HTC Sync 3.0 for Wildfire hands-on: iTunes sync tested (video)
By Richard Lai 
posted August 3rd 2010 4:59PM
posted August 3rd 2010 4:59PM
So, how does the iTunes sync work? Well, it's certainly nowhere as thrilling as Palm's cheeky hack -- it appears to simply access iTunes' database and playlists for the file locations, rather than fooling iTunes into thinking your Wildfire's an iDevice. You'll also be limited to syncing either everything or just selected playlists (smart playlists supported), so in other words, you can't sync by artists or genres, and you'll have to set up a dedicated playlist for syncing podcasts. Apart from this minor flaw, we'd say this is still a pretty neat solution for an age-old problem, and hopefully HTC will offer a similar app for Mac users. Hands-on video after the break.
Wheres the iPad news? :) Im slightly worried? Or what about the antenna thingy-ma-bob? its still more news than this? ;)
@ok old news again
"sense for android = lipstick on a pig"
The phrase "lipstick on a pig" is more commonly referenced to Sense for Windows Mobile 6.5 (a la HTC HD2).
Rather, most would argue that Sense for Android is more like lipstick on an already good looking woman. She might look nicer to some while others prefer the plain look.
@ok old news again
Sense is regarded as one of the better skins being used at the moment. If not the best.
You should go out and play in the street. Might get some more productive "ish" done out there. ;)
@ok old news again I hate to feed the troll, but I think people are right, you literally just sit there and refresh your browser and wait for something android then make an ignorant comment then get downranked, do you ever give up, or have a life??
P.S. I wrote this from my evo
@ok old news again
You are like that depressing ass kid at the party that brings everyone down ... people trying to have a good time and you are all like, "blaaaah blaaah blaaah my wife left me I am forever miserable lemme remind you all about how sour I am blaaaah blaaaaaah blaaaaaaah."
Christ, give it up. You are on the internet. No one cares that you don't like Android. BLAAHAHAB LAHAAAH BLHAAAAAAAAAHH
@tbhuang2
I don't consider Android, WinMo etc a pig, nor do I consider Sense to be lipstick.
I love HTC, I love Android, I loe WinMo (yes i'm strange) and I really love Sense.
@ok old news again
Okay, I know you're an absolute idiot, and have no redeeming qualities whatsoever, but this should be really easy to understand unless you're just a mentally handicapped parrot. Repeating things does not make your point anymore truthful or relevant. Understand that? Of course not.
@ok old news again I think engadget should track this guy down and permanently disable or "sleep that he never wakes up from" honestly he would find a way around an ip ban, he would use different computer/wifi, I don't know if ip comes from computer or Internet provider, but if it's Internet then he would cancel his service and get a new one just for this, he would go to Africa and make a new screen name called "Android is awesome" in an attempt to look like he agrees with commenters beliefs, and he'd change his name or fake his death if engadget came after him, hm maybe he'd actualy kill himself let's try it
@ok old news again Since when did zine rule the world? That's right, never because no one never and shall use it. Microsoftmade the biggest mistake adding zine media player to their phones
Can HTC Android phone play AAC files, or does this application convert them for you? I usually just manually copy files to my SD card for my Hero - which I would also do for AAC files if they are played natively.
HTC isn't known for their software. What do you really expect? :)
@Zodiac
Why do people keep repeating this junk? They have been doing custom mobile phone software for years (starting with WM); sure, not full OS replacements, but they certainly do make software. Remember kids, what you install on your PC is not the only software out there in the world...
Why would anyone use iTunes if you didn't have an iDevice that forced you to?
@redpanda
Exactly what I was thinking. Even if you had purchased content purchased from iTunes it's non-DRM now so you could just copy it elsewhere right? To be honest, through generations of iPods and iPhones itunes has been more of a hinderance than an multipurpose aid.
@redpanda This is handy for people migrating from iPhone to Android. I was one of them earlier this year.
@redpanda
Because to the general populace, iTunes is an easy to use program that does what they want it to. Besides, to them, exporting their media collection must sound almost impossible.
@redpanda
I must admit I thought that too, not sure about Android but on my HD2 you just need to drag-drop files onto the phone and they appear on your music library. No need for ANY software!
