As the end of another year approaches and everyone eats and drinks heartily, we are treated to the beginning of a new year-- one where you reflect upon the past twelve months (were you good or bad, naughty or nice?), and you make a few decisions to become a better person. Is it time to quit smoking? Maybe the alcohol consumption has become a bit much. I should stay in touch with family and friends more often. You can’t believe you have to walk all the way across the parking lot. Wait a minute; maybe you need to get in shape. That’s it; you need to join a gym!

 

Locating the health club of your choice, you take the tour, listen to the spiel, tell yourself this is it, and sign up for a brand spanking new membership. Good for you!

 

 

On the way home, you take inventory of the essential items you’ll need to make your workout experience enjoyable: good pair of running foot gear; some sort of shirt, shorts or sweatsuit ensemble that doesn’t scream ‘newbie;’ can’t forget the water bottle, and hold on a sec, you need a cool MP3 player.

 

Yes, you do, but which one? Do you already own one? Need a new one? Do you follow the modern trend and jump on the latest iPod iteration, or do you expand your horizons, test the waters, and peer outside the box?

 

Why wouldn’t you follow the cool people and tap the Visa for the hottest thing since zippers on pants? Because it doesn’t hurt to consider the alternatives. You might even like what you see….

I’m not here to bash the iPod; I personally own the video model in all its splendor and glory. I even encased it within a sturdy rubberized case for protection. But do I want to employ its services in the gym where I’m putting my body through its rigorous paces? Of course not. I want something smaller, compact; not necessarily able to stop a bullet, or shield me from Kryptonite, but at least hold up during intense weightlifting sessions, or sweaty, endless miles on the treadmill.

 

I’m big on Amazon for quite a bit of my shopping needs. You can’t beat the deals and reduced prices. I also use it to read other user reviews before I decide to make a purchase or even find out what is available on the consumer market. When I wanted a separate MP3 player for gym use, I almost purchased the latest 8 Gig iPod Touch. There was one hitch; I had become increasingly tired of that bane of consumer usability. DRM! I can understand why Digital Rights Management exists, but it has become a hindrance and an evil I refuse to support. I will always pay for my music and support the artists who provide me with harmonious pleasure. But once I pay for my music, its mine to legally use as I desire. Imagine purchasing a car and later discover you are only allowed to drive within a certain distance of the dealership before a rights management control deactivates the vehicle. There’s a can of whup ass waiting to be opened.

 

Browsing the available choices - SanDisk Sansa, Microsoft Zune, Creative Zen, Samsung, Sony, Archos, to name a few, I knew what I didn’t want - a hard drive based player. I don’t care how ironclad the warranty may present itself, hard drives weren’t meant to be bounced, moved, jogged, jiggled, or quickly change any three dimensional direction on a compass without incurring the wrath of the electronic gods. My choice was clear. I wanted a flash memory based system, and it had to contain no less than 8GB of memory. I have a serious number of songs I constantly listen to and never tire of hearing. I also listen to several podcasts: some music, some informative. To add to that, I have foreign language lessons in MP3 format I like to review and retain whenever the need or mood strikes.

 

Armed with a plan, (remember the six P’s - Proper Planning Prevents Piss Poor Performance. Feel free to use it among your friends.) I eventually descended upon the iAUDIO series from Cowon – in particular the Cowon iAUDIO 7 8GB MP3 model. Never heard of them, but I did the research, and I was not disappointed.

 

The Cowon iAUDIO 7 8GB MP3 player fell right into the price range I was willing to pay, especially on Amazon. It is also available in 4 GB and 16 GB models. It was small, light, coming in at the length, width and height of 76.1 X 35.6 X 19 mm, and wouldn’t hinder my movements or cause my body to lean off balance should I choose to wear it on the right or the left. Its 8GB could handle MP3 file formats, as well as OGG, WMA, ASF, FLAC, WAV, MPEG4(video), TXT and JPEG files. That’s right, it displays text, video, and picture files. Not that I desired it, but it was a plus. Other additions included an FM radio and a voice recorder; again, nice to have.

 

The iAUDIO 7 MP3 player has a 1.3 inch, 260,000 color TFT LCD screen, which is loaded with more sensory information than a Corvette dashboard, no matter which function you are using, controls that are very easy to manipulate, the on/off switch, volume controls, and menu switch are easily found on the top of the player. The right end contains the USB connection; the opposite end houses the earphone jack and line in jack for making your own recordings. The LCD display takes up the left half of the front of the player, with the touch screen, yes, touch screen play/stop, record, and fast forward/rewind controls on the right half. The FF/RR control also doubles as the up/down slider for menu choices---innovative, yet cool. Quoting the Cowon iAUDIO 7 MP3 player PDF manual, which I downloaded for an in-depth, self educational, pre-sale review of the product on which I was going to spend good coin of the realm, the player contains five equalizer band effects, such as, BBE: Sound effects that provide the clearest music. Mach3Bass: A bass booster that enhances super low-end bass. MP Enhance: Sound effects that compensate for missing sound segments in MP3s. 3D Surround: Three-dimensional surround sound effect.

 

A huge factor in the decision-making process was the battery life. Up to 60 hours of play. Yes, you read that right-- sixty hours between charges. This is done via USB cable connected to your PC or laptop (AC adapter is optional). Plug it in and your system immediately recognizes it as an external storage device, PC and Mac friendly, and no separate drivers required. While you are still caught with the deer in the headlights stare at the 60 hours of battery life, remember all electronic devices that make such claims do so with a totally vanilla system. There are no personal enhancements turned on, such as equalizers, or videos playing in the background while the test is being administered. As a side note and a tip to remember, next time you are amazed that the rated battery time of your particular device purchase dropped to nil quicker than Madonna’s divorce proceedings, videos and movies aren’t included in ratings tests while the electron flow moves from negative to positive. Having said that, this player lasts longer than the Energizer bunny and his brother-in-law. It has a serious battery under the hood. Those sixty hours?  They’re for real. Other positives - the player has a fast boot speed and quick access between songs. It’s a sturdy player and doesn’t feel cheap and has a nice feel to it. The only negative is a carrying case-- it doesn’t have one which is fine by me. I use a small cell phone case clipped to my shorts. Why? In case gravity takes over and brings the player to earth at 9.8 meters per second, (Physics. The rate of acceleration.) the player has adequate protection.

 

Is it durable? I jump rope for twenty minutes at a stretch with the player on my hip. Bounce, bounce, bounce. Jump, jump, jump. Cross step, double hop, sprint in place. It doesn’t miss a beat. Again, flash memory doesn’t care. Aerobics class? Game on. The firmware, located at http://www.cowonamerica.com, was very simple to upload to the player, currently version 1.17. Mac users, take note. Even though the player comes with a quick guide installation CD, of course for Windows, it isn’t a show stopper for Apple users. This baby is plug in, instantly recognize, and drag and drop all the way, which is how I load and delete files. Nice to know the company takes care of Mac market shares as well. (Hint, hint, cell phone companies.)

 

Having found this gem of MP3 players, the Cowon iAUDIO 7 8GB MP3 player proves to be a less expensive, very capable and a worthy alternative to the iPod revolution. It clearly enters the lifetime list of purchases I am glad I made.