Well, he’s at it again.  Dom has released his newest Archos 7 Firmware version over at the ArchosFans forums.  This time he’s managed to pull off root access on the device and give us extra storage space for applications.  I’ve hit the application storage space limit multiple times while using the tablet, so this is a very welcome update for me.  I plan on starting fresh and testing all new applications after this update and the extra storage space will help.  Be sure to post in the thread to let Dom know you appreciate his work and if possible donate a few bucks to the man.  He deserves it.

Following the typical process I copied the update.apk to my Archos then disconnected the USB and started the update.  The update went as expected and after another boot sequence I was presented with the new custom startup screen and I must say I like it a lot better than the stock image.  I went through the startup screens then reconnected the tablet and was asked to format the drive as expected.  The instructions tell you to wait 45 minutes or more after formatting so you don’t stress the ROM, but I couldn’t wait and flashed right after it was done.  After the final boot sequence was completed I went and checked the free space on the device which is showing 290MB of application space.  That’s over 5x more than the stock firmware and should be plenty of space for now.

One word of caution if you plan on installing this firmware.  Since this will root the device you can give applications total control over the filesystem, so be aware when installing applications.  Only install applications from trusted sources and pay attention to the security dialog that pops up.  Dom was kind enough to include the Superuser Permissions application so you receive an additional prompt so make sure you know what you’re doing if you grant those permissions.