Cowon issues first firmware update for S9 PMP

Yes, already. Before the 8GB S9 has even had a chance to become available, Cowon has already issued the first firmware update for its hot little PMP. If you're one of the earliest of adopters, you may want to give this one a download / install before flinging your device upside the wall. Just to name a few, the patch fixes bugs when changing boundary settings for music playback, when viewing particular picture files, when the upper buttons are pressed simultaneously and when connecting Bluetooth Mono headsets. Hop on past the break for the full alert, and tap the read link to access the file.

Cowon S9 bug fixes:


· Maintains view mode when playing next video file even with G-Sensor locked

· Fixes bugs when changing boundary settings for music playback

· Fixes UI when viewing particular picture files

· Fixes UI when capacity is insufficient for radio recordings

· Fixes incorrect Line Display when scrolling documents by page up/down

· Fixes bugs when upper buttons are pressed simultaneously

· Fixes UI when connecting Bluetooth Mono headsets

[NinjaPants @ Dec 18th 2008 6:26PM]

Nice looin' MP3 player.

[Jason @ Dec 18th 2008 6:42PM]

Indeed, I might just take another loo.

[kL @ Dec 18th 2008 6:57PM]

Yup. I'm surprised too! A non-Apple player that seems to have a _designed_ UI.

[iEye #2 @ Dec 21st 2008 12:50PM]

The UI looks it was designed in the 'Loo'

[iEye #2 @ Dec 18th 2008 7:25PM]

The UI looks it was designed in the 'Loo'

[NinjaPants @ Dec 18th 2008 7:49PM]

Loo, I was just trying to mae a comment on how nice this MP3 player looed. You guys don't have to eep maing fun of me do you?

[Mugs @ Dec 18th 2008 6:27PM]

"When the upper buttons are pressed simultaneously"
Did they not put this product through any form of serious testing? That's one of the first things to do - push all the buttons and see what happens. For shame...

[BobFromVegas @ Dec 18th 2008 6:39PM]

So it must be an awful product, right ? Please. Atleast they are actually updating it this early. This is great and other companies should follow a similar model.

[wrabbit @ Dec 18th 2008 7:42PM]

What's with the low-rank? Mugs wasn't trashing the S9, just pointing out a glaring omission in usability testing... and it is one. Any small mobile device that spends plenty of time in pockets should be tested for random button presses.

[BobFromVegas @ Dec 18th 2008 8:41PM]

@wrabbit:

No company catches every single bug at first test. At least they fixed it now.

Really, this isn't a perfect world.

[wrabbit @ Dec 19th 2008 7:17AM]

@BobFromVegas: That's fine, but nobody was calling the product awful, now were they?

[Landon @ Dec 19th 2008 10:06AM]

I actually thought his comment was more on the jokingly side. I can just picture someone going crazy and mashing all over it trying to break it. Mmmm...mashing...like potatoes...I'm hungry.

[Chase @ Dec 18th 2008 6:32PM]

should i be excited?

[Relyt @ Dec 18th 2008 8:39PM]

I don't know, maybe if you like low (8GB, ok, so it's not THAT low, but still...) and high (32GB) capacity players, music, video, flash lite UIs and apps, AMOLED screens (same as clix2 - awesome!) with 16mil colors, touch screens, not an ipod, etc...

In other words...yes!

[TREX6662k5 @ Dec 18th 2008 9:36PM]

The list of supported files is enough for me to want one.
Not mentioning its amazing looks.

Now I don't have to transcode my oggs or flacs.

[BobFromVegas @ Dec 18th 2008 6:40PM]

This is a great looking device and I'm glad Cowon is already working to improve it.

And before you even post, it is not FUGLY fusion. It's not.

[Mindlessnerd @ Dec 18th 2008 7:14PM]

iPod Touch killer?

[iEye #2 @ Dec 18th 2008 7:13PM]

Without Wifi...

how drole...

