The doubleTwist-Amazon venture has been available for Macs for about a week, and looks like it will deploy the same easy-to-use interface on Windows. It will also have the same all-important advantages over the iTunes Goliath: lower prices and the ability to sync your music to any of your PMPs.

The Nexus One support is a little baffling, since the phone doesn't officially exist yet, but we'll take doubleTwist founder DVD Jon's word for it.

Windows release notes:

Changes

* Integrated Amazon MP3 music store. Currently only users with a U.S. credit card can purchase from the store.
* You can now re-import your iTunes or Windows Media Player playlists (in the Preferences dialog).
* Support for the Nexus One Android phone.

Mac release notes:

Changes

* Support for playlist sync.
* There's now an option in the music store to "Keep me signed in".
* You can now link doubleTwist to your Twitter and Facebook accounts (in the Preferences) and optionally broadcast your music purchases to your friends.
* Fixed an issue with the music store not loading on older Mac OS X 10.5 versions (e.g. 10.5.5).
* Support for the Nexus One Android phone.

[doubleTwist release notes for Mac and Windows]

To put this into context, doubleTwist debuted not just as an alternative music manager for people with or without Apple players, but as a giant, coded jab at iTunes, Apple, and the way they do business. After launch, DVD Jon, who created doubleTwist, spent a few months waging a small-scale PR war, hanging Apple-baiting banners in San Francisco and parodying their famous "1984" ad. With Amazon MP3 store integration, that ad's promise—to "bring you choice"—has come true, and it's worth a thousand PR stunts

As has been the case with every other aspect of doubleTwist, the music storefront looks like a simpler version of the one in iTunes. Navigation and searching are about as simple as they could be, as are downloads, which only take a few clicks. The whole experience will be familiar to anyone weened on Apple's bloated beast, apart from a few things: Amazon's album prices are often lower than iTunes', and of course, you can immediately sync any music you download—there's only music, by the way—to practically any device you own, be it a Pre, a BlackBerry, a Sandisk, an iPod, or whatever.

The first version is Mac-only and tied to Amazon's US store, but Windows (and international) versions are on their way. [doubleTwist via Techcrunch]

At least, that's what DoubleTwist—a company that makes software to use iTunes with any media device—thinks. That's why they turned the famous "1984" SuperBowl commercial against Apple and Steve Jobs himself.

The original Apple "1984" ad was commissioned by Steve Jobs to agency Chiat/Day. The ad was written by Steve Hayden and art directed by Brent Thomas, with creative direction by Jobs' pal Lee Clow. The Apple board didn't want to air "1984", but at the end Jobs got it in the SuperBowl, becoming the most famous and cost-effective commercial in the history of TV advertisement. It featured a nameless heroine sporting a t-shirt with the Macintosh Picasso icon, being chased by policemen who are unable to stop her as she throws a hammer against a screen that has a large number of people idiotized.

Of course, in the original ad, the man in the screen is a representation of IBM, and the Mac manages to break the Big Brother brain washing. In the DoubleTwist ad, however, the man in the screen is Steve Jobs. And, supposedly, this October 6 they will get all of the hypnotized fanboys out of the Kool-Aid loop. Good luck with that, people. [TechCrunch]

The problem with downloading to iTunes 8.2 from 8.2.1 is that isn't quite as straightforward as replacing the iTunes app. You have to replace some other support files. The easier way is to use one of these four options. And, you have the freedom to update iTunes to any future version without worrying about whether or not it'll mess up Pre syncing.

1) doubleTwist, by DVD Jon. [Download]

doubleTwist lets you access your iTunes Library in that you can see all the music and playlists (even smart ones) you've already established. Once you connect your Pre in USB mode, all you have to do is drag playlists or individual songs over to the Pre to have it sync. There's no library view, as in you can't drill down into artists, so you should organize your songs into playlists you want to sync inside iTunes first.

The downside of this method is that there's no progress bar so you can't see how much of your sync is done. The syncing process also isn't foolproof, and froze on me mid-sync. But it does have the ability to import YouTube videos, which is kinda awesome. And, it doesn't support the actual playlist function on the Pre, so your songs are going to be in one big pile. (You can sift through Artists, Albums, and Genres, of course.)

Update: The Windows version has automatic playlist sync (screenshot here), and the Mac is getting it this fall. What I meant to say was, the playlist support doesn't work on the Pre side, not to be confused with the playlist support on the computer side. Jon of doubleTwist tells me that the Pre doesn't actually support playlists in non-iPod mode right now. Hopefully that'll come some time in the future now that the iTunes sync is becoming an issue. Thanks Jon!

Best all-around experience since this is a media-manager in itself

Doesn't support playlists, and lack of progress bar when syncing

2) Just dragging music over into the media folder

One feature of iTunes that not many people know about is its ability to just drag and drop songs from iTunes the app to any location. So if you open up iTunes to the playlist, select all the songs inside the playlist and drag it into the Pre's USB drive.

Drawback to this method is that it's still one-way sync (you can't uncheck or check a playlist to sync or de-sync easily), so you'll have to clean things up yourself after your sync. It has the same no-playlist support problem as doubleTwist

Easiest method

Bare bones: no playlist support, no song management

3) iTunes Sync on Windows [Download]

It's essentially a very simple version of doubleTwist, where you can select playlists one by one and sync them over to the Pre while it's in USB drive mode. This does have a progress meter, but it's Windows-only.

Progress meter is a plus

Windows-only

4) iTuneMyWalkman [Download]

Mac-only, but it creates a M3U playlist when you're syncing music.

