WP App Review : CarTunes

CarTunes (Version 2.1)
Tidhar Nitzan

$0.99

CarTunes is a relatively old app with the last update in late 2011. However, coming from iOS it's the closest app I could get to FluxTunes, which was the main music app I used in the car, and the now discontinued FlickTunes. If you're not familiar with these apps, they provide a simple interface with swipe gestures to play/pause, foward/rewind, shuffle, change playlists, etc. - perfect for controlling your music while driving, or any other activity where you can't readily concentrate on navigation menus and small buttons.

The interface of CarTunes is extremely simple and once you open up the app, it will immediately begin playing a song. There is no customization of the swipe gestures as found in the iOS apps, but it has your basic tap to play/pause, swipe left for the next track, swipe right for the previous track, swipe up to toggle shuffle, and swipe down to select a playlist. You can also pinch out to switch to the next playlist. Tapping and holding down on the album art activates the settings menu. Note that there is no landscape mode.

On the main menu you can tap on the artist name to start playing all songs by that artist or tap the album name to start playing all songs from that album. Tapping on the song title will bring up a list of songs related to which mode you're currently in. So if you're in artist mode, it'll bring up all the songs from that artist. If you're in album mode it'll show all songs from that album. And lastly, if you're in playlist mode, it'll show all the songs from that playlist. At any time, you can always tap on the top tab to go back to the main screen.

For the most part, the app works well despite it not being geared towards WP8. One thing is it doesn't seem to play nice with other music player apps. Using Hey DJ! and returning to the app will trigger a crash if trying to access a playlist. Hitting the song title seems to work to avoid the crash however. I personally like to use this app in combination with Hey DJ! and it makes the in-car music playing experience simple and hassle-free. Although it seems that the developer won't be making any more changes to the app, it performs well enough as it is to give it a try if swipe gesture control is needed.

Pros : Simple interface, good gesture recognization

Cons : No customization of swipe gestures, may crash when used with other music apps