DoubleTwist, one of the more popular non-iTunes media syncing solutions for webOS, has received a significant upgrade bringing the ability to search for and automatically sync audio and video podcasts utilizing the "largest integrated pocast search engine in the world".  DoubleTwist already has Amazon MP3 integration, and the ability to take care of all of your podcast catching and syncing needs brings this program closer to being one of the most robust in this category.

Sure, the excellent drPodder podcatching app finally hit the Catalog this week and should satisfy the podcast consuming habits of most, but there’s something to be said about being able to manage and sync all of your media from one program.

The update is Windows-only for now, but Mac support should be coming soon.

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Windows users can finally get in on the integrated Amazon MP3 that doubleTwist users on Macs have been enjoying for what seems like ages. The latest update to the media sync software brings it to version 2.6 on PC (Mac users get a feature-similar 1.0b14), and in addition to the expected bug fixes and Amazon MP3 integration also adds supports for the unannounced Google Nexus One. Seeing as it’s just an Android phone, adding support for one more Android device couldn’t have been a tall order for doubleTwist. doubleTwist added support for the Palm Pre and Palm Pixi soon after they launched.

With Amazon MP3’s music store integration doubleTwist can serve as a full-fledged iTunes sync and store replacement. Its playback controls are a bit lacking, but we have little doubt that ramping doubleTwist up to complete iTunes/Windows Media Player replacement is very much on doubleTwist’s radar.

[via: Gizmodo]

Thanks to gksspot555 for the tip!

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While user guides for the iPhone may be getting in trouble because they have the word “iPhone” in their titles, we’re seeing no such issues with the Palm webOS App Catalog. Landing recently in the App Catalog is Made Simple Learning’s first on-device guide for webOS phones: Made Simple for webOS.

The interactive cross-referenced guide stretches for some 1500 pages and covers just about every facet of out-of-the-box life with the Palm Pre. Made Simple for webOS features easy navigation that is claimed to get you to any point in the book with just two taps – and that’s something that we simply couldn’t dispute.

Not only does Made Simple for webOS cover how to use the phone itself, it also examines third party applications like Pandora and sync solutions like iTunes and doubleTwist. The guide also covers numerous tips and tricks, such as how to copy and paste text, work with Card view, and more. All of these tips, tricks, and how-to’s are accompanied by more than one thousand annotated screenshots.

Made Simple for webOS is available for download now in the App Catalog for $4.99.

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Hot on the heels of Apple pushing out a new version of iTunes that breaks sync with the Pre, the good folks over at doubleTwist have poked their heads up to say “Hey!” The newly updated version of doubleTwist has added support for the Palm Pixi to their long and growing list of non-Apple-sanctioned devices that they let sync with iTunes. Pixi sync is here now for Mac and next week for Windows.

The latest version of doubleTwist also brings support for the Android-sporting Motorola CLIQ and Droid smartphones. The new version also adds the ability to read and copy off of connected iPods and iPhones. doubleTwist is moving along nicely; it was just a few weeks ago that they unveiled an in-app music store powered by Amazon MP3.

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[ youtube link ]

While doubleTwist has always been great for syncing your Pre with iTunes whether or not Apple was unhappy enough to break Media Sync, it still leveraged your music purchasing through iTunes. While you could still download music from Amazon MP3 from your browser and load it into iTunes through Amazon’s own desktop software, it wasn’t exactly the most elegant solution. doubleTwist has decided to make that easier and has integrated the Amazon MP3 Store into their own sync software.

As with Amazon MP3 on the Pre, doubleTwist now has access to over five million songs in Amazon’s catalog, available for purchase as both complete albums and individual tracks. Thankfully, like doubleTwist’s syncing software, they’ve also made the Amazon MP3 Store dead easy to use. This implementation is actually quite a bit easier than trying to utilize the Amazon MP3 Store via their browser-based interface, which was quite clearly designed for the purchase of physical media that built Amazon into the retail powerhouse it is today.

With Amazon MP3 available on both your Pre and now easily on your computer via doubleTwist we now have one fewer reason to rely on iTunes for our music synchronization needs.

[via: TechCrunch]

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Since Apple has decided to take their iTunes ball and go home, Palm Pre owners who had come to depend on the software as their synchronization solution have found themselves out in the cold. Do not distress, for there are many options available for you to continue delightful synchronization of your music. Several of these options even come with more options than iTunes itself, and if there’s anything we like here, it’s options.

Our list is by no means comprehensive, but it is broad and touches upon the various options available for iTunes synchronization, as well as ways for non-iTunes users to get their music easily onto the Pre. If there’s something else that you use, or a sync solution that you need, sound off in the comments!

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The way that the Palm Pre works with iTunes is great, clever, intuitive, and just aggravating enough for me to want to try something else for syncing my media. The ’something else’ I picked was a no-brainer and I’m not going back: doubleTwist.

doubleTwist, if you didn’t know, is the new project from Jon Lech Johansen, who you may know better as ‘DVD Jon,’ who has found workarounds for nearly every meda DRM you can think of.  That’s serious geek cred, sure, but it’s also a signal and Johansen cares about openness, transparency, and simplicity and those virtues are abudant in doubleTwist.

doubleTwist is an application for both Mac and PC that allows you to easily transfer media from your computer to virtually any device you plug into it. It understands what the Pre can and can’t support and automatically re-formats your media into a compatible format.  I may have mentioned RealPlayer SP yesterday, but trust me: doubleTwist is better.  For me, it’s even better than the built-in iTunes Sync.

Read on to find out why and to get some thoughts on the webOS and the Pre from DVD Jon himself.

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