RealPlayer 16 is a new version of the veteran media player, now enhanced with powerful features that make it even easier to transport and share your media.

There's simplified support for transferring files to and from many portable devices, for instance: the iPod, iPhone or iPad, your BlackBerry, MP3 player, Android or many other smart phones. You can now transfer music, video or pictures, too. And the system will sync playlists between your devices and the RealPlayer library, so everything stays up to-date.

You get more options for handling digital photos. Select a few images and the program can display them as a slideshow. Spotted a problem? An Edit option will open them in your default image editor. And when you're happy, you can share them on Facebook in a couple of clicks.

It's easy to access your friend's Facebook videos from within the interface, too. And you can now bookmark videos for reference later. If you're playing a movie and realise you don't have time to view it all, just hover your mouse cursor over the video, choose the "Bookmark" option, and it'll be saved for one-click access at some later date.

Another bonus this time is Toolbar Mode, now available in the free player. If you think RealPlayer's admittedly rather bulky interface is taking up too much real estate, click View > Toolbar Mode (or just press F8). The player will shrink to the minimum possible size, while your playback and other essential controls are collapsed to a toolbar at the bottom of the screen.

And of course RealPlayer 16 has all the features it's managed to accumulate in previous versions, so for instance you can play music, videos, CDs or DVDs; organise your media collection; trim audio and video files; burn your files to CDs or DVDs, upload videos to YouTube, and more.