Cowon D3 Plenue: The Missing User Manual.

Cowon's D3, their first Android PMP, is getting better with each new firmware update.  With your D3 you should have a CD with a Product Guide on it or you can view it on Cowon's web site. What they haven't produced (so far) is a detailed owners manual with insight into the fine details of their custom UI and media apps.

This blog post is where I'll post those details. I'll update it as more becomes known about the D3.  All  details here pertain to firmware versions 1.29, 2.29, 3.29, and 4.29.

1. The Bottom Bar: Visible no matter which home page you are on.

• Successive taps on the left rectangular area will toggle between a view of the Day/Date, Free Space in MB and %, as well as the number of running applications.
• Touch and hold the left area of the bar to bring up an array view of the different home pages. Then tap on any page to go directly to it.  
• Tap or slide (to the left) the APPS square to switch to an array view of all the apps installed on your D3. That page is scrollable if there is more than one page worth of apps installed on your D3.  Tap  (or slide left) HOME to switch back to the home page view.
• Below the bottom bar is a short white line segment. It shows the relative position left and right within the many home pages you are currently viewing.  

2. The Clock Widget:

• In orange letters below the time numbers and above the day text there is a "time" word.  Tap anywhere on the widget to toggle randomly between EnjoyTime, PartyTime, BreakTime, and HappyTime.

3. Nine (9) Home screens.

• From the Home screen tap the Settings icon, then tap Home Settings.  You can then pick the number of visible screens from 1 to 9. A reboot is required to implement the change.
• You can also select the default screen (the screen the D3 returns to when you tap the HOME icon) from among the visible screens. This feature might come in handy when you have a selection of apps for Home, one for Work, or for any other unique purpose.  Switch to make your Work page  the default when at work.

4. Other widgets:

• Analog Clock: A simple contemporary analog clock face.  Hands only with no numbers displayed. No hidden features I could find.
• Design Clock: An analog clock with each quarter of the face displaying a different color and word. The words include partying, relaxing, chilling, and enjoying.  Tap the face to change.
• Sports Clock: Also an analog clock, although the face graphics are sports balls. Tap to change from Basketball, Soccer, and Baseball.  An android robot sits on top and wears a different sports jersey relating to the visible sport. Lakers for basketball, Dodgers for Baseball, and a red jersey for Soccer I don't recognize. The soccer droid is randomly animated with a quick lean to the right.
• Day & Time: A digital display displaying the time, day, and date. You can set different scenes behind it that will change with your specific locale seasons.   
• Calendar: A simply flipcard widget that displays the weekday and date, as well as any current or upcoming events you may have added to the calendar.  A tap in the widget takes you to the android calendar app.
• Music Widget: Representing a CD player, it displays the current song title and album name, as well as the cover art as if printed on a CD. You get simply play controls including a play/pause button, and fwd/rev-prev/next buttons. Tap on the CD and it takes you to the Now Playing page of the music app. 
• Picture Frame: Looks like a stack of Polaroid prints. Prev and Next controls on the bottom. The current photo is displayed.  Tap on the Photo to be taken to the pictures app.
• Power Control: A bar of four control icons.  They include WiFi, Bluetooth, and Sync on-off toggles, as well as a screen brightness 3-way toggle. Very handy.
• Google Search: Basically a shortcut to Google web search. In Settings there are also options to search from among your apps and your contacts as well. Open Settings, then Search.
• Videos: A simple shortcut to the Video app. It displays a snapshot from the last video played, as well as the filename and position % within that video last where you last left it. It also shows the time and date that video was last viewed. Tap on the overlaying PLAY icon to open the Video app at that position.

6. Video app details:

• Opening the Video app leaves you on the Now Playing screen.  To see a list of the onboard videos you'll need to tap the big arrow in the upper right corner.
• Once in the video list view, you may or may not see your videos listed there.  Videos should be saved in the Media/Videos folder.  You can move up and down the directory folder structure with taps on the top line items. 
• You can search by Folders, Thumbnails, or Bookmarks.
• If a playing video doesn't fill the whole screen, a long press on the center for a second or two will cycle through stretch-to-fit options.
• Two-finger spread can stretch a video to fill the screen area, regardless of original side bars or aspect ratio.
• Tap the D3's   Settings icon for Details, AV Out control, Adding a bookmark, Screen capture, and more Settings.
• Those additional settings include lengthy Subtitle options, Pan & Scan with Pinch-to-Zoom, Aspect ratio, a separate Pan & Scan option, AV out setting, Audio track choice, JetEffect (EQ) setting, Repeat, and Skip Interval.
• Touchscreen devices really point out the interface flaw if you enjoy watching videos without looking through a smear of fingerprints. A great feature of the D3 is the external control buttons (top edge when playing video). Press the PLAY button to start or pause the video playing. The Next/Prev buttons will Fast Forward or Rewind your video when held down. Use the Skip Interval Setting mentioned above to set the fixed length you want a single press on those buttons to skip forward or back in the video.  The power button (bottom edge when watching video) will also lock the touchscreen with a single press but leave the external buttons active. A great way to prevent accidental interruption of your video.  

