Cultural Bankruptcy

App Review: OnCue

At the launch of the original iPhone back in 2007, Apple was at the height of its success with the iPod. The iPod Classic was still selling extremely well and everyone associated the MP3 player with Apple. Naturally, when launching the iPhone, they decided to make the fact that it was a touch screen iPod a major selling point.

Predictably, the iPod app included with iOS at launch offered the best portable music experience of any device on the market. It was so easy to use and fluid that nothing else could keep up with it.

But it hasn't aged well. And it seems like with each release, Apple keeps introducing more bugs into the app and making it less usable. Over the course of the last few releases, the podcast functionality has been completely gutted and the UI on the iPad has turned into that of a faux-wood juke box (this seems to be part of Apple's larger push to skeuomorphism in their apps).

So I've been looking for a more...robust alternative. I'm not sure that robust is the right word. I just want something that works better and in a more predictable way. As I explored the store, I came across apps that were halfway thought out and poorly implemented.

On a recent MacBreak Weekly, Andy Ihnatko mentioned an app called OnCue as his pick of the week. Since I'd been looking around for a replacement music app, I decided to take a look at it.

It's amazing what you can get for $2.99 in the App Store. OnCue is neither half-baked or poorly implemented; instead, you get an app that is both well designed and offers something to make it stand out from the crowd of other music apps.

In the built-in music app, you select a song and it starts playing. The app will simply play the rest of the album.

OnCue bases itself around the idea of a queue of songs that you are constantly adding to and rearranging. It's a sort of transitive playlist. You can browse your library and add it to the queue of songs. As you add songs, they are added on to the end of the queue. The queue keeps playing until you run out of songs (you can choose to have it simply loop back around to the beginning or just end). Queues can be saved as playlists, shuffled randomly or cleared with a single tap.

What ends up happening in practice is that you browse around your music library, see a song you want to hear and then tap on it. As you browse and tap, your queue fills up. This approximates how I listen to music. I don't like set playlists or listening to albums all the way through most of the time (there are very few albums that merit listening from beginning to end without skipping any songs).

The design of the app is also better than the built-in Music player. Instead of the traditional glossy iOS style, OnCue uses a more flat, textured design. The app has easy to understand artwork and the design of the now playing screen gives you access to much more information than the Music app does. For example, you can see the entire queue on the screen (or just the next song if you choose) or just have it display the album art.

The now playing screen also gives you something that I've wanted in the music app since the first release: the ability to jump directly to an artist from the now playing screen. Why Apple hasn't added this is beyond me. It's even possible via the iPod Classic's clickwheel interface.

You can jump back to the queue quickly at any point by simply swiping up from the bottom of the screen. This is a quick and easy way to jump between your queue and browsing your library. The problem is that it isn't a discoverable gesture. I only know about it because I accidentally performed the gesture when trying to tap on an icon. A quick tooltip or pop-up at first launch would be nice.

The biggest drawbacks to the app are that it has to scan your music library every time you change it. That means that if you add a new song or album, it must re-scan the whole library. It only takes about 40 seconds, but it's still an inconvenience. I also think that it is a limitation of iOS and not something that the developer can fix.

Another problem is that the user interface is a bit small for use when walking or driving. The Music app is easy to use when driving, since the menus and icons are large and easy to hit when just glancing at them. OnCue's menus and touch targets are smaller. It's not a huge difference, but definitely something I noticed when using the app.

Podcasts to Check Out

It’s been a while since I posted anything, and I’m sitting here at my computer for the past hour while my computer downloads a Time Machine backup (long story short, had to get my SSD replaced so I have to do a complete restore). Anyway, I’ve been passing the time by listening to podcasts, so I thought I would share the podcasts I listen to.

• Hypercritical — John Siracusa can take even the most complex thing and make it easy to digest.
• Build and Analyze — It’s a show about development that almost always doesn’t involve development talk.
• Buzz Out Loud — Molly Wood is probably the smartest and funniest tech journalist out there.
• Doug Loves Movies — If you love movies, you’ll love playing along.
• Macbreak Weekly — Andy Inhatko is a mad genius.
• The Vergecast — Because every time I listen to this, I feel like they’re drunk off their asses.
• Tech News Today — The best daily general tech news podcast out there. Tom Merrit has an uncanny ability to analyze news and explain the implications.
• Sklarboro Country — I could care less about sports. That’s how funny these guys are.
• How Did This Get Made? — They did an episode about The Wicker Man. Enough said.
• Mac OS Ken — The best way to learn about what’s going on in the Mac world. 

There are also a few radio programs that I listen to as podcast downloads. Here they are:

• Car Talk — I’ve learned more about cars from this show than I ever thought I would.
• Off the Wall — You should listen if only for the crazy people who call in.
• Off the Hook — The cast of characters on this show are always entertaining.

Favorite Movies of 2011

Note that I said favorite, not best. These are the movies that I enjoyed the most, not necessarily the best “films” of 2011. That said, enjoy. 

1. Hugo - Easily the best movie about movies I’ve seen in years. While that might sound a bit meta, Hugo is Martin Scorsese’s love letter to the movies. I went in to the movie blind, not knowing only that the movie took a hard left turn halfway through the movie. I won’t spoil it for you here, but suffice it to say that you will leave Hugo with a smile on your face.
2. Tucker and Dale vs. Evil - Doing a parody of horror films is extremely hard. It’s easy to come up with a premise, but sustaining it can be a bit of a challenge. I mean, how many ways can there be for stupid college kids in the woods to accidentally kill themselves? A lot, as it turns out.
3. Hanna - Not only does this movie have an amazing score, it has some of the best performances of the year. Eric Bana, Saoirse Ronan and Cate Blanchett all turn in impressive performances. Joe Wright’s direction is understated and haunting.
4. Rise of the Planet of the Apes - Making a talking ape seem scary instead of laughable is this film’s most impressive feat.
5. Bridesmaids - A female-lead comedy where one of the characters shits in the middle of the street. That is all.

Bands I'd Love to See Live

I had a discussion with a friend recently where we talked about which bands we wanted to see live. We both made two lists, one for bands that we could actually see and one for bands that we can’t see live (i.e., most of the band is dead or they’ve broken up/retired).

Bands I’d love to see live that I can actually see:

1. The Presidents of the United States of America
2. The Who
3. MC5
4. UFO

Bands I’d love to see but can’t for one reason or another: 

1. Black Sabbath (with Ronnie James Dio)
2. Creedence Clearwater Revival
3. Rainbow (again, with Dio)
4. 3rd Bass
5. Deep Purple (the original, Mach 1 lineup)
6. The Blues Brothers
7. Howlin’ Wolf
8. Billy Joel (specifically, 70s coked out Piano Man-era Billy Joel)