to everybody who shared, including the company guys--this is a tough crowd sometimes

Oh yeah agreed it can't be fun being them right now, they're rollin with the punches like champs. If it wasn't for the multiple reports of outstanding RMAs I'd almost want to buy just to reward them for being good sports

Received this tablet today and VERY SATISFIED thus far. Comparing this to my wife's Motorola Xoom this is one GREAT TABLET. there WAS a slight screen calibration issue upon initializing the device, however after upgrading to the ICS 4.03 works fine now. I actually like this tablet better than the Xoom which is heavier. This thing fits nice in one hand, fast, accurate touchscreen, movies run great, no lag, cant even see screen bleed some mentioned ?? Can't comment about Customer Service as yet...nothing to complain about...Great Job WOOT !! ordered on Sat, received on Monday. Also for those concerned about the 512mb ram..there are settings that can limit the number of open apps, hasn't been a problem so far. I will admit I was GREATLY CONCERNED and almost cancelled the order to get the 1 gb ram model but this thing runs great as is. I did put my 32 gb card sd card in and it DOES stick out just a bit. enough to be annoying but no deal breaker. So far so good. SATISFIED ARCHOS CUSTOMER thus far. very impressed with quality build & performance.

Got the tablet, shipped quickly from Indianapolis and the packing slip looked strangely like an Amazon slip. immediately downloaded the firmware file then executed it from the table once it was downloaded. upgraded great, no prob. Tablet runs good and the 512meg ram is managed by the tablet automatically terminating programs running in the background :-) if not for this, 512 meg NOT ENOUGH .. Worse thing, tablet freezes and reboots about every hour. I am very bummed. Mr. Archos representative, are you still out there??? Any suggestions??

ALSO does not run SKYPE, no audio on receive. this was to be my main application.

ccat284 wrote:...immediately downloaded the firmware file then executed it from the table once it was downloaded. upgraded great, no prob. Tablet runs good and the 512meg ram is managed by the tablet automatically terminating programs running in the background :-) if not for this, 512 meg NOT ENOUGH .. Worse thing, tablet freezes and reboots about every hour. I am very bummed. Mr. Archos representative, are you still out there??? Any suggestions??

I updated to 4.0 also. And have been getting random crashes. I googled around, and many people say reverting to 3.2 (Honeycomb) fixes the issue.

Who do I talk to about exchange? I have had mine for just 2 days and noticed the USB micro no longer charges or even gets recognized by the computer, I have to jiggle it and notice the computer make the USB sound but nothing pops up afterwards. I'm not sure if i screwed up something by accident or what. Also, when I plug in headphones I have to pull it out slightly out to get full audio. Is it supposed to be like that? I tried different headphones but they all act the same. I really love this thing, videos play awesome and get converted nicely, but now that it's running out of power I have no way to charge it... I have it at like 50% and nothing seems to charge it! Guess I have to finally deal with Archos tech support? I really liked this tablet too.

EDIT - Went to Archos tech support, now just waiting for a reply. I'll let everyone know how that turns out. First time dealing with them.

Just noticed the Micro USB port is sunk into to the unit, this is truly disappointing.

DennisWKam wrote:Sorry your tablet isn't working. Please email us at service@woot.com if you have any issues speaking with Archos support. They should be able to help, but let us know.

Thanks Dennis, just sent an e-mail to Woot. But, also got a automated response from ARCHOS this morning saying my question was just submitted, and I should get a response in 2 days... Not that i'm impatient or anything. Just sorta nerve wracking waiting for a response.

hurt wrote:Thanks Dennis, just sent an e-mail to Woot. But, also got a automated response from ARCHOS this morning saying my question was just submitted, and I should get a response in 2 days... Not that i'm impatient or anything. Just sorta nerve wracking waiting for a response.

Think of that as a worst case scenario, our super CS crew is working as fast as they can to get to everyone!

I think it's great the Woot staff is so responsive to the issues here. It makes me REALLY glad I didn't pull the trigger, because I almost did. I ended up getting an Acer Iconia a500 from Secondipity for $229 (16gb, 1gb ram) refurbed and am super happy with it. Came as brand new.

I was literally a couple clicks from getting the Archos and am glad I didn't.

It's also interesting how the Archos crew was all over the comments here during the sale, trying to pump up sales volume with (now seemingly false) assurances, yet they're nowhere to be found when people have problems. That's very telling of a company's motives.

Just adding my $0.02:
Received mine on Tuesday, and my first impression wasn't good -- I unboxed & turned it on in the car, and possibly as a result the calibration & gyro sensors were all messed up resulting in lots of trouble with basic input. Exploring later on with it charged up, it crashed several times in the web browser and was very hard to navigate. The on-screen keyboard was badly inaccurate and almost unusable. To make matters worse, voice input was on by default and later when I was trying to configure it in a noisy coffeeshop, there was all kinds of wild mis-input until I could figure out how to disable that $#!@% feature.

I decided to start over on Thu: fully charged, completely wiped, upgraded to ICS, and carefully recalibrated.

The experience is night and day. The screen is bright and touch response is sharp, apps are quick and I haven't had any noticeable problem with low memory. I set up my google creds and then spent some time turning off all the silly social-tween-g+sync-features (email and calendar will do, thankyewverymuch). Suddenly it's a really stable and pleasant user experience. Darn near businesslike.

