IAUDIO
Encyclopedia
Consumer electronics
Consumer electronics are electronic equipment intended for everyday use, most often in entertainment, communications and office productivity. Radio broadcasting in the early 20th century brought the first major consumer product, the broadcast receiver...
manufacturer Cowon Systems
Cowon
Cowon Systems, Inc. is a South Korean electronics company. Established in 1995, the company's initial focus was software development. In 2000, with the introduction of the CW100, Cowon expanded their business to the portable digital audio player industry....
.
Cowon S9
The Cowon S9 was released in December 2008. It comes in 4, 8, 16, and 32 GB storage sizes. The S9 features a 3.3″ AMOLED touchscreen and is capable of viewing DivX, Xvid and ASF video files without conversion. It has a stated battery life of up to 55 hours of music playback. Notably, its support for M4A/MP4 audio files (iTunes, etc.) is limited, so these must more often than not be converted to a compatible format before copying them onto the device. However, it unofficially supports decoding baseline H.264 video. From firmware version x.31, it supports gapless playbackGapless playback
Gapless playback is the uninterrupted playback of consecutive audio tracks without intervening silence or clicks at the point of the track change. Gapless playback is common with compact discs, gramophone records, or tapes, but is not always available with other formats that employ compressed...
for all supported file formats.
The S9 uses the Wolfson WM8750S audio codec
Digital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
and runs a Flash Lite UI
User interface
The user interface, in the industrial design field of human–machine interaction, is the space where interaction between humans and machines occurs. The goal of interaction between a human and a machine at the user interface is effective operation and control of the machine, and feedback from the...
, allowing for Flash applications and customized menus ("UCIs" - user-created interfaces). The creation of UCIs is encouraged by Cowon, who have released the source code for most of the UI for this purpose.
Cowon J3
The Cowon J3 was released in April 2010. It is by many regarded as the S9's successor, although Cowon itself has given no such indications. Like the iAUDIO 9, it uses the Wolfson WM8960 audio codec.Upon release, the J3 was praised for its audio quality and wide file format support, while others complained about the lack of Wi-Fi and a dedicated app store. The J3 supports Flash Lite applications, including Flash games developed for the Nintendo Wii.
Cowon X7
The Cowon X7, released in October 2010, is the long-delayed successor to the iAUDIO X5, as well as Cowon's first hard-disk based player for years. It improves upon its predecessor by offering a maximum memory capacity of 160 GB and a 272×480 resistive touchscreenResistive touchscreen
In electrical engineering, resistive touchscreens are touch-sensitive computer displays composed of two flexible sheets coated with a resistive material and separated by an air gap or microdots. There are two different types of metallic layers. The first one is Matrix, which is a striped electrodes...
. Like the J3 and the S9, it supports Flash Lite applications.
Cowon D3 Plenue
The Cowon D3 Plenue, released in January 2011, is Cowon's first device to run the Android operating system. It was released with Android 2.1 Eclair, but has since been upgraded to 2.3.3 Gingerbread via a firmware upgrade available from Cowon's homepage. Following the S9 and J3, the D3 Plenue is Cowon's third device to feature an AMOLED screen. Like many smartphonesSmartphone
A smartphone is a high-end mobile phone built on a mobile computing platform, with more advanced computing ability and connectivity than a contemporary feature phone. The first smartphones were devices that mainly combined the functions of a personal digital assistant and a mobile phone or camera...
, it has a screen resolution of 480×800 pixels.
The D3 was initially criticized for its slow performance, clearly not utilizing the full capacity of its 720 MHz processor. The problem has since been partially or wholly relieved by the upgrade to firmware version x.53 and Gingerbread.
Cowon C2
The Cowon C2 was released in April 2011. It has similarities with the earlier D2, to which it is by many considered a successor. It is marketed as a low-price, "daily life" music and video player.iAUDIO series
The iAUDIO range consists of players based on both flash memoryFlash memory
Flash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
and hard disk drives. Flash memory-based players are available with a capacity of up to 32 GB, while the hard drive-based models currently have capacities up to 160 GB. The iAUDIO 6 was the first player to use Toshiba
Toshiba
is a multinational electronics and electrical equipment corporation headquartered in Tokyo, Japan. It is a diversified manufacturer and marketer of electrical products, spanning information & communications equipment and systems, Internet-based solutions and services, electronic components and...