7. Music app details:

• Opening the Music app leaves you on the Now Playing screen.  To see a list of the onboard songs you'll need to tap the big arrow in the upper right corner.
• While on the Now playing screen, a tap on the album art will display lyrics if any are associated with the current song.
• Tap on the song title and it will take you to that song's alphabetic position in the main song list.
• Tap on the Album name and it will take to the a list of all the songs in that album
• Tap on the artist, and it will create a list including all the songs by that artist.
• The song position bar near the bottom can be tapped to move directly to that relative position in the song, or you can slide your finger along the bar slowly to hear the song change as you find the new position.
• For Music access or control when you are NOT in the music app, you have several choices:
• External buttons on the right side of the D3. Next/FFWD, Play/Pause, and Prev/REW. To fast forward or reverse, hold down the next or previous button respectively.
• The Music widget. Place it on any home page, or all of them if you wish. Obvious Next, Play/Pause, and Prev buttons, and a tap on the cover art will take you to the Music Now Playing page.
• The alert bar (top edge of the screen). When music is playing the play icon [>] will appear there. Slide down that alert bar to reveal ongoing info including the Title, Album, and Artist currently playing. Tap on it to be taken into the Music app.

8. Pictures app details:

• Opening the Pictures app leaves you on the Picture view screen. To see a list of the onboard photos you'll need to tap the big arrow in the upper right corner.
• The Photo view screen has basic controls visible.  From left to right across the bottom they are Rotate, Play, and Set as. At the top is displayed the number of photos in the current folder as well as the current image's position among them.
• Tap Rotate to temporarily rotate the current image 90 degrees clockwise.
• Tap Play (>) to begin a slideshow of the images in the current folder.
• Tap the center of the screen to turn on and off the on-screen controls.
• Tap Set-as to pop up a window with options to set the current image as an icon for one of your contacts, or background wallpaper for the home screen. Pick Contact and you'll be taken to a list of your contacts.  You can even create a new contact at that time which the selected photo will become the icon for.  Use the D3's Back button to back out of any selection.
• Tap the D3's Menu button while in the pictures app to bring up List, Details, Share. Crop, Add-to-favorites, and additional Settings.
• List takes you to the pictures file listing. You can then sort by Folders/Files, Thumbnails, or Favorites.
• Details brings up a window with File size, Resolution, and Date taken for the current image.
• Share pops up a window with Bluetooth and Email options to send the current photo through.
• Crop will overlay the current image with a green outline. Use one or two fingers to stretch the outline around the area you want cropped in the photo. Pan the outline around with a single finger in the middle of it. Tap the X to cancel the crop. Tap the storage icon to create a new picture file of just the area within the green outline. This does NOT overwrite the original file.
• Add to Favorites will add individual images to a list you can then choose to view separately from your big selection.  Images in the favorites list will play back in the order they were added. Something to consider if you are putting together a specific slide show.
• Settings is where you'll find slideshow options. You can set both the interval (2, 3, or 4 seconds) and the transition (Fade in & out, Slide left-right, and Slide up-down).
• You can double-tap (to zoom in steps) or use two fingers to spread or pinch (zoom in or out).  Use a single finger to pan around any image you have zoomed in on.  
• If you like music during your slide shows, press the external PLAY button to begin playing the last song that was played.  

9. Task Manager: Probably the most useful utility on the D3.  Tap on it to open up a list of the running apps.  Tap any app in the list to finish (stop) it.  You can also tap the top bar to Finish All.  Use the D3's BACK button to exit the Task Manager.

10. Internet, the web browser. The D3's high resolution screen means it works great as a web browser. The capacitive screen reacts to a light tap.  It will also zoom in on any web page with a two-finger spread, and zoom out with a pinch of two fingers.  A double-tap will also zoom in on any column or photo.  Options are three layers deep. This web browser will do just about every setting your desktop browser would have. There is no Flash support (yet).  This will be your one frustration. 

