RealOne Player is the worst piece of garbage I have ever experienced, ever. I have been dissappointed and ripped off by the best of them. The RealOne experience is worse than staying tuned to the end of a rented video, waiting through the movie credits, and then seeing an advertisement. It's worse than sitting through the real estate presentation by a lake front developer only to discover the family boat you won is an inflatable raft.
It's worse than those free vacation seminars that turn out to be a condominium time share sales pitch. It's worse than software rebates that never show up in the mail. It's worse than being billed for magazines you never subscribed to. It's worse than showing up at the car dealer only to find out the car you wanted that was advertised in the paper referred to a specific car which was sold yesterday and not the car model which turns out to be thousands more.
I have Windows Media Player on XP Pro and it is exactly what I want. An appliance for audio playback that does only what I want, when I want it. If I want extra stuff, I can cause that to happen by drilling deeper. RealOne is ALWAYS IN MY FACE loading aps and ads and ads and ads that I do not want. I unchecked every marketing option during setup that threatened my privacy yet received dozens of ad impressions each time I loaded their software before I reached my intended content. While at Amazon.com I clicked on an artist's 30 second sample and got an ad from FoxNews when the RealOne browser loaded before the audio from the sample streamed. Content providers who offer "only" Real formats shall never reach me because I will not tolerate that software on my machine again. My preference is MP3 but I will take WMA anyday over any Real format.
I cannot tell you how much I hated the RealOne trial. I hated the hassel of following RealOne's "FREE DOWNLOAD" banners through multiple screens, and once reaching the fine print. Having to provide a credit card which they will begin charging after the trial UNLESS I proactively figure out how to contact them and cancel.
I hate the fact that when I first looked at the cost it appeared to be just 9.95 but is really a subscription for 9.95 per month. I hate the hassel of now having to call an 800 number and waiting on hold for 30 minutes just to cancel a membership I didn't really want to begin with.
I hated every second of the experience in using REALONE software which at every twist and turn denied access to simple things under the auspices that they were premium features. I dread removing this advertising machine from my computer due to the probability that some vestige of this gimmicky program will remain to haunt me.
Mike
Garland, Texas
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