If you’re a mobile music fan with an Android phone, then you probably already know doubleTwist and its multimedia syncing software. Well, the company is taking it up a notch and offering wireless syncing of your music, playlists, photos and videos.
To get the wireless syncing, dubbed AirSync, you have to download the free doubleTwist desktop software and the Android app. You then launch the mobile app and the AirSync icon will give you instructions on how to pair the device with your computer.
The move should help solidify doubleTwist as the go-to media syncing program for Android but competitors are looming. DoubleTwist has a sizable lead though and its carrier deals could make it difficult to displace.
Wireless syncing is nothing new – the Microsoft Zune was doing it years ago and there are other Android apps that do this – but some bigger players are starting to offer this for the little, green robot. AOL just released the 1.0 version of Winamp Android app and this also includes wireless sync capabilities but this only works with music.
Of course, doubleTwist has only gained traction because Google hasn’t developed its own simple way for users to manage and sync their multimedia content. The reason for this appears to be that Google believes a cloud-based version would be much more useful for the end user.
We know that future versions of Android will include the ability to stream your home collection on your phone but you still have to wonder about battery life and how this will work when you’re offline. The forthcoming Google Music service should allow users to buy tracks from the Android Market but this service appears to be stuck in the mud.
While I appreciate the cloud-centric vision of Google, I do wish there was a desktop syncing software that could provide the functionality of iTunes without the bloat. I guess we’ll just have to continue to rely on third parties like doubleTwist.