

[video][iPad] deck. A replacement for iOS 5's horrible Music app. - tareqismail
http://www.szello.com/deck/

======
joejohnson
This app looks really nice, but what was so bad about the native music app?
Third party apps that try to replace a native iOS app are usually unable to
replace all of the built-in functionality. For example, will this app show the
album art on the lock screen?

~~~
tareqismail
Good question, Joe. Not all apps that replace native iOS apps are the same nor
use the same techniques.

Since our app uses the built-in iPod Music controller, we activate all the
same features that the Music app does. So, your example of showing the album
art on the lock screen does in fact work.

This is different than different category apps, like Safari replacements, that
can't take advantage of all the built-in controls/features outside of the app.

(I work for szello)

~~~
joejohnson
Oh, that's cool. I didn't know that was possible.

------
jmreid
One complaint: When browsing artists, why don't you move though the Artist ->
Albums -> Songs hierarchy? If I have an artist with 10 albums, selecting that
artist just gives me an alphabetical list of all their songs across all 10
albums. This is lame when you want to start an album from the top and listen
through.

(Yes, I'm aware that you can navigate by album name, but who remembers all
your album's names?)

------
gavinlynch
Big buttons are better, but this still replicates an incredibly annoying UI
paradigm that kills me: << > >> or Back, Play [Pause], Forward

Whether it's an audiobook or music, I'm hitting the play and pause buttons all
the time. I don't have particularly thick fingers, but my genius self still
manages to accidentally hit the Back or Forward button's instead of Play or
Pause about 2 times out of 10. In an audiobook, loosing your place and finding
it again is a killer, especially if the book is split into very long segments
of audio.

Minor nitpick on a device with such large buttons, but I just find that idea
annoying. Could be just me and my obviously adroit digits though :p

~~~
unoti
I think the world needs an app especially for listening to audiobooks, because
that's a special case needing different UI from listening to music. A purpose
built app for listening to audiobooks needs a rewind 30 seconds button, like
Audible has. It would also need special UI features for moving forward and
back through the audio-- the normal slider method works really terribly when
listening to a 4 hour long piece of audio where 1 pixel is like 7 minutes.

~~~
tareqismail
Very true. We tried to accomodate for audiobooks and podcasts by adding 30
second back button and a larger slider that's easier to scrub. It isn't
perfect, but is much better than the Music app.

You're right though, an app especially for audiobooks with bookmarks, notes,
etc. would be great.

Thanks for the feedback!

------
bruceboughton
The screenshots on this page are next to useless for evaluating the app. I
appreciate there is a video but it seems they're missing a trick.

The app's App Store page on the the other hand is much more pleasant.

------
jokull
Maybe mention that it plays songs from the standard music library.

~~~
jmreid
Ya, that's important to understand. This is really just another UI for your
existing music (works great with my iTunes match library for instance). You
can even switch between both the built-in app and deck to control if you want.

------
funkah
This was built for me. That Music app is _so_ bad! Thank you.

