Yesterday, I blogged about how the forthcoming Droid won't be an iPhone killer because it lacks the simple sync interface provided by the iTunes desktop application. I neglected to mention an excellent application called DoubleTwist, which offers the easy sync experience of iTunes for a much wider variety of devices, including all the Android phones currently on the market, most BlackBerrys, Sony's PlayStation Portable, and a huge range of other non-Apple products--as well as the iPod and iPhone, if you're so inclined.
DoubleTwist has a large orange Sync button in exactly the same location as iTunes.
Created in part by Jon Lech Johansen (aka DVD Jon), who's best known for helping crack the encryption system used on video DVDs, DoubleTwist is available as a free download for both Windows (including Windows 7) and Mac. Plug in any supported device, and DoubleTwist immediately recognizes it, lets you choose content to sync (pictures, videos, and either all your music or select iTunes playlists), and then begins syncing that data with a single click of a button. It also boasts integration with Amazon's MP3 store, giving you a rough equivalent to the iTunes Store. DoubleTwist also has an interesting sharing feature that lets you select any piece of content from within the program and e-mail a link to a streaming version of that content to your friends (the content itself is stored on DoubleTwist's servers). This feature integrates with e-mail address books from Gmail and Yahoo Mail if you want to spread that latest remix far and wide.
DoubleTwist co-founder Monique Farantzos e-mailed me specifically about yesterday's post, so it's a safe bet that the application will support Droid. More to the point, as phone makers continue to miss the importance of iTunes, DoubleTwist is essentially becoming iTunes for those devices. There's one crucial difference: Apple either ships a disc with iTunes with its devices, or prompts you to download iTunes when you install them. For these other phones, you have to know where and how to get DoubleTwist.
Originally posted at Digital Noise: Music and Tech
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