The mini-PMP itself from COWON, continuing the highly-rated iAudio line, is basic but look at how they packaged the iAudio 9. It’s a nifty box and I’m sure the player settles safely in there before you open it up and push the power button. Dominic of Dapreview has already managed to open up the package; perhaps a full review of the iAudio 9 is upcoming. I wonder though if he’ll keep the package handy, just in case he doesn’t want to use his COWON iAudio 9 anymore. This would look good on a bookshelf in a gap not filled by a book, which seems a better place to keep unused gadgets than a messy drawer.

It looks like the iAudio 9 has followed the E2 to JetMall. The COWON iAudio 9 is your basic PMP that would only have been able to compete with the iPod Nano for your attention if you were especially averse to camera functionality (hey, some people hate these cellphone and PMP cameras). For $169.99 you get 16GB of storage and 8GB will set you back $129. The iAudio 9 supports more video and music files than the Nano (if you’re partial to FLAC, this is your 2-inch PMP). It plays up to 7 hours of video on a full charge. On stock at this moment.

[store via cnet]

[store via moveplayer]

Korean PMP manufacturer, COWON, has leaked the W2 MID, an Intel Atom device. We don’t know much except that it’s going to be touchreen and it will have WiFi connectivity. How big a touchscreen? Your guess is as good as mine. The COWON W2 wll probably compete with the new Archos Internet tablets. GMP3 is saying the COWON W2 can be between a 4-inch to a 9-inch touchscreen device. What we’re more interested in is the operating system, and storage capacity.

[via generationmp3]

It’s inevitable that the new COWON iAudio 9 will be available in several colors. Now, it can be officially announced: COWON gives you the iAudio 9 PMP in 5 colors (black, silver, white, sky blue and red). The PMPs will not compete with the selection of colors for the iPod Nano. The iAudio 9 doesn’t have a video camera either or a pedometer. Prices are as follows: 2GB (75 euros), 4 GB (95 euros), 8GB (120 euros), 16GB (150 euros). The iAudio 9 has an FM tuner, microphone, speaker, TV out and JetEffect 3.0. On the 2-inch screen, you can watch AVI, WMV, Xvid, ASF videos. Just a note: doesn’t the sky blue one look more like aquamarine?

[via journaldugeek]

Date of availability, price and capacity unknown.

[via journaldugeek]

Prepare for two new COWON players in a few days. The iAudio E2, which is COWON’s answer to the new iPod Shuffle, we already know about while the iAudio 9 will succeed the iAudio 7. These two are music-centric players as all COWON iAudio products have been, not the multimedia convergeance devices we’re used to in recent PMP announcements. Intriguing nevertheless based on the E2 design.

[via journaldugeek]

Very interesting update on the COWON site. The iAudio E2 looks like a very interesting MP3 player, a pendant gadget, if I may say so. Pricing and capacity should be very important. I wonder if COWON will go the direction of the iPod Shuffle with lanyard buttons.

[via dapreview]

After adding gapless support for ogg and lossless files, COWON has improved the S9 by adding gapless for MP3 files. Last month it was firmware 2.31b, now it’s 2.31 beta 2. There are also various improvements on some video codecs and some bug fixes.

The COWON S9 was the best PMP last year. It appears that while the S9 gets better, the competition have been failing to come out with a real competitor.

[via dapreview]

Last we voted the COWON S9 as our PMP of the Year. We gave much credit to its beautifully unique design and high-quality parts. The AMOLED screen have also extremely charmed us. Now, COWON has announced the S9 White Version. It’s the same PMP, but only with a ceramic white backing and matching earpieces. What do we think of it? Engadget says white is trending, but, honestly, we’d rather see a blood red or midnight blue color.

[cowon via engadget]