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I got a tip from rezn to keep an eye on my Inbox for a application from mblware called Hypoxia Media Player and I immediately had to catch a glimpse of something that would add spice to the bland media player RIM includes with their phones.

With the release of their new OS6 the media player is an improvement but mblware has jumped head first into giving you a media player that will bring your Blackberry to life.

How much have you wanted to stream your music or videos to your PC or vice-versa over your home’s wifi network? Well now you can with a fully featured rich application in Hypoxia Media Player. I downloaded the media player to my 9700 and immediately began exploring the many Options the application was capable of. I liked the interface and how well it blended in with my Blackberry, it seemed right at home and ready to get to work but my first hiccup came when I attempted the ‘Scan SDCard’ option to give the player access to my media files. The scanning would begin then I would get an ‘uncaught exception error’ and Hypoxia would close, not a good way to begin but I was able to work around this error by adding files using the ‘Import Files or Directory’ option’ available but this was time consuming and to me not acceptable to be a useful application.

A visit to the mblware website (www.mblware.com) was in order to contact them about this issue and their Customer Service was fast and responsive, a definite plus in any Premium application I am using. This did not stop me from using Hypoxia as I wanted to see what the player could offer me even if it took time to import my media files. I downloaded a few skins that I saw posted on their site to change the look and feel of the player to suite my taste, something the Blackberry media player does not offer. Options are abundant and useful with Hypoxia, from skinning the player to Twitter Integration, so you can share what you are listening to or watching in real time, to Message Notification, so you can preview any incoming sms, email or PIN notification, all without having to exit or disrupt your media playing. If a message is received and you need to respond you can do so or you can dismiss the message and continue listening to or watching that new video or song release. The built in Help option is very handy for the most commonly asked questions to help you set up and run the application to it’s full potential.

NOTE: In order to run Hypoxia Media Player as a media server you will need to download the mblware ‘Network Assistant’ that is included with your order or it can be downloaded from the mblware website. I did have some initial troubleshooting to do because I could not connect to my Home Network even though I was on wifi. This issue turned out to be my firewall and once I sorted that out the playing began. Hypoxia Media Player will display your album art from your song’s ID3 tag or you can use the ’Hypoxia PicShows‘ to create a custom slideshow of your favorite pictures along with your favorite audio tracks in either Full Screen or Player modes. Bluetooth support is also available and worked well when paired with my PC as well with another Blackberry.

To my delight I woke up yesterday to an email from the Berryfication Store notifying me an update was available for Hypoxia Media Player that stated the update was a maintenance update: (‘Optimized SD Card scanning for importing media in to the Hypoxia Database. If you experienced any problem during the scan process, this update will scan better on your device). All was well in my Blackberry world again and after downloading the update my media card got a full scan and now all my media was available to the Hypoxia Media Player. As with any application, game, or theme we buy it is made so much better when the developer listens to the customer and takes immediate strides to keep the customer happy. Also, with any new application there will be restrictions on some devices, such as Video Streaming which for now is only available for the 9700 but more phones will be supported soon and skins are currently limited as well but if you have the talent you can contact mblware thru their website for more information on creating your own skins.

My review was held up as I wanted to wait and see if and when mblware was going to address the scanning issue and I was not disappointed to see them do so in such a short period of time. With easy to follow video tutorials on their website and product page at the Berryfication Store and very good Customer Service this application has nowhere to go but up. Juice up your media playing experience with Hypoxia Media Player and give your Blackberry the look and feel it deserves. Available for all touch and non touch devices from the 8530 to the 9700 take a look at Hypoxia Media Player and enjoy all your media in a well made, full of options, media experience.

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