Apple Seeds First iOS 8.4 Beta to Developers With Revamped Music App

[John.B]

The other 8.x Music app annoyance would be when playing a playlist, when you go back to the songs in the playlist, it defaults to the song list of the album the song is from, not the playlist. I've got to believe that the good people of Cupertino must not use the app themselves, otherwise there is no explanation for the behavior outside sheer randomness, as though someone designed the UI by throwing darts against a screenshot of the app...

Well either you're pretending to be oblivious about the features of iOS 8 or you really don't know; you can actually search for the album by name.

I have never sorted my albums/cassettes/CDs by album name, and I don't know anyone else who would, so why would I expect it sorted that way in iTunes? Skeuomorphism can be overdone, but it can also be blindly underdone. If they're going to go that far, they might as well make the whole UI white. Oh, wait...

 

[mariusignorello]

//SARCASM//

Introducing iOS 8.4 beta with the all new Music app. Featuring a completely new interface, your music is even less accessible. Want to create a station from a song in iTunes Radio? Too bad, the app crashes. How about stream that playlist to your nice home audio system? Sorry, AirPlay doesn't work. Well, it might, if you get lucky. Want to have Siri play the next song for you? She's dead asleep.

Developers, download the update today to take advantage of all the new improvements in the Music app preview.

//SARCASM//

FYI, I love this new app. The bugs are irrelevant for a first beta.

 

[John.B]

I miss Cover Flow

Image

+1 Cover Flow was miles better than this (again, sorted by album name, of all things):

 

[Woyzeck]

I never understood what's so difficult with a music app and why they're totally unable to deliver something useful.

I mean, a music app is built around a tree structure that contains all my songs. This tree can be constructed using genres, albums, alphabetical sort, you name it. Then you need player controls and some functions for import and export. That's it. We had this 20 years ago and kt worked. Ok, today we expect some recommendation function, eye candy with covers etc., but in it's core features it's still the same thing.

And iTunes once was a usable piece of software until they applied some bizarre user interface practices to it. Now it's a bloated pile of ****.

 

[the-msa]

But I thought windows was annoying because updates updates updates

 

[DanGoh]

I'll stop using a third party music app (currently using Tuneshell) if they add an equalizer.

 

[magicMac]

I'll stop using a third party music app (currently using Tuneshell) if they add an equalizer.

There is an equaliser...

Settings->music>EQ

 

[DanGoh]

There is an equaliser...



Settings->music>EQ

My bad. I meant manual equalizer.

 

[J.gerbes]

CarPlay now has support for iBooks Audiobooks.

The music app seems unchanged, as do other apps (from what I have noticed so far).

 

[Steve Ballmer]

Only downside is, Apple doesn't think so since their newfound obsession with blinding white everything.

Given that the new Music app is making use of transparent material (similar to what we're seeing in Yosemite), it's likely Apple has recognized this and is starting to tone things down a bit. iOS 7 was an overcorrection, iOS 8 (and likely iOS 9) is about bringing things back to a bit more of a balance.

I guess those rumors that iTunes Radio would be split into its own app aren't true.

I never expected it to be split out. It's a part of Music, no reason for it to be yet another default app on the Home screen when it doesn't need to be.

Anyone know a link to where I can get it without paying the 100$ fee to be a dev???

Unless your UDID is registered with a developer, you won't be able to install and verify the beta. And if you don't know what your UDID is or how to have it registered, you shouldn't be running beta software.

UX is much better, but I don't understand why stock iOS apps look so much worse than the top 3rd party apps. How is it that people are out-designing Apple? Jony Ive's taste in physical objects is unparalleled, but I think he needs more help here.

Because Apple is a collection of people. And different people have different ideas of how things should look and work. Apple has their ideas, others have their ideas. And in some instances, you might prefer the work that Apple didn't do. Apple isn't exactly the only company out there capable of making good design.

They should make the now playing interface adjust it's color scheme depending on album artwork. Just like on iTunes.

