Hacker Jon Lech Johansen (aka DVD Jon for anti-DRM exploits) has launched a new social media-type startup.
The 24-year-old Norwegian, who became famous around the world for his work on DeCS-a utility that cracked the encryption on DVDs-has released a free application called DoubleTwist desktop that promises users the ability to share and sync video, audio and image files with friends.
The company, which is backed by the same venture capital company that invested in Skype and Last.fm, also shipped Twist me, a Facebook application that acts like a media drop box for photos, music and video clips.
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An interesting part of DoubleTwist is the ability to automatically convert music purchased from Apple’s iTunes store to the MP3 format, allowing users to sync those songs to third-party devices.
This is not likely to sit well with Apple, a company that is notorious for restricting media purchased through the iTunes application.
The DoubleTwist desktop will let users sync iTunes playlists with Nokia N Series phones; Sony Ericsson Walkman and Cybershot phones; LG Viewty phones; phones using the Windows Mobile 5.0/6.0 platform-such as Treo, HTC and Palm-the Sony PSP; and the Amazon Kindle.
The desktop application is Windows-only, but the company plans to eventually support Macs and iPhones.