Sync Music
Like the iPhone, Android phones ship with a media player. Unlike the iPhone, Android phones don't play nice with iTunes. To get your favorite, DRM-free tunes on your Google-based phone, you'll want to fire up doubleTwist again.
NOTE: doubleTwist will choke on any files with DRM and will refuse to continue syncing your playlist. We recommend using option two and creating a smart playlist without DRM-filled files.
1. Option one is to just create a playlist in doubleTwist and fill it with your favorite music. Once the playlist is ready, drag and drop it onto your Android phone.
2. Option two is to import a playlist from iTunes. If you had a playlist ready to go before launching doubleTwist for the first time, you can easily import all of yout iTunes' playlists.
NOTE: There is one problem with that method. If you create a playlist in iTunes after launching doubleTwist for the first time, doubleTwist won't import the new playlist. LAME!
3. To get around this, we used PreferenceCleaner to delete the doubleTwist preferences. Once those were gone, we just signed back into our doubleTwist account upon launching the app and re-imported the playlists.
Tada, our Android playlist from iTunes is now available. We just dragged this playlist onto our Android phone for mobile rocking.
Ringtone
Unlike the iPhone, the Android OS will let you make a ringtone from any audio file you have on your phone. As long as it's MP3, AAC, or AMR.
1. To create a ringtone, add the audio of choice to your phone and launch the Music app.
2. Select the audio file you want to be a ringtone. Press and hold on the track for a second, when you let go you'll see the above prompt. Choose ringtone. That's it.
3. On the phone, navigate to the Settings>Sound & display>Phone ringtone to select your new ringtone.
Create a Text Message Alert
This is an option that is sorely missed on the iPhone. Sure, you can jailbreak the iPhone to change the text alerts, but it's hardly a proper solution. With Android, you download one app and it takes care of your text alert changing ways.
1. The first thing you want to do is download Rings Extended from the Android Market. It's free!
2. Open the Messaging app. Press the Settings button, scroll down to Notification settings, tap on Select Ringtone. You'll be prompted to select either Android System or Rings Extended. Choose Rings Extended. Select Music track to find the track you want to use when you recieve a text message. Be sure the audio you want as a text alert is 1-3 seconds long. Anything longer gets annoying real quick.
We used Wild Epp as our text alert sound.
Next: Video, contacts and calendar.
novamedia
July 08, 2011 at 5:21am
Hello,
it would be great if you could check out FoneSync for Android (novamedia.de/en/mac-fonesync-android.htm). It is a new sync software for contacts, calendars, music and photos and works like iTunes. It does not need a cloud based service, just a USB connection, so it is fast and stable.
Tell me what you think!
Jan Fuellemann, nova media, info@novamedia.de
benbogart
January 25, 2011 at 5:21am
Unfortunately iCal doesn't play nicely with Google's CalDAV so don't expect your recurring events to update properly from your computer if you use this method. This has been an open bug on Google since 2008 and they don't really seem to care about it. [I tried to post the link here but it triggered the spam filter]. Try a search for "google-caldav-issues issue 26".
For me this is the killer. I can't get an Android phone until my calendar syncs properly with google. For me its first a phone, and second a calendar, 3rd everything else.
Lythox
January 23, 2011 at 6:57pm
"You're Android's SD card will show up in iPhoto for importing ease"
(You're means you are, and your is when it relates to ownership, like "your Android's SD card")I don't want to sound like whiner, but come on, it can't be that hard to get it right... Good tutorial though, it helped me out so thanks a lot for it.
drdave
July 31, 2010 at 1:11pm
Good Day!
I'm not having much luck syncing albums from iPhoto to my Eris, even with Doubletwist. Thanks to Chriscord, awhile back, I learned to sync Contacts and iCal fairly well. But not photos and iTunes tunes. In Doubletwist, photo albums are listed as music playlists. I don't doubt that this is my fault, but would like some help figuring it out!
bigredcndymn
February 05, 2010 at 1:36pm
Bring the iphone to Verizon and I will buy one immediately. As long as the iphone is with AT&T, I will use the Android.
drdave
January 02, 2010 at 8:11am
Hey, Chriscord - Thanks for taking the time. Planning to get either an Eris or a Droid today. I plan to use your suggestions either way. Tough choice between phones: I am happy with the Eris keyboard and prefer the smaller form factor. The screen and speed of the Droid are fab, though. (I'm still not sure about SAR - the Droid's are 1.49/1.50 - close to FCC max - while the Eris' are 1.19/.78). What do you think about the Music player on the Droid ?
