doubleTwist on Android

A long-standing gap in Android features may have been addressed today as doubleTwist has launched its first app for phones themselves, doubleTwist Player. The app improves on Android's basic player with support for both audio and video but borrows some cues from the iPhone, including its overall look as well as support for podcasts. It more crucially brings in direct syncing with software: the doubleTwist desktop app will sync podcasts and iTunes playlists, and it has its own two-way sync for ratings and other data.

Later versions of the app will also obviate some of the need for other apps, as it should build in Internet radio streaming and wireless media sync with a local computer. Android 2.2 will only have the option of online media syncing and streaming.

The app is free for a limited amount of time, but its desktop companion is always free.

While a form of catch-up, the Android-native app highlights a difference in policy between Google's OS and Apple's. On the iPhone, apps are banned from providing similar functionality to the default software, even if they promise to improve on the formula. Android has historically embraced this and in many cases lets apps even supercede Google's own as defaults if the user likes. [via TechCrunch]

By Electronista Staff