New Winamp Hits the Streets

AOL finally released its long-awaited Winamp 5.0 media player, which builds on the successes of its previous two versions (version 2.0 + version 3.0 = version 5.0 in AOL math) to deliver a more powerful albeit more complicated digital-media experience. After enjoying massive success with Winamp 2.0, AOL saw its fortunes and mindshare plummet with its miserable 3.0 release, which was dogged by poor performance and a buggy application-development language. So, the company regrouped and worked out version 5.0, which is faster than version 3.0, but includes advanced features such as a media library, CD ripping, and support for Dobly AAC. A $15 pro version will also include MP3 encoding and a faster CD ripper.