Just a few issues:
- Charging -- It gave me a bit of a scare yesterday when I thought it wasn't charging (power icon showed charging, but % didn't change over many hours). However that appears* to be an ICS software issue, as the indicator jumped to 100% on reboot then behaved normally. Apparently the ICS taskbar widget has a problem, or a problem with the A101. *If this pops up again I may have to have a chat with cust svc.
- MicroSD card protrudes 1mm -- Yeah, I saw that in reviews. It really does, and it's really annoying (not safe to leave a card in there perpetually); but I knew about it when I clicked BUY.
- Wifi reception -- not great. Not as bad as the Archos 28, but not much better than the 43. Good enough for gummint work.
- USB port -- I knew there were no promises re alternate use, but I was a little disappointed to find the full size USB port does not recognize a number of usually-driverless items (keyboards, mice, etc). Sticking to Bluetooth, I guess.

Overall I'm pretty happy with the purchase. The kids are jealous; wish I'd picked up 2.

Received defective piece. The screen is totally washed out (no blues) and it is flicking.

I am not happy with with Archos support, they are not willing to replace the item (they will do only repair)

smandava wrote:Received defective piece. The screen is totally washed out (no blues) and it is flicking.

I am not happy with with Archos support, they are not willing to replace the item (they will do only repair)

CraigArchos and StevenArchos are missing in action. Again..so glad I didn't buy. But really sorry for people who did and have to deal with this headache.

As cool as Woot can be, I think it reflects poorly on them for allowing company representatives to post all through the night answering questions for people before they buy, but then don't require the same company reps to come back and take care of the people who bought and received something virtually unusable.

I am a 42 year old man and I don't ever recall complaining online about anything EVER. I am sorry to say that this will be my first time. I am extremely disappointed with this device. I didn't expect it to be a rocket ship when I got it, but man I've been trying everything from factory reset to latest upgrade that was pushed last night.
The device is very sluggish and freezes on many instances. Screen is non responsive most of the time and I am an IT guy so I have an idea what I'm doing. I think if I was an angry bird, this device would be totally the pig..
Sorry about the rant.
Ahmed

Archos 101 is my first Android tablet, very excited I opened up the box received almost 10 days back. Since then been using it not too many issues to report other than frequent hangs, tablet freeze - could be due to diff apps I keep trying from "play" - some of them are not meant for tablet but I still try them. Speed is good, size and weight is comfcortable. Having Android phone for over 2 yrs, using tablet was not a problem. Actually, seeing android become boring now. All device have same (I am a non-apple person). However, I have only one complaint with Archos 101, the screen display sucks big time, the high resolution images appear as if am watching them in VGA mode. You tube video play as if they have no colors, the screen too bright with no contrast even when I set the brightness to minimum in settings. Watching movies, videos, photo wallpapers, using tablet as a digital photo frame is out of question. The screen color looks faded as if someone just bleached and colors wooop gone!. all I want to know is it just me or should I just be happy to get VGA mood display n colors in wat under $200. I checked youtube videos on PC for archos 101 they look crisp, so why not my real tablet?

Yikes. My condolences to those with the faulty units - but I'm extremely pleased that I didn't purchase one now. The missing reps is hilarious.

I'll be more curious if woot keeps panhandling Archos if this continues.

Since people are using the lack of public complaints about this tablet to justify buying the G8 on sellout.woot today, I wanted to add another note to the conversation: My mom bought this for my dad for Father's Day, but the touchscreen is almost never actually responsive. Recalibrating the touchscreen in the recovery menu only fixes it sometimes and only briefly.

On top of that, Archos wants her to front the shipping costs to RMA the defective-on-arrival device.

pawansachdeva wrote:Archos 101 is my first Android tablet, very excited I opened up the box received almost 10 days back. Since then been using it not too many issues to report other than frequent hangs, tablet freeze - could be due to diff apps I keep trying from "play" - some of them are not meant for tablet but I still try them. Speed is good, size and weight is comfcortable. Having Android phone for over 2 yrs, using tablet was not a problem. Actually, seeing android become boring now. All device have same (I am a non-apple person). However, I have only one complaint with Archos 101, the screen display sucks big time, the high resolution images appear as if am watching them in VGA mode. You tube video play as if they have no colors, the screen too bright with no contrast even when I set the brightness to minimum in settings. Watching movies, videos, photo wallpapers, using tablet as a digital photo frame is out of question. The screen color looks faded as if someone just bleached and colors wooop gone!. all I want to know is it just me or should I just be happy to get VGA mood display n colors in wat under $200. I checked youtube videos on PC for archos 101 they look crisp, so why not my real tablet?

No reply from Archos, when I wrote to them. No reply from Woot. I am looking for help here. The tablet has developed a snag now, the screen has gone bad just lying at my desk. Raised a RMA as well, no response from Archos customer support. Woot- anyone listening.

pawansachdeva wrote:No reply from Archos, when I wrote to them. No reply from Woot. I am looking for help here. The tablet has developed a snag now, the screen has gone bad just lying at my desk. Raised a RMA as well, no response from Archos customer support. Woot- anyone listening.

Sorry for the issues with the item. We've got your email and the issue will be resolved shortly.