Cowon intros hybrid GPS and media player

Cowon finished its week by launching the L2, its latest entry into the field of extra-large media players. Intended as much for the car as for home viewing, the L2 revolves around a large 7-inch widescreen and includes its own GPS receiver for route finding on the road but also includes heavy media playback components. Owners can watch AVI or MPEG-4 video clips, and (in Korean form) tune into over-the-air digital TV broadcasts through a DMB tuner; Cowon includes a more advanced picture-in-picture option that can display both maps and the media window at the same time, reducing the map view to as little as a quarter-size for when the map is only a secondary concern.

The L2 also has greater audio and image support than most GPS units with WAV and WMA joining MP3 for music, BMP and PNG accompanying JPEG photos, and FM radio. Its built-in speakers are also better than average, the company claims. The 4W integrated speakers have both bass and virtual 3D sound to enhance movie watching in the right environments. Storage is handled by default through 2GB of built-in flash, but can be expanded by another 2GB through an SD card slot.

Cowon is shipping the L2 to Korea for a relatively low price of $322. The device is unlikely to be imported in its current form given the lack of DMB networks in the US, but may follow Cowon's past practices and ship a version to North America without the TV feature. [via Akihabara]