Microsoft says Windows Media Player 11 will be available in June of this year. The software, which will be built into Vista, is designed to offer better synching with portable devices, make it easier to scroll through long libraries of music, and be tightly integrated with Urge, a new subscription and download music service co-developed by Microsoft and MTV Networks.

With the new media player, consumers will be able to "reverse sync," meaning they can send content from a digital device to a PC. That will allow users to transfer pictures taken with their camera phone, or music purchased on a wireless device. Other sync options include synching a player to multiple PCs and filling a device with random tracks--a la Shuffle in iTunes--according to a Windows Vista product guide that was briefly made available on the Internet last week.

Another change is the ability to alter protected music and video files to change their quality level. With the new software, protected Windows Media files can be converted to smaller file sizes for playback on mobile devices, where there is less need for very-high-quality video files.  Of course, the player that most people want to connect with is Apple Computer's iPod. And no, Windows Media Player 11 won't allow conversion of purchased Windows Media Songs into iTunes' proprietary FairPlay format. So songs bought from a Windows Media store still won't play on the iPod.