Track 8 Is On The Right Track With Its Latest Major Update
July 13, 2012
Apple's Music app for iPhone and iPad is pretty bland, to say the least. Fortunately for us music-loving iDevice users, there are plenty of alternative third-party music apps to better suit our needs. One of the most notable among such apps is Track 8, which has just been updated with a track list of enhancements.
Like the similarly excellent Groove 2, Track 8 is an app that offers a markedly different experience in listening to your iPhone or iPad's music library. In fact, Track 8 is very much different in that it uses an interface that's heavily inspired by a design language developed by one of Apple's rivals. I am, of course, referring to Microsoft's Metro, which has been used in Windows Phone and Windows 8.
Making use of the typography-based principles of Metro, Track 8 makes for a clean and captivating listening experience on iOS.
If you can't see the video embedded above, please click here.
Track 8 has just received a substantial update today, thereby earning a number of new features. The update includes iCloud syncing for appearance settings, Last.fm scrobbling, and "Now Playing" tweeting. Further, the update brings support for album art gestures and track8:// URL schemes.
Further still, the following fixes are now in order in Track 8:
Originally launched as an iPad app but later updated with native support for iPhone, Track 8 is currently on sale in the App Store for only $0.99. Apps inspired by Metro have been mushrooming in the App Store of late. But Track 8 stands as one of the most effective iOS implementations of the non-iOS design language. And its latest update proves that its excellence is not only surface-deep.
- "Play All" commands have been added to many screens on the iPhone UI.
- Added an extra coat of polish to the styling of the iPhone UI.
- Songs in the cloud over iTunes Match are now marked with a cloud icon. The Now Playing page will show when a song is downloading.
- Improved performance in a few places.