Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Jake Ludington Looks at Windows Media Player 11 Beta
Posted by Jason Dunn in "ARTICLE" @ 07:00 PM
"Microsoft releases a new version of Windows Media Player about once every two years. This beta release of WMP11 both improves on features of WMP10 and bridges the gap between what we've come to expect from the current version of WMP and what we can expect to see when Vista finally ships. The biggest changes are in navigation of media, searching and the addition of more media types to the player interface. The new layout for Windows Media Player took a few visual cues from iTunes, most notably placing the playback button in the center of the application window. Sure iTunes has the buttons at the top and WMP11 places them at the bottom, but the similarities are still there. Granted there are only so many places you can put the playback buttons and centering them is likely better for usability. The biggest annoyance with button positioning is cutting off track information displayed because there isn't enough room to the left of the buttons to fit all the details unless the player is in full screen mode."
A nice walk-through of the Windows Media Player 11 beta, along with some of the new features and, unfortunately, some of the annoyances. Overall Jake seems to like the player though, having installed it on his primary machine. I haven't been that brave yet, I keep beta software on test boxes only. Have you tried the beta yet? What do you think of it so far?
A nice walk-through of the Windows Media Player 11 beta, along with some of the new features and, unfortunately, some of the annoyances. Overall Jake seems to like the player though, having installed it on his primary machine. I haven't been that brave yet, I keep beta software on test boxes only. Have you tried the beta yet? What do you think of it so far?
