Archos 7 HT and Marketplace

[gwhamilton]

My wife got me the Archos 7 HT for Christmas. She knew I wanted a tablet but we didn't discuss it further. I have a 2 part question. 1. Can I get the Google Market on this tablet? 2. How do I prevent bricking it if I try? I have read this and other forums and can't get a clear idea the best way to proceed. I have read about backing up the device before attempting the Market hack but I haven't found clear directions for that either. Thanks in advance for the help.

 

[Big_Jim]

Which home 7?
Version 1 or version 2?

Easy way to tell is if it has Android 2.1 then its version 2.
http://www.androidtablets.net/forum...archos-7-home-tablet-version-differences.html

By default on either one you will have their special app store and not the true Android Market. You can easily change the firmware to get market access.

Forum.ArchosFans.com - View topic - Operation Unbrickable: The quest for Google Apps. This is just for version 1 I think, there is another firmware for version 2.
It is very unlikely this will brick your device but of course you use it at your own risk, and if you do you will never get support help from Archos. And keep in mind if you have Version 1 you will still be using Android 1.6 which doesnt support much for apps, so its not like you will be unlocking a whole new world. The app store is still ugly and much of what you see wont work correctly anyway. I wish there were a way to filter apps based on which OS they support, but of course if that feature ever did get implemented it would be on a later version of Android. Kinda catch 22 situation there.

Little tip: I posted about this in many other places but the resistive touch screen is so bad I recommend you ignore this device entirely. Even if you get the OS working the way you want, its such a pain to interact with you will probably get tired and stop using it.
I only paid a hundred dollars for it but I feel ripped off. Since it was a present for you I recommend offloading it on Craigslist and going with another tablet.