Not like 4x Blu-ray burners are anything special, but if you've got a special place in your heart for anything designed by Neil Poulton, this one's for you. LaCie has just announced that it's doubling the burn speed of its tried-and-true d2 external writer, enabling owners to toast BD-Rs at 4x. It'll also handle BD-REs (2x), DVD±RW DLs and CD±RWs, and it can interface with your computer via USB 2.0 or FireWire 400. The pain? $649.99 -- and that's before you go shopping for optical media.

[Via Engadget Spanish]

As lovely as the D2 is, we've always had a secret wish for it to offer up a bit more internal capacity. Apparently the higher-ups at Cowon have heard our inner cries, as a 16GB edition of the player is now available through JetMall. Aside from being more capacious, nothing else has changed, but if this was just the thing to push you over the edge, you can hand over your $240 right now and join the club.

[Via AnythingButiPod]

Alright, LaCie. We understand when you namecheck the designer of your new ultra-minimalist external drives, but the d2 line has been shipping since like 2002 -- so we're not going to get excited about the look of the thing, no matter how "quintessentially Neil Poulton" the design. Additions to the lineup includes a revised d2 Quadra eSATA / FireWire 800 / FireWire 400 / USB 2.0 drive, an eSATA version of the Big Disk Extreme+, and the new Little Big Disk Quadra portable drive. The d2 Quadra gets a couple more heatsink ridges and a new lower starting price of $189, while the Big Disk Extreme+ stays pretty much the same with the addition of eSATA. The new 1.4-pound dual-disk Little Big Disk Quadra starts at $475 and features a fanless design with one eSATA port, two FireWire 800 ports, and a single USB 2.0 port for access to capacities of up to 500GB. The drive also features built-in RAID 0 capability, which boosts transfer speeds to 110MB/s over eSATA. All this stuff is available now, according to LaCie.

Read - d2 Quadra
Read - Big Disk Extreme+
Read - Little Big Disk Quadra

After patiently wait for what felt like ages to finally have the Cowon D2 on American soil, here's a tidbit sure to make you early adopters a bit disgruntled. According to a blurb at GenerationMP3, Cowon is planning to release an 8GB and 16GB rendition of its diminutive media player, and additionally, it will reportedly sport a built-in SDHC slot for cramming even more media onboard. In other news, the iAudio X7 is slated to land sometime in September, and will be available in both 40GB and 80GB flavors, but the release of the iAudio X5 is a bit shaky considering that production on the device has "been stopped" for the time being. Per usual, we aren't exactly sold on the legitimacy of these reports, but you won't catch us complaining if a roomier D2 finds its way stateside anytime soon.

[Via PlayerBites, thanks Gavin]

If you've been digging Cowon's tiny D2 portable media player but weren't quite willing to go to Korea to get one, you can now yourself some airfare (or importing fees), as Cowon America's finally seen fit to release the player over here. While some of the more colorful options have unfortunately been left behind, the player itself is otherwise identical (minus the DMB, of course), with a 2.5-inch touchscreen display, an SD card slot for expansion, TV out, FM radio, and the usual array of PMP functions, including support for less-than-common formats like FLAC, OGG, and APE. Those content with the basic black or white color options can now snag the player in your choice of 2GB or 4GB versions for $190 or $220, respectively.

It's a borderline travesty that Cowon's iAudio D2 isn't readily available in North America, as this cute little PMP sports the company's highly-touted sound quality and a display that got rave reviews, but just in case your love affair with foreign DAPs doesn't run deep enough to import one of your own, AnythingButiPod is giving you a taste of ownership anyway. Just like the myriad of devices that have come before, the iAudio D2 is getting dissected for nothing more than pure viewing pleasure, but unlike some attempts we've seen, this one looks to be well-planned and executed with precision. Sure, you might say that you'd never rip open your hard-to-acquire media player once you finally captured it, but that's why someone else has already done the dirty work for you. You know what to do, the read link awaits.

CNET Asia just tossed up an "excellent" 8.4/10 rating along with their Editor's Choice award to Cowon's new 4GB iAudio D2 multimedia player. As you'd expect, it gets high praise for including a "crispy and sharp" touchscreen on a digital media player making the "gorgeous" new interface even more intuitive to use. While it works just fine with your grimy finger, they also include a quirky triangular stylus (resembling a guitar pick) which is tethered to the device on an elastic cord. A bit annoying, but beneficial when slotted into the back of the D2 allowing it to stand on a tabletop. There's a long list of positives: the usual audio format support in addition to OGG Vorbis, FLAC, APE; the ability to expand from the on-board 4GB to 8GB via the SD/MMC card slot; the battery which lasted an "astonishing" 46 hours and 23 minutes; and a quick 5.33MB per second drag-and-drop transfer speed. Other than some slight lag when viewing pictures and the occassional "scratchy" radio reception... there's just not much to harsh on. Oh, 'cept the fact that you still can't get one off the shelf in North America or Europe.

[Via Impress, thanks woopieboy]

Hot on the heels of the substandard (in Cowon terms, that is) iAudio D1, the company best known for feature-packed portable media players is back to its old self again with the fully loaded D2. Foregoing the sleek, skinny look for a more Archos-esque appearance, Cowon's latest PMP rocks a 2.5-inch 320 x 240 resolution touchscreen, built-in DMB, support for WMV, MPEG4, MP3, OGG, WMA, and FLAC, "30fps movie playback," video output, FM radio, "voice / line-in recording" function, and a snazzy "transparent overlay" GUI. While initial reports suggest a 2GB internal capacity, the unit will sport an SD slot for your expansion needs, and those fortunate enough to reside in South Korea can pick up this properly-spec'd player in November for an undisclosed price.

[Via DAPReview]