• With the browser open, tap the android menu button to bring up options including:
• New window.  Tap to open a new copy of your home page.
• Bookmarks. Tap to see an array view of bookmarked pages you've created, as well as several included standards.  Pick from all bookmarks, Most Visited, or History.
• Windows. Tap to bring up a list of all open web pages and a New Window option.
• Refresh. Tap to reload the current page.
• Forward. Compliment to the D3's Back button.
• and More.  Tap More to bring up:
• Add bookmark
• Find on page
• Select text
• Page info
• Share page
• Downloads
• and Settings. Tap Settings to bring up:
• Text size (tiny to huge in 5 steps)
• Default zoom (Far, Medium, or Close)
• Open pages in overview (checkmark)
• Text encoding (Latin, Unicode, and three Japanese options)
• Block pop-up windows (checkmark)
• Load images (checkmark)
• Auto-fit pages (checkmark)
• Landscape-only display (checkmark)
• Enable JavaScript (checkmark)
• Enable plug-ins (checkmark)
• Open in background (checkmark)
• Set home page (text input pop-up)
• Clear cache
• Clear history
• Accept cookies (checkmark)
• Clear all cookie data
• Remember form data (checkmark)
• Clear form data
• Remember passwords (checkmark)
• Clear passwords
• Show security warnings (checkmark)
• Website settings (advanced for individual websites)
• Reset to default.

11. Installing Applications

• There is no app store on the D3.  Once hooked up to your PC and mounted though, you can access the folders on its storage space.  One is APK.   Any android program file (*.apk) you can find on the web can be copied to this folder.    Once the D3 is safely disconnected from your PC it will notice and then offer to install any programs it finds in that folder.
• The D3 is NOT a pure android device.  Cowon has altered it somewhat, and so not every android program you might find will run perfectly.  Proceed with caution.

That's all for now.  The D3 comes with several other apps, but how many will be used will vary with each owner. You can read more about them at Cowon.com.  My inital review of the D3 can be found HERE.

4D

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Cowon D3 Review. Getting Better Daily.

My Cowon D3 arrived straight from Korea on Monday 1/31/2011. The D3 is the first device from Cowon running Android. At the moment it is running Android 2.1 (I think), although I'm hoping they'll upgrade it to 2.2 (or higher) eventually. I've actually seen no proof anywhere of what version Android is on the D3.  To distinguish their android devices Cowon has adopted Plenue for the class name. According to them it means "Create Pleasure".

Cowon is known for their media players, and the D3 has benefited from their media experience.  The standard Android media apps have been replaced by Cowon versions.  Nearly every available codec is supported, and so little or no transcoding will be needed to play your music and video files.

Hardware: 
-  Capacitive AMOLED 3.7" screen with 800 x 480 pixel resolution.
-  WiFi 802.11 b/g support.
-  FM radio, along with recording from FM.
-  Bluetooth 2.1 + EDR, A2DP/AVRCP/OPP
-  Speaker
-  Microphone for audio recording.
-  G-Sensor
-  Multiple touch sensing.
-  Touch (haptic) feedback.
-  MicroSD-HC expansion slot.

-  Dimensions: 64.2mm x 116.4 x 11.8mm, 120g. or  2.53" x 4.58" x .465" thick, 4.233 ounces.

Include in the plain brown box was a proprietary USB sync cable, a Korean AC 220v Power supply, Cowon typical earbuds, and a quick guide (in Korean).   According to Cowons website  a manual CD should have been included.  It was not.

Right Edge



Bottom End



The D3 is capable of both HDMI and Composite video output, but it appears those will require separate custom cables from Cowon. I have not yet found a source for them.

Charging will take 7 hours over USB (with the screen OFF) and 3.5 hours with an AC Adapter.   You'll get an average of 21 hours music play or 10 hours video play on one battery charge.

Music: The D3 supports MP3/2/1, WMA, OGG, WAV, ASF, FLAC, APE, and M4A file formats. If you have lyrics in LDB format they can also be displayed. There are 35 JetEffect 3.0 EQ presets and 4 User configurable EQ settings available.  As with other Cowon players, a tap on the music icon takes you into the Now Playing screen. There is a big arrow in the upper right corner you can tap to take you back to the list of songs, which can be sorted by Album, Artist, Song, Folder, and Genre. The now playing screen itself has icon access to EQ presets, Shuffle and Repeat toggles, a Play ALL/1/Folder toggle, a playback speed setting that will speed up or slow down playback in 10% steps from 150% to 50% of normal speed.  Pitch doesn't change which is nice.

