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back to article Cowon D3 Plenue Android media player

Like it or loathe it the Apple iPod Touch continues to maintain its position as the default choice for punters after a touchscreen media player. The recent arrival of the Archos 43 came close to tipping it off its perch but the cost-saving resistive screen let it down and the least said about Samsung's Galaxy 50 Player the …

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  1. Cameron Colley

    Why is everyone obsessed with touch?

    Doesn't anyone else keep their music player* in their pocket any more? Touch is all well and good for web browsing, etc., where looking at the screen is the point of the exercise, but having to take your media player out of your pocket in the rain, just to skip, pause, or change the volume i9s a right royal pain. I know there are some non-touch devices out there but they seem to be getting smaller in number, unless you want a 5GB throwaway player rather than something you can keep your entire collection on.

    *Trying to watch films and TV on my commute doesn't appeal, and the screen is so small even on the biggest of these that I'd only watch video if desperate to watch something different to the in-flight movie on a trans-Atlantic flight or similar.

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    1. Anonymous Coward
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      Anonymous Coward

      iPod Touch

      "but having to take your media player out of your pocket in the rain, just to skip, pause, or change the volume i9s a right royal pain."

      You can do all of those things with an iPod Touch without taking it out of your pocket. There are volume buttons on the headset, and the other button on the headset has multiple purposes.

      One click, pause/play, two clicks, skip forward one track, three clicks, skip back one track.

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      1. Anonymous Coward
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        Anonymous Coward

        Ah, so buy new headphones too

        Given how rubbish the Apple ones are (I've got three unused sets if anyone wants them) I'm not happy that I have to go buy another set with a propriety interface on it.

        Also I use my mp3 player in the car through a simple AUX connector and can jog to the next track by feel easily on my 2nd gen Nano without taking my eyes off the road. Wouldn't want to try that with a Touch.

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        1. Cameron Colley
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          New, more expensive, headphones.

          Due to having more parts in them if you wish to buy some decent headphones and, provided there is an iVersion, you'll pay a mark-up for the privilege -- and run the risk they won't work with other equipment (though perhaps they just do, I'll admit to ignorance on that one).

          Also, exposing earphones buttons to rain or snow may not be a great idea either, though I suspect the low voltage means no real harm will be done.

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          1. Anonymous Coward
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            Anonymous Coward

            My point...

            ...was merely that you *can* control some touch devices without taking them out of your pocket, regardless of the cost or quality of accesories etc.

            I have no idea if you can with the Cowon unit reviewed, or any of the many other touchscreen media players.

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            1. Some Beggar
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              @Tony Chandler

              Your point is perfectly valid. I was just agreeing with the original poster: touch screens are becoming ubiquitous even though for some (many? most?) media players they are basically pointless.

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        2. Eric Hood
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          adapter

          You should look into an adapter that has all the controls on it and lets you use any other headphones instead.

          Belkin make one that works.

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      2. Some Beggar
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        Thumb Down

        Excellent.

        So all the key functions can be accessed using morse code on an old-fashioned contact switch that costs about thruppence (or two bob with the standard Apple markup) and lasts practically forever.

        Remind me again why we need the touch screen?

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        1. Brian 6
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          Stop

          If your not in the market keep your gob shut

          "Remind me again why we need the touch screen?" No one is stopping u buying a small mp3 player which only has physical buttons. The touch screen would be for when u were using the device to browse the web. If u dont want a web browsing device buy something else.

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          1. Some Beggar
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            FAIL

            You might want to work on your basic comprehension and literacy skills

            before you start telling other people whether they should or shouldn't contribute to a discussion.

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          2. Cameron Colley
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            @Brian 6

            If you read my original post you may have realised that this is what we are complaining about -- it doesn't seem possible to buy a non touch device any more, unless you want a throwaway.

            Show music playing me a device with <70GB of storage, physical buttons and no touch screen and I may be in the market.

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    2. Brian 6
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      Stop

      entire collection...

      "unless you want a 5GB throwaway player rather than something you can keep your entire collection on.".........Why do people say hey want there entire collection on a portable device ??? If it takes u an hour to get to work why do u need 500 hours of music with u ?? 99.99% of the stuff on your player will NEVER be listened to.

