Cowon S9 firmware update adds Bluetooth speaker support

For early adopters who have already taken delivery of their shiny new Cowon S9, they've already sucked down one firmware update to fix some of the more obvious issues. Now, there's round number two (v2.06) to endure. The company has loosed the second firmware update for its just birthed PMP, with this one adding JPG album art support (for files with the .jpg extension) and fixing a bug that occasionally caused a system reboot after the "remove hardware from PC" message appeared. Most notable, however, is the new inclusion of Bluetooth speaker support, meaning that this device can now stream tunes to BT-enabled sound systems sans cabling or any other black magic. Tap the read link to get your download a-goin'.

[hahs @ Dec 26th 2008 12:21AM]

how much is a phone like this i like it im looking for something like this

Cheap PDA

[bolezhinkov @ Dec 26th 2008 1:52AM]

yeah this is what you need, for sure. I think its $40 a month from any company anywhere in the world.

[theasfdman @ Dec 26th 2008 12:24AM]

I actually got my player yesterday and immediately went to 2.06

Pretty happy with it, what I am NOT happy about is my tags being all messed up! I ended up re-ripping some of my music because I just couldn't get the IDv3 tags to be all 100% nice and neat.

Not intuitive at first since some functions are not usable even when displayed but I got the hang of it quickly.

Nothing against the iPod touch, this happened to meet my mp3 player needs better.

[XIYL @ Dec 26th 2008 2:19AM]

I don't see why you need to apologize to the iTouch, its not the standard by which all pmp's are measured and if it were all pmp's would be missing quite a few features.

[pd @ Dec 26th 2008 10:41AM]

http://www.mp3tag.de/en/

This is a great program to retag your mp3 files.

Had a problem with my D2 (think it wouldn't know what to do if the track number was a fraction like 1/13 and mess the order up), but this cleared the problems nicely and quickly.

[Malikye @ Dec 26th 2008 12:26AM]

how can just a media player get a firmware update that will make it into a phone? Cowon must have some great programmers!

[bolezhinkov @ Dec 26th 2008 1:54AM]

yeah its crazy. I hear they can make tin cans, earbuds and pmps into phones now just with a software update. CRAZY HUH!!

[Waveblade @ Dec 26th 2008 12:27AM]

I got it and went to 2.06, so far so good, not as intuitive as I'd hoped but I got the hang of quickly.

I'm happy with my purchase over an iPod touch, nothing personal.

Though fixing my ID3 tags was another issue

[Metkis @ Dec 26th 2008 12:30AM]

Stealin' my thunder Malikye? Why I 'outta...!

[KRIS_C_123 @ Dec 26th 2008 12:41AM]

do they sell these in europe?? or will they work over in europe?? as my P2 isnt working well (even though i did just recently get it back from being fixed) and i really want another touch screen media player with bluetooth. as bluetooth is the best and should be put into everything.

[Brian @ Dec 26th 2008 12:48AM]

yes, it's available in (I believe) the UK and germany. Just google it and go to sales.

[KRIS_C_123 @ Dec 26th 2008 12:51AM]

thank you for that Brian, very helpful indeed.


im marking you up for the speedy reply

[fairlight @ Dec 26th 2008 6:26AM]

why on earth wouldn't it work in Europe?!?

[Malikye @ Dec 26th 2008 12:59AM]

@ Metkis,

sorry, i didn't catch your comment. "great minds..."

[SummerBoy @ Dec 26th 2008 1:20AM]

Love my iphone 3g ..

[Waveblade @ Dec 26th 2008 1:21AM]

The iPhone firmware updates are that way ==>

[bolezhinkov @ Dec 26th 2008 1:55AM]

yeah thats awesome you like that so much because this is a PHONE that is to be compared to any apple phone, for sure.

[Shea @ Dec 26th 2008 5:00AM]

ah crap.
its another one of THOSE in here.
gtfo. now.

[eggothewaffle @ Dec 26th 2008 1:26AM]

Sigh...And one more thing my iPod Touch can't do.

