Track 8 Review

Our Review by Kevin Stout on May 16th, 2012
Rating: starstarstarstarstar :: BEAUTIFUL
Share This:

Track 8 is a Metro-style music player for the iPad.

Developer: Ender Labs
Price: $1.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0.1
Device Reviewed On: iPad (third-generation)

iPhone/iPad Integration Rating: starstarstarstarstar
User Interface Rating: starstarstarstarstar
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: starstarstarstarstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarstarstar

I've been a fan of Microsoft's Metro style interfaces ever since they gave the XBox a version of the interface. I don't even have an XBox 360 anymore but I still admire the interface on my brother's when I see it. Track 8 is a Metro-style music player for the iPad. Visually, this is my new favorite music player app.

With the new iPad's Retina display, this app looks absolutely gorgeous. The text is crystal clear, the album covers look great, and the app fetches artist images from Last.FM for the background of the app when that artist is playing. It's an incredible visual experience that rivals even the new Spotify interface for the iPad (which I'm a huge fan of).

Users are immediately presented with a quick view of history, new music, and most played music. The albums on this screen are in various sizes. The specific interface for flipping through albums and artists is aesthetically pleasing while still being well organized. It's more than a simple alphebetical order of albums. There's a grid for each letter of the alphabet. When users transition between two letters, the new one sort of forces the last one to the side as it takes over.

Down to the last detail, this app is absolutely incredible. When I was listening to my "Favorites" playlist, instead of one album cover, I was presented with a four-by-four grid of album covers in the playlist. But the playlist featured considerably more albums than 16, so the app changed one of the album covers in the grid to another one every three or four seconds. They were switched with a flipping transtion (like the new album cover was on the back of the old one). The same transition happens when taking a look at the artists section. If users have more than one album for an artist, album covers will occasionally change for those artists.

Users can even go into the settings and change the appearance and wallpaper for the app. Users can switch between a dark and light background (basically the semi-transparent sheet of grey that goes over the artist's picture). Users can also change the "accent color" but it's almost useless. The only interface item that I saw using the accent color was the color of the square holding the letters in the artist and albums interface screens. The wallpaper can be set if users don't want artist backgrounds from Last.FM.

I love the Metro-style interface. But I would never buy a Windows tablet over an iPad just because of the Metro interface. With Track 8, I can get the best of both OSes. I get the superior iPad as a product, with the Metro-style music player whenever I desire to admire its aesthetics.

Posted in: Reviews, iPad Music
Tagged With: Music, Microsoft, $1.99, Interface, Metro
Share This: