New interface with Album Art, multiple device support, Winamp Remote, WMA encoder...
New in v5.5x:
Completely redesigned interface (with new Album Art), multiple device support (including iPods), Winamp Remote (for accessing and sharing Your music and videos remotely), Media Monitor (play music from the Web and add to your playlists), Smart Search (for adding artist and concert news, videos, etc.), dynamic song recommendations, MP3 Surround Sound Support, CD Text reading support (with sonic engine enabled), Shockwave Flash playback support, Nullsoft FLAC Decoder and Encoder, smarter tagging when ripping tracks, better CD metadata; various other enhancements and bug fixes for earlier releases; Release Notes - Last Updated: 08.05.08 (v5.541)
Upgrade Meter:4
New in v5.3: Unicode filename and title support, M3U8 (Unicode) playlist support; optional 24bit playback for many codecs; Replaygain support for MP3, AAC, Vorbis, M4A and WMA; personalized content portal; video sync support for portables; USB drive support; various other enhancements and bug fixes for earlier releases; Release Notes - Last Updated: 09.27.06 (v5.3)
Upgrade Meter:4
New in v5.24: Jump-to-file speed improvements, various minor enhancements and bug fixes for earlier releases; Release Notes - Last Updated: 06.22.06 Upgrade Meter:N/A
New in v5.22: Digital Music from AOL Music Now, ability to transfer Playlists to your portable music play, Classic TV shows and Cartoons via in2TV, "vastly improved" Now Playing & Burning functionality, game cheats and tips from AOL Games, various minor enhancements and bug fixes for earlier releases; Release Notes - Last Updated: 05.26.06 Upgrade Meter:2
New in v5.21: HTTP compression support, improved multi-user profile migration, various minor enhancements and bug fixes for earlier releases; Release Notes - Last Updated: 03.13.06 Upgrade Meter:2
New in v5.2: Various minor enhancements and bug fixes for earlier releases; Release Notes - Last Updated: 02.22.06 Upgrade Meter:2
New in v5.2 Beta: Various minor enhancements and bug fixes for earlier releases; Release Notes - Last Updated: 01.27.05 (5.2 Beta Build 365)
Upgrade Meter:3
New in v5.05: JTFE v0.96c, security bug fix for skins mechanism, fix for upside down videos through DirectShow, added prompt when loading skins for the first time; Release Notes - 08.30.04 Upgrade Meter:2
New in v3.0: New Wasabi coding platform (with extensive customization capabilities and cross-platform functionality), support for multiple playlists, media library for managing music, newest Gracenote (CDDB) technology; Release Notes Upgrade Meter:5
New in v2.60: SuperPiMP installation system, bookmarking for playlists and SHOUTcast streams, updated Mjuice and Audiosoft components, better navigation in large playlists, various bug fixes and cosmetic improvements; Release Notes Upgrade Meter:5
New in v2.50: Now completely freeware! Support for final WMA version, extended M3U/PLS support, automatic IE integration for SHOUTcast, bug fixes; Release Notes Upgrade Meter:5
New in v2.20: Windows Media Technology 4.0 (WMT4) input/output support, SHOUTcast v1.1 support, improved WMA support, Nitrane 1.60 MPEG audio decoder (with MMX and 3DNow! acceleration), Audiosoft secure ASFS support, improved CDDA support, Fraunhoffer MP3 decoder, Windowshade mode for Equalizer, automatic version checking, generic PCM EQ that works on most formats, bug fixes; Release Notes Upgrade Meter:5
New in v2.0:
Entirely rewritten and optimized codebase; Nitrane 1.20 MPEG decoder (improved Layer 1/2 support); Windows NT Alpha release; faster 3DNow! mode; improved docking code; visualization now available in the playlist window; improved GUI interfaces for EQ and playlist (now skinnable as well); skinnable cursors; integrated fullscreen and windowed visualization plug-ins, systray general plug-in and basic audio DSP plugin
Upgrade Meter:5
Pros: Free, outstanding CD-quality audio, excellent MP3 compression, superb features
Cons: Doesn't include any sample files, would be better with browser plug-in capabilities