Cowon
Latest
Cowon's upcoming A3 and Q5 PMPs are fit as fiddles and ready for love
While we'll miss our sexy, chest hair-free modeling friend, it's nice to finally see Cowon's new A3 PMP (top), a followup to the lovable A2, up close and personal. As expected, the 4-inch 480 x 272 player now includes a DMB receiver, plus a spiffy new "DaVinci" video processing chip from Texas Instruments to improve playback in some indeterminate way. Cowon's Q5 does it all one better, however, with a 5-inch touchscreen, GPS support of some kind, DMB, WinCE 5.0 and an external HSDPA module. No word on screen res, but there's plenty of hawterness to be getting along with already. These two players and plenty more from Cowon will be on display at CES -- specifically, the D2, N2, U3, T2, F2 and X5, for any model number junkies out there -- so we'll be sure to drop kick a few and let you know what's what.[Via dapreview]
Cowon D2 goes legit, but just for Korea
Media player maven Cowon just got official on that Cowon D2 we'd been seeing around. It's a DMB device, so it's naturally Korea-only at the moment -- and boy are we jealous. Capacities range from 1 to 4GB, the 2.5-inch LCD is of the QVGA variety, and you can upgrade the memory via SD. We can't decide if the touchscreen interface or 45 hours of battery life (in MP3 mode, 8 hours on DMB) is our favorite part, but we suppose that's why Cowon included 'em both. There's also TV-out, hefty format support, FM radio and voice recording, and Cowon manages this all in a mere 0.65-inches of thickness. Still no word on price, and we won't give up hope on a DMB-less version that might, just might, grace our shores, but it doesn't look like we'll be getting no D2 in our stockings this year, that's for sure. Keep reading to view the rest of the colors.[Via dapreview]
Feature-packed Cowon D2 to hit Korean market
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]
Cowon bumps its iAudio lineup to 4GB
Sure, the big boys like SanDisk and Apple are already onto 8GB capacities in their flash players, but that doesn't mean we can't celebrate the small victory of Cowon finally making it over the 2GB hump and busting out 4GB updates for its iAudio F2, iAudio U3 and iAudio T2 players. Not bad at all for the size of some of these things. All three refreshes should be headed our way this November, no word on price just yet.[Thanks, Old Surinam]
Cowon iAudio D1 details emerge, to include DAB
Yes, it's been several months (ok, nearly a year) since the Cowon iAudio6 was released. Even still, Cowon isn't resting entirely on its laurels with regards to that one great player; it's been coming out with a flurry of other media players since, including the T2, F2 and most recently, the N2. Well it's time to welcome yet another member to the family: the iAudio D1. According to DAPreview, the D1 comes with a 1GB or 2GB flash drive, but the better news is that it also eatures digital audio broadcasting support. If that weren't enough, the D1 will also play back OGG and FLAC filesm and it can record voice and music via the built-in mic or line-in jack, respectively. The D1'll require that you front £150 ($282) for the 1GB version or £170 ($320) for the deuce edition when they're released next month in the UK.
Is this the Cowon A3?