The screenshots we've seen so far seem to suggest this is exactly what's happening. The Now Playing controls seem to take their color directly from the album artwork.

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It's a Plus screenshot. If you have a 6 it'll probably look a bit better. The Album art is actually the same size, they just got rid of the bar at the top.

I wish they'd just copy the UI of the Remote now playing screen.

It is the 6+, as noted. So there is a lot of negative space.

And one thing that annoys me about the new Music app is that the "# of #" information seems to have been removed. Minor, yes, but sometimes it's nice to see at a glance how far into any given album, playlist, Genius mix, etc. I may be. And certainly for the 6+, this info should still be there. There's plenty of space.

 

[kaiseryeahhh]

The question is...
iOS 8.4 blocks like 8.3 the access to data of applications over itools,imazing, ifunbox?

 

[zaneliu94]

In terms of small things currently missing that will likely be added again. In the music widget, you can no longer access lyrics and there's no quick way to see songs from the same album/playlist directly from the now playing like before.

In settings you can sort albums by title or artist. Genius is still there in settings but not in the app

 

[Steve Ballmer]

In terms of small things currently missing that will likely be added again. In the music widget, you can no longer access lyrics and there's no quick way to see songs from the same album/playlist directly from the now playing like before.

Lack of lyrics was already noted as not working in the B1 release notes.

 

[zaneliu94]

Lack of lyrics was already noted as not working in the B1 release notes.

Oh forgot! Also, can't wait for control center to gain more abilities as well

 

[chairguru22]

I hope they get rid of cover flow, or the ability to turn it off. Most pointless feature ever.

 

[bbfc]

Have they fixed iOS 8.3 yet?

Whats wrong with 8.3??

 

[thekeyring]

But I thought windows was annoying because updates updates updates

It is, because every time you boot up there's an update and no new features.

If you bought Windoww 7 on day 1, by the time 8 was released there would have been tons of updates and very few new features or UI improvements. The fact that Windows 8 had updates which actually included things any user would notice was a massive change.

The macs we bought at work had this problem, slightly. They shipped with Mavericks, and took literally hours to download and install Yosemite, and all the minor updates to Yosemite. Still, once they were done they were done - no more continual updates.

A quick OTA update on iPhone is hardly a daily, or even a weekly occurance.

 

[Scrump]

Did I see a star? Can we rate tracks on the lock screen!!! Please tell me we can!!

(No, I haven't read all 13 pages of comments)

 

[MC.]

How about the statusbar bug? Is it still there?

 

[Crusoe]

Could anyone post a screenshot showing how the new app displays albums and the now playing screen when there's no artwork? Curious to see if that's an improvement on the current app. (Ideally an iPhone screenshot.)

 

[Steve Ballmer]

Could anyone post a screenshot showing how the new app displays albums and the now playing screen when there's no artwork? Curious to see if that's an improvement on the current app. (Ideally an iPhone screenshot.)

I don't know if any screenshots have been posted yet, but I imagine it likely hasn't changed from iOS 7 and 8 (ie where it shows diagonal text of the artist name and album.)

 

[Tech198]

Lookin' good....


Now it resembles the look of iTunes, somewhat..

 

[myname70]

Radio ?

I cannot see Radio in my Music app. There is only My Music. How to activate Radio (internet)?

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No landscape on Music app... (no screen rotation at all).

 

[bbfc]

I cannot see Radio in my Music app. There is only My Music. How to activate Radio (internet)?

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No landscape on Music app... (no screen rotation at all).

US-only.

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+1 Cover Flow was miles better than this (again, sorted by album name, of all things):

Image

To me, Cover Flow was the most pointless way to browse music. Apple bought a company that designed it, added it to everything, then removed it probably when they saw sense.

 

[tmanto02]

Man Apple is kicking butt and taking no prisoners lately.

While I agree with you in general regarding Apple kicking butt as of late, it's about time they fixed the music app. Long overdue with so many features lacking. This should have happened at least a year ago