MS to donate custom WMP skins to US military

We have the ear of the Pentagon...

By John Lettice • Get more from this author

Posted in Software, 15th November 2001 10:36 GMT

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A brief note posted at skinz.org claims that The Skins Factory has been commissioned by Microsoft's Windows Media Division "to create four Custom Windows Media Player 7 skins for the United States Armed Forces." The intent is to show support for the US Military.

Both Microsoft Spin Central and the Windows Media Division's press operations seem as yet silent on the subject, but The Skins Factory says the four WMP 7 skins will be for the United States Marine Corp, United States Air Force, United States Army and the United States Navy, and are to be unveiled at the Government Video Expo in Washington, D.C. on Nov 28-29, 2001."

This conference certainly exists, as indeed does conference co-sponsor Government Video Magazine, which itself runs the delightfully tagged sellingtothefeds.com. There's no mention of a presentation in the conference program as far as we can see, but there's much there that strikes The Register as slightly surreal. In fact the mere existence of this as an industry strikes us as surreal and almost - but not quite - eclipses the images of what the blazes the US Marine Corp is going to get up to with its tailor-made Media Player skins.

The Skins Factory says the skins will be available to the general public at windowsmedia.com, and that a variant, the United States of America version, will come with the upcoming Windows Media Player Bonus Pack. And who are we to doubt them? ®

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