Over the last six months, doubleTwist, the iTunes alternative that lets you manage your music, videos, and photos, has really been stepping up its game. In October the company integrated an Amazon-powered MP3 store, allowing users to download and sync their music directly with any of hundreds of compatible devices, much as they would with the iTunes/iPod combo. And today it’s adding a new feature that makes it an even more viable iTunes competitor: support for podcasts.
Co-founder Monique Farantzos says that doubleTwist has built and integrated a podcast search engine with 20 times as many podcasts as iTunes offers. Rankings are based on popularity (as opposed to a simple listing that would grow unmanageable with that much content). The new feature is launching on Windows now, with Mac support for podcasts coming next month. Later this year, doubleTwist will offer an API allowing other applications to tap into the podcast search engine. The company is also planning to launch a client for Android (which would presumably allow users to stream content) over the summer.
Farantzos says that doubleTwist is also going to start offering more cloud-based services. In May, users will be able to store the podcasts they’re subscribed to server-side, so they’ll be able to use the same subscriptions on their desktop and mobile clients without having to dock them together.
While it supports many devices, doubleTwist is becoming increasingly popular as an ‘iTunes for Android’. In January, it forged a partnership with T-Mobile, which promotes doubleTwist and has pre-installed it on some devices. Now, 53% of doubleTwist users are using it to sync with Android phones. The application also supports syncing with many other devices, including WebOS, BlackBerry, Sony PSP, and digital cameras.
doubleTwist is still missing some of the functionality that iTunes has, like the ability to download TV shows and movies. But the podcast functionality will add some video content, and 1 in 5 users are using it to manage video content they already have. And some people may even appreciate the added simplicity if they’re just interested in music. In any case, it probably isn’t worth holding your breath for doubleTwist to add movies and TV downloads any time soon — content owners are still set on wrapping that content in DRM.
Also see Songbird, another iTunes alternative (you can see our past coverage here).
Linux support would be sweet…I used DoubleTwist on my Mac, would be awesome to have it on my Ubuntu machine, as 1.) there’s no iTunes support and 2.) the current alternatives (Banshee, etc) are pretty lame…
Well personally I find the world of Linux audio players (Rhythmbox, Amarok, Banshee, etc) to be great – but yes, in terms of sync (although Banshee supports basic Android sync, since the G1 launch), they can’t really compete with the over-the-air syncing that doubeTwist offers.
@max Linux support would be sweet!
They may potentially be able to compete with iPhone. Who knows :)
Except it doesnt have to compete with the iPhone, moron. You’re thinking iTUNES
The iTunes and iPhone ecosystems are so tightly integrated that I believe the original statement is correct. i.e. this is the iPhone experience competing with the everyone-but-iPhone experience.
Too bad you can’t auto syndicate website content on that site, to gain backlink search and social networking traffic..
thought
Doubletwist adding Android app support…(detects Android device…enables that functionality!)
i want to tell my mom “hey use this prgrm its just like itunes but for Android” – even though double twist is really better…. :)
Double Twist guys , If you are reading this , Please Please Offer LInux Support…In the spirit of freedom it is really ironical to use DT on Windows/Mac…Ubuntu/Android/DoubleTwist Combination Would be Just gr8..
Again DOUBLE Twist on Ubuntu Please………
What stands out to me is how much of a copy the UI is from iTunes. They can’t get sued for that?
Wow really? I’d copy none of iTunes UI. iTunes sucks. I can’t believe Apple made it.
It’s the standard UI on Mac. Not really copying iTunes as much as using the built in toolkit that comes with Cocoa. I don’t know why the windows version looks like a Mac app, except for simplicity for documentation maybe??? Be cool if that fit that in like a native Windows 7 app with some neat Aero animation/transparency effects. A GTK+ or QT version for Linux would be awesome. Poking around the binary looks like the windows and mac version share very little in common except art work and resources and doesn’t use any type of cross platform toolkit.
I can’t wait for their Android version. Frankly, I’ve had it with Google Listen app.
Thank you!
I can’t find a podcast client that will
* Recognize when a new episode is available in a timely fashion.
* Not try to be too smart about managing my playlist (i.e. deleting something that I’ve listened to 50% of because it’s thinks I’ve listened to it)
* Remember where I was in a podcast so I can listen to it later at the right spot.
Google Listen falls down badly on the first bullet, which makes it almost useless. Most of the podcasts I listen to happen to be time sensitive (e.g. news)
Your last point about remembering your place in a podcast is what really disappoints. In fact, if you were streaming while listening, Google Listen will start the whole download over again, which makes it impossible to skip ahead to where you left off.
Have you tried DoggCatcher? Although it’s a little pricey it generally works quite well for me, and gets regular updates for new features and bug fixes.
+1 Praveen – I use Ubuntu and it would be awesome to use double twist on it.
Check out psonar.com
It’s free and you can upload unlimited tracks using the SongShifter, a PC app which runs automatically when you login, keeping your cloud up-to-date with the tracks on your computer.
It also allows you to sync any of your music devices from any PC (not just those in the Apple ecosystem) so if you don’t want to stop using your non internet-enabled / USB MP3 player, or you want to sync your BlackBerry / Palm / Android phone when you’re on the go, you can do that too.
There’s also a mobile website so you can browse, organise and stream tracks direct to your mobile or PDA without having to download and install an app.
You can also listen to 30 seconds of any track any other user has uploaded and buy it if you like it (all anonymous).
Streaming of playlists to mobile and social features are on the way.
Does it allow me to purchase songs in Canada? I tried to purchases about 25 tracks from Amazon, spent an hour or two adding them to my cart, went to check out and got the “Sorry no Canadians”. Seriously Amazon? Why is it that Apple is the only company that can fully work though the CRTC bullcrap?
So why didn’t Palm use this solution from the beginning instead of allowing Apple to screw up their user experience?
So, how long until Google purchases doubleTwist? If they pick up doubleTwist and integrate it with Catch Media’s technology, things could be very interesting.
Linux support would be sweet!
Linux support will be nice
I despise anything that is iTunes, can't believe the only design they could have come up with is…an iTunes UI.
This isn't a true media manager because you can't edit the metadata on your media.