Software Review: VEVO for iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Published December 7th, 2011 in iphone, ipod touch, reviews, software-review, wreview-wednesdayTHANKS to Palm Addicts for the recent mention! Please check out Sammy’s Palm Addicts for lots of great mobile technology related news you may be interested in. It’s well worth a visit or two!
It’s time for another installment of Palm Discovery’s wReview Wednesday!
VEVO for the iPhone, iPod Touch
VEVO HD for iPad
VEVO (iTunes Canada)
VEVO HD for iPad (iTunes Canada)
Continuing with a similar theme to last week’s review of Maroon 5 - Walmart Soundcheck Concert (Live), we will review a music video app called VEVO from the popular music video website of the same name offering music videos from three of the big four record labels: Universal Music Group, Sony Music Entertainment, and EMI. What that means is that Bruno Mars whose record label is Warner Bros, won’t be found in this app, sorry! And so, doing a search for “Bruno Mars” comes up with no results. Sigh. However, many of other popular artists like Lady Gaga, Maroon 5, LMFAO are available through this app.
This app is in its simplest form, is a music video playback app, similar to the iPhone, iPod Touch, iPad built-in YouTube app in that it offers videos for watching. However, this is an officially licensed music video app that only offers music videos and not just any video that YouTube may offer. That also means that the videos are censored and clean because it’s available for general public viewing and it’s sponsored by advertising. You can search from its database of recent popular music videos. However, its database is limited to very popular artists of the last few years. That means you can’t view videos that came out ten years ago unless the artist is extremely popular, like Janet Jackson. But, most people who are using the app are really searching for and wanting to view the latest music videos anyway, otherwise, they’d search for it in YouTube 
.
For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary
More details of VEVO for the iPhone and iPod Touch (VEVO HD for iPad below) (taken from Apple iTunes store)
VEVO is the web’s number one premium music video and entertainment service. Watch your favorite music videos wherever and whenever with VEVO for iPhone & iPod Touch.
• Free high-quality music videos
• Access VEVO’s entire music catalog of 45,000 videos from more than 11,000 of your favorite artists
• Exclusive videos, premieres, and select live performances
• Share videos with friends on Facebook & Twitter
• Play videos on Apple TV with AirplayNOTE: Some features may not be available in all regions. VEVO is available in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Learn more at vevo.com. Also, we work hard to make you happy, but sometimes stuff happens…so if you have a problem with our app, tell us at mobile.feedback@vevo.com.
What’s New in Version 1.3.2
This VEVO update has some fixes and updates to be compatible with iOS 5. It also stops the video from muting if you shut off your ringer. Enjoy!
VEVO is the web’s number one premium music video and entertainment service. Watch your favorite music videos wherever and whenever with VEVO for iPad.
• Free high-quality music videos
• Access VEVO’s entire music catalog of 45,000 videos from more than 11,000 of your favorite artists
• Exclusive videos, premieres, and select live performances
• Share videos with friends on Facebook & Twitter
• Play videos on Apple TV with AirplayNOTE: Some features may not be available in all regions. VEVO is available in the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom.
Learn more at vevo.com. Also, we work hard to make you happy, but sometimes stuff happens…so if you have a problem with our app, tell us at mobile.feedback@vevo.com.
What’s New In Version 1.0.7
* Fixed Facebook integration
* Fixed issue where buffering indicator was erroneously displaying during live stream
* Added Premiere & Explicit label for video thumbnail
* Fixed other minor bugs
Slideshow of VEVO for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Video of VEVO for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
Video review of VEVO for the iPhone, iPod Touch and iPad
- easy to use
- song purchase link available
- Did You Know? Music facts
- facebook, twitter and last.fm integration
- contact link available
- featured, exclusive, premiere videos available
- top of the charts video listing
- ad supported
- some videos don’t load the first time
- limited selection of videos
- no bug submit feature
- no sharing by email support
- music map’s privacy issue
- no music video suggestion feature
- currently available in US, Canada and UK
- internet connection required
- no offline support
easy to use
The app, very much like most apps for the iPhone, is fairly easy to figure out how to use. Simply tap on a button or link and you will activate an action or task. Simple.
