DoubleTwist

Many of us, myself included, have a large music library and sometimes managing this can be a real pain, especially when you have multiple devices from different manufacturers.  For those with an Apple device you are stuck with using iTunes to manage and sync your library.  Other devices may use Windows Media Player to sync the library.  Help is now at hand.  An application is available called DoubleTwist and this allows you to take your iTunes and / or Windows Media Player Libraries and sync your music, pictures and video to your chosen device.  If you are familiar with the iTunes interface then you will instantly recognise it.

The real strength in the software is the ability to synchronise your music to many different devices.  The doubleTwist web site details the current list of devices.  Here is the current list from their site:

• BlackBerry – We have many happy BlackBerry users and support all the recent BlackBerry models such as the Curve, Pearl, Storm, Bold and Flip.
• Sony PSP – Use doubleTwist to automatically convert your videos and sync them to your PSP; sync your iTunes playlists and photo library.
• Palm Pre – automatically convert your videos and sync them to your Palm Pre; sync your iTunes playlists and photo library. 
• Archos 605 – sync your videos, iTunes playlists and photos. Other Archos models should work as well.
• INQ1 by INQ  
• G1 and Magic Android phones – automatically convert your videos and sync them to your Android phone; sync your iTunes playlists and photo library.
• Nokia N & E Series phones, including the N95, E61i, E62, and many others such as the 5800 XpressMusic- automatically convert your videos and sync them to your Nokia; sync your iTunes playlists and photo library.
• Sony Ericsson Walkman & Cybershot phones
• Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 platform (e.g. Treo, HTC, Samsung) — currently PC only, will be available for the Mac very soon – automatically convert your videos and sync them to your Windows Mobile; sync your iTunes playlists and photo library.
• LG Viewty and Shine – automatically convert your videos and sync them to your LG; sync your iTunes playlists and photo library.
• Motorola (V9 and V3xx) and most Razr phones
• Sansa View and Sansa e200 series
• Amazon Kindle – sync audio files to your Kindle
• iPhone with 2.0 firmware – load your iPhone with movies and let doubleTwist make the necessary conversions; iTunes playlists are also supported (PC only but Mac coming soon, 3.0 firmware not supported yet)
• iPod – load your iPod with movies and let doubleTwist make the necessary conversions; iTunes playlists are also supported (PC only but Mac coming soon)
• Nintendo DSi – coming soon! Load your DSi with music and let doubletwist do the necessary conversions
• Most digital cameras
• Most flash-memory-based camcorders are supported

At present I have tried this with my Skypephone S2 mobile attached to my PC as a USB device.  I was able to transfer music to my phone and then play it back via the music player on the phone.

There are also many other useful features in the software.  You can share media with friends, import / publish video on YouTube, publish pictures on Flickr etc.

There are at least 2 phones that are coming out in the UK in Q4 of this year that will have doubleTwist support built in from the start.  These are the INQ Chat 3G and INQ Mini 3G (http://www.inqmobile.com/media/press/#1443).  Hopefully many other devices will deliver the same support.

I’m sure that over the coming months there will be more features added to the application.  Personally I would like to see support for iTunes servers and allow content to be synchronised from the server.  This would make library management even easier.  Even without this feature the application still solves many problems.

DoubleTwist was shown on BBC Click on 24th July 2009 (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/click_online/8165001.stm)

Edit: I’ve now plugged in my iPod into DoubleTwist and I was able to pull files off of my iPod.