I would get this in a heartbeat and leave my iPod Touch at home as a dev testbed if it was on Android.

[John @ Dec 26th 2008 2:42AM]

this has no wifi though... I don't have an iPod touch, but it's all that's stopping me from getting one of these.

[eggothewaffle @ Dec 26th 2008 2:44AM]

Really? Damn.

All they need to throw in is Android, WiFi, and a MicroSD slot (and a removable battery if it doesn't already).

And while I'm at it, make it $5 and make beautiful girls kiss me on the lips everywhere I go.

[xValentine @ Dec 26th 2008 5:32AM]

If you really want that, then buy both,

[Alex @ Dec 26th 2008 3:21AM]

Great feature, anyone know if anyone makes some excellent quality bluetooth earbuds like Ultimate Ears or Shure?

Can't wait till the 32GB version of this comes out.

[telepheedian @ Dec 26th 2008 7:58AM]

I wouldn't count on looking at hi-fi over bluetooth, AFAIK, it compresses the sound stream to fit bluetooth's bandwidth limitations.

[tomaskn @ Dec 26th 2008 8:14AM]

sleek audio SA6 (the wireless bundle)

[Eric @ Dec 26th 2008 8:50AM]

@tele

A2DP sounds as good as wired headphones to my ears, although it tends to suck up all the available BT bandwidth (no using bluetooth GPS and headphones at the same time). I use the Sony DR-BT22's, an Anycom BT to iPod doc adapter and a Blue Ant stereo speaker. Note that I'm not saying the stuff is audiophile quality, just that BT effectively cuts the cord for me.

Now, there is compression on the BT stream, but it is much less than most MP3s. As for "audiophile quality" earbuds, keep dreaming. The diaphragm on earbuds is just too small, the amount of air they can move is just too little. For critical listening, I have a set of AKGs, or better yet, listen on the full stereo. BT is mostly for outdoor activity and work, where sound quality isn't the highest priority

[Alex @ Dec 26th 2008 3:23AM]

Curious to know what you think of the sound quality of it and what ear buds you use?

[JakeInDC @ Dec 26th 2008 4:31AM]

I think I'll get one of these beauties once they add a phone feature to them.

[tekdroid @ Dec 26th 2008 5:10AM]

http://www.cowonamerica.com/products/cowon/s9/
headphone output power: Stereo, Left 29mW + Right 29mW (16 Ohm earphones): GREAT
codec support: FLAC, OGG, APE plus all the usual suspects: GREAT
screen: apparently great AMOLED, if hype is anything to go by
sound: who knows?
no removable battery: not so great
no removable storage: not so great

replacement battery surgery cost after 300-500 charge cycles of battery: $??
inconvenience of not being able to swap fresh battery 'cause of embedded batt: $?
cost if/ when embedded, non-removable flash storage fails: $?

[telepheedian @ Dec 26th 2008 8:05AM]

Removable storage: when's the last time you've had a flash drive go bad on you? Also, warranties exist, if the storage is bad, there's about a 90% chance its just defective.

Removable battery: (sigh) This is becoming more and more common, it's the look that sells. I don't like it either.

Sound: I wouldn't worry too much, Cowon makes some of the best players out there.

(And yes, I do know that flash has a limited amount of writes/reads, but you will never hit that on a PMP, and if/when you do, it's probably time for an upgrade anyway)

[tekdroid @ Dec 26th 2008 8:50AM]

Seen flash go bad so I disagree with that writes never being reached, and really disagree with the whole upgrade treadmill forced on Joe User when a little care in manufacturing and design can prevent many forced upgrade issues. They like to say the market is tough but it seems to me very few are trying hard enough to make their products desirable (at least to me).

But more than reliability / longevity concerns, it's the fact that flash is going down in price rapidly and most of these manufacturers continue offering fixed-storage models. Flintstones-era primitivity comes to mind.

Especially in a device like this, which is arguably upper mid-range. It's severely short-term thinking and inflexible on so many levels. Most phones these days beyond USD$120ish come with removable storage and batts. It's ridiculous that devices that are generally more batt-hungry and storage-hungry are all embedded.

