Tuesday, April 28, 2009

Cowon S9 Gets Another Update! Firmware 2.30b

Update: Firmware Version 2.30b (still a beta release) is now available for download. You can find it HERE along with info on what it includes. For direct download of the Zipped file click HERE. The main difference between 1.30b and 2.30b is that 2.30b doesn't include a dictionary icon or application. It looks like Cowon has decided to be king of the hill among the Korean players. They are at a feverish pace with updates to their beautiful S9 media player. These aren't minor bug fixes.

- This update enables full access to the S9's tilt sensor. Data returned is no longer limited to up, down, left, and right.
- There's a new game to exploit it. Hunter has five levels, each a little harder than the previous. The objective is to not get hit by a bullet. You tilt the S9 to move the character around the screen. The longer you last without getting hit the higher your score. It is similar to the ancient arcade asteroids game, except you can't shoot back. It proves how sensitive the tilt sensor is.
- They've completely started over with music art display in landscape view. You get a 3 x 5 array of your album art. Slide left or right to see more pages.
- Tap on a cover to see a big view and a list of the songs in the album. Do a quick double tap on a song title to start playing that song. The CD below the art appears to spin if a song is playing. The album name overlays it.
- You now can opt to give the S9 a shake to change songs forward or back a track. You can also optionally lock off both landscape Matrix View and the Shake feature. - It's still in beta, so you can expect a few more improvements before the final release. A few things that still need work include remaining in your previous sort mode once you select a song from the landscape matrix view.

You can download the 1.30b firmware HERE. Some info thanks to Google Translate is HERE.

Enjoy!
4D

2 comments:

  1. Brilliant update. Good to see Cowon stepping up.

    Now, if only they could release the 32GB S9 a bit quicker for the States...

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  2. I agree, Jeff. As for the 32gb version keep watching beginning in May. Cowon seems responsive to user requests, and apparently there have been several thousand requests to them for that 32gb version. They had a few to show and sell in England recently. More to come!

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