Don’t expect Apple’s iTunes to work with the Motorola Q anytime soon, but THERE IS GOOD NEWS from the Microsoft front. If you download the new Microsoft Media Player version 11, then you will get the auto-sync features we’ve so desired with our MotoQ’s to make them more like iPods. ActiveSync isn’t even required as I’ve described before (although it comes in handy as described below).

The Microsoft download site describes the new feature with the following language…

Play it, view it, organize it, or sync it to a portable device for enjoying on the go, or share with devices around your home—all from one place.

All the explanation about the new “Enjoy Everywhere” feature can be found here. Keep in mind that it’s a hefty download (25Mb). Once downloaded, the software requires validation of your windows system… which only takes a few moments. The installation itself takes several minutes depending upon the speed of your computer.

Once Windows Media Player launches, click on the Sync button. If you’ve got a MiniSD card, it’ll show up as a separate choice in the list of sync devices. Keep this in mind, because you’ll likely want to sync with your “Storage Card” and not the free memory in your Q. Since the Sync feature won’t remove all the files you copied over using ActiveSync, you’ll need to “undo” it before syncing. Don’t assume if you’ve accidently (or intentionally) put your music in a directory of /Music on your card that it’ll work… the index needs to be created. It might be better to copy the files back to your PC using ActiveSync (if they’re not there already), but the player on the Q does have a feature to add all files to its library (didn’t try this).

Before you sync too many times, be sure to open up the Properties window and set the Quality to your liking (I haven’t experimented with what sounds good vs. what fits on the memory card but the default settings are “best quality”). This feature can be found by clicking on the Sync tab pull-down, then the target device, and the “Advanced Options…” from the fly-out. The picture at the left shows the settings I chose. Your mileage may vary.

If you set up Playlists in the Media Player you might choose to grab the entire playlist, drag, and drop it into the Sync field. You can also set up the Sync to kill everything on your Q’s storage area and put a brand new set of songs in “shuffle” mode onto your device. Sometimes conversion to play on the MotoQ is required, but thankfully the sync continues while other files get converted (although only one file can be sync’d at a time).

Another choice that I haven’t tried yet is to automatically sync whenever the device is connected. I’d imagine this feature is useful, but only if you plan on leaving your Q connected for the requisite period of time. I found that deleting the existing files and syncing the new files took more time than for which I’d typically connect while syncing my calendar for Outlook. I’m choosing to specifically sync whenever I have the time.

There is still so much to learn about this. Hopefully you’ll share your experiences too.