There are other utilities, of course, but one of these four should be enough to get you started. If you have one that does something better than the ones here, feel free to share them in the comments.

Playlist support!

Mac-only

Update: Commenters are also recommending Mediamonkey, Missing Sync and Salling Media Sync. You can give those a try as well.

DVD Jon's doubleTwist ad was a little jab at Apple—the product itself enables flexibility Apple doesn't like, and DVD Jon plopped the ad right next door to the San Francisco Apple store. But the ad is on BART property, legally paid for, and so it's interesting that BART would remove the ad for reasons that are, shall we say, a bit dubious. Apple, of course, is a major BART advertiser, plastering iPod ads all over the transit system.

Of course, it's totally possible that the ad just needs to be transparent or translucent to let light through, and any opaque color would be inappropriate. But it's a little suspicious, no? [Boing Boing Gadgets]

If you're wondering how Apple allowed this to happen, the window technically belongs to BART—a Bay Area's transit system—and because the advertiser, DVD Jon, had purchased that specific ad space directly from BART, it's perfectly legal and there's not much that can be done about the "Cure for iPhone Envy" product placement. I'm curious to see what kind of marketing magic, if any, Apple's going to create in retaliation. [TechCrunch]

For those unfamiliar, DoubleTwist promises compatibility with most personal, consumer electronic devices, including cellphones, cameras, camcorders and MP3 players, for sync and management capability. Plus, they're constantly working to not only update the database of supported devices, but also the features within the software itself. You can also add friends who are also using the app to swap and stream files freely.

Anyways, its a really promising project that you should definitely give a try, if you already havent. [DoubleTwist for Windows (and Mac)]

DoubleTwist was created by the famous DVD copy-protection reverse-engineer who calls himself DVD Jon, so you know it's friendly to the budget-minded poweruser. So far, it's been a joy to use, but it's still in beta and has some flaws. Here's what it does now, and what it should do:

What doubleTwist Does:

Manages Photos, Music and Video on Your Computer
It watches your Music, Photos and Movies folders, and lets you drag and drop any other folders into its media browser. There's also a Spotlight-esque search function to check your folders. Music is organized in sortable list form, while photos and videos are displayed as tiles.

Lets You Maintain an Online "Feed" and Send/Receive Media To/From Other doubleTwist Users
DoubleTwist has a built in social-networking aspect that lets you create an account, add friends and shoot files back and forth. You can post video, photos and music to a "feed," which is basically a media-rich version of the Facebook wall, and it gets syndicated to all your friends.

They say you can send any type of file back and forth on doubleTwist, which seems like a lawsuit waiting to happen. We haven't yet had the chance to fully test this feature, but they remain pretty vague on its limits . And for those who aren't signed up, you can send them an email link to the doubleTwist servers, where they can view/watch/hear the content you want them to receive.

Connects to a Variety of Phones and Devices
DoubleTwist is really touting its ability to connect with devices here, especially BlackBerry and Android phones. (Not surprisingly, you can't yet sync with Apple products.) When you plug in your device, it shows up under its model name, and doubleTwist organizes media files in the same way it does for your computer. You can drag and drop freely between the two devices. (see top photo)

Auto-Converts Files to Provide Compatibility With Your Device
Because it only works with devices it knows, doubleTwist autoconverts media files as necessary. So if you have a .mp4 video file that your phone doesn't support, doubleTwist will detect this before uploading and convert appropriately. (We'll be testing this to see how long a movie in the wrong format might take.)

Connects to Your iTunes Library for Access to Playlists and Other Stuff
Like other media devices and apps, doubleTwist can read your iTunes Library XML file, which provides access to playlists and podcasts, in addition to the the rest of your library. Most of the crap that pops up in the left column of iTunes will show up here.

Uploads Photos and Videos to Online Services
With Flickr and Facebook integration, you can drag, drop and tag your photos, then upload them with a click, and without exiting doubleTwist. The same thing goes for sending videos to YouTube.

WHAT DOUBLETWIST SHOULD DO
iPhone and iPod Support
As we mentioned, there's not a lot of love for iPhone and iPod yet, but the doubleTwist team says this functionality will actually appear in future versions.

AirTunes Support
One of my favorite features of using iTunes with an Airport Express is the AirTunes streaming feature. There are 3rd-party apps, such as AirFoil, that take advantage of this feature, so it shouldn't be too hard to work this into future versions.

Native Playlist Support and Streaming Libraries
For now, there is no way to import or create music playlists, aside from what's already in iTunes. You also can't connect to other people's libraries or an iTunes Music Server on your network. This means you'll still be using iTunes for some stuff.

Advanced File Categorization/Organization
Right now, the categorization and organization of media files are a bit rudimentary. Music shows up in a list view, but the only sortable categories are Title, Artist, and Time. Photos and Videos only show up as tiles, with no other view or sort options, except adjusting thumbnail size.

For people with tons of files, this doesn't quite cut it.

I also don't really like that when you play a song, it launches a second window which compiles the list of songs played while the app has been open. But there's no way to remove songs from the list aside from closing the app, nor can you keep playback all in one window. It's not major, but kinda bleh.

BOTTOM LINE
DoubleTwist is an extremely promising app that really could become the de facto standard for media players if they continue to develop and improve on this beta. The idea of not having to use iPhoto ever again (I hate it), or getting more functionality than what VLC offers for videos is pretty exciting.g. [doubleTwist via MacRumors]