's new 4GB 0.85″ hard disk.
iAUDIO CW100 and CW100s
Cowon entered the digital audio player market in October 2000 with the introduction of their first MP3MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
player, the iAUDIO CW100. In March 2001, the iAUDIO CW100s, a revised model, was released.
iAUDIO CW200 and CW250
In December 2001, Cowon released the iAUDIO CW200. The CW200 had audio playback capabilities, an FM radio and voice recording through a built-in microphone. This player also had a revised model, the iAUDIO CW250.iAUDIO CW300
In December 2002, Cowon released the iAUDIO CW300. This model was essentially an iAUDIO CW200 using AA batteries as a power supply. Most reviewers also regarded it as having a higher build quality.iAUDIO 4
Upgrades from previous players came in the form of UMS
USB mass storage device class
The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two...
standard, BBE sound processing effects, line in recording and a 124 colour backlight LED
LEd
LEd is a TeX/LaTeX editing software working under Microsoft Windows. It is a freeware product....
display. This player used the STMP 3420 chipset by Sigmatel
SigmaTel
SigmaTel is an electronics company located in Austin, TX, which designs mixed audio signal processors, and controller chips for multifunction peripherals. SigmaTel was Austin's largest IPO as of 2003 when it became publicly traded on NASDAQ...
.
iAUDIO M3
When the iAUDIO M3 was first released outside of Korea, there was a quality issue with the player's remote control. There was a widespread "fading" issue, in which the text of the remote slowly disappeared. This issue was rectified by the rapid recall of all faulty remotes and free replacements.
iAUDIO U2
The iAUDIO U2 was introduced in July 2004. It was also Cowon's first player to feature a navigational joystick instead of the 2 rockers found on most previous releases. The U2 used the STMP 3520 chipset by SigmatelSigmaTel
SigmaTel is an electronics company located in Austin, TX, which designs mixed audio signal processors, and controller chips for multifunction peripherals. SigmaTel was Austin's largest IPO as of 2003 when it became publicly traded on NASDAQ...
.
iAUDIO G3 and G2
SigmaTel
SigmaTel is an electronics company located in Austin, TX, which designs mixed audio signal processors, and controller chips for multifunction peripherals. SigmaTel was Austin's largest IPO as of 2003 when it became publicly traded on NASDAQ...
chipset. The only difference between the two players was that the G3 was powered by an AA battery, allowing a playing time of up to 50 hours.
The iAUDIO G2 was a cheaper version of the G3 which was introduced in the spring of 2005. It lacked some of the main features of the G3: no FM radio, the interface was only USB 1.1 (compared to USB 2.0 on the G3), and the playback time with a single AA battery was down to 40 hours.
iAUDIO 5
The iAUDIO 5 was introduced in December 2004. It was the successor to the popular iAUDIO 4 series and was powered by the same SigmatelSigmaTel
SigmaTel is an electronics company located in Austin, TX, which designs mixed audio signal processors, and controller chips for multifunction peripherals. SigmaTel was Austin's largest IPO as of 2003 when it became publicly traded on NASDAQ...
chipset that were used in the iAUDIO U2 and G3. The iAUDIO 5 was relatively similar to the aforementioned players. What set it apart from other players was the fact that it had 1000 different backlight colour combinations. It was powered by an AAA battery which allowed for a maximum playback time of up to 20 hours.
iAUDIO X5
The X5 uses much of the same hardware as the M3, and as such has much of the same features and capabilities. It has almost identical features to the iriver
Iriver
iriver is a consumer electronics company headquartered in South Korea and widely known for its digital audio players and other portable media devices....
H300 Series. The X5 includes a color screen on the unit.
As with the M3, there is an "L" version which is 4 mm thicker and has a longer battery life. Unlike the M3, the X5 comes in 20, 30, and 60 GB variants. It is likely that there will be no 60 GB X5L, as the 60 GB X5 itself is the thickness of the 20 and 30 GB X5L due to the increased size of the hard drive. The 20, 30, and 60 GB capacities offer a rated battery life of 14 hours for audio playback with a 950 mAh battery. The 20 and 30 GB X5L models specify a rated playback time of 35 hours with a 2250 mAh battery. Video battery life is unspecified. In addition to the "L" versions, the X5 also comes in a "V" variation, which lacks the FM radio.
Cowon announced in May 2007 that the X5 series had been discontinued. Its successor, the X7 series, was slated to be released at some point in the summer of 2007, but was delayed until October 2010.
iAUDIO M5
The iAUDIO M5 is basically a simplified version of the X5. It lacks an FM Radio, a colour screen (it has a greyscale screen instead), and USB-OTGUSB On-The-Go
USB On-The-Go, often abbreviated USB OTG, is a specification that allows USB devices such as digital audio players or mobile phones to act as a host allowing a USB Flash Drive, mouse, or keyboard to be attached.- Architecture :...
functionality to save production costs. Its casing is a silver color instead of the black X5. There's also an "L" version available, which features enhanced battery life. The "L" version of the player is a little thicker and heavier though and costs slightly more.
iAUDIO F1
Introduced in July 2005, the iAUDIO F1 can be described as an iAUDIO U2 with an interesting design, a colour OLEDOrganic light-emitting diode
An OLED is a light-emitting diode in which the emissive electroluminescent layer is a film of organic compounds which emit light in response to an electric current. This layer of organic semiconductor material is situated between two electrodes...
display, and higher power output (32 mW vs. 20 mW for the U2).
