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So a few days ago Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 was released. I was wondering why I should bother installing it. After all, I didn't think that Beta 1 was all that. Sean says it's a must have update. Um, ok, I usually upgrade to the latest and greatest, but I'm still curious what's new.

This reminds me... it appears that the Windows Media Player Team is the only team at Microsoft that isn't blogging about their product. So,I go and read the Read Me and it says:

What's new in this beta release compared to the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP?

The following list highlights some of the major changes since the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.

• Fixing issues. Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP.

• Additional online stores are now available. More online stores are available in this beta release of Windows Media Player 11 for Windows XP. For a listing of online stores that are now available, see Availability of online stores.

• Changes to sharing digital media content. The functionality of Windows Media Connect is now integrated into Windows Media Player 11 Beta 2 for Windows XP as the new Media Sharing feature, which lets you enjoy the contents of your Windows Media Player library from anywhere in your home. If you have a home network (wired or wireless), you can use Windows Media Player 11 to stream the contents of your library to networked devices such as Xbox 360 or other digital media receivers. For more information, go to Digital Media at Home.

  Note that digital media sharing is targeted for home users; therefore, computers that are joined to a domain might experience issues when trying to share digital media.

Hmmm, lets look at the first bullet point. Fixing Issues? Hello, but could you be more non descriptive? Oh wait, it goes further to explain that "Fixes have been made for issues that occurred in the first beta release..."? Oh really? Like what fixes? How about the fact that it's pretty much still unusable and has a completely weird menu system that I can't figure out? Sometimes I wonder... if you take a look at a pretty radical User Experience change like the Ribbon in Office, you can tell that a lot of hard work, usability testing and iteration went into that product. In fact, Jensen Harris does an amazing job of making this all very transparent to all of us. Want to know or understand how or why WMP 11 acts and behaves the way that it does? Browse over to Microsoft.com and check out a multi-page read me with 3 bullet points explaining what is approx a few months of work by a team of folks.

Seriously, in the age of blogs, wikis, and the ability to have a 2 way discussion with end users, it seems odd to me that this product is being designed in a 1990s style process.

Personally, I'd love to read about how the team addressed feedback in the latest version.