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      1. Cameron Colley
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        RE: entire collection...

        I don't like to get personal on these comments but you are obviously a moron.

        The reasons for wanting my entire collection of music are simple:

        1. I'm never sure in the morning what I'll want to listen to in the evening or at work.

        2. If I have a yearning to listen to something, or remember it I can.

        3. I can listen on "shuffle" to everything if I feel like it.

        4. I can have a book on tape or a language CD on there as well as the music.

        5. When away from home I have access to my entire collection.

        6. It's a good "off-site backup" as well as just a good backup to avoid recoding if my HDDs fail.

        Not related directly to it being my entire collection is:

        7. Can trade music with friends.

        8. Can be used to "off-site backup" other stuff too, like a photo collection.

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  2. Robert E A Harvey

    This is not a title

    By the sounds of it then, forget that it's Android - the OS is no more accessible than in a sony walkman - and the rest of the review was of a media player.

    This is as things should be. Buy the product, not the development route. Wide range of formats, clunky menus. But by the sounds of the review the audio quality is good, which is what I would expect from Cowan. 21 hours battery life is not bad for something with a big screen, I think I might be tempted.

    How do you get music on and off it? USB storage mode in Linux?

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    1. Ian Yates
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      J3

      As a long-time Cowon customer, I have to say that this sounds like a very poor follow-up to their J3.

      The J3 has a battery life that smashes the competition; I consistently get a working-week's worth of usage out of it using on ~10 hours a day.

      Plus, the touch-screen side of the J3 doesn't detract from the physical buttons for using it in your pocket.

      True, the J3 doesn't have wifi, but apart from loading music on to it, I don't really see the need (though, I do have a smartphone, so those without may disagree).

      http://www.reghardware.com/2010/07/07/review_media_player_cowon_j3/

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  3. Lottie

    so...

    still no real improvement over the orange Las Vegas and a hefty SD card then?

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  4. Al Taylor
    Alert

    Media transfer

    Robert - yes, you can drag'n'drop content from Windows, Linux or Mac or synch files via any MTP media player.

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  5. jonathan keith
    FAIL

    Still no gapless playback?

    Sort it OUT, Cowon! How hard can it be?

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  6. geekclick
    FAIL

    So it sounds like ...

    it could have been great, but is essentially shit. Shame as the mass file support is really attractive *sigh*

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  7. Sean Baggaley 1

    Christ on a stick...

    ... how long has the iPod Touch been out now? Three years or so? And the best Cowon—who have no lack of experience in the field of PMPs—can come up with today is *this*?

    Pathetic. Just pathetic.

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  8. Efros
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    Overpriced and overspecced

    If you want a PMP then buy a $50 noname that will provide you with 4GB and is microsd expandable. There are tons of them around with far wider codec support, FM and recording. Use the extra cash to buy yourself a second hand netbook if you want to browse. Putting all this functionality into one small device means that it does nothing extremely well. The 32GB version is over $400 at the current exchange rate, bloody good if you're coming to the US for a holiday, for which I would be looking for a helluva lot more functionality (i.e. actually functioning) than this thing provides.

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  9. The Fuzzy Wotnot
    Happy

    Hope it plays nice with OSX

    I really Cowon stuff but the last one I bought had ( a gorgeous J3 ) to go back as it would not play nice with my Mac. OSX kept corrupting the media files on the device.

    I don't like the iPod touch as you have to use the abomination that is iTunes to load stuff, I want FAT32 access from any machine that read FAT filesystems as a drive.

    I hope this one plays nice with OSX, I might be tempted!

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  10. King Jack
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    Place your bets..

    I bet it STILL will bundle your tunes with your audiobooks. Good luck with putting your entire collection on it and asking it to shuffle. A cheap and cheerful Sansa Fuze has the brain power to recognize that you don't want to hear an audiobook chapter as part of you shuffled tunes.

    They may sound great, but I'll never buy Cowon again. Crap interface.

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  11. zaax
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    Not much point then

    If you can't access Andriod market place nor the iplayer and music is difficult whats the point?

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