WP App Review : Tunes

NOTE: This review has been updated at the bottom.

Tunes (Version 1.1)
stain-sr
$1.29

Nowadays, the smartphone has become an integral part of the driving experience as different apps can be used for traffic, GPS, music, and more. One of the most common uses is music and having a solid gesture-based music app is something I rely on daily. There are currently only a handful of these apps and I've previously used CarTunes and Gesture Music Player. Both worked well with only a few faults but I eventually defaulted back to the OEM player or various reasons. With the new Tunes music app, there's a slick new gesture-based music player that I can happily use.

I've previously reviewed CarTunes and Gesture Music Player, both which are solid apps in itself. Tunes combines a bit of both apps into one and helps make it that much better. Upon launching the app, you're taken to the app's starting screen featuring a clean default album artwork icon in the form of a 'music note' on the upper part of the screen. The lower part of the screen displays artist name, song name, and rating (when you have music playing of course.)

Swiping up (as the default screen tells you to) takes you to the navigation screen so that you can browse artist, album, and songs much like the default music player. What's not given is that you can swipe down to access your playlists as well as the next 25 songs which are in queue. Also in this navigation screen is the settings which offer an option to show album covers in the browser as well as enabling scrobbling if you're a last.fm subscriber. 

The overall app responds well and is easy to use; tap to play/pause, swipe left for the next track, and swipe right for the previous track. Tapping and holding down on the screen while a song is playing brings up a simple shuffle and repeat option.

To compare, CarTunes is a solid app and is very similar. But the overall user experience on Tunes feels much more modern. CarTunes was a bit plain and that's where Gesture Music Player took it up a step with a nice rotating disc showcasing the album art. Tunes showcases the album art wonderfully with a nice reflection on the bottom and makes it aesthetically pleasing for the times you glance over at your screen.

As of this review, there is one bug I've noticed where when you swipe quickly and reach the end of your playlist/song/album/artist list the browser will crash and you'll be taken back to the player screen (the music doesn't stop.)

The one thing that I'd liked fixed/added is for the app to remember the last song played. Currently, when you pause the music and exit the app then reload the app again, it won't remember the song you were on. You'll need to access the most recently played via the default music player then switch back to Tunes while the music is playing. It's only a small nitpick though and definitely doesn't take away from this great app. Other than that, Tunes offers one of the better gesture-based music player experience for car use and is now front and center on my home screen.

Update (08/08/2013)

After a while, I again went back to using CarTunes. I was expecting some more updates to make Tunes more stable but after three months, not even the playlist problem has been resolved. Using both extensively on a day to day basis, CarTunes eventually wins due to it's speed performance and overall stability and the developer has also recently updated that app. Visually, I like Tunes, but performance is much better with CarTunes.

In either case, I'll keep it on my phone and keep waiting for an update.

Pros : Clean, modern user interface
Cons : Slight bugs, doesn't remember last song played