Next Songs

When it comes to completing my day-to-day activities there's nothing like rocking out to my favorite tunes to bring some much needed motivation. What I love about the BlackBerry PlayBook is not only its portability but the quality of the sound from those tiny speakers. I'm a random playlist type of girl and if there is one feature I miss having it's the ability to see what's coming up next (the carousel view) from my BlackBerry device. LaurentCie looks to fill in the viewing gap and more with their latest application simply titled Next Songs.

Next Songs is an easy to use application with a clean interface that performs only one basic function, and that is to shuffle all of your music. As there are no unnecessary clicks this means from the moment you fire up the application your music is automatically randomized and starts playing the media stored on your PlayBook. Playlists are created with each session and are not saved upon exit as a new random list is generated each time Next Songs launches.

Viewing and managing media is also simplified in this application. It allows you to view seven songs at a time with the next page loading when the last song starts playing. By tapping on the album art or info, this action brings up the player controls on the same line. Here you can pause, change the song order with the arrows, fast forward (30 seconds), and even add/remove songs from the current playlist by tapping on the trash can. The only minor flaws I noticed were that sometimes there is a delay when you press any of the controls or try to switch songs and that you cannot go back to the beginning of the list.

Now there is one catch to this entire process. In order for this application to function properly you must sync your media using the BlackBerry Desktop Software. Next Songs will only play items located in the media sync folder. Also, album art is generated from either the Discogs website, when recognized, or from the album art transferred from your library onto the PlayBook. 

Now while the PlayBook already has a built-in media player with shuffle mode, Next Songs offers instant shuffling and playback from the moment it opens. The only thing you have to do is sit back, relax, and listen to all of your favorite tunes. Next Songs is available in BlackBerry App World for $.99.

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