TapeDeck 1.0
Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but I am wary of any app that replicates a physical object with its UI. Isn't a large part of the power of computing come from the fact that programmers can transcend the limitations of the real world and offer up better ways of doing things?
In this frame of mind I started looking at TapeDeck, a new $25 Leopard only recording app from SuperMegaUltraGroovy and Toastycode. As the name suggests it looks like a cassette recorder of old, but it does offer up some improvements. Each recording is saved on a new 'tape' automatically, so you never have to record over a previous file (TapeDeck records audio in the AAC format, so the files are small, but you can make them even smaller by lowering the recording quality). It also allows you to annotate your tapes and then search your recording library using that information, and you can send your audio to iTunes if you prefer to organize your files that way.
The real question is: does the UI help or hinder TapeDeck? I'll have to spend more time using TapeDeck to fairly answer that, but at first blush this app is great fun to use (especially if you remember using tape recorders like these).
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
conigs said 3:43PM on 5-09-2008
So if the UI truly replicates tape recorders like these, how do you press both the record and play buttons at the same time?
Also, can you pull the tab off each "tape" so you can't accidentally record over it?
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Chris Liscio said 3:48PM on 5-09-2008
Actually--
(Full Disclosure: I'm one of the developers)
Just like a real tape recorder, the record and play buttons stick together when you hit the record button. ;)
Unlike a tape recorder, though, you don't have to worry about accidentally recording over your baby's first words...
john said 4:03PM on 5-09-2008
As the Dvorak keyboard has shown, some things are "better" just cause they're well known. Though I do tend to agree with the idea that you shouldn't be driven by emulating a physical interface, in this case most of the emulation is simply graphical and not functional. In fact most every audio app in existence still uses the familiar play, rewind, ffwd, etc interface anyway.
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Lars Hoel said 4:28PM on 5-09-2008
I'm not bothered by the interface -- I actually think it's kinda cute -- but I am concerned that it will only record in a lossy audio format. Why not add AIFF as an option?
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badweasel said 4:52PM on 5-09-2008
How do you click record and play at the same time? Does it require multi-touch? (sarcasm)
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Joel said 7:27PM on 5-09-2008
Physical objects like a desktop and folders, you mean?
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punkassjim said 7:08PM on 5-09-2008
Scott, you're an Editor, right? :-P
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Ian Gendel said 11:26PM on 5-09-2008
I don't understand why you would hate mimicking physical devices. The recording industry models many of it's plugins from physical hardware units because they are known to sound amazing. This isn't only behind the scenes but in the UI of the plugins. They emulate physical hardware mixing consoles/compresors/reverb units/etc. In the audio industry this is quite common, that's all.
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Jeffrey Nonken said 11:56PM on 5-09-2008
But electronic media players already do that.
Example: I have a cassette player in my car that has an Aux input I use for my MP3 player. Let's see; if I want to skip over some tape, I push the fast forward button and it unloads the capstan and moves the tape faster. If I want to skip over some MP3 I push and hold the forward button and it skips over material in imitation of skipping over tape. The cassette player can search for empty space in the tape; the MP3 player can skip to the next track. When I stop the cassette deck it's automatically left where I stopped listening. When I stop the MP3 player it remembers where I stopped. (Though not if it stops because the battery runs out.)
Example: My DVD player will pretend to fast-forward like my VHS deck, it will try to remember where I stopped playing a DVD, and so on.
Problem is, the designers have to very meticulously engineer in functions that imitate what the tapes do by their very nature; and I can have an unlimited number of tapes "remember" where they left off, but the digital player has to have enough memory and special features (like the ability to recognize a disc) to remember multiple digital media. The imitations are usually good, and in some ways better than the old way, but they can also fail very easily.
(Oh, and I can instantly swap tapes, but my MP3 player has to be re-programmed. And it takes longer to load and unload a DVD than it does a VHS tape.)
Before I get flamed, understand that I'm not saying the old way is better. I'm just pointing out that the old way was good enough that we're going out of our way to make our new players pretend to work the same way.
The arrows on the buttons don't indicate tape direction any more, do they? :)
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lok cheung said 3:27AM on 5-10-2008
that will be cool to appear on iPhone, just like the iPhone's calculator that turn iPhone into a, well, calculator.
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Brian said 9:19AM on 5-10-2008
Being dismissive of physical UIs is shortsighted. There have been far more years of development and refinement of the things we use in the "real world" every day than there have of computer interfaces. There's a lot to be said for familiarity (which geeks usually substitute with "intuitive").
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niclet said 3:04PM on 5-10-2008
Sincerely, I love it !!
I'm a professional musician and for taking on-the-go ideas or notes, this is a great product.
The UI doesn't bother me at all, I feel it amusing. Since this kind of app need to be simple and strait-forward, IMO it achieved these goals. Good job!
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Jeremy said 10:16AM on 5-11-2008
"Call me a curmudgeon if you must, but I am wary of any app that replicates a physical object with its UI. Isn't a large part of the power of computing come from the fact that programmers can transcend the limitations of the real world and offer up better ways of doing things?"
What, like the command line over the desktop metaphor? Nah, I'm just taking the piss. I know what you mean, but i couldn't help my self.
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Konstantinos said 2:44PM on 5-11-2008
Wiiiii. Amazing good looking app
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Fernando Lins said 3:13PM on 5-12-2008
Love it, guys. Congrats. An app that truly follows the "Mac way" of designing software : straight to the point and really fun to use.
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