CrunchGear

It’s official, I am sick of MP3 players. It appears impossible for anyone to do anything innovative anymore and the features everyone really wants don’t appear to be possible. Furthermore it’s impossible to release a new player without being dubbed “the world’s…” something or an “iPod killer” (now include “Zune killer”). Not bashing you guys as writers just saying the whole industry bores me now. I think what actually pushed me over the top was the lame upgrades to the iPod lineup. Or maybe I’m having a bad day at work, I can’t even tell anymore.

id like it better if it where a phone…

yeah, this would be a better product design for a phone. I agree with w/ Wallosoup that many of the “new” mp3 players are coming out with little to no real increased feature sets or value. I do like some of the features that will be available with the Zune (i.e. FM tuner integration, FM transmitter, zune-2-zune sharing, etc). But at some point, there needs to be a really significant offering because player models are becoming a dime a dozen.

> id like it better if it where a phone…

Yeah seriously. We already have a hundred different cell phones that can do everything this mp3 player can do plus they have the additional feature of you know, being a cell phone! :p

Maybe these guys will get bought out by Nokia or Motorola and help to enhance their cell phone line-up, but this late in the game, I can’t see this product making any waves at all.

I am not quite ready to get my 11 year old a cell phone, but if she can take care of an mp3 player that looks like one, she might prove herself responsible enough to actually get the phone.

Forget the F2: it’s style at the expense of substance, because trying to make any kind of sense of its navigation is an effort that’s a waste of time. The buttons are too small, the unit’s USB charging is erratic, the on-off switch is fragile and if you’re not in the Far East or USA, getting anything done under Cowon’s warranty is out of the question.

Cowon / iAudio certainly produces items of outstanding sonic ability but when it comes to the F2 (after the diaster of the ridiculous F1 model)it’s clear the company has little idea of real-world use of MP3 flash players.