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posts about #cowon more →
Mysterious Cowon W2 Is an Atom-Equipped Something or Other
Cowon iAudio E2 MP3 Player Looks Straight Out of the MoMA
Cowon S9 Curve Goes Blond For Summer
SmartQ 5 PMP Swallows Several iPhones, Could Take On Cowon P5 With Lower Pricing
Cowon S9 Review
Cowon S9 Curve 16GB Touchscreen Media Player Available Now
Cowon S9 Curve GUI Not Quite As Lovely As the Player Itself
Cowon Curve PMP Release Date Slips Into Early 2009
Cowon O2 Hands-On: Will Play Your Most Rebellious Media Files
Cowon's S9 Curve PMP Looks Exactly Like it Sounds it Should

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Scratic
11/01/09

In reply to Mysterious Cowon W2 Is an Atom-Equipped Something or Other
What is this, Cowanmodo? It seems every story is speculation about what Cowan may or may not be working on for the future. I know you have a lot of Cowan fan-boys to appease, and I'm sure that Lam is on Cowan's payroll with free access to any unreleased Cowan products in exchange for plugging any leaks before they happen, but this is ridiculous. Just once I want to go to my favorite gadget site and read some real tech news. What is Kevin Rose wearing? Where does Walt Mossberg eat lunch? What is Coleco up to? These are questions I want answered. #tablets
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Carnality666
11/01/09

In reply to Mysterious Cowon W2 Is an Atom-Equipped Something or Other
hopefully it has a line out dock, I have the Cowon S9 and I find the headphone out lacking... #tablets
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frigg
08/01/09

In reply to Cowon iAudio E2 MP3 Player Looks Straight Out of the MoMA
Strangely enough, it only plays "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" by Richard Strauss, and touching it causes the owner to race through a colorful star tunnel, arrive at an elderly version of himself dying in a well-furnished room, and transform into his own fetus enclosed in an orb of light.
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Parentmk
07/31/09

In reply to Cowon iAudio E2 MP3 Player Looks Straight Out of the MoMA
Reminds me of a dog tag or piece of jewelry...I could easily see this around people's necks, it is quite stylish. I guess it depends on the size, since we have no frame of reference for the size in the photo I'm at a loss.
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Hi, I'm God promoted this comment Edited by Parentmk at 07/31/09 9:42 PM Parentmk was starred Parentmk was unstarred

Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
02/15/09

In reply to SmartQ 5 PMP Swallows Several iPhones, Could Take On Cowon P5 With Lower Pricing
Hey, it's the iphone tablet...
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Jrsy Devil's Advocate®
02/15/09

@Jrsy Devil's Food Cake: Or rather make that the iPod Tablet..
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Shak_0: Disregard anything I say after the colon
02/15/09

In reply to SmartQ 5 PMP Swallows Several iPhones, Could Take On Cowon P5 With Lower Pricing
I think we need a new category for these things. This looks like a lot more than just a "Portable Media Player".
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BeautifulAgony
02/15/09

@Shak_0: Conveyable Infotainment Apparatus?
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Deimos_Anomaly
02/15/09

In reply to SmartQ 5 PMP Swallows Several iPhones, Could Take On Cowon P5 With Lower Pricing
What about storage space the trend use to be twards large capacity in the hundreds of gigabytes. Now all the new players are sporting flash wich is fine however 16-32GB is just not enough I have an archos 605 160GB and i could use even more space than that. Where is my 1TB pmp damn it.
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BeautifulAgony
02/15/09

@Deimos_Anomaly: Agreed. PMPs with under 64GB seem destined to be relegated to the junk pile. While some may say it's a simple matter to swap content out on a daily basis, in practice it becomes yet another annoying bit of drudgery. A PMP functions best when it is not only a portable player, but also a portable large storage solution for most if not all of your media.

I'd prefer to not have to overly compress my media, as well as shuffle everything around when I decide I'd like to bring episodes of a different show and a movie with me.
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aerospaceman
02/15/09

In reply to SmartQ 5 PMP Swallows Several iPhones, Could Take On Cowon P5 With Lower Pricing
If it's under $200 it might be a great contender. Then again I saw the Archos on sale at $99 (4GB version) and was totally unimpressed.

Also, I don't understand why 3G is even mentioned, thjis is just a media player and not a cellphone,r ight?
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amik777
02/15/09

@aerospaceman:

Look at the picture... see the browser?
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Linux Chief hardware engineer
02/15/09

@amik777:

so...? Looks like a crappy render, the iphone has done better for 2 years.

@aerospaceman:

Im not sure why is had gps and stuff if its a pmp.. maybe we'ere missing something?
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amik777
02/15/09

@Jim Halpert:

The point is that if it has web browsing capabilities I don't see why 3G would not be a very beneficial feature.... I assume it would require it to be able to take a SIM card, but that does not mean it has to have cell phone functionality as well.
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Linux Chief hardware engineer
02/15/09

@amik777:

okay maybe im still a little drunk from last night... but...all im saying is that... if it has 3g and a sim card, its not just a pmp, its a freakin phone... lol
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BeautifulAgony
02/15/09

@Jim Halpert: There are plenty of devices that support 3G for wireless internet access. The SIM support is because there are providers who use the SIM as a register subscribers per identity code rather than by device. It is not necessarily indicative of "phone" status.

