With my recent computer troubles I ended up visiting Windows Update a lot. I noticed Windows Media Player (WMP) 10 is now in production, so I decided to give it a whirl. The UI got some little tweaks: now the menu is impossible to find, the background is a nice blue and they’ve started emphasizing some things that were always in the product, but were previously hidden. I’ve never used iTunes, but I assume a lot of the tweaks have to do with iTunes’ success. MS is at their best when they’re trying to crush a competitor to a pulp; and the only way for them now is to make a better product, rather than strong arm tactics.
The feature I wanted to talk about, though, is the ability to sync music to my Pocket PC right in WMP! Before I had to use, um, my backup copy, yeah, of Plus! Digital Media Edition for that feature, and even then it was poorly implemented. But the new Media Player has integrated it superbly. That one feature isn’t good enough for me to switch to WMP for everything: I am still a tried and true Winamp fan; but it’s nice to see competition has improved things.
I also hear that WMP 10 has a better .NET Primary Interop Assembly, so I’ll add that on the list of things to look at.