I’ve been beta testing the B&O app for a couple of weeks now and it’s certainly moving in the right direction. There are a few enhancements that I think would make a huge advantage and add to the overall user experience.
Home Screen
I agree with Millemissen, the white looks unfinished (too much like Bose SoundTouch!) but the option to choose black or white would be good.
The product pictures on the homepage are great if your system consists of BeoLab 18’s, 50’s, a few BeoSound 2’s or you’re a dealer, but pretty un-attractive if like me, you have mostly BeoSound Cores!
To have the option of replacing the product pictures on the homepage with personalised ones from your photo album, such as a picture of your sitting room, kitchen, dungeon, family members or just a plain background.
The ability to see what is playing in each room from the homepage, and which rooms are linked together. A small overlay on each room tile with the current song along with a small image of the album art or radio station would be good along with a standby button for each room. When clicking on the relevant room tile on the homepage would take you to the ‘Now Playing’ screen for the that room
The ability group/link rooms by dragging the room you wish to link or join onto the master room on the homepage
I would also offer the option to remove the ‘pop up’ that appears when pressing the standby button that asks you if you’re that you want to put all of your products in standby, I find it annoying.
Now Playing Screen
This looks great, very stylish. A standby button for that room would be useful without having to open up the sub menu.
A Useful Addition
As a point of interest I’ve been using a couple of Yamaha WXC 50 MusicCast pre-amplifiers in the studio over the past few months, with some Beolab 4000 & 6000 speakers.
The MusicCast app also has an optional but unique function where you can allocate four customised pre-sets from a pop up sidebar, which can be different on each I-pad.
Holding your finger on the tab for 5 seconds can program each pre-set, and the tab can be renamed.
Whatever is currently playing such as a playlist or radio station, whichever rooms are linked and the current volume in each room is stored in the relevant pre-set.
I have one that is labelled ‘Morning Music ’ which plays from a Deezer playlist in the office at volume 20 and the studio at volume 40.
Although the MusicCast app lacks visual style, it does offer some great functionality, and some optional advanced features that allow the more experienced user to customise, it may be worth taking a look.
Keep up the good work,
Paul
