4 Great Alternatives To Windows Media Player

If you are tired of using the media player that comes with Windows, then I won't be surprised. There are so many media file types that I have tried but couldn't play on W.M.P. Plus the interface is not that user friendly to me. I feel it is much bulky then a media player should have been.
There is no reason why you should not try other media players in the market and guess what they are free and are supported on more than one operating systems. So if you use multiple operating system, you need to look for another good media player.
After trying various options by my self I recommend these extremely popular well known media players:

1. Top of the list is  MPlayer. It is light, it is capable of playing anything and it has the best way to navigate the media files (simply arrow keys). I love this player for the media file support coverage and for the flexibility it provides by allowing you to type in various command line parameters. Once you learn few good and popular option you can make most out of it. At the same time, if you do not want to take the pain of passing command line parameters then you can simply download the GUI wrapper for it called SMPlayer.  To support more file types you may download codecs, but the default setup is usually good enough to support most of the common media file types.You may play subtitles for the movies that are not in the language that you understand.
2. Next in the list is VLC Player. It is again light, handy to use and it supports everything in the world. This may not be the best looking media player but certainly it is one of the best feature packed one. It is also an open source software like MPlayer and hence support for all media files are being developed and available to be used with this player. Try it and you wont use any other player anymore. It also supports subtitles and other common features like streaming.
3. This place is taken by the well known Real Player. It plays most of the files, flash media and audio files. Earlier it had limited support for the files, but that has extended as well. This is again available for Windows and Linux. Interface is good and simple. It supports fast forwarding of the files like you used to do on the old tape based VCRs. I usually install it on my system as a backup player, in case if there is an issue with the Mplayer and VLC Player in playing a media file.
4. If you have all the above three players then you need nothing more than that. But one player need a mention here, which is FLV Player. This player is also loaded with features. It is very light and sleek. User interface is much better than the other players mentioned here. It is also free to download and is supported universally. 

For most of us watching movies is the best time pass and entertainment but for me windows media player is not the way to experience the movies. 

On my Nokia N73

I got this phone last year in Oct (2006) and have been using it till now. I must say I still feel proud on making such a smart choice while selecting the phone for my needs. My earlier phone was a low end model from Sony Ericsson and had not much functionalities.

My requirements:
1. A cool dude phone
2. Price not very very high
3. Good sound quality
4. Easy to maintain
5. Camera (wasn't really in need of 3.2 MGP)
6. Could check mails and surf net
7. All other loaded features like USB connectivity, enough memory, FM radio, etc.

With these requirements I browsed almost all the manufactures sites, went to many malls around to check the available options and read reviews from different sites. I finally decided to go either for Sony Ericsson (which I already trust) or well set Nokia. N-series from Nokia is really a wonderful landmark for the company. It is proving to be better and better with time now. I decided to choose finally between N-72 and N-73 and the only confusion was because of the price difference. I got N-73 finally considering it is having two speakers, better camera features and less easily visible in the hands of people around.

Opinion:
I am fully satisfied with this phone since then. It is such a masterpiece from Nokia. Hats-off to it. It has easily available themes, ringtones, softwares over the net. Battery life is good, no problems till now. I could listen to music whole night while traveling.

Plus:
1. Well trusted brand and series
2. Good battery life
3. Easy support and software availability
4. Handy to use and light weight.
5. Music edition is available now, so extra toppings on all of the above

Minus:
1. Sometimes hang while using camera, but most of the camera phone has that problem
2. Features over cost ration is little low. Now a days it has increased as well.
3. Video ringtones are not supported.
4. Alarm clock has no feature for setting recursively0 (say for the week). Not sure if there is any software available for that.