QuickAdvice: Swipe To Control Your Music With SongSwiper
SongSwiper (Free) by Tobias Wiedenmann is a music player that utilizes finger swipes rather than buttons to control the playback of your music.
Buttons are nice, but with virtual buttons like those on the iPod.app, it can be hard to control the playback of your music without looking at the screen. There isn't tactile feedback like with physical buttons, so what's the next best thing? Utilizing the touch screen and making finger swipes the way to control your music.
SongSwiper allows you to control the music that is currently playing in your iPod.app or you can add music to play from within the app if the iPod application isn't currently running. The latest update (v 1.1) brings Retina-ready graphics and a modified user interface.
Once you get the music going, you get a simple yet beautiful looking screen with album art in the middle that represents a vinyl record sleeve. It even includes a bit of the actual vinyl peeking through the side, which I found to be a nice touch. It reminds me of CoverSutra on the Mac. On the bottom is a shuffle button, song and album info, and the button to add music.
Now that we got the basics out of the way, the real fun and magic of SongSwiper lies with the finger swipes that you use to control the playback. Swiping up and down will adjust the volume accordingly, and a swipe to the left or right will go to the previous or next song. Double tapping will pause and play the song. When pausing/playing and adjusting the volume, there will be a small little popup at the top that will slide in to show you the controls. This is so you can see how loud the volume is or the state of playback - the buttons in this bar don't work themselves.
Unfortunately, the finger swipes can only be utilized if you keep the app running since they won't work when you exit the app. I'm sure that there is a jailbreak tweak for something similar to SongSwiper's features, but this is an excellent solution for those that don't jailbreak, despite the con of needing the app open.
A great time to use this app would be in the car, where you would be able to easily see what is playing and control playback without needing to focus on what is on the screen (buttons). Maybe even when it's in your pocket and you want to skip a song, just swipe on the screen while it's in your pocket and you can! Assuming that you swipe in the right direction, of course.
SongSwiper is a beautifully designed and simple to use. May not be practical all the time, but there are certain situations that would certainly welcome this app and its features. With the price tag of free, you can't really go wrong.
