Crave giveaway: Cowon Auto Capsule AC1 dashboard camera

by Leslie Katz October 19, 2012

Congrats to Jean F. of Gainesville, Fla., for scoring a Crux360 iPad case with Bluetooth keyboard in last week's giveaway.

Do a lot of driving? You and your car (and your insurance company) will love this week's freebie, a Cowon Auto Capsule AC1 dashboard camera.

The 2-megapixel cam with a 16:9 wide screen records and stores high-resolution 1,280x720-pixel high-definition footage in real time at 30 frames per second. When the device's internal accelerometer detects a shock, it automatically captures a video clip ("see, a Tasmanian devil really did dash in front of me!"). The 15 seconds of cached video preceding the event and the 15 seconds following are stored on the microSD card as a 30-second AVI file.

The petite device measures about 4 inches long and 1.5 inches deep. In his four-star review of the product, CNET Car Tech editor Antuan Goodwin says the pill-shaped Cowon Auto Capsule AC1 is so simple to use it requires almost no interaction from the driver. He does think the product's $200 MSRP is a bit high for the feature set, but what do you care about the MSRP? You're getting the product free!

So how do you go about scoring this Cowon car DVR and getting in on the dashboard cam video craze? There are a few rules, so please read them carefully (and remember, if you want giveaway updates delivered straight to your Facebook feed, hit the Subscribe button at the base of my bio below this story).

And here's the disclaimer that our legal department said we had to include (sorry for the caps, but rules are rules):

NO PURCHASE NECESSARY TO ENTER OR WIN. A PURCHASE WILL NOT INCREASE YOUR CHANCES OF WINNING. YOU HAVE NOT YET WON. MUST BE LEGAL RESIDENT OF ONE OF THE 50 UNITED STATES OR D.C., 18 YEARS OLD OR AGE OF MAJORITY, WHICHEVER IS OLDER IN YOUR STATE OF RESIDENCE AT DATE OF ENTRY INTO SWEEPSTAKES. VOID IN PUERTO RICO, ALL U.S. TERRITORIES AND POSSESSIONS AND WHERE PROHIBITED BY LAW. Sweepstakes ends at 12 p.m. ET on Monday, October 22, 2012. See official rules for details.

Good luck.