Real's new RealPlayer SP lets you grab videos from streaming sites such as YouTube and pop them onto your mobile phone or a personal media player, along with a load of other rather cool new features.
The 'SP' stands for Social/Portable and, as well as integrating with all the major social networking sites (Facebook, Twitter et al) and giving you the ability to easily grab videos from YouTube and the like, it packs in an improved media manager and player, web browser, a subscription and a la carte music store (Rhapsody), a gaming store (Real Arcade) and an audio recorder.
The current beta version is only available for Windows users right now, with a Mac version promised in the near future.
While there is nothing that is particularly groundbreaking or new in Realplayer SP - as you have been able to get Firefox add-ons which let you rip YouTube vids for some time already - the user-friendly nature of the package as a whole may well be what will appeal to the mass market.
What's the SP?
Gizmodo has already tried out Realplayer SP and remains on the fence, noting that "The overall package needs some work: RealPlayer SP is way too bloated to work as just a video ripper/converter, and as a media jukebox it's outdated and cumbersome."
The reviewer adds that, "Real has a good idea here, but RealPlayer needs more than some flashy add-ons. We'd love it if Real would put out the SP features in a simple applet, and leave off the browsers and media managers that we don't give a damn about."
Try it out for yourself now and, if you really like it then you might even want to upgrade to the all-singing $40 version that includes H.264 conversion, DVD playback and DVD burning.
TechRadar will be getting a hands on with Realplayer SP later today, so we'll bring your our own thoughts on the matter shortly.
