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Simple Media Player Free 2.2

Plays anything it will find in your Music library, including audiobooks and podcasts
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Tired of your iPhone’s built-in music app? Want something different that displays your artwork differently? Grab anything that catches your eye in the iTunes App Store, just don’t get Simple Media Player Free by Ben Thomas.

Zero UI

I suppose if you’re still reading you’re curious to know why. We’ll start with the looks. The thing basically doesn’t have a UI. It’s just text over a brown-gray background. The rest of its UI comes from Apple’s own Music app. It either uses the same iOS framework or Ben Thomas has ripped off the Cupertino giant and used their design in his own app. Whichever the case, not cool.

Impossible to operate

Simple Media Player Free boasts touch controls. Nothing wrong with that except they don’t work. And when they do, you actually have to tap once to select the song from your library, then tap again (on Done) to return to the player interface and start listening.

Indeed it does play anything that it can fetch from your iDevice’s library, including albums, audiobooks, compilations, playlists, and podcasts. But it’s a frustrating ordeal to get them to start playing, or to switch between them when you’re bored. Nothing really works in this app, and it looks bad. Plus, it’s filled with ads and nag screens.

Developer begs

It has ads and the developer kind of begs for attention. Nothing wrong with wanting to make a living, but if you say it’s free, then let it be. Just include a button somewhere and everyone will be happy. For an app that has a very good chance to fail on the first impression, it’s really not recommended to further taunt the user.

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softpedia rating

1.5/5

user rating

UNRATED
0.0/5
 

0/5

11 Original Screenshots
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Hits & Misses

hits

  • wondrous for people who want to deliberately annoy themselves
  • an alternative to Apple's own Music app (with no differences, except for the bad)

misses

  • everything is wrong with this app, so pointing out the issues one by one is somewhat irrelevant
Bottom Line
Design / UI1
 

Basically, it doesn’t have one. It just overlaps text with a dark background and uses the design of Apple’s own Music app to allow users to navigate through their content.
Function1
 

Since nothing really works in this app, there’s really nothing to rate. We’re surprised it actually plays back audio.
Security10
 

Let me put it this way. If your #1 priority when getting a third-party media player is security, Simple Media Player Free is for you. That’s because it couldn’t do any harm even if it wanted to.
Battery7
 

Drains a bit more juice than we expected, considering it has virtually no user interface at all. It probably uses the phone’s other functions for playback too.
Price7
 

The app has ads and the developer begs for attention
Compatibility7
 

Simple Media Player Free scores good on a compatibility level. But on iPad it looks absolutely ridiculous.
Editor's Review
FAIR
Reviewed by Filip Truta, last updated on January 24th, 13:35 GMT.
Specifications
price:
Free with ads
current version:
2.2
reviewed version:
2.1
developer:
Ben Thomas
category:
AUDIO
os version req.:
6.0
age rating:
4+
in-app purchases:
No
hits:
352

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