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iTunes sync comes to Moto's Droid

Palm still prefers to cheat

Motorola's Droid smartphone, which runs Google's Android mobile operating system, may have only appeared on US shores last Friday, but you can already download a free app that'll sync it with iTunes.

The app, doubleTwist, isn't new - but its support for the Droid is. The app's parentage is also noteworthy, coming as it does from the fertile minds of a company co-founded by that illustrious enemy of DRM, DVD Jon (more formally known as Jon Lech Johansen).

In addition to syncing and sharing music, photos, and videos, doubleTwist also converts video to the codec appropriate for your device so that - in the words of the company's introductory video for Mac OS X - you "don't have to worry about geeky formats and settings." (A PC-centric video is available here.)

This latest public beta, which you can download here, isn't Droid specific - not by a long shot. The app's list of supported devices is a long one. Among Android phones, there's support for HTC's G1, Magic, and Hero, plus Samsung Galaxy and Moment. Blackberry support includes the Curve, Pearl, Storm, Bold, and Flip.

A raft of other phones from Sony Ericsson, LG, and Nokia are also supported, as well as other devices such as the Sony PSP and the Amazon Kindle (audio files only, of course). Support for the Nintendo DSi is coming soon. On the host side, doubleTwist supports Window 7, Vista, and XP, plus Mac OS 10.5, aka Leopard.

Interestingly, doubleTwist also supports the Palm Prē, giving that phone the iTunes syncing ability that has been the subject of an ongoing tug-of-war between Palm and Apple.

The Droid version of doubleTwist doesn't yet appear to be seamless - it is a beta, after all - as a pair of posts on the doubleTwist forums indicate.

But coming as it does from a small, independent developer, doubleTwist - whether for Droid, BlackBerry, Hero or otherwise - does give weight to the argument that Palm's ongoing Prē hackathon is as much about publicity as connectivity. ®

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