This player was and still is a favorite subject of ridicule among iAUDIO fans. The player's design was supposed to represent that of a Formula 1 sports car, which some criticize for making the F1 look more like a toy than a serious piece of portable audio equipment.
The F1 played Vorbis
Vorbis
Vorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...
, WMA
Windows Media Audio
Windows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
, WAV
WAV
Waveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, ASF
Advanced Systems Format
Advanced Systems Format is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media...
and MP3
MP3
MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
files and could tune to the radio, as well as record from the radio. It could also record directly from sources or record using a built in microphone.
It came in 256 MB/512 MB/1 GB sizes of Flash memory.
iAUDIO U3
XviD
Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a...
, as well as picture display. Like the iAUDIO X5, the U3 only played video files at up to 15 frame/s with a resolution of 160x128. Most videos must therefore be converted to be played back on the U3 using the provided software from Cowon. The player can also display JPEG
JPEG
In computing, JPEG . The degree of compression can be adjusted, allowing a selectable tradeoff between storage size and image quality. JPEG typically achieves 10:1 compression with little perceptible loss in image quality....
and TXT
TXT
TXT or txt may refer to:* SMS language or txt, an Internet slang language commonly used on short message service phones* .txt, a filename extension for text files* Text messaging on a phone using letters and symbols....
files. The support for audio files was also enhanced from previous models: the U3 was the world's first Flash-based player that was able to play FLAC
FLAC
FLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...
files (but only from compression rate 0 to 2 with the initial Firmware v1.11. It now supports up to Q8 with V1.13). Another new feature was the U3's powerful sound output of 30 mW per channel (at 16 ohm, achieved by utilizing the new Telechip TCC770 audio chipset and Cirrus Logic CS42L51 Codec). Like the U2 the U3 had a built-in lithium polymer cell for a playback time of up to 20 hours. As with all iAUDIO devices, there was no need for the use of software, since the U3 was a UMS device
USB mass storage device class
The USB mass storage device class, otherwise known as USB MSC or UMS, is a protocol that allows a Universal Serial Bus device to become accessible to a host computing device, to enable file transfers between the two...
(though additional software was required to take advantage of some features, such as converting video to the right format to be played back on the player).
With the firmware version 1.20 Cowon added ID3
ID3
ID3 is a metadata container most often used in conjunction with the MP3 audio file format. It allows information such as the title, artist, album, track number, and other information about the file to be stored in the file itself....
browsing and DRM capabilities to the U3. This made the U3 the first iAUDIO player that allowed the user to browse its contents by the contents of ID3 tags embedded in the files.
Features:
- 512 MB/1 GB/2 GB/4 GB Flash memoryFlash memoryFlash memory is a non-volatile computer storage chip that can be electrically erased and reprogrammed. It was developed from EEPROM and must be erased in fairly large blocks before these can be rewritten with new data...
- 260,000 color TFT LCDTFT LCDThin film transistor liquid crystal display is a variant of liquid crystal display which uses thin-film transistor technology to improve image quality . TFT LCD is one type of Active matrix LCD, though all LCD-screens are based on TFT active matrix addressing...
screen, with a resolution of 160×128 - Support for MP3MP3MPEG-1 or MPEG-2 Audio Layer III, more commonly referred to as MP3, is a patented digital audio encoding format using a form of lossy data compression...
, WMAWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
, ASFAdvanced Systems FormatAdvanced Systems Format is Microsoft's proprietary digital audio/digital video container format, especially meant for streaming media...
, WAVWAVWaveform Audio File Format , is a Microsoft and IBM audio file format standard for storing an audio bitstream on PCs...
, VorbisVorbisVorbis is a free software / open source project headed by the Xiph.Org Foundation . The project produces an audio format specification and software implementation for lossy audio compression...
, FLACFLACFLAC is a codec which allows digital audio to be losslessly compressed such that file size is reduced without any information being lost...
