I got an email from abi reader Reece saying “i couldnt be bothered sending my iAudio 7 to korea to repair, as i had broken the menu button off inside the player. i decided to give it a crack myself, and i fixed it fine.”. Massive props to Reece for taking matters into his own hands with a little bit DIY and many thanks to him for sharing his slide show of this endeavor.

If you need instructions on you probably shouldn’t be taking it apart. Cracking this bad boy open requires a small screw driver and a little bit of patience. If you forget how to put it back together perhaps these photos will help. Thanks again Reece!

The iAudio 7 review, if you missed it. Also in related news, just yesterday Rockbox dev Daniel posted a photo of the i7 with custom code running on its way to getting Rockboxed.

It has not taken long for another DAP manufacturer to follow suit after the Creative Zen V Plus received a memory increased to 16GB. The iAudio 7 with a capacity of 16GB has been announced by Cowon.

Alongside the i7, new edition of the D2 (dubbed the D2 DMB) will feature 4GB and 8GB of internal storage, while expansion through SDHC cards can provide a further 8GB. The increase in storage space is not the only addition to the D2; it will also receive the ability to handle DMB content.

Several player and accessory packs are available for the South Korean market, but there is no dates and prices for other regions yet.

[Press Release]

Cowon has updated their i6 by replacing the 0.85” micro hard drive with flash memory and upgraded the battery for long lasting 60 hours of playtime. Adding the flash memory to this device is a big improvement since one of the biggest complaints about the iAudio 6 was is slow interface due to the data bottle neck of the hard drive. The iAudio 7 has the same great sound, powerful amp, features, and solid build quality as the i6. There are no substantial improvements other than the speedier interface, which is now par by standards.

The player is basically a year old at its “new” launch date. Can Cowon keep resting on its fanboy audiophile base and branding of being “the best sound quality” without improving interface and basic usability?

The picture is probably enough for you to realize that this is the successor of the Cowon iAudio 6, as few changes have been made to the exterior of the player, but what you can't see is that the mini 0.85” hard drive has been replaced by flash memory in 4GB and 8GB sizes. The outstanding support for audio formats (MP3, WMA, ASF, Ogg Vorbis, and FLAC) is still there, as are the 1.3” 260K-color OLED screen, FM radio, voice recorder, and support for XviD, TXT, and JPEG files. The new player's 60-hour battery life is a dramatic increase over its predecessor's 20-hour playback time.

The Cowon iAudio 7 will be released in Korea on the 18th of July, but so far no international release date has been set.

[Bestofmicro | Cowon via Engadget]