Windows MediaPlayer Goes Wireless

By Jeff Michalski
iApplianceWeb
(05/23/01, 10:38:53 AM EDT)

Microsoft Corp. has released the Microsoft Windows Media 7.1 Player for Pocket PC and announced a preview of a new wireless digital media guide for mobile users, WindowsMedia.com Mobile.

In a separate announcement Intel committed to optimizing the code for Microsoft's Mobile Media Player's audio, video, and digital rights management (DRM) technology for the Intel XScale microarchitecture. This will enable makers of 2.5G and 3G wireless devices to deliver digital media services on smartphones.

The new Windows Media Player 7.1 for Pocket PC supports wireless access for digital audio and video. The player also includes Audio and Video 8 codecs, providing the best-quality audio and video in the smallest file size.

In conjunction with the release, Microsoft is previewing WindowsMedia.com Mobile, which provides mobile users with access to Windows Media audio and video content and can be streamed to a Pocket PC over high-speed wireless Internet access such as Metricom's Ricochet Network or 802.11 Wireless LANs.

Key features of Windows Media Player for Pocket PC include:

• Playlist creation
• Support for Windows Media and MP3 files.
• Auto Media Discovery
• New skins with Skins Chooser
• Background Playback