Has some features that the native iPod app just doesn’t compare to.

Groove. Starts playing songs that go well together. If you’re in a different kind of mood, just groove it again.

Favorites. Seems to play songs I’ve recently played a couple of times or have a a high play count for. Big secret feature, huh? Pretty great.

Artist Duos. Pairs two similar artists and alternates songs between them. One day it suggested Kings of Leon and The Black Keys and I think I listened to that the whole day.

Gestures. While in playing mode, swipe the screen to bring up a menu with big buttons that do stuff. Create a new groove mix, pick a new artist, so on. Awesome while I’m driving.

It’s my favorite price. Free. So go get it.

Zikera Groove [link] | iTunes [link]

Interesting way to play your iPod library.

Tripmix has very few settings, but the most interesting one is “Number of songs by an artist”. Default is 3. So it will play 3 songs by the same artist, then shuffle to a different artist. When you skip, you don’t skip a song, but skip to the next artist. The first artist the app attempted to play was from a podcast, but I forgive. It’s interface is simple and clean, fun functionality, and only plays artists you like well enough to have multiple songs of on the iPod. It’s a pretty great set it and forget it road trip iPod app.

Cost is $1.99

Tripmix Website [link] | iTunes [link]

I love this app.

I remember reading an article that the iTunes App Store was rejecting apps that tried to read music off of the iTunes library. Rumor was Apple didn’t like apps tinkering with the music library. The only apps I heard were rejected were ones that made ringtones or alarm clocks. Apparently this app is so good they made an exception.

Attic searches through the music and selects albums that you haven’t listened to recently. It displays them like album covers on a shelf and the play controls remind me of the Panasonic cassette tape recorder I had as a kid. Since buying the app, it’s a 50/50 chance I’ll open either it or the iPod app.

Only 99 cents. Worth all 99 pennies.

Attic website [link] | iTunes [link]