I have a mixed marriage. My wife has an Apple iPad, but I replaced my Apple iPhone with a Droid Incredible. Not because I didn’t love my iPhone, but because I wanted to find out what it would be like to actually have voice communication with a phone. That necessitated my leaving AT&T. Don’t get me wrong. AT&T treated me wonderfully and they have great products. Unfortunately, I also wanted a network that let me talk on the phone in the places I frequent. When the AT&T network allows me to talk on the phone along my usual routes, I will happily consider returning to AT&T.
So, life without an iPhone in my new Verizon world: Android can very happily automatically download audio podcast updates using Listen. Unlike the iPhone, Android phone storage is easily accessed to just drag and drop music from the computer. Unfortunately, the Android Music, DoubleTwist, and HTC Music apps on my phone only recognize album art embedded in the music’s tags. But I also want playlists that synchronize between the phone, the iPad, and the computer and I want my video podcasts on that awesome Incredible display.
Given the iPad in the house, we’re going to continue to use iTunes. Frankly, I like the way it looks when we’re playing music on the HTPC, too. Unfortunately, Jobs and Co. are at war with the Google Nation. iTunes will not willingly sync with a Google Android phone. There are at least a couple of programs that seek to bridge the gap. For those who like to cut to the chase, I’ll start with where I ended up. For the cynics, later I’ll explain why I took this approach.
For audio podcasts, I use Listen on my phone and no desktop client. If I wish to hear my audio podcasts on my computer I go to my ‘Listen Subscriptions’ folder in Google Reader on the web.
For video podcasts, I copy my podcasts from my iTunes ‘podcasts’ folder on the computer to the ‘Podcasts’ folder on my phone’s microSD card. (If you don’t have that directory then make it.) I can then watch them using my Photos mobile app. Yes, it is called “Photos” but it plays videos, too.
For music, I use MediaMonkey and listen using either my Music or DoubleTwist mobile app. For playlists, I use iTunes Export to include my iTunes playlists in MediaMonkey. (Alternately, iTunes Export can also export your iTunes playlists straight to the ‘Playlists’ folder on your phone.) This means I have the same playlists in iTunes as I have in MediaMonkey as on my phone.
As I showed in a recent post, I have arranged my Listen, Music, and Photos apps on the same page. Don’t tell Apple, but I think of it as my iPod page.
Continue reading Sync, Sank, Sunk – a Droid Incredible Journey
