Cowon W2 shown in its natural tradeshow habitat, running Windows 7
Werefore art thou, UMPC? Oh look, Cowon found you. The Cowon W2 MID / UMPC / tablet / something has been spotted in the wild, running Windows 7 and thwarting typical efficient interaction methods. The Atom-powered device was caught by AVING running in both portrait and landscape modes, and even paired up with a pint-sized USB QWERTY keyboard. It does look a little chunky under those harsh tradeshow lights, but there's a certain charm to the device's OS optimism. Hopefully we'll be able to play with one soon, but there's still no word on a US launch.























@Swagger
*sigh* Yeah, you're a funny guy alright.
@Swagger
Poor little delusional guy.
@Swagger what's a Tablet PC?
1 more day!!!!!!! =D
@Swagger
lmfao how do you know its a guy??????????? Girls read engadget too =D
better than the apple tablet? why even bother releasing this thing so soon to the keynote?
@John Stathakis
"why even bother releasing this thing so soon to the keynote?"
From the article:
"Hopefully we'll be able to play with one soon, but there's still no word on a US launch. "
And Engadget isnt fooling anyone. They are trolling around the internet to find every Chinese market crap tablet so they can splash it on here to try to paint the far better ones sold in the west as being lousy, so they can keep the skid-greasing for Apple's device on track.
@LAY
While one can question cowons previous devices like his (ex the Q5) you are just ignorant. Cowon is a south KOREAN (and yes, Korea and China are two TOTALLY different things) and known for their great sound quality and format support in their DAPs and PMPs. Theese small tablets are interesting, but personally I hope theese tablets will get lower in the price segmnts and replace all crappy Netbooks before non-geeks should bother about theese, but for the geeks, this RULES!
@John Stathakis This is really a Korean media player, which will also play hi-res video from the numerous sources that are online and IE-dependent (in Korea) as well as OTA digital TV (probably either an add-on module or a different model). Everything that accesses websites in Korea has to run IE and therefore has to run Windows.
I'm not surprised there's no announcement of U.S. release; it just doesn't fit the U.S. market. When we get mobile digital TV (assuming there will be anything worth watching when it happens), we'll get more of these devices, but even then, we won't need it to run Windows.
Brick
@John Stathakis
Compare it to the itablet(if it exist) some MOAR!!
@John Stathakis
The Apple tablet will not be thicker than an iPhone ..even if it's thicker it'll only be very slightly thicker. Apple isn't stupid enough to make a fat heavy tablet.
It will weigh less than 2 pounds if not 1 pound.
I think it may be pocket-able and movie screen 2:1 (2.35:1?) ratio .. but maybe that's unlikely.
@One Love
i was just going to say, gimme a few skids of these and i'll put up a house.
@LAY
your remarks are extremely generalized and sound quite asinine...
@Atkins The tablet speculation only arrives once you consider Cowon's MO, paired with Atom. Yeah, definitely a stretch, but an interesting one to consider on this lazy, post-Halloween Sunday afternoon
More details of the new PMP: http://bit.ly/cowon-w2-details
With a more manageable form facto, this could be a winner. A less complicated netbook, basically.
with netbooks around, high price UMPC has much less chance to survive.
What the Hell is that?? Its freaking ugly! and Bulky!
I'm getting this THE MOMENT its in the US =D
OMG non apple-related post! EVERYBODY BOW!
Oh wait, Atom alliterates with Apple! YOU SLY FOXES!
@onlymyrailgun
Btw, IMO devices like this running unmodified Windows is awkward to use. We bought a really small Sony "tablet" PC in 2005. The screen was so difficult to see with the small Start button and all that the device was discarded after like 2 uses. It's gathering dust somewhere even as we speak...
That being said, Windows 7 IS optimized for such uses. From the photo posted though, it reminds me of that Sony from so many years ago.
@onlymyrailgun
=P to apple =D
@onlymyrailgun
I want one of those so bad. Trust me, it's a useful device.
@SolidSnake
str8 up for $500 ish im so down, it owns Archos 9 and its smaller, voice recognition, will be very very useful.
@SolidSnake
Let us know how well it works if you ever get one.
@onlymyrailgun
Oh wow dude, I was talking about the Sony UX tablet you have and don't use anymore. This could be mildly interesting though.
@onlymyrailgun The Viao UX is what you have? I'd gladly take it off your hands, or you could sell it on eBay and make a decent penny. They've got a following, and Windows 7 can be installed on them.
@SolidSnake
@Luxury Guy
Oh, talking about the Sony... yeah it was like the UDX or something I can't remember. Can't give it to you though, sorry. It set out on a trip and is currently in Andromeda. When it comes back, I will breathe new life into it.
IT's Fugly and awesome ... I love it and I hate it ...
I'm sooooo getting one ... maybe not ... I dunno!
I remember the app Stardock that would let you completely customize the Windows interface. It makes me wonder why companies that make the smaller handhelds like this don't modify the base interface to be very touch-friendly?
And I mean more than just dropping on an app that just runs full screen. Looking at you HP. The Windows 7 interface can be modded so that icons/text/buttons etc.. can be larger. I have not checked out Stardock in ages, but I remember seeing a theme that made a PC look exactly like OSX. It wouldn't surprise me if someone has worked on one to make Windows look sort of like an iPhone (interface).
100% bezel, all the time.
That's a nice tiny usb keyboard. Anyone know where I can get one?
Wow on two counts.
1). Engadget not running a Apple related post.
2). This thing runs real Windows 7. Gimme. Gimme.
I'd trade 2oz. of Unobtainium for one!!! You all know how hard that is to get! =P
@hdawggy Meh. Not that hard to get. I've had a piece on my desk for years. Just never knew it went by the name Unobtainium. :P
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/0xEuE04eBg-cFmYE9lnncg?feat=directlink
http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/2f6k99ac8EuZgSzoO3XNWQ?feat=directlink
Off topic: So is Cowon pronounced cow-on or co-won?
@Chaosdivine co-won
@dreamerkm
Thank you for your answer.
When I talk about their products to people I'd rather pronounce it correctly and spare myself the embarrassment.
Cheers.
Wherefore =/= where, wherefore = why
I like it but it is too pricey for the specs
Fuck the Apple tablet. Wants...badly.
That thing's system tray has more stuff running than my desktop. That can't be efficient for something meant to play media.
Honestly though, without anyone exploding over this...
What the heck do you do with these things? If it's supposed to be a media player, then what is Windows 7 doing on there? Wouldn't something more lightweight suit it? I guess you can use the browser, but in the age of smart-phones with browsers suited to small screens and fingers, I can't see desktop Firefox scaled down to a 5ish inch screen being the best way to go. If you want to run some kind of full application, what would it be?
@Atkins
Heh, just to play devil's advocate here, but isn't it easier/cheaper to just get a couple high capacity SD cards instead of lugging this thing around with you? I mean, they are super tiny compared to something like this and they don't need to be kept charged. Besides, if you start dumping all your RAWS onto the thing you'll have no space for the videos that need the weird codecs to play :)