Archos' £275 13.3-inch FamilyPad designed to encourage family time

Three months after we spied the Archos FamilyPad on the FCC, it's finally making its debut just in time for the holiday shopping season. As its name suggests, the 13.3-inch tablet is designed for a whole family to gather around -- though we doubt it would be very comfortable if your family has more than four people. With 10x multitouch support, Archos claims families can use it to watch movies, keep organized, share pictures and play digital board games; the company even pre-installed a few of the latter to get your family started. The FamilyPad doesn't have the best of specs, with a 1,280x800 HD display, 8GB flash memory, a microSD card slot, a 1GHz ARM Cortex A8 CPU, HDMI output and a front and rear camera that are 2-megapixels each. It does run Ice Cream Sandwich and would offer "a variety of email accounts for each family member." Those in the UK can purchase it for £274.99 ($438) when it's available in December, while US residents might have to wait a little longer. Maybe you can give your kids some ChildPads to play on their own instead; they might appreciate it more than enforced togetherness.

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ARCHOS Brings Back Game Night and Puts a Digital Twist on Family Time with the Release of FamilyPad

The FamilyPad 13.3" will revolutionise game night with digital board games that the family can play together, movie and picture sharing and a special digital family organiser

London – November 20, 2012 - ARCHOS, an award-winning innovator in consumer electronics, is proud to announce a new type of tablet for the entire family called the FamilyPad. Perfectly sized for a family to use together the FamilyPad, featuring an impressive 34cm HD screen, will become the must have family companion this holiday season. Families can sit down and play digital board games, watch movies, share pictures or connect to social networks together. The FamilyPad runs smoothly and displays everything on a large sharp color 1280*800 HD display. It also features a 10x multitouch screen that allows up to four people to play a game as if it's a real game board. It can also be put on display in the kitchen, living room or family room as a family organiser. The FamilyPad will be first released in the UK for £274.99 starting in December 2012.

Play together

The FamilyPad brings a new meaning to family game night and recreates the traditional board game into a digital game that provides a complete interactive experience for the entire family. With its 10x Multitouch screen, families can play games with up to four people at time for a real game board experience. The FamilyPad features thousands of various games to choose from including a range of pre-installed games selected by ARCHOS for an instant out of the box gaming experience.

Perfect for sharing movies and pictures

Family members can load all their HD videos, pictures or movies on this tablet for a high quality 1080P HD resolution viewing experience. The FamilyPad features a special embedded animated slide show functions that make pictures come alive for an entertaining slide show on a 34cm screen.

Organise the family

Family members can use the FamilyPad as a complete family organiser by placing it on display in the kitchen, living room or common area. In addition, they can keep connected with friends and family anytime through social networking and chat applications. It also allows configuration of a variety of email accounts for each family member, access to newspapers, sport news, financial information, traffic updates, weather forecasts and more. The FamilyPad is the perfect sized display tablet that will help keep every family member informed and organisedeach day.

Technical Specs:

· Storage: 8GB flash memory and expandable via micro SDHC Slot up to 32 GB

· Operating system: ANDROID™ 4.0 "Ice Cream Sandwich"

· CPU: ARM Cortex A8 @ 1 GHz RAM: 1GB

· Display: 13.3" inch (34cm), capacitive 10 points MultiTouch Screen, 16 million colors, 1280 x 800 HD screen resolution

· Interfaces: 1x Micro USB host 2.0 for external devices, Micro SD slot, HDMI output

· Camera: Front camera 2.0 MP (1600*1200) and back camera 2.0 MP (1600*1200)