If you’ve ever tried to use RealPlayer to import media files from your mobile devices then you’ll know that it can be a difficult process.

That’s all changed with the new RealPlayer 14 beta, though. There’s now direct support for working with your BlackBerry, Android or Windows phones, the iPhone, iPod, iPad and many more, and the program will sync device content with your Library very easily.

The RealPlayer Library is now better presented, too. Set the program up to import your media files, wherever they’re stored, and the program will automatically organise them into music, videos, photos and more. New support for album art in your music collection then makes browsing more straightforward, helping you find the files you need at a glance.

Other highlights of the beta include much improved image handling. Select photos of interest, for instance, and you can view them in a slideshow in a couple of clicks. If you spot a problem with one then the Edit option will open it in your default editor. And when you’re happy, the new Share button will upload selected images direct to your Facebook account.

Try clicking Share on a music file and you’ll see even more destinations – Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, MySpace, Bebo and Email. Right now only Facebook and YouTube appear to work, but it does show RealPlayer 14’s going to be a great tool for media sharing when the final version is released.

Of course RealPlayer still has all its own features, so you can play music, videos, CDs or DVDs, trim audio or video files, burn your data to disc, download streaming media files, upload videos to YouTube, and more. Yet despite all this, we found RealPlayer 14 to be compact and fast, making few demands on our system resources.

There are still a few omissions and beta-related problems, then, but generally RealPlayer 14 works well. If you’ll use the new device syncing options, or media sharing, or you just haven’t tried the program for a while, then go take a look – it’s an interesting and feature-packed player.