Thanks again!
DM
chrischord
December 17, 2009 at 9:25pm
Dr Dave,your best bet is to open a gmail account and make that your headquarters for address book and calendar. then use the gmail calendar to create a .ics address to paste into your ical calendar subscription area. The export all your mac address book as v-cards and import into the gmail contact list.the ultimate advantage of this is that the droid syncs marvelously with your gmail calendar and contacts-both ways. If you add a contact on your droid, it automatically pushes to your gmail account and vice verse. The music player and even the default video player will work with the observed formats just by mounting the droid device through USB and dragging the media to the music or gallery section. However, one nice aspect of double twist is that it will also import album art work if you have that loaded into your itunes library. I just dragged ipod ready movies directly to the droid and they showed up and played easily in the gallery section.this device and it's operating system seem to be well suited for mac integration. I also loaded documents to go onto the phone, bought the pro upgrade key and found that i could load and edit microsoft word, excel power point files on the droid. also nice for pdf reading, etc.i've had apple products from the mac plus days. But, i doubt that i will get an iphone because i like the way this device works. It's nice to have a qwerty keyboard that slides out and a flash for the 5 MP camera. And, google maps is amazing. iLike!
drdave
December 13, 2009 at 7:26pm
Will Salling Media Sync and Double Twist also sync iCal and Address Book with Android phones? A simpler answer would be a Verizon iPhone, of course, but nothing seems certain about that coming.
Jok
December 11, 2009 at 3:00pm
The magazine has become the iPhone's Book of Love without any reportage on the other half of the phone concept. OK, the instrument itself is wonderful. But when one cannot receive or make actual phone calls, it would be better to think of it as an iPod. That other half is the lousy service offered by ATT. Questions for the MacBoys and MacGirls at MacLife: 1. When does ATT's exclusivity in the USA end? Are the contractual agreements lacking a legal basic such as TERM? [(n.) in contracts or leases, a period of time, such as five years.] 2. Has there been communication between Apple and other service providers, such as Verizon or Sprint? 3. Are there any plans, or better yet actual construction, of new ATT cell towers in places like New York or San Francisco? The latter city is my home, and after buying three different iPhone models over the years, I've found SF to be mottled leprously with dead zones. Even the much touted rebroadcasting units can't find ATT signals in much of the city. I've bought 2. Since the magazine is based in SF, hasn't any of your staff noticed? These 3 are questions that journalists should be doggedly pursuing. I mean you do, I hope, get paid as reporters and not as bloggers. A brilliant phone is the instrument AND the network through which it connects one to other telephones. Why does the magazine pretty much ignore this? And I do want an iPhone that works. Jok
sedcclint
December 07, 2009 at 9:20pm
I downloaded and used Salling Media Sync on the recommendation of Andy Ihnatko - worked perfectly. Synced all of my non-DRM music without hanging up, along with all of my playlists, podcasts, and photos. There is a free version that syncs everything everytime, so it is slower than the paid version. For about $20 you get to do incremental updates which takes no time at all after the first sync.
mike Hartman
December 03, 2009 at 1:17pm
I love Mac products. I have an iMac, MacBook Pro. I had an iPhone but due to AT&T's terrible service I returned to Verizon. As the name indicated, iPHONE is first a phone. If one can not make or receive calls and the carrier has a high rate for dropping calls the value of the product is significantly reduced! It is sad that because of personality issues the best phone and best carrier can't get together!
My point, don't be so critical of individuals who want to have good phone service and better 3G coverage which means using a Droid or some other non AT&T device.
bigriver108
October 29, 2010 at 10:16am
couldn't agree with you more, Mike. i've worked for a big 3 telecom carrier for 12 years and spent 6 more in telecom consulting. its really sad that Apple can't move more quickly to rectify this. i have to think they're leaving money on the table.
