A Sleek Media Player With a Hint of Mystery By AZADEH ENSHA

December 25, 2008
A Sleek Media Player With a Hint of Mystery By AZADEH ENSHA

The electronics maker Cowon is bringing curvy back. But in addition to having a streamlined curved design, the company's S9 media player is loaded with features.

The multimedia gadget includes a touch screen display in a 16:9 format that uses superbright AMOLED (active matrix organic light emitting diode) technology, which is doing to conventional display technology what the CD did to FM radio. Oh, did we mention the S9 has an FM radio?

You can play 55 hours' worth of music files between charges. The S9 has Bluetooth, and a built-in microphone for live recording. It comes with a 500-megahertz dual-core processor and supports almost every video and audio format (as in, not iTunes). The 2.7-ounce S9 is available now with eight gigabytes ($200) or 16 gigabytes ($240) of internal flash memory.

The Cowon also has a brand so obscure, you'll look like a globe-trotting tech wizard. When someone asks, "What is that, a BlackBerry Storm?" you can calmly reply, "No, it's a Cowon S9 media player." Very jet set. AZADEH ENSHA

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/12/25/technology/personaltech/25cowon.html?sq=Cowon&st=cse&scp=1&pagewanted=print

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