[dale1v @ Dec 18th 2008 7:36PM]

iEye, iPhone is the best phone around! Without a decent camera. Without decent bluetooth. Without a removable battery. Without the freedom to use anything other than iTunes.
"Drole" indeed. ~_~

[dudi @ Dec 19th 2008 12:36AM]

lets not forget copy/paste... (or did they fix that ? )

[dale1v @ Dec 18th 2008 7:01PM]

Before you criticize, you Apple boys, take a look at your device. 10 updates and still no bluetooth.
*looking for big stone to defend myself with*

[dale1v @ Dec 18th 2008 7:02PM]

ahhhh boy I'm doomed...never mind.

[Kenjis9965 @ Dec 18th 2008 7:57PM]

Nah I'll defend you on this, I'm actually shocked Apple has yet to put full usable bluetooth across the ipod range....


But in the next statement say that I really don't -care- and I have yet to see a bluetooth headset that looks like its comfortable to wear and has decent audio quality as well as a good set of batteries, of course I am a bit of an audiophile, I love my Shure e2c/Shure Music Phone Adapter combination except for the excessive length of cord and my botched job of remedying it [involving wrapping the excess in electrical tape trying to make a smooth cable of the apropriate length]

[Shugg @ Dec 18th 2008 9:22PM]

dale I see u a cowon fanboi,. I'm impressed. Tell me how thAt wifi browser working out for u,.how's that 3.5 mm 80's technology doing. I wouldn't know I. Controll artists,title thru my steering wheel control while 30 pin charges iPod adapter charges iphone3g,. Thru by 7" touchscreen pioneer ,.n can play any video from iPhone on 7" screen.but u have that Bluetooth ,.I want to buy u a cowon fanvoy club t-shirt for Xmas

[dale1v @ Dec 18th 2008 8:25PM]

I know how an iPhone works, I have one.

[Shugg @ Dec 18th 2008 9:35PM]

could we have a double fanboi in the making, loves cowon mp3, but has iPhone. I want to buy u 2 shirts for Xmas now. "Gowon fanboi" for Mondays n applefanboi for when u attend engadget party, I hope u Win fuze.

[dale1v @ Dec 18th 2008 9:40PM]

Up to you, shugg.

[n_shakuras @ Dec 18th 2008 10:53PM]

i think you meant "Up yours, shugg."

[Landon @ Dec 19th 2008 10:15AM]

Shugg....you again...lol Seriously did you not ready yesterdays comments you troll? While you're busy screwing with your wires, I'm just gonna go ahead and let my player connect on it's own and start playing while you jack with that cord sticking out of your dash, and seriously, I'll use my phone for the interwebz why would I need to pull out my mp3 player for that? lol

Learn to spell too....

[Landon @ Dec 19th 2008 10:17AM]

Why would he need a Gowon fanboi shirt? I thought we were talking about Cowon.....

[Orappa @ Dec 18th 2008 7:15PM]

they allways send out alpha versions on new software hardware, but seriusly it has to stop, i dont want to buy a flwd device..

[Harley3k @ Dec 18th 2008 7:24PM]

such is the age of perpetually buggy software...

[Kenjis9965 @ Dec 18th 2008 7:58PM]

Looks like a decent phone, I like my iPhone, and I'd consider buying it except I do have an investment in the itunes music store and I like ACC

I've had 2 ipods and the iphone and I've purchased tracks from itms, I personally don't get the hatred people put towards apple...but I'm also not a rabid "apple does no wrong" person [I try to be very neutral and stick to my own experiences, but personally, my ipod mini did have a problem, I took it to the apple store and they fixed it right there on the spot with an apology in a very timely manner without me having to deal with some guy in India, All electronics will have problems and i feel its more how they handle the problem over if it does have one or not]

On the removeable battery thing, Ok, its fantastic and removeable in a lot of other phones, But most of my previous phones had no provision [Even as an accessory] to sit there and CHARGE a second battery by itself without it actually being in the phone which to me makes the entire advantage of it gone..

