November 2008 – Committed to delivering the most innovative and versatile digital media experience, COWON America, Inc., recently announced the shipment of the COWON O2 touch-screen portable media player (PMP). The COWON O2 is the company's first PMP with a large 4.3-inch widescreen to integrate flash memory to improve performance and battery life. Coupled with the COWON Power Management System, the O2 delivers an impressive eight hours of video playback and 18 hours of audio playback. The O2 also features a newly designed user interface, and the industry's best video and audio media format support.

Configured to attract both the casual and power users, the O2 is available with 8GB, 16GB or 32GB internal flash memory and priced at $219.99, $249.99 and $299.99, respectively. Each player is equipped with a memory expansion slot supporting SD and SDHC memory cards for additional removable storage capacity.

Developed for the U.S. market by COWON Systems, a global leader in digital multimedia solutions, the COWON O2 is now available at JetMall and at select U.S. authorized retailers Amazon.com, Newegg.com, B&H Photo-Video, ZipZoomFly.com and eBay.com.

"The COWON O2 widescreen PMP is one of the first in the industry to integrate flash memory. Using flash memory, we were able to design a smaller, sleeker device that offers longer battery life and improved shock resistance," said Francis Choi, COWON America's senior marketing manager. "At the same time, the O2 is packed with high-end features such as a touch-screen user interface, JetEffect sound effects, and HD video playback capability. With its sophisticated minimalist design and reasonable price, the O2 is sure to please every gadget shopper and digital media enthusiasts."

COWON O2: Powerful and Versatile PMP

Available in black and white, the COWON O2 is loaded with powerful features for the videophile including the latest Texas Instruments DaVinci chipset, a 4.3-inch widescreen digital TFT display with 480x272 resolution, and video output capable of delivering HD video (up to 720p resolution) using an optional composite cable. The O2's list of video file formats and codecs supported include:

Video file formats: AVI, WMV, ASF, MP4, MATROSKA (MKV), OGM, MPG/MPEG, DAT, MTV Video codecs: DivX 3.11/4/5/6, XviD, MPEG-4 SP/ASP, WMV 9/8/7, H.264, M-JPEG, MPEG 1

For the audiophile, the O2 includes all the audio enhancement technologies that COWON fans expect, including a 10-band custom equalizer with eight presets, built-in speaker, JetEffect sound effects developed for COWON by BBE Sound, Inc., and an expansive list of audio file and codec support, including:

Audio file formats: MP3/2/1, WMA, ASF, AC3, FLAC, OGG, M4A, MATROSKA (MKA), TTA, APE, MPC, WV, WAV

Audio codecs: MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, AC3, AAC, FLAC, OGG Vorbis, OGG FLAC, APPLE Lossless, True Audio, Monkey Audio, MusePack, WavPack, G.726, PCM

Completing the O2's all-in-one package is a photo viewer with support for JPG, GIF, PNG, TIF, BMP and RAW formats; document and CSD (compact shared document) viewer for PDF, Word, PowerPoint, Excel, HTML and other file types; high-quality FLAC-format audio recorder; and a built-in basic/scientific calculator and notepad.

The COWON O2 measures 4.70 x 2.89 x 0.70 inches and weighs 7.23 ounces.

SOURCE COWON