At Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference on Monday, senior vice president of internet software and services Eddy Cue revealed another item of interest for music fans: “iOS in the Car.” This will allow you to see compatible apps on your car’s screen, as well as using integrated controls in the steering wheel. Obviously, this makes a…
The U.S. Department of Transportation hasn’t yet made up its mind about whether entirely-self-driving cars will be allowed on the nation’s roadways, although it has told states they can allow them to be tested and also said that semi-autonomous features, like staying in a lane or slowing down to avoid a collision, could be a…
You can buy a camera that doubles as a phone and music player, as if your smartphone weren’t already amazing enough for enjoying music on the go. In the home, Apple AirPlay has delivered unity of speaker and app on the cheap, even with Android — and if that’s not enough for you, there are…
Our article about the “unsexy” issue of offline playback — a feature that allows streaming apps to store music and video temporarily so you can play it on the go without impacting your wireless data plan — attracted a fair amount of attention earlier this week, so we decided to dig a little deeper. After…
Driving under the influence of a cellphone is as dangerous as driving drunk. What can we do, now that music is migrating to the smartphone? It’s a pressing issue, because as much as 80 percent of music listening happens in the car, by one estimate. Well-heeled music fans might consider a new car with dashboard-level integration…
We won’t spend much time on this review, because PlayNow (free or $1, with no apparent difference between the two versions) is extremely simple, and we don’t much appreciate what it does. An extremely barebones music player for the car is hardly a terrible idea. PlayNow’s approach is to put one play button in the…
When it comes to apps that blow up your display for a safer music experience in the car, Cruise Control offers one of the least flexible options we’ve seen, especially compared to one of our favored apps in this category, Big Button Music Player. In the interest of providing the most thorough overview of iPhone…
This iPhone music player for the car represents what iSwipemusic and other gesture-based player apps should look like, and with its responsive, user-tailored controls, it’s probably what they should feel like, too. FluxTunes ($1) works great for controlling music with finger movements as your eyes are otherwise occupied. 25 multi-fingered gestures are reassignable to perform…
TuTuneMe is one of the more expensive music player apps for the car we’ve seen on our long quest to find the best ones — but in this case, you get what you pay for, thanks to a full suite of easy to use gesture controls, access to all your playlists and podcasts through a…
CarTunes, one of the apps we’ve examined during our extended look at “safe driving” music players for the iPhone, boasts a clean interface and simple controls that make it easy to play songs stored on your iPhone. It’s simple, but it also lets you import playlists you’ve created in iTunes, an important feature that’s missing from…
Parsec’s GestureMusic is a fine option for playing music in your car with an iPhone, particularly if you listen to classical music and audiobooks. Unlike similar apps we’ve seen, GestureMusic ($1) presents pops up a Help screen before you even get started, so you know exactly what you need to do to control it. Like…
All car music apps are designed with simplicity in mind to some extent, because the whole idea is that they keep your eyes on the road, rather than forcing you to use tiny buttons and extensive menus. Chilli X’s PlaySafe ($1) is no exception. The app is of the “don’t switch horses midstream” variety, in…
Car music app BigPlayer offers up three big, simple buttons for play, fast forward, and rewind. Other than some other niceties described below, that’s about it. The advantage: there are no fancy swiping gestures to remember. The disadvantage: You might need to look at the phone every once in a while, because even though the…
NavMusic, developed by Justin Pashley because he “found the bundled iPod application a little hard to control when driving,” provides only a little improvement over Apple’s iPod app. Essentially, this app is just a white-on-black version of the native black-on-white iPod app, which makes helps you glance at it while driving at night without causing…
FlickTunes is a fairly barebones car music player with customizable gesture controls. The price is right, but the app is mired by some strange choices by its developer. The controls in SoGeeky Software’s FlickTunes ($1) differ from those in similar apps; swiping up or down handles play and pause, while two fingers up or down handles…
