Cowon's
S9 portable media player had a lot of folks excited -- and understandably so. A bright, expansive AMOLED display. A sleek, curvaceous design. And a codec support list worth drooling over. During
our time with the unit, we found the user interface to still be lacking in a few critical departments, though we certainly found a long list of reasons to love it, too. Now that it's been
floating around on US soil for a hot minute, we're asking you how you'd tweak it. Are you completely satisfied with the UI? Are there any video formats that have inexplicably refused to play? Is the build quality up to your lofty standards? Let it rip below!
32Gb and SDHC slot.
yeah, SDHC slot...
totally agree, SDHC slot would be great...
but phone functionality wouldn't be! I like being able to listen to my music and ignore my phone completely...
Make it an iPhone.
100% Needs to be expandable. Who builds a flash player that isn't expandable? SDHC at least.
Just give us this f**ck**g 32 Gb all ready !
...
Please ?
@Flash
I only read this article to see how long it would take for someone to say that.
You, Sir, are a winner!
//sarcasm
That would be nice, but won't happen. This is what I would like to see, which would only require firmware upgrades:
* Support for LYRICS tag in FLAC files, including LRC format
* Support for video with higher resolution than the screen size
* Support for replay-gain in FLAC
Do that, and I will upgrade my D2.
Wi-Fi!!!!
AGREED!!!
About the adding wifi, not this stupid spamer.
second what Derek said, and I'd tack on some wi-fi
What is the point of Wifi on a Mp3 player? Go get a cellphone with 3G. I don't even think the games are necessary, although I am looking forward to trying them anyways. Flash support rocks! Free games, eat it Apple!
Sony and Sandisk are making 2TB memory cards, if it can be that small, a 2TB version please.
no they're not. the new spec allows for 2GB SD cards, but they're still a long way away. the largest SD card that sandisk has announced is 64GB.
"no they're not. the new spec allows for *2TB SD cards, but they're still a long way away. the largest SD card that sandisk has announced is 64GB."
was that what notatoad was trying to say?
that's simply a ridiculous request.
Make it a phone.
I totally agree.
AT LEAST a phone. Possibly also a GPS a good point and shoot camera, calendar wi-fi and browser.
I pretend that the ting I carry in my pocket does all I need and does it well (enough). Specially since like many others, I'm already forced to carry two telephones at all times (one for work and one for personal use) I really can't be bothered to fill all my pockets with different gadgets.
Luckily, my HTC touch HD and my Samsung Omnia pretty much satisfy my needs, at least until it will be possible to buy a smartphone as good as one of those two that can also connect simoultaneously on two cell lines with two different numbers, so that I would be able to carry just one gadget.
Why nobody has ever thought of producing something like this?
kilgore love the name.
@kilgoretrout - they have.. it's just only on those piece of crap, chinese, copy-any-well-known-phone phones. lol.
It needs a quicklist-like functionality. Example use case:
I'm listening to a song, which reminds me of another song I haven't heard in awhile. I want to listen to that song after the current song finishes.
So far I haven't found a player that beats my Rio Carbon from 2004. Seriously, look at the prices for it on Amazon.
But I do like the sound quality of the S9
Every Archos player I've ever owned has had that type of functionality. They call it queue mode. While shuffling through all you music, you can queue up another song which will play next, then continue shuffling. The Archos 5 may be a good option for you.
The Zune does this.
I usually listen to my Zune on shuffle, but if an artist comes up and I want to listen to another song by them next I simply "go to artist" -> find song -> "add to now playing". After the next song in the queue plays, it returns to shuffling.
It's unfortunate that Cowon doesn't offer similar functionality, I used to have an X5L and it was a great player otherwise. I ended up running rockbox on it.
Lower price
OR
Better build quality
Have you used it yourself? It's lightweight but does not feel flimsy. Actually could be used while jogging :)
32GB, WiFi, SDHC
I would add a phone.
then it would look like a Lenovo OPhone
Ability to record AM as well as FM broadcasts.
AM (medium wave) radio reception would be impossible in something so small without an external antenna. Pocket AM radios usually use a ferrite core with a load of copper wound around it for an antenna - not a problem fitting it in say, a cassette Walkman, but the S9? No chance!
Make it actually look like the picture above. Make the whole front the screen and remove your logo from the bottom
Yeah take off the silly "Cowon" logo.
... cow... on?...
but leave the S9 name alone because it reminds me of the names given to some luxury cars.
It would be nice if there were better accessories. Accessories made by the manufacturer would make the package much more appealing. I don't see anyone carrying this without it being in a case.
AAC Support! Come on it's 2009 people!
aac support? come on, it's 2009. we're using flac and ogg now, which cowon has supported for years.
What's with your hate towards AAC? There's no excuse why Cowon shouldn't have added it on this player but I guess I'm wrong for choosing AAC as my primary music format. Even though it has proven to be superior to Mp3 and OGG. And it would have went nice with my $200 Klipsch Custom 2s thank you very much.
"it's 2009. we're using flac and ogg now" - notatoad
Um, who is using Ogg exactly? No one I know. I think you're in the wrong 2009...
Nobody uses ogg or flac. Give me a break. Everybody uses either mp3s or WMAs. I don't care if ogg is open source, it isn't universal.
@ Joe
Actually .OGG Vorbis is superior to .AAC, and although it's slightly better then .MP3. 95% of the worlds population could not tell the difference between 192kbps .AAC and .MP3.
OGG VORBIS FTW
Using an AAC codec would mean they would have to pay for more licenses. I assume the licenses are cheaper for MP3 and WMA (or just more of a necessity), and they are free for FLAC and Ogg Vorbis of course
i'd have made it out of the same material they made the X5 from. that thing was a beast.
and i'd have given it a SD slot.
wifi is an unnecessary gimmick, but it still would have been kind of nice.
I thought x5 wouldn't get so much scratches because people raved about what it was made out of and how scratch resistant it was. I'm clumsy and my x5 is full of scratches :/ I ended up getting a case for it but it was like HUGE because the case increased its size so much. Oh well time to get a new player!
late night engadget readers say WHAT!!!
(what!!!)
I thought the product has to be popular before it comes to "How would you change"?
Next up - how would you change the Brando USB fan.
LOL
Cowon's lack of popularity in the US only serves as another shining example of how people in this country will buy overmarketed, overpriced crap over quality products if the brand name carries more cachet.
I did my research before buying a DAP and got a Cowon D2. It is by far the best-sounding player I've encountered.
Yeah, if any company is going to beat iPods, it's Cowon. SanDisk has a large userbase here in the US, but their players are just not competitive to Cowons because they are built so cheaply (Sansas are budget players, after all). The online media (Engadget, CNet) all say iriver is gonna do it (Engadget called the SPINN, Clix2, and H players all iPod killers, same with CNet. I have yet to see that happen; Remember the SPINN - "Kills without words"?), and while I do hope that that will happen (I'm an iriver user) I really doubt it. Iriver has really no US presence, and Cowon at least has some.
Stick android on it
Why? It's not even a phone...
Let's stick Android on toasters too, and maybe vacuum cleaners, and whatnot.