You also have the typical Play/Pause,  Next Track/FFwd and Previous Track/Rew buttons. Throw in a track position bar with total time and position time visible in fine print on the high resolution screen.  Songs that include the information will display their Title, Album, and Artist right below the album art. Tap on the album art to reveal Lyrics if any exist for the current song. Press down on the title, album, or artist, and after a few seconds the D3 has sorted through the entire song list for songs that match that item.

Lastly, When you tip the D3 on its side the display changes to a 3D-ish cover art arc. On this display you'll see the title of the current song, and your position number among the total number of albums. Tap on any visible cover to have it flip out and display the songs it contains (below). You can tap on any song you see listed to start playing it.  Tap the top bar of the list to flip back to the arc. Swipe left or right to rotate through all the albums.  You can turn this landscape display off in Preferences. When you do the Now Playing screen doesn't re-orient at all when the D3 is rotated.

This Music application is (almost) as thorough as the one on the J3. You can bookmark (press the D3's Menu button) any song from any list, and any position within a song.  The D3 doesn't do gapless playback.  I give Music an A-.  The sound quality is great when it isn't cutting out.  There is a need for on-board playlist/favorites creation or I'd give it an A+.

Video:  The D3 will play video formats including: AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MKV, MPG, DAT, TS, TP, TRP, and 3GP. Maximum resolution it will play is 1920x1080 (full High Definition), although not every resolution and audio and video codec combination up to that is guaranteed to play. It has played every video file I've thrown at it so far though. Those didn't include DAT, TP, or TRP files yet, as I have no sample files in those formats. VOB (DVD) files play if you change their extension from .VOB to .TS

You can resize many videos to fit the screen with a press on the screen or two.  Doesn't work if the videos have their own black bars. You can find videos by Folder or Thumbnail images or Bookmarks you may have previously set. The Thumbnail list (image below) adds video length to the info presented.  A long press on any movie file pops up more info, with Add to Bookmarks, Delete, and Details options.  Details will include the file name, file size, and resolution of the video.

Controls on the video Now Playing screen include AB marking, a play speed option (50% to 150% of original speed), and the usual play/pause FFwd/REW-next/previous buttons. The video title is displayed on the top edge of the screen.  Press the android menu button and you get several more options. Direct links to the list, details, and Add to Bookmarks are there, as well as Screen capture, AV-Out, and screen/subtitle settings.  Video play on the D3 gets an A+.  Better than on the J3 thanks to the larger screen size, higher resolution, and added codec support.

Pictures: The D3 will display your JPG, PNG, GIF, and BMP photo files on its beautiful AMOLED screen. The Photo app is typical Cowon.  Tapping on it you begin with the last Photo that was displayed. It will tell you the total number and position within that number of the photos in the current folder.  The big arrow in the upper right corner will take you to your photo list(s). Photos can be separated into folders, and folders can be selected individually. There is a nice slideshow feature with transitions and transition time choices.  You can manually rotate photos to best fit the screen, and they will also rotate when the D3 is itself rotated from landscape to portrait view or back.  Two-finger pinch or spread can be used to zoom out or in on details, and a double tap on the photo will also zoom in on it in steps.

Pictures can be used as contact icons or Wallpaper. Tap the photo to bring up the controls if they are not already visible.  Then tap the bottom right icon to get a pop-up window for the choices.  Now if only the D3 had a camera that contact icon feature would have been great.  As it stands, the Pictures app is fine.  Nothing overwhelming.  I'll give Pictures a B+.

FM Radio: The radio app is a welcome addition to the D3.  So far this is the only android-based  player I've got with FM radio. You'll need to have headphones plugged in to serve as antenna, and the radio will not output over bluetooth.   Options include auto-scanning for channels, Preset List, Add Preset, Preset Off, Start Recording, and Settings.   Under Settings you can set your region, and turn stereo on or off.  You also get an OFF switch.  I'll give Radio a B, as there is no RDS feature.

User Interface:  Cowon has decided they need to improve on the standard Android interface. It starts with a bottom bar that shows the available memory and amount left on the D3, next to a slider to switch between the Apps page (image below) and the home page. The left side of the bottom bar toggles between displaying the free space available, the number of running apps, and the day/date. The rest of the interface is rather normal for Android, with widgets and shortcuts and bookmarks as icons spread over 5 possible pages. On start-up the D3 wants to scan for new media you might have added, and it warns you that the system may not be responsive until it is finished.  There have been four firmware updates since I started writing this blog post, and with each the screen response and fluidity has improved. I have no doubt that Cowon will keep working on the D3 until its interface performance is on par with the iPod Touch. It is very close right now.

