right|thumb|The iAUDIO logo

iAUDIO is a brand of portable media players produced by Korean consumer electronics and software corporation Cowon Systems, Inc.

Products

The iAUDIO range consists of players based on both flash memory 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's new 4GB 0.85″ hard disk.

iAUDIO 4

right|thumb|iAUDIO 4

The iAUDIO 4 was introduced December 2003. It came with most of the features that users of the CW200 and CW300 had been missing.

Upgrades from previous players came in the form of UMS standard, BBE sound processing effects, line in recording and a 124 colour backlight LED display. This player used the STMP 3420 chipset by Sigmatel.

iAUDIO M3

right|thumb|iAUDIO M3

The iAUDIO M3 was introduced March 2004. The player was Cowon's first DAP with an integrated 1.8-inch (46 mm) hard drive. The iAUDIO M3 is completely format-agnostic, enabling the industry-standard 'direct encoding.' WMA, OGG, ASF, WAV, and MP3 music files can be transferred between PCs and Macs using USB 2.0 or direct input. The device has a 20GB storage. When the M3 was released there was a lot of controversy about it, because the actual unit had no display. All but a few basic functions had to be controlled via the included remote control. Some people liked this concept, others were not so fond of it.

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 Sigmatel. It comes in the colours of Ruby Red (256MB of memory), Ocean Blue (512MB of memory), and Black (2GB of memory). The iAudio U2 has rounded corners and delicately woven silver ring ringing the five-way navigational button. The U2 is smaller and lighter than the iAudio 4, measuring at 2.9x1.0x0.7 inches and weighing 1.2 ounces, and features a 128x64-pixel display. It has a size of 3 by 1.4 by 0.7 inches and weighs around 1 ounce. Apart from FM radio, voice recording and line-in recording, it also featured video playback as well as photo and text viewing. The interface symbols indicate that it has an inbuilt FM radio and voice recorder. This 2-gigabyte device weighs 39 grammes and measures 34.4 x 72.9 x 16.7 mm.

iAUDIO 9+

In July 2013, the iAUDIO 9+ was released. The unit has exactly the same physical and technical specifications as the original iAUDIO 9, except for a slightly larger internal speaker and JetEffect v. 5.0 (the original iAUDIO 9 was released with JetEffect v. 3.0). The Cowon iAUDIO 9+ comes in three capacities (and two colours): 8GB (white), 16GB (black), and 32GB (black). It features a new vertical form factor and improves upon its predecessor by the inclusion of a built-in speaker. The iAdudio 9 also supports files including MP3, WMA, FLAC and WAV files, as well as WMV and AVI videos. The iAudio 9 is a little larger and heavier than the iAudio 8.

See also

  • Cowon
  • List of Cowon products
  • JetEffect

References

  • Cowon global homepage
  • JetAudio – Cowon American homepage