Just found out it doesn't do H.264 either. Odd omission (and quite likely MP4 royalty cost-related).

[Jeebus @ Dec 29th 2008 1:19PM]

"headphone output power: Stereo, Left 29mW + Right 29mW (16 Ohm earphones): GREAT"

No, not great. My D2 has 37mW output and it's not loud enough on normalized tracks with my Bose Triport In-ear buds. I can't imagine 29mW being adequate.

[tekdroid @ Jan 1st 2009 8:50AM]

Jeebus,
To be fair those Triports have low sensitivity and high impedance, so they are far more difficult to get decent volumes out of than the average earbud. I don't doubt you would be desiring a bit more oomph. Cheers.

[ZIG @ Dec 26th 2008 6:00AM]

Pay attention Apple!

[Félix @ Dec 26th 2008 6:48AM]

Nobody cares !
We're all waiting for the HARDware upgrade to support 32 Gb flash drive dude...

[ilh @ Dec 26th 2008 7:04AM]

Might want to reread the changelog. The bug that was fixed wasn't a system reboot after you remove it from the PC, it was the Invalid resource message that showed sometimes after you reboot.

[Dusty @ Dec 26th 2008 11:26AM]

Does this mean they added A2DP stereo support BT? Or was that already included...
Im just curious because I wonder if Apple could ever make a FW update to the iPhone to add A2DP stereo support...? I dont expect this feature to ever come for the iPhone, its Apple! lol

Thanks

[Hello Jedunnigan @ Dec 26th 2008 2:59PM]

These look enticing; I might just get one. Let's see where Cowon takes them.

[Wolfticket @ Dec 26th 2008 8:03PM]

Maybe a firmware update that will display "THIS IS NOT A PHONE" on every single screen is in order, judging by some of the comments.

[shugg @ Dec 26th 2008 9:48PM]

wow ,so bluetooth ,is anyonne calling this the "touch-killer",doesnt have wifi browser yet.have felling it will tank here in the states,with the exception of a few cowon fanboys,

[J.J.Joel @ Dec 27th 2008 10:20AM]

Why is everyone so concerned that it doesn't have wifi? Have you ever tried surfing the internet with an ipod touch? I have it sucks.
If you want a small portable device for checking your twitters then get a net book. People seem to think that having a pmp with wifi makes it the ultimate device. Just look at all of the archos players and how they suck. Or even Cowon's own Q5. what a disgusting piece of "sticking your finger to the wind " and seeing what people say they want. I guarantee that most people with ipod touches use the thing for playing music first, apps second and if they have too much free time on their hands or too much money in their wallet they convert a video or buy one from itunes. If you like good sounding music that doesn't need to be compressed through a tin can first then buy the cowon S9. It is first and foremost an mp3 player. Secondly if you have some divx or xvid files lying around on your computer you can use it as a video player. It's not perfect but there is unfortunately no perfect solution on the market right now. My only hope is that the iphone will make love to the Cowon S9 and create a baby that will do everything for everyone. until that happens you have a choice. Buy an itouch if you like the gimmick of being able to surf the internet on a 3 inch screen with all the disadvantages that comes with that. If you like to read the bible on your itouch or want to play crappy flash games. (The cowon S9 has those too) You are a fan boy of apple or you like the wonderful apps that they produce for their device. You don't mind spending 99 cents to 2 bucks on a tv show that you can get for free.

Buy a cowon S9 if you want to listen to music quickly and effortlessly. Buy a cowon S9 if you want to watch tv shows that float about on the magical torrent network.

Everyone come out of the closet already. If you buy a cowon S9 you are a pirate. God love ya.

If you buy an ipod touch you are a scared robot afraid of big corporations calling the police to break down the door and arrest you for stealing things that you can get for free anyway. Besides now if they catch you all they can do is take away your freedom to surf the internet.

PS. I love internet posts that segue into conspiracy theory type banter.

Ready for all the negative responses.
It's just your guilt talking.
You lovable pirates you.

Please create a software that destroys the ability to create rants like this one.