, and MPEG4 (video)files - Support for recording in WMAWindows Media AudioWindows Media Audio is an audio data compression technology developed by Microsoft. The name can be used to refer to its audio file format or its audio codecs. It is a proprietary technology that forms part of the Windows Media framework. WMA consists of four distinct codecs...
format at 32, 64, 80, 96, and 128 Kbit/s - USB 2.0 High Speed Connection
- FM radio
- Line in recording
- Voice recording via built-in microphone or an external microphone
- FM radio recording
iAUDIO 6
The iAUDIO was presented in January 2006 at the CESConsumer Electronics Show
The International Consumer Electronics Show is a major technology-related trade show held each January in the Las Vegas Convention Center, Las Vegas, Nevada, United States. Not open to the public, the Consumer Electronics Association-sponsored show typically hosts previews of products and new...
in Las Vegas. It was the first digital audio player to feature a 0.85-inch (22 mm) hard drive. This technology allowed the production of a high capacity digital audio player in a very small form factor.
iAUDIO T2
Ogg
Ogg is a free, open container format maintained by the Xiph.Org Foundation. The creators of the Ogg format state that it is unrestricted by software patents and is designed to provide for efficient streaming and manipulation of high quality digital multimedia.The Ogg container format can multiplex...
, and WAV.
FLAC was also supported up to firmware 1.20 but not by later versions. Firmware 1.20 is no longer available for download from Cowon.
iAUDIO F2
In September 2006, Cowon released the iAUDIO F2. The F2, with a design similar to a mobile phone, was the successor to the F1, and very similar to the U3 in features. Instead of the F1's OLED display, it featured a color LCD display. Apart from FM radio, voice recording and line-in recording, it also featured video playback as well as photo and text viewing.iAUDIO 7
In June 2007, Cowon announced the iAUDIO 7, a player based on the iAUDIO 6 but with 4, 8, or 16 gigabytes of flash memory instead of a hard drive. The OLED screen from the iAUDIO 6 model was replaced by a TFT with 260,000 colors (18 bit colour depth). The device used a swing-control. Audio recordings could only be saved in WMA format, with a user selectable bitrate of 64, 80, 96, or 128 Kbit/s. The device played MP3, WMA, FLAC, Ogg Vorbis, WAV, and ASF audio files as well as XvidXviD
Xvid is a video codec library following the MPEG-4 standard, specifically MPEG-4 Part 2 Advanced Simple Profile . It uses ASP features such as b-frames, global and quarter pixel motion compensation, lumi masking, trellis quantization, and H.263, MPEG and custom quantization matrices.Xvid is a...
videos. The frame rate of video playback was limited to 15 frames per second. It was produced in Korea.
Unlike its predecessor, the iAUDIO 6, the iAUDIO 7 had no USB host (USB On-the-Go
USB On-The-Go
USB On-The-Go, often abbreviated USB OTG, is a specification that allows USB devices such as digital audio players or mobile phones to act as a host allowing a USB Flash Drive, mouse, or keyboard to be attached.- Architecture :...
) capabilities.
iAUDIO U5
In August 2007, Cowon announced the iAUDIO U5 at IFA 2007. The U5 featured Windows DRM10 support as well as MP3 and WAV (Ogg and FLAC supported with updated US firmware v3.16). There was no support for video. The U5 came in 4 and 8 GB versions with a 1.8 inches (45.7 mm) LCD with 128×160 resolution and 65 000 colors. The U5 had a 24-hour continuous audio playback time.iAUDIO 9
The iAUDIO 9 was released in November 2009, more than two years after its predecessor the i7. It features a new vertical form factor and uses the Wolfson WM8960 audio codecDigital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
, which allows for a built-in speaker.
iAUDIO 10
The iAUDIO 10 was released in South Korea in September 2011, with a design similar to the iAUDIO 9. It has yet to be internationally released.With a screen resolution of 240×400 pixel, the i10 has the highest resolution of any iAUDIO player.
The iAUDIO 10 was awarded the Good Design Award
Good Design Award
The is Japanese comprehensive design evaluation and commendation system, operated by Japan Industrial Design Promotion Organization . The system has its origins in the “Good Design Selection System” instituted by the Ministry of International Trade and Industry of Japan in 1957.The award system...
in 2011.
Sound enhancements
All of Cowon's players, starting with the iAUDIO 4, feature a sound enhancement technology licensed from BBE Sound, Inc. These sound enhancements can be accessed via the "JetEffect" menu on all Cowon products. The "JetEffect" suite also includes a 5-band semi-parametric equalizer and two "special effects," Reverb and Stereo Enhance, in addition to the BBE system. According to dfkt of Anything But iPod, these "special effects" are built-in into the audio codecsDigital-to-analog converter
In electronics, a digital-to-analog converter is a device that converts a digital code to an analog signal . An analog-to-digital converter performs the reverse operation...
used in the players, as is the equalizer.
All Cowon players following the D2+ (S9 and onwards) come with an updated version of BBE called BBE+.