A great product

Update for version 1.3.1: Zounds! The big play/pause circle button that used to show up in the middle of the movie has gone!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you! What a great relief. What a great improvement to usability.
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Update for version 1.3.0: Yay! Now has playback speed control! There’s also a control on the playback control bar to cause the Lynda app window to zoom the player window so it fills the Lynda window and you can still resize the video by resizing the Lynda window. Was that there before and I didn’t see it or new? Well, it’s a very nice feature.

There’s still one thing I would like to see changed and it’s that big playback/pause button that shows up in the middle of the movie screen. It’s real annoying. I was tempted to give the app only 4 stars because that button, but overall, the Lynda player app works very well now. Thanks, Lynda!
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Update for version 1.2.2: Still no playback speed controls. Sigh. Is it really that difficult to do?
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Original review: Really appreciate the offline mode that keeps track of where I am and syncs with the Lynda cloud so I can switch between my laptop and a mobile device and still pick up where I left off.

I have two issues that are very annoying and they are the reason for only 3 stars. First as has been mentioned is the absence of speed control. A good note in playback control though is a 10 second backup button - because life has distractions.

The biggest annoyance for me is a large play/pause button that shows up in the middle of the screen when I pause the video. Every time I pause to study some code being displayed or copy a link reference or something, that stupid big play button shows up right on top of what I’m trying to read. It *eventually* disappears, but then if I just touch the mouse or switch focus to my editor, the darn thing shows up again! Finally, when I hit play, the video starts and the button shows up as a pause button, blocking the video again. Please!!! And, that in-your-face button isn’t even needed at all as there is a play/pause button conveniently out of the way on the slide up play bar.

When not in full screen, it shows the course list to the side indicating where you are in the course. It is handy, but I would like to be able to hide it and the course description at the bottom without having to put the player in full screen mode. When in the middle of lessons, I don’t need this info and it is just stealing screen space - and depending on the course one is taking, we need a lot of screen space for all our course work and note taking while we’re watching a lesson.

Thanks, Lynda. Fix up these things a bit and I will be happy to edit my review. The app should have gotten 5 stars out the gae, but those are big misses.

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