ARCHOS Selects AJAX-Enabled Opera Browser for New Portable Media Player

September 8, 2006; 04:35 AM

Opera Software announced its second browser deployment with ARCHOS, a consumer electronics manufacturer and leader in portable digital entertainment solutions. The new ARCHOS Portable Media Player with WiFi, called ARCHOS 604 WiFi, will use Opera 8.5 for full Internet browsing on the device. Opera and ARCHOS first teamed up to deliver the Opera browser to the successful ARCHOS Pocket Media Assistant PMA400 in 2005.

With Opera, the new ARCHOS 604 WiFi will further enhance the surfing experience by loading pages quickly and using Opera's Medium Screen Rendering (MSR) technology to intuitively render the page to suit the device's four inch screen. ARCHOS will also create dynamic user interface elements with Web technology, a popular use of the Opera browser on consumer electronic devices that can also extend to the creation of Web applications.

"Opera is a very valuable partner for us and its browser is an asset to our product," says Henri Crohas, ARCHOS founder and chief executive officer. "With Opera, we broke some barriers in the pocket media assistant realm in 2005 by making an advanced device that not only boasted 30 GB of storage and could record TV programs, but also provided full Internet access. This time around we have selected Opera once again to deliver a superior Internet experience to this new generation ARCHOS device, ensuring our customers a fast and reliable surfing experience."

"We are excited to be working with ARCHOS once again and are fans of the company's innovative products," says Scott Hedrick, Executive Vice President, Opera Software. "Opera complements their new device by adding versatility — which results in more user options. It was important to ARCHOS to deliver the highest quality Internet experience and for users to not feel hindered in accessing their favorite sites from this device. Opera achieves this by bringing the full, unabridged Internet to the ARCHOS 604 WiFi in a surprisingly PC-like manner — an experience that is unmatched on a small device."

About ARCHOS

Founded in 1988, ARCHOS is a global consumer electronics manufacturer and leader in portable digital entertainment solutions. Committed to the most innovative technology, ARCHOS offers award-winning digital pocket-sized products that feature audio and video recording, photo viewing, gaming, as well as other multimedia and productivity applications, for the enjoyment of the most exciting entertainment anywhere, anytime. The company has offices in the United States, Europe and Asia.

About Opera for Devices

Opera provides an optimized implementation of Internet technologies for handheld devices, digital TV and other devices, with innovative and powerful features that seamlessly adapt the Internet experience to suit varying screen sizes and input devices. In addition to being a full Internet browser, Opera is a high performance execution environment for Web applications and dynamic user interfaces based on interoperable open Web technologies such as Asynchronous JavaScript and XML (AJAX).