We don't know much about this guy, or what he's holding (or why the hell he was hired to make people like us want to buy Cowon devices), but he's the same dude we saw earlier modeling (with) their new N3, and the device he's holding sure looks a helluva lot more likely to be the followup to the A2 than that not-quite-a-UMPC. We'll keep you posted, but not before we too get prep and throw our head back with abandon.[Via iAudiophile]
Cowon's N2, successor to the A2 throne
It's been a hell of a long time since Cowon launched its Engadget Award-winning A2, but we freaking finally have a worthy successor to their flagship media player, and like so many other Korean-built devices it's no slouch when it comes features. Now Windows CE 5-based, the Cowon N2 features a friggin' massive 7-inch 480 x 234 display (with a 500:1 contrast ratio, and 420cd/m² brightness), 500MHz AMD Alchemy processor, 128MB DDR2 SDRAM, 32MB Flash memory, built in SiRFStarIII GPS, DMB video, dual SD slots (à la the Tapwave Zodiac), USB On-The-Go, 4W stereo speakers, AV and camera ins, FM transmitter, IR, and the usual extensive codec support (MP3, WMA, Ogg, ASF, AVI, WMV, DivX 3/4/5, XviD, MPEG-4, video up to 720 x 480 / 30fps). You're not going to get all this without sacrificing space and weight, though; the N2 weighs in at a hefty 540 grams (1.2 pounds), and eats up 191 x 120 x 26mm (7.5 x 4.7 x 1 inches) -- nowhere near the smallest overachieving media player around. What's worse, it still doesn't appear to support raw MPEG-2 / VOB, nor H.264 -- which is a bummer, since if any media player should, it is this one -- but something tells us those brave enough to suffer the inevitable 2nd mortgage required to own one of these won't be left in the lurch. (Click on for some more pics!)[Thanks, Daiken]
Cowon's iAudio F2: another tiny 2GB player
Cowon may not be the biggest portable audio maker out there, but they make some decent little players. The iAudio F2 features a tiny, 128x160 pixel 1.3-inch display, up to 2 GB flash, line-in recording, 22 hours of audio playback off battery, and the typical list of Cowon supported codecs: MP3, WMA, WAV, OGG Vorbis and even FLAC for lovers of lossless. At 39-grams / 34.4 x 72.9 x 16.7-mm, this 2 gigger is small, just not that small and likely includes an integrated FM radio and voice recorder judging by the interface icons. Available starting 22 September for 179,000 won or $187.[Via CNET Asia, Thanks Garcia and Chris]
Cowon's iAudio U2 2GB now in white
Cowon of Japan wish to remind you that they're still shipping the iAudio U2 player. How? By bucking the trend of dropping a limited edition pink model and throwing us the 2GB pearl-white iAUDIO U2-2G-WH instead. Everything else on this popular player, which many of you dubbed the best flash player on the market, remains unchanged: MP3/WMA/WAV and OGG support,128x64 LCD, line-input sound and voice recording to MP3s, FM tuner, and 20 hour battery with fast recharge. So get ready to enjoy that, uh "color sound" starting July 7 when these hit Japan for ¥18,980 or about $163 in greenback.
Cowon's iAudio T2
It might have been a little more appropriate if their T2 came fashioned in Liquidmetal (sorry, had to), but Cowon's latest iAudio player comes in 512MB, 1GB, and 2GB sizes, and features MP3, OGG, WMA (sorry, doesn't look to be PlaysForSure), FLAC, WAV, and ASF, and your usual OLED color display, 12 hour battery, FM receiver / recorder, and voice recorder; all in a diminutive 0.5-inch thick shell that smacks more of an old school Walkman than an anti-iPod, if you ask us.[Via iAudiophile]
Cowon's 4GB iAudio6 DAP reviewed
Cowon's gotten some rather mixed reviews in the past for their line of iAudio DAPs, but the outlook seems mostly positive for the upcoming hard drive-based iAudio6, with Anything But iPod finding very few flaws in the diminutive player's design, features, or performance. Especially impressive is the 1.3-inch OLED screen, which gets high marks for both color depth and clarity -- ABi calls it "simply brilliant" -- and makes watching XviD-encoded movies almost bearable on such a small display. The iAudio6, which we first spotted at CES, can handle up to 4GB of MP3, WMA, OGG, FLAC, or WAV-encoded tracks on its .85-inch drive, but it's the drive that leads to one of the few knocks on this model, which is a noticeable lag time between operations. Other nice features include USB host capability for device-to-device file transfer with other UMS-enabled hardware, software that automatically tags certain tunes with the corresponding lyrics, line-in and voice recording, and surprisingly powerful output that can drive even large headphones. If you don't mind a bit of a delay when recording or changing tracks, or a bit of eye strain when watching your flicks, then the iAudio6 sounds like it'll make for a solid purchase whenever it becomes available Stateside.[Thanks, James]
