What’s the most popular word for members of this site? BlackBerry! Okay, what’s the second most popular word? FREE!! We all try to find applications to augment our already powerful Berrys, and hope that we find some free ones. Granted, there are some fantastic “premium” media players out there, but I thought I’d give attention to a free multimedia player.

Shape Services offers a free multimedia player in the form of xPlayer. xPlayer was originally presented through X-Berrysoft, when the company was purchased by Shape Services towards the end of 2007. They have continued and improved upon their lineup.  xPlayer is available for all 4.2+ OS devices. xPlayer supports all types of multimedia, so you can take your favorite song, and the video, with you.

Though there are enhancements planned on the native player available with a newer os, xPlayer is still worth a look at. Especially if you are waiting for the official os release and don’t want to spend money on an application.

Plug in your stereo headphones (or use your Bluetooth ones) and let the music move you.

Just Press Play

As previously stated, xPlayer supports all types of multimedia: mp3, m4a, avi, mp4, 3gp, wma, amr, mid, and wav.

The interface is smooth and simple, as it should be. In my opinion, no media player should be difficult to use, you can keep me from my music!! xPlayer opens up to a blank slate, waiting for you to corrupt it with your loud music (damned teenagers). To add music, press your menu button and select add file/folder. You will navigate through your folder almost like on your computer. I would have liked to see more of a tree view, but perhaps they decided not to add this in order to keep the clutter to a minimum. I was able to select an entire album and bring it over to xPlayer. Alternatively you could “Mark All” then “Select” to bring the entire album over, but why put yourself through the hassle?

no music, no fun

add music or video

Searching for the ultimate mix…

xPlayer offers the same shuffle, repeat and background (continue to play when xPlayer is hidden) modes that the native browser offers. You can also manage multiple playlists, whether it be a particular artist’s album or a stew of your favorite songs. I found myself recreating the albums as my playlists after I brought albums into xPlayer. You can easily navigate between playlists by opening up “Load Playlist”. You can load more than once by pressing the space button.

Waiting for the world to change?
Try waiting for a BlackBerry Bold, Mr. Mayer :P

add another playlist to the mix

Speaking of buttons, xPlayer supports BlackBerry shortcuts. Jump to the top or bottom of your playlists by pressing T or B, use M to mute, Space or Trackball to pause. xPlayer also has multiple buttons for next and previous tracks. I think the application should stick with one button each in this case, less confusing that way.

Another method of organizing your music is to sort them. xPlayer lets you sort your music by Title, Author, Filename or Path and filename. Now to the music, I first found that xPlayer would not recognize my headset and would play the music through the BlackBerry speakers. Going into the settings menu, you can select the “audio path” and choose from paths such as Bluetooth, handsfree, handset and headset.

What application would be complete without themes?! Initially, xPlayer comes with two themes. You can find two more and easily download them from the wap site <link wap.x-berrysoft.com>

Final Chord

xPlayer does offer a bit more than the native BlackBerry player. For a free application, I give xPlayer a thumbs up. It doesn’t share the flashy graphics as say Flipside or MiuTunes, but it does offer enough to turn some heads. If you don’t want to spend any money on software, xPlayer is a great alternative. In their next version, I hope that they can tinker with the button issues I mentioned earlier and perhaps allow for an easier way to select an audio path. One of the many places to download this free app is through the CrackBerry store.

Pros

• Smooth Design
• Manage Multiple playlists
• Choose from 4 themes

Cons

• Too many buttons for perform the same function
• Must select audio path

Download

• Download a Free Copy of xPlayer >>