Android Gains Better Media Player Via DoubleTwistAndroid Gains Better Media Player Via DoubleTwist

One of Android's biggest weaknesses is its wimpy media player and lack of native media syncing software. One company is trying to remedy that by offering both a player and syncing software for the Android platform.The stock media player on Android devices stinks. There, I said it. Perhaps this application isn't important to everyone, but it is important to me. Some manufacturers have tried to gloss it up a bit and make it look better. HTC, in particular, has refreshed the look and feel from time to time, even if it hasn't added any new features.

DoubleTwist makes desktop software that lets Android phones sync media between the phone and a PC. It integrates with iTunes playlists, and makes what can be a tedious task less painful. It's not perfect, and I find it to sometimes be buggy, but it eventually gets the job done.

Beyond simply offering this sync tool, DoubleTwist recently introduced a new media player for Android handsets. The player can be downloaded from the Android Market. It is a much cleaner, simpler player to use. It doesn't set new benchmarks with respect to new features, but it does offer some niceties such as the ability to transfer song ratings and play counts back and forth between the handset and PC.

What most users will be excited about is that the media player also handles video and podcasts. As it stands, the video player application for Android is a separate application from the music player. (In fact, more than a few Android handsets ship without a video player preloaded at all.) It is nice to have one application handle all the media responsibilities.

There are plenty of other third-party apps available in the Android Market for both music and video playback, so what makes this one so special? Well, it is one of the only apps that integrates both a desktop client and device-side software in one, iTunes-esque package. It's not perfect, by any stretch of the imagination, but it is better than nothing.

[Via TechCrunch]