Choice is good, monopolies are bad. Even the most hardened of Apple iPod fans will, in moments of weakness, admit to the iPod Touch having its fair share of flaws. Granted, there’s little out there that can match its unique form-meets-function proposition, but if you’re one who likes to consider the path less trodden, you’d do well to look at Cowon’s newest personal media player — the S9.

Straight off the blocks, the S9 flatters most sincerely. Right from the shiny chrome trim on its sides and the smooth arc of its rear panel to the expansive 3.3-inch OLED screen on its face that seamlessly merges into the rest of its body, it’s clear that folks over at Cowon’s Korea design centres had style on their mind when they designed this baby.

Granted, it’s not quite as beautifully made as the iPod Touch — it feels much lighter and more plasticky — and it isn’t as minimal either, decked up with several rocker buttons and switches on its top and bottom edges. Even so, it does manage to look extremely sleek and feels great in the hand.

Switch it on, and you begin to realise where this device will score purchase points with consumers. If you thought the iPod screen was brilliant, check the S9 out. Its 3.3-in screen almost matches the Touch for detail, but it’s the technology behind the screen that edges it ahead. No standard TFT screen here, the S9 uses an AMOLED panel — that’s Active Matrix Organic Light-emitting Diode for you acronym junkies.

With each pixel having its own light source, the AMOLED panel means lower power consumption than a typical TFT screen, yet better perfect contrast and brighter, more colourful images. And how! It’s truly stunning to behold, whether you’re looking at snaps or watching Xvid or WMV movies — the image is bright, crisp and full of detail, and the size is a good compromise between keeping the device small and keeping it watchable at the same time.

Plus, you get plenty of time to enjoy it as well, with the battery rated at 55 hours for audio and 11 hours for video playback. The touch interface lacks the multi-touch characteristics of the Touch, but is responsive enough, thanks to the super-sensitive capacitive touchscreen and the capable 500MHz processor humming underneath.

And sound quality, always a Cowon hallmark, is another department where it scores over the Cupertino giant. With lossless or high bitrate audio files, the S9 sounds just wonderful, with a balanced, full sound — firm and punchy at the bottom end, crisp and clean at the top and rich and clear in the mid-range. The BBE+ sound field system really manages to put some punch into compressed music files, and a selection of additional JetEffect enhancements and EQ settings lets you tweak sound settings to your preference too.

If you like tweaking your music to your exacting specifications, the S9 is a fiddler’s delight. Speaking of which, do yourself a favour and pick up a decent pair of ’phones — the ones in the box just don’t do the S9 justice. All in all, if you’re picky about sound quality, the S9 sits up there with some DAPs from Sony as one of the best sounding MP3 players of the moment, and it edges ahead by supporting two formats — FLAC and OGG Vorbis.

Add to that its spec sheet, and the S9 doesn’t end up with the short straw for features either. On top of the comprehensive audio and video file support, the S9 boasts Bluetooth, an FM radio tuner, a built-in microphone, and line-in recording. It boasts other iPod-like trinkets too, such as an accelerometer to flip the screen orientation automatically when rotated in the hand. Movies can be dragged and dropped on to the device, with no conversion required, a boon in an iTunes-obsessed world.

Now while it does sound like it has the iPod on the mat on several counts, there is one department where the S9 just couldn’t outdo its rival. The S9’s Achilles heel is its usability. Sure, it looks pretty, the user interface is fiddly, a combination of touchscreen interface and physical buttons.

Having a choice of ‘skins’ is all well and good, but using the S9 just isn’t as intuitive as it should be, and navigating back and forth can be confusing. Wi-Fi (and the web) is missing from this device, which is rather unfortunate. These negatives, however, aren’t big enough to prevent us from recommending this fantastic media player — it looks good, is packed with features and file format support and boasts quite simply the best screen I’ve ever seen on a portable device.

Quick Specs:

• Display: 16 million colours, 3.3 inch 16:9 wide AMOLED (480x272), Capacitive touchscreen interface
• Audio: Stereo, 20Hz ~ 20KHz, max output Left 29mW + Right 29mW (16 Ohm earphones), S/N ratio - 95dB, built-in microphone recording and line-in recording
• Capacity: Flash memory, 4GB/8GB/16GB, FAT32 file system
• Interface: Bluetooth Ver 2.0 + EDR, USB 2.0 High speed
• A/V Out: Composite, Stereo Audio, NTSC / PAL
• File formats: Video - AVI, WMV, Xvid SP/ASP, WMV9 SP/MP; Audio - MPEG1 Layer 1/2/3, WMA, FLAC, OGG, WAV, APE; Photo – JPG; Document – TXT
• Applications: Video player, music player, Flash player, calculator
• Power: Built-in rechargeable lithium polymer battery, playback time – video: 11 hours, music: 55 hours
• Dimensions: 57.0(W) x 105.8(H) x 12.7(T) mm
• Weight: 77gm (battery included)
• Rating: 8/10
• Price: Rs 16,000 for 16GB variant
• URL: http://www.cowonglobal.com/

Finger on the pulse

Are you a closet hypochondriac who’s always worried about your heart? Then the LifeSpan MyBeat Heart Rate Ring is perfect for you! Worn on your finger, it provides you with a continuous reading of your heart rate — no wires, no chest straps. What’s more, it also works as a stopwatch and clock, and allows you to programme your target heart rate zone and time your exercise session upto 10 hours.

• URL: http://www.lifespanfitness.com/products_heartratering.asp
• Price: $29.99

Crystal clear

Mention wasabi, and you’d think of the spice commonly known as ‘Japanese horseradish’. Catchy name, if altogether irrelevant, for an ultra-mobile pocket-sized printer from Dell, that weighs a mere seven ounces, and is designed specially for on-the-go photo-printing and sharing. It works directly with digital cameras, mobile PC or handheld devices that support PictBridge over USB or Bluetooth connectivity.

Interestingly, it utilises Zink’s Inkless technology with the ability to print a borderless full colour 2-in x 3-in print without the unit itself carrying any ink! It’s the dye crystals that are present inside the specially patented ZINK paper — when heated by the printer, the crystals melt to release colour.

• URL: http://www.dell.com
• Price: $149