Phones have mostly adopted 3G because of the simpler migration for portable devices that require a subscription service package. Many people would be loathe to purchase additional 3G access for other devices when they already have an internet provider.
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Keebler
01/19/09

In reply to Cowon S9 Review

Recording audio with the integrated microphone worked fine-functional but not stellar-which is to be expected: The mic is but a tiny hole in the case.

Sorry to nit pick here, because this is a good, thorough review, but having just a tiny hole in the case actually shouldn't affect the sound quality at all. If designed correctly, a tiny hole with the mic mounted closely and properly gasketted will provide the best performance.

The things to be more concerned with are the quality of the mic, routing of the cabling and the A/D converters/gain settings (unless of course it uses a digital mic).
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Mark Wilson
01/19/09

@Keebler: Interesting. An earnest question for you then—why aren't studio mics just little sheets of plastic with a single hole in them?
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fastm3driver
01/19/09

In reply to Cowon S9 Review
OK, ignore that accidental post.

I don't why they would not use a 120GB HD in this. That would be the killer app. The Touch interface is great but 32GB is not enough memory for me and it is way expensive. The interface begs for even more space for video too.

The Archos is way too big and not pocketable. Zune here is your chance.
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Kaiser-Machead
01/19/09

@fastm3driver: The most likely reason is battery life. Even though modern 1.8's are light on the battery sippage, they're not as good as media that lacks moving parts.
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Keith Peiris
01/19/09

In reply to Cowon S9 Review
Ummmn, so you reviewed a PMP and didn't talk about sound quality comparisons to the iTouch?????
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Mark Wilson
01/19/09

@Keith Peiris: There's no discernible difference to my ears. Remember, we're talking about compressed music here.
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General Halfshaftery
01/19/09

In reply to Cowon S9 Review
Mr. Wilson, did i just see "iTouch" in your review?

I'm afraid i'm going to have to send you to detention!
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Mark Wilson
01/19/09

@General Halfshaftery: It was Wilson Rothman's fault! Really!!
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Wilson Rothman
01/19/09

@General Halfshaftery: Yep, it's true. While editing this story, I used a term that has generally been accepted as a nice colloquial abbreviation, like Blam's "AirBook" and the universally approved "Wiimote." The greatest thing about our language, Gen. H, is that it's constantly in flux, and not even the powers at Apple can stop it!
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Kaiser-Machead
01/19/09

@General Halfshaftery: You better be careful. Milson and Wothman can be vengeful.
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RustyO918
01/19/09

In reply to Cowon S9 Review
Alternative to the iPod Touch??? I thought everyone knew about Archos.

[store.archos.com]
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ZLevee
01/19/09

@RustyO918: Giz isn't a fan [i.gizmodo.com] but if you have a long commute it's worth it if you buy the optional DVR station
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TechFanErik
01/19/09

@RustyO918:

Wow those look clunky.

Does it come with 15,000 applications?
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ZLevee
01/19/09

@TechFanErik: actually, yes. But there's like another 15,000 applications that they charge you individually for.
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ZLevee
01/19/09

In reply to Cowon S9 Review
How about the Creative Zen X-Fi 32GB as an ipod alternative? It's not a touchscreen but big deal.
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Kaiser-Machead
01/19/09

In reply to Cowon S9 Review
This looks like lots of potential that wasn't given time to bake thoroughly. Unless you really hate iTunes, I don't see much reason to go for this over a touch.

As for video resolution, the site's tech specs sheet says recommended video res is 480x272. That's sort of disappointing, as the touch supports higher resolution, which is nice for video out, and works well for those who want higher res videos for viewing on their computer at home, negating the need for duplicate files. The claim to 11 hours of playback for video is impressive though.

The audio codec support specs are interesting too:

File format:

MP3/2/1, WMA, FLAC, OGG, WAV, APE

Audio codec:

MP3 : MPEG 1/2/2.5 Layer 3, ~320Kbps, ~48KHz, Mono/Stereo

WMA : ~320Kbps, ~48KHz, Mono/Stereo

OGG : ~Q10, ~44.1KHz, Mono/Stereo

FLAC : Compression Level 0 ~ 8, ~44.1KHz, Mono/Stereo

WAV : ~48KHz, 16bit, Mono/Stereo

APE : Fast, Normal, High 16Bit, Version 3.97~3.99

When looking at that, it sure looks like a very solid device for people who don't have a lick of AAC files. The UI niggles are disappointing though.
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switchblade saints
01/19/09

@Kaiser-Machead: you dont need a zune to use the zune software. you can even get the zune pass.
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Kaiser-Machead
01/19/09

@switchblade saints: Gah? I wasn't talkin' about the Zune :S
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alpinerover
01/19/09

@Kaiser-Machead: And even if you hate iTunes, you can use Songbird, which is iPod compatible. Unfortunately not with the touch or iphone though...
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Kaiser-Machead
01/19/09

@alpinerover: So long as it doesn't have UMS support, I imagine not.
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