Song purchase link available
During music video playback, there is a “Buy” button at the top which will load up the Apple iTunes music store. I am a bit surprised that the result shows the music and not the video, since we are viewing the video and it may seem that the viewer may actually want to purchase the video or at least be given the choice between music video and just the music.
Did You Know? music facts and tidbits
While you’re waiting for the music video to buffer and load, there’s a random “Did You Know?” tidbit and music fact about a music artist (not necessarily the artist or band you’re viewing) that you may find interesting. It’s a good way to distract you from noticing how long it takes for the video to load
Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm integration
This app offers you the ability to log into your Facebook, Twitter and Last.fm accounts for easy sharing. Very nice.
Contact link available
There is a link to the email address of the developers so you can simply click on the link to compose an email to the developers. I always stress how important it is to offer some kind of method for the end user to be able to contact the developer.
Featured, exclusive, premiere videos available
The app offers featured, exclusive and premiere videos for viewing, including only those from VEVO that you may not be able to view elsewhere.
Top of the charts video music listing
There is a charts listing of the current top ten videos plus a page of the top music artists for quick access. Plus there is also a Celeb Picks playlist of the video playlist of celebrities.
Playlists available
Similar to the previous point, you can create your own playlist of videos directly within the app. Plus you can view other members’ playlist and celeb playlists as well.
Music Map feature
There is a music map feature where you can get an idea of who else near you are using the VEVO app and viewing videos and what they’re viewing.
Free
The app is free but it is ad supported.
Ad supported
The app is supposed to be ad-supported but I don’t seem to see any ad bars or ad inserts between the playback of the videos or anything. I guess that I shouldn’t be surprised when it does suddenly show up then.
Some music videos don’t load or play the first time
This is an annoyance and I have experienced it a few times. I can’t recall exactly what I was doing before, but obviously I was wanting to load the video. And it wouldn’t load, showing a message that says it won’t load. I can’t recall the message but when I try to re-load it, it will usually play the second time. This is where having a bug submit option with a log file could be very useful.
Limited selection of videos
It’s unfortunate that the app only features artists and videos from the major three music labels and that they are limited to very current videos. Don’t expect to be able to search for and view videos that were popular about 5 years ago.
No bug submit
Again, I am always complaining about apps that don’t offer a bug submit option. This app did crash on me a few times and it’s practically impossible for me to remember exactly what I was doing before the app crashed so that’s why a bug submit with log file can really help both the end user and the developer in determining the bug and fixing it asap.
No sharing via email
This is surprising for me that there is no sharing feature, whether it be sharing one of the videos or sharing the app with a friend. Again, this is a no-brainer but for some reason, there is no sharing feature.
Music Map’s privacy issue
As much as it’s kind of interesting to be able to view what others near you are viewing, it can be very creepy as your current location will be displayed on a map. I personally have privacy issues and opt to turn off the location feature on my iPod just for that reason alone.
No music video suggestion feature
Once you’ve played a video, there is a few videos that are offered on the screen you see directly underneath your played video. However, I don’t think they are necessarily good suggestions that are tailored to your tastes or being similar to the previously played video and artist. I am obviously thinking of a Pandora service for music videos, of course.
Currently only available to US, Canada and the UK
It’s too bad that this app is currently only available to those who are living in the US, Canada and the United Kingdom. Here’s to hoping that the list of supported countries will expand.
Requires internet connection
Obviously, as you are streaming videos over the internet to view the videos, it will require an internet connection whether via wi-fi or cellular data. No internet means no videos.
No offline support
Similar to the previous point, as the app relies solely on the internet and nothing is loaded on your iPod or iPhone, that also means that there is no offline viewing or playback support.
VEVO for the iPhone, iPod Touch offers exclusive, premiere and featured videos that you may only find on the VEVO app. Share your favorite videos with your friends on Facebook or Twitter or log into last.fm and scrobble your favorites. You can create video playlists or view those of others including celebrities. There’s also a Did You Know? factoid that gets displayed while the video is loading with a fact that you may not know. The app is free and if you’re into the current music scene, this is one you don’t want to miss out on. VEVO for the iPhone, iPod Touch
VEVO (iTunes Canada)
VEVO HD for iPad (iTunes Canada)
Enjoyed this review? Check out the many other Palm Discovery software reviews here such as palm os software review, windows-mobile software review, symbian os software review, iPhone and ipod touch software review, android software review.
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