We noticed a few problems with the firmware on the Archos 5 we got our hands on last month, and it now looks like the company is going some way towards addresses a few of those complaints with its latest update, and it's thrown in a few goodies for good measure. The biggest of those is added support for OGG and FLAC formats, though the promised increase in battery life and boost in USB transfer speed will also no doubt be especially welcome to anyone that's already taken the plunge on one of the players as well. The list of bug fixes is even longer, and includes promised remedies for all sorts of system hangs and crashes, plus some fixes for a number of video playback and recording problems. Hit up the link below to grab a copy.

[Via ArchosLounge, thanks Billy]

You read that right -- the Engadget Podcast is back... with a vengeance. Recently we've been getting a ton of emails and comments suggesting we bring back the show, and since we're all as much a fan of it as you are, that's just what we did. We've been dying to get the podcast back in action -- especially with the holidays, CES, and Macworld on the very near horizon -- so now seemed like the ideal time. We've just wrapped the official reintroduction, and you can listen in via the links below. This week we cover quite a few exciting developments in the world of gadgetry, including (but certainly not limited to) RIM's new Storm, the upcoming Apple laptop event, and Nintendo's unveiling of the DSi. We hope you enjoy, and stay tuned for more!

Hosts: Joshua Topolsky, Paul Miller, and Nilay Patel
Guest: Ryan Block (gdgt)
Producer: Trent Wolbe
Music: Professor Murder -- Dutch Hex (Brothers)

01:02 - BlackBerry Storm 9500 hands-on
14:06 - T-Mobile G1 launch day roundup
20:10 - Nokia 5800 XpressMusic hands-on
26:58 - Apple "notebook" event is on, October 14th!
48:21 - Nintendo announces DSi with dual cameras, "DSi Shop" content store (updated)

LISTEN (MP3)
LISTEN (AAC)

We're working on getting the proper iTunes / Zune / AAC / OGG feeds up and running -- hopefully they'll be ready for next week's show!

[RSS MP3] Add the Engadget Podcast feed (in MP3) to your RSS aggregator and have the show delivered automatically.

Contact the podcast: 1-888-ENGADGET or podcast (at) engadget (dot) com

Well, it looks like Averatec is now fully on board the Atom bandwagon, with it now pushing its Buddy netbook out the door, and also getting official about the US launch for its Atom-based, 18.4-inch All-in-One desktop PC, which was first announced in Europe last month. This one's apparently intended to complement the company's larger, equally unimaginatively-named 22-inch All-in-One PC, and comes loaded with some expectedly more netbook-like specs, including 1GB of RAM, a 160GB hard drive, Windows XP and, of course, that ever-present 1.6GHz N270 Atom processor. You won't find anything like the 1680 x 945, 18.4-inch display on a netbook, however, or on many other desktop PCs with a $550 price tag, for that matter.

[Image courtesy of Laptop]

Though there are few things as potentially cringe-worthy as a Battlestar Galactica-themed case mod (or toaster, or pumpkin), we must admit that this project is pretty impressive. Going beyond the realm of the expected (landing bay, running lights, engine pods and a suitable sci-fi paint job), this custom build rocks an array of ambitious features, including three 2.5-inch LCD screens, a 10-inch LCD on the left side panel and an automatic right side panel door (aka: "airlock"). The front of the case sports a laser-cut acrylic Battlestar Galactica logo that has been mounted to a slot-loading DVD drive (the disc appears to spin inside the logo) and the whole case is complimented by a suitably modified keyboard and monitor. If your curiosity has been whetted, hit the read link for a ton of images and blow-by-blow description of the build process ... and be sure to check out the videos after the break.

While some folks are considering taking the Turing test one step further and applying it to military robots, a group of researchers in the UK led by none other than would-be cyborg Kevin Warwick are doing their best to keep things as Turing intended and simply trying to fool some humans into thinking that the robot they're taking to is actually a person. Fortunately for us on the human side of the equation, they weren't quite successful, though one "robot" known as Elbot did get relatively close to the goal, fooling 25% of its human interrogators, which is just 5% off the mark set by Alan Turing. Each of the four other "artificial conversational entities" also managed to fool at least one of their questioners, though they eventually showed their true colors with random answers like "soup" when pressed as to what their job was.

Yoggie's mini "security computers" have been at the disposal of PC users for some time now, and it looks like the company has now finally decided to give Mac users a taste of the completely hardware-based security solution. That comes in the form of both Mac-friendly versions of Yoggie's Gatekeeper ExpressCard and its Gatekeeper Pico USB stick, each of which are "full-blown" Linux-based computers in the own right, and include a slew of applications that promise to both increase security and take some of the load off of your laptop or desktop. What's more, it looks like Yoggie is also giving Mac users a slight discount for their patience, as the Gatekeeper ExpressCard and Gatekeeper Pico are now available to pre-order fro $150 and $119, respectively, a 20% discount compared to their usual price, and their PC counterparts.