Album Reviews
iOS App Review – Play Albums!
Today’s society is a rapid moving one. We are constantly on the move. Modern technology has allowed us to compress our music collections and bring them with us. Apple has graced us with devices that allow us to do so. First Apple came out with the iPod. Then, as time moved on, it evolved into the iPod Touch and it’s phone counterpart, the iPhone. Both the iPod Touch and the iPhone have touch screen interfaces that allow you use your fingers to swipe through your entire collection. The built in player is pretty good allowing you to play through different playlists, by artists, songs or albums.The shuffle feature is good to but limited.
While pretty good, the built in player isn’t the best at playing full albums either at random or as a playlist. Through the built in player, if you wanted to play an album one right after another, you need to create a custom playlist or start the next one after the current one which would require you to pay attention be there when it’s time. Enter Clown Ware’s Play Albums! app. Play Albums! eliminates the need to monitor the songs. Play Albums! allows you to set up multiple albums to play back to back so you can put that iDevice down and clean the house, take a long shower or set it to play as you go to sleep.
Play Albums! has features not provided by the built-in iPod app:
* Select an album to play, or
* Quickly find an Album or Artist by typing a letter or two, or
* Have one selected for you randomly, or
* Have a stack of albums selected for you randomly!Play Albums! is fast and easy to use. Play Albums! updates automatically if you purchase or sync new music onto your phone. Play Albums! plays your music in the background, so you can use your iPhone/iPod/iPad normally.
Controls:
- tap an album to play
- play/pause, prev/next track
- hold prev/next to scan through song
- tap the Stack button on the album cover to enable/disable Stacks
- AirPlay button appears on screen when available
Play Albums! isn’t the most detailed or feature robust app out there. It does what the title implies, it plays albums, randomly or back to back. The app does what it does well. Now this app isn’t for the people who like to listen just singles or certain songs of an album although you could use it that way depending on how you load your music. The feeling among a lot of us is that an album is a work of art and should be listened to as it was intended, from start to finish. For those of us that do believe in that, Play Albums! is the app for us. Now you can play all your Led Zeppelin or Clutch albums back to back or randomly with very little work involved. If you have an Apple TV or other Airplay enabled device handy, the app will notice it and allow you to stream to that device. The best part about the app, it’s FREE! So if you have an iDevice, including an iPad (the app is universal), give this a try. I’ve tried a few album playing apps in the past but so far nothing stacks up to Play Albums!
