Google Android Shortcomings Solved by Twitter, DoubleTwist, Rhapsody

by Clint Boulton

DoubleTwist was created as a “unifying media platform that connects consumers with all their media and all their devices, regardless of whether they are online or offline.” DoubleTwist syncs music, video and podcasts between Windows and Macs with phones, including Android devices.

DoubleTwist users can get music using the integrated Amazon MP3 store in the U.S. and synchronizes iTunes playlists to Android, Palm Pre, BlackBerry and other platforms.

Users can also download and convert any video to play on their devices via drag and drop.

Users can search, subscribe to and synchronize their favorite podcasts to any device using its podcast search engine.

But that’s not all. For Apple computer users, DoubleTwist for Mac has integrated with the Android Market. JKontherun’s Kevin Tofel said DoubleTwist pulls much of the information found in the Market, including screenshots, reviews and number of downloads. A Windows version of DoubleTwist will see the same Market integration, Tofel said.

Rhapsody is now streaming its extensive music collection to Android phones.

Choose from 9.5 million songs for $9.99 a month, unlimited, to computers and Android handsets. Try it free for two weeks.

Check out the Rhapsody for Android demo here. While there is no offline caching of music yet, Rhapsody said users on a plane or train will soon be able to download any song in the catalog to their phone.

Twitter CEO Evan Williams said at Twitter’s Chirp conference April 14 that Twitter will be launching an Android app. Coming less than a week after Twitter launched a BlackBerry for Twitter app and purchased Atebits to refashion Tweetie as Twitter for iPhone, this makes us wonder whether Twitter will buy a Twitter for Android client such as Twidroid, or build its own from scratch.