With little fanfare Microsoft released
Windows Media Player 11 in beta form last week coupled with Urge, the music service from Microsoft and MTV designed to compete with Apple's iTunes Music Store. WMP11 is a sort of preview of what we can expect to see next year in Windows Vista, and the question that seems to be on everyone's minds is whether Microsoft can finally best Apple's rock-solid player and service. According to the Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro, at least,
the answer is no. His article can be summed up by its title, "New Media Player: Nice Features, but It's No iTunes." Pegoraro says that WMP11 has a cleaner interface that represents "a smart, creative way to organize a digital music library" and catches up with iTunes in a number of respects, like its ever-present live search box and easy CD burning functionality. Its album artwork downloader, however, is bewilderingly inept. Pegoraro's review of Urge, which has both a la cart ($0.99/song, $9.99/per album) and subscription (rent your music for $9.99 a month) options, is less favorable, saying, "Not only has MTV failed to match iTunes, it has repeated some of the worst mistakes of earlier iTunes challengers." He criticizes the service's lack of extras like lyrics and bonus videos, irritating search behaviors, and the lack of iPod support that has become a cliché among iTunes' competitors. Head over to the
Washington Post for the full review or
Microsoft's web site if to bite the bullet and try Windows Media Player 11 out yourself.
by Jordan Running Oct 9th 2006
Tomorrow is Patch Tuesday at Microsoft, and the Washington Post's Brian Krebs says it's likely that among the patches we'll see tomorrow will be Internet Explorer 7. That would mean that everybody who has Windows Update set to automatically install patches will reboot to find a brand new IE on their desktop. Microsoft has declined to comment, but has confirmed that IE7 would be shipping this month. Patch Tuesday seems like the obvious opportunity. Krebs also says that one of IE7's most-touted features, its security "containment wall," won't be present in the Windows XP version of the browser.
After spending the better part of an hour on 
