Yesterday, doubleTwist, everyone's favorite iTunes alternative, launched a new feature called AirSync. Used in conjunction with an Android app, it lets you wirelessly sync your music, movies, and pictures from your smart phone with your PC or Mac. That's right, no USB cable required. The app costs 99 cents for the first 10,000 people to download it, $4.99 afterwards. We took it for a spin last night, and were more than pleased with the results.
We installed doubleTwist on a 15-inch MacBook Pro and our desktop PC at work; the program installed fairly quickly on both. We then installed the app on a Google Nexus One. We then connected the Nexus One and the computers to the same Wi-Fi network; the phone was found almost instantly. If it doesn't show up automatically, you can also get the app to scan the network for your device.
The app on the phone then generated a 5-digit password that we entered into the desktop app. With the two devices now connected wirelessly, we were able to select what type of media we wanted to consume: Music, Videos, or Subscriptions (podcasts). This is a nice option, as not everyone has a 32GB SD card in their phone just yet. A status bar on the desktop app shows how much space you have left; it would be even cooler if, like iTunes, it showed how much memory was taken up by file type.
Syncing files was just as quick and seamless as everything else. Within a few minutes, we had uploaded about 1GB of music to our Nexus One. We liked that we could sync files from two different computers without one overriding the other's collection. Also, doubleTwist can import multimedia from a phone--such as videos and pictures--to a notebook. It's a nice little backup feature.
Unfortunately, the Mac desktop software doesn't allow you to subscribe to or sync podcasts just yet. Also, if you have the Settings menu open on the Android app, the desktop software won't be able to see the phone on the network.
Android smart phone owners who want a quick and easy way to get their multimedia wirelessly to and from their device should pick up doubleTwist AirSync, especially when it's being offered for just 99 cents. It's a feature that, frankly, we're surprised isn't on iTunes yet.
