Windows Phone Thoughts: Synchronizing with Windows Media Player 11

Fortunately for us Windows Mobile users, Windows Media Player 11 isn't just eye-candy. Beneath the player's visually appealing interface is an improved sync experience with portable media devices that rivals what most consider to be the benchmark in today's digital age - that is, the iTunes + iPod partnership.

After the break, we'll take a look at some of the new features in Windows Media Player 11, and most importantly, go through the simple steps to getting your favourite media on to your mobile device.

The User Interface - Good Looks, Better Performance
Having learned from its mistakes, Microsoft spent some time revamping the entire user interface of Windows Media Player 11. The end result? A player that looks good, works well, and is significantly more usable than its predecessors.

When you first launch Windows Media Player 11, you'll immediately notice that its layout is similar to that of Windows Media Player 10's - tabs at the top, list pane to the right, and playback controls at the bottom. However, each of these three elements sports a unique set of changes that influence the overall usability of the player. Each tab (not just Now Playing) now includes a set of extended menu options that offer quick access to common settings. To the left of the tabs are Internet Explorer 7-style Back and Forward buttons that allow you to retrace your steps. The list pane to the right includes a new dynamic box that not only displays album art and ratings, but also allows you to purchase the track or album via Microsoft's online media store, URGE (to be discussed later). The playback controls at the bottom of the player have been shifted from the left to the centre to make way for a new status area that not only displays track information, but also a thumbnail view of playback status, album art, and a spectrum analyser. Speaking of which, the main visualisations in Windows Media Player 11 have not been updated - that's right, same old, boring Bars and Waves, Battery, and Musical Colors. Whether Microsoft will update these over the course of the beta period is something that we'll only know once the player is officially released.

Despite these changes, it should come as no surprise that Microsoft focused most of their efforts on improving the media library. Windows Media Player 10's media library was so blasphemous that I stopped using it altogether. Now, with Windows Media Player 11, I'm back to using it again, and it is without question the core experience of the new player, and an enjoyable one too.

Viewing and organising your media collection in the new media library has never looked so good. In Windows Media Player 11, Microsoft ditched the spreadsheet-style library in favour of an attractive and easier-to-use graphical library, where album art plays a key role. Categorised stacking is supported, so multiple albums in a specific category pile up to deliver a better visual representation of your media collection. If you're not a fan of the default view, you can change it to an expanded tile view or a detailed view. The navigation pane to the left has also been tidied up to enhance usability.

The accompanying word wheel search feature delivers instant, on-demand results, similar to what iTunes offers, except Windows Media Player 11 goes one-up on iTunes by delivering results with the relevant album art. Microsoft also managed to integrate the search feature with the URGE service, so you can use the same search box to perform a simultaneous search in your local library and the URGE catalog.



The ripping and burning experience has also been enhanced. The extended Rip tab menu allows you to select the desired format and bit rate, among other things. Microsoft's online database of media information has been updated, and a new advanced audio fingerprinting feature is present, alongside copy-and-paste support for album art, so at the end of the day, there's a greater chance that your albums will appear with the correct information and better looking album art. Burning custom CDs in Windows Media Player has never been easier. The new interface is all about dragging-and-dropping tracks or playlists into the list pane. Above the list is a box with a graphical bar that automatically updates the remaining capacity of the disc as you drag-and-drop. If your items fail to fit on to a single disc, you can make full use of the disc-spanning feature and have Windows Media Player 11 burn the items on to several discs.

The New Sync Experience
We haven't received any hints of a release of Windows Media Player 11 Mobile, but that's not to say that Windows Media Player 11 cannot sync with existing Pocket PCs and Smartphones running Windows Media Player 10 Mobile. In fact, the sync experience between the two is significantly more stable and reliable than ever before.

When you first connect your portable device (whether it be a Pocket PC, Smartphone, Portable Media Center, or other compatible device), Windows Media Player 11 fires up a wizard that allows you to customise the name of the device (or the memory card) and set up an automatic or manual sync relationship. The former works by mirroring your entire media collection (or select playlists) on to your mobile device. The latter allows you to specify which files and playlists you want to sync each time your device is connected, and for the majority of us who prefer greater control and have large media collections, this will end up being the preferred sync relationship.

After establishing a manual relationship, you'll notice that your device appears in the navigation pane to the left. This entry can be expanded to display a set of categories (sync status, artist, album, songs, genre, year, rating, and playlists) that allows you to monitor the contents of the device using the same graphical library interface that drives Windows Media Player 11. Because the Sync page is heavily tied to Windows Media Player's media library, all it takes is a bit of drag-and-drop action to kick-start the sync process. Similar to the burn interface, the list pane is situated to the right with a box above it displaying the storage capacity of the device. After dragging-and-dropping the relevant tracks, albums and playlists, hitting the Start Sync button toward the bottom-right makes the magic happen. Depending on how you set the conversion options, Windows Media Player will either copy the files straight on to your device or downsize them to better fit the device. If your heart so desires, you can establish a shuffle sync relationship - that is, have Windows Media Player automatically add a set of shuffled songs from your library to the list pane. And depending on the device, a reverse sync relationship can also be established (to transfer content from the device to the computer), along with a guest sync relationship (to help deal with multiple libraries on multiple computers).

Once the items have been synchronised, you can launch Windows Media Player 10 Mobile on your Pocket PC or Smartphone and witness the changes. Firstly, there's absolutely no need to update the media library of the device since Windows Media Player 11 automatically updates the media library during the sync process. Secondly, all media information (including album art) is correctly transferred from the computer to the device. That is quite a departure from Windows Media Player 10, which failed to do any of that correctly.

Microsoft boasts improved sync functionality with Windows Media Player 11, and from what I can tell, it works. Yes, I'll say it again - it works. It's now easy to rip a CD or download a song from the music store and have it on your device in a flash.



Got the URGE to Download?
So, what is URGE? Long story short, it's Microsoft's and MTV's baby. This digital music service is exclusive to Windows Media Player 11 and is a huge step up from MSN Music. It boasts a catalog of over two million songs, hundreds of playlists, and a wealthy collection of radio stations - all integrated into Windows Media Player 11's graphically-enhanced interface.

URGE has three major pricing plans - "URGE - By the Track", "URGE - All Access", and "URGE - All Access to Go".
• URGE - By the Track: the limited solution; tracks available at 99c each with twenty free radio stations and access to URGE's feature stories, music blogs, and interviews.
• URGE - All Access: the unlimited solution; play and download all tracks and access all other services at $9.95 per month or $99 per year.
• URGE - All Access to Go: the "All Access" benefits with additional support for playback on portable media devices at $14.95 per month or $149 per year.

URGE may be Microsoft's attempt at stealing some of iTunes' market share, but it still has a long way to go before it gets anywhere. The iTunes Music Store currently operates in twenty-one countries and URGE operates in just one (the United States). Apple also has the advantage of possessing a uniform media player, whereas Microsoft relies heavily on third-party manufacturers to deliver Windows Media Player-compatible solutions. Guess which one is easier to advertise?



Availability
Windows Media Player 11 is available for both Windows XP and Windows Vista. The version compatible with Windows XP can currently be downloaded as a beta from Microsoft, while the version compatible with Windows Vista is included in the operating system by default.

So, is Windows Media Player 11 worth the download? You bet. It's everything Windows Media Player 10 should have been.