[Shugg @ Dec 18th 2008 8:15PM]

Nice phone,.what u talking about willis!?!?!?!?

[Relyt @ Dec 18th 2008 8:32PM]

Umm...hate to break it to you, but it's just a PMP - an MP3 player. Not a phone.

[n_shakuras @ Dec 18th 2008 10:54PM]

Why does everyone think this is a phone? For that matter, why does everything *have* to be a phone? Jesus.

[Digivate @ Dec 18th 2008 8:11PM]

Right ... that's my mind made up then. I won't be getting a S9. It's not even been available for one day and they're already issuing firmware upgrades to fix bugs.

Some people think the fact that Cowon provide constant firmware updates is a great thing ... I'd rather their products just worked properly straight out of the box. Firmware updates that add new features is one thing ... but firmware updates to fix bugs on a product that's only just hit the market is pretty poor.

[Relyt @ Dec 18th 2008 8:34PM]

Good point, but then again look at the D2 firmware. All Cowon did there was add new features...and almost never fixed the bugs the users were complaining about!!

[chodorovski @ Dec 18th 2008 9:03PM]

From my understanding, the quick firmware update very soon after release isn't all that uncommon. They probably had to stop fixing things and start producing them some time ago and any issues they found since then would have to be a firmware update. Also Cowon's firmware updates often add new functionality more than bug fixes.

[pd @ Dec 19th 2008 1:17AM]

As amazing that cowon products are, I've felt that their firmwire seemed to lack. .. . stability (I suppose that is the word I am going to use). I guess when cowon makes a firmwire update that doesn't have a lot of problems will be a good day.

That or when Rockbox is complete on the D2 : )

[Shinigami @ Dec 18th 2008 8:12PM]

Watch the contrast with Sony - they never (okay, almost never) issue new firmwares for their players. I guess they test their players before sending into retail stores, and do that better than Cowon...

[dustinlikewhat @ Dec 18th 2008 8:27PM]

something makes me believe that sony has more money to spend on paying tons of people to sit around and press buttons...

[skyblaze @ Dec 18th 2008 9:04PM]

those are some really clean fingers... (no homo.)

[psychojoe @ Dec 18th 2008 11:54PM]

I'll admit this is one nice looking player. It would be mine but it is lacking one thing: AAC playback.

Look it up and maybe you'll see that not all people want AAC because they are Apple fanboys. Most people choose AAC because it is a better sound format. Most of my music collection is in AAC because it has better sound quality. And until Cowon can get that right, I'll have to sit this one out.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Advanced_Audio_Coding

(And for all you fanboys, I own an iPhone and it BLOWS!)

[Shugg @ Dec 19th 2008 1:35AM]

So u have a phone that blows ,wonder y u didn't use your 30 day return policy. N go back 2ur raZr

[dudi @ Dec 19th 2008 12:40AM]

Maybe we can sum up what a Cowon product actually is!

Ipods/touch = Music (minus a lot of codecs) Player

Cowon = Music Experience

Happy now?

[shugg @ Dec 19th 2008 12:59AM]

can u make wifi calls on this like touch.,thru skype etc.i heard its the killer.,.,?

[pd @ Dec 19th 2008 1:20AM]

I don't get why you feel you must attack any player that isn't an ipod. Noone is forcing this product down anybodies throats with commercials or advertisements on billboards. It's not telling you to BUY THIS OR ELSE! 1 !! 1 21 ! 1 !

Why can't a company make a good music player that just plays music anymore?

[Landon @ Dec 19th 2008 10:23AM]

Don't worry pd it's just a troll

Oh and shugg, I'll make calls with my phone you know...cause that's what they're for..making...calls....

I listen to music on my mp3/pmp player cause well, that's what they're typically for....

[Shugg @ Dec 19th 2008 1:29AM]

wow,I wonder if I can trade in my 2g touch for a cowon. It says here that it's better,.,.these guys have me convinced , something about advertising. I'm a dee dee deee