One thing I find annoying is the lock screen Cowon insists on using for the D3. My Archos Android players don't have it, and swipe-to-unlock is an unnecessary extra step in an otherwise competent execution.

On the good side, the D3 has external buttons for power/hold (image below), and volume +/-, play/pause, and FFwd/Rev (right side).  There are off-screen touch buttons for Back, Menu, and Home.

You can almost completely control media play without touching the screen.  A single press of the PLAY button will usually start playing music without unlocking the screen.  The power button will lock the touchscreen with one tap, turn the screen OFF with a quick double-tap, and bring up the power OFF option with a two second hold.

Bluetooth: I had no trouble pairing the D3 with my bluetooth headphones. I was disappointed to discover there is no gapless playback using bluetooth. Controls worked fine from the headphones or the D3, including volume. Additionally, in the Music app's preferences, you can turn off the headphone's ability to control the D3.  I tried pairing a bluetooth keyboard to the D3 and although it paired it reported there was no support for keyboards.  The D3 does support file transfers over bluetooth, but my first few attempts (with my PC and an Archos 43)  have failed after downloads got past 80%. I have succeeded since.  I'll blame it on the earlier firmware.  At this point bluetooth for headphones is still a little buggy.  I had the occasional cut-out or momentary freeze while listening to music, and I've never experienced the same on any other player. As such, Bluetooth gets a C+.  Hopefully it will improve with firmware updates.

Internet:  I had no trouble connecting to my home or work Wifi. The web browser works reasonably well, and multitouch zooming is greatly appreciated.  There is a slight response delay after tapping on any on-screen link. It is as if the screen sensor has to think for a second before responding.  Side-by-side with my iPod Touch the difference is notable. Scrolls are just a bit choppy on the D3 where they are smooth on the Touch.  The D3 will show more info on a screen than the iPod Touch as the Touch adds an options bar on every web screen.  The 800 x 480 screen is good, but not as crisp in detail as the Touch's 960 x 640 Retina display.  Many web pages recognize the Touch and reformat to a Mobile view for it.  The D3 usually gets a more typical PC page view on the same pages.  Double-tap and finger-spead to zoom both work as expected.   The web browser experience is better than on any lower resolution device, and better than any device without multitouch. It still isn't up to the standard set by Safari on an iPod Touch or iPhone, so Internet gets a B from me.

Apps:  No app store on the D3.  I've been able to side-load applications to my D3, and most have installed with no problem, the lack of an on-board market is a serious shortcoming Cowon needs to address.  Out of the box the D3 includes your typical music, video, pictures, and radio media apps.  You get email, web browser, YouTube, calculator (including simple and scientific versions), task manager, document (.txt) viewer, alarm clock, paint, voice recorder, calendar, contacts, comix, and twitter too. There are a few more apps on the Korean version of the D3 that disappeared when I installed the North American firmware.  Until either Cowon or hackers get a Market app working on the D3 I have to give it a C B for Apps.

Update 3/23/2011: Amazon.com has opened their Android Appstore now, and although the number of apps available is small you can expect it to grow exponentially. Easy to add their app to the D3.

Conclusions:  The D3 is a nice package with decent hardware and great potential. It has the power to drive my large Sennhieser headphones with authority. Music and Video codec support is the best you'll find. There are two reasons I won't recommend the D3 right now:  Price and maturity.  Amazon.com lists the D3 with 32gb of memory for $358.  A 32gb iPod Touch is $275. The new D3 is NOT $83 better than a new Touch.  The price is too high, even if every feature worked perfectly.   As I stated previously, Cowon has updated the D3 Firmware 4 times since I received it. It still exhibits random freezes, audio cut-outs, slow touch response, and no easy access to Android apps.   I assume Cowon will eventually resolve these issues, but right now the D3 performs worse than my old HTC Hero Android phone. Cowon needs more experience with Android.  Hopefully they are learning fast, as the D3 is not quite ready for prime time.

2/10 EDIT:  Cowon updated the firmware on 2/10/2011 to version x.27.  I've installed 3.27 on my D3, and the audio cut-outs I mentioned seem to have been eliminated.   Still no gapless playback, and no apps store.

4D.

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