@tobsmonster2
On top of all that you pointed out (if people have spent their hard earned money in iTunes, how hard do you think it will be to get them to leave it?), DoubleTwist still remains the best option (IMO) for users that insist on syncing with iTunes.
I swear though people, the sooner you can get away from that windows resource hog, the better. What a "gaudy" piece of iCandy shit.
@redpanda
Amen.
@redpanda Same thing i think, apple software installs a load of crap that runs in background (ipod services, iphone services, bonjour, etc.) i even installed a quicktime alternative.
@Richard Lai
Please tell me this isn't your actual music collection!
@redpanda The encoders bundled with it are pretty fast and the UI isn't bad either. I compared the LAME and itunes encoders and itunes finishes way quicker. The syncing is also pretty seamless.
Haters pick on any software with an Apple logo and try to pick up some other piece of software that is obviously so much better but iTunes is the only software with a store + syncing + backups + encoding. Quicktime is the only media player I know of that allows you to do quick editing. I use it all the time to edit porn movies.
You get a movie with like 5-6 scenes and it wastes 700MB-1GB of space. If I need one scene, with Quicktime, I literally scrub to the in-point and use the frame stepping (try frame stepping in VLC or WMP), hit 'i', scrub to the out-point, hit 'o', command-x/ctrl-x, and save as self contained - you don't even have to re-encode the movie (which would be required in the likes of Movie Maker, iMovie etc).
If I have a bunch of audio files to convert, I select them in itunes, right-click and convert to AAC or MP3.
Bash the apps all you want but I personally rely on these features and no other apps in these categories come close.
Sure the Windows versions aren't as good as the Mac versions but so what? Why should one company make products well to give supporters of their competition a better experience? The competition doesn't do it in return.
Your Move Apple!
@Modacke What "move" are you waiting for? This isn't a USB vendor ID hack a la the Pre, it's HTC building its own software to read the XML formatted library file that iTunes creates to track your media.
If Palm had been smarter and/or not so lazy, they would have done the same, instead of being a bunch of idiots and deliberately playing a game of cat and mouse where the only real loser was the Pre owner who had to wait for Palm to "win" before they could synch up their devices.
@Cromagazine
Next move by Apple:
NEW iTunes Update version..... Changes the way that iTunes stores your music library to make it faster, better and more fantastic for users. Side effect, may break your Android sync.
@Jimbob
Don't be stupid. Palm were being idiots by identifying the Pre as an iPhone to iTunes, and Apple had every right to bust them for doing that. What HTC is doing is doing it RIGHT. The iTunes db is just an XML file, all you have to do is write software to access and parse it. Easy.
Palm could have done that and everything would have been fine, but nooooooooo. Rubenstein's ego was too big for that.
@Jack
Remember Rubenstein the Ex Apple employee never touched an iPhone in his life, give him a break lol.
Apple will not stop those who want to access the xml iTunes file, Palm was just idiots for not doing so.
iTunes sucks as a media management system... Why on earth would you voluntarily use it?
@Critic2029 For example, I have all my music there for my iPhone, I'm too lazy to actually move it all to a new music management software. Just sync directly from iTunes
@jeff181995
You said you were lazy... no me :)
@Critic2029 Exactly. It's a steaming pile of bloatware. Six services just to get a song on your ipod or phone?
Bring back drag and drop! Oh yeah, it never left, apple just don't want you to do it.
@Critic2029
iTunes really isn't that good. I have been better off managing my music since I dropped my iTunes / iPods / iTouch.
I think people are more nervous about leaving what they've known for so long behind. They think it'll be overwhelming ... but it's not!
@Critic2029
a. You own a Macintosh
b. You own a iPortable
c. You like the interface
d. You like the store
d1. No music drm (mostly)
e. You don't abnormaly hate apple
f. Weird reason but, the iTunes visualizer
g. It's free
h. It works
I could go on but those are the main reasons
@Critic2029 the reason i use it is i have several ipods. one stays in my glove box connected to my radio in my car, one to work out, and one for the boat. i also like genius play lists. and i dont want several meadia managers so i just keep itunes.
now, can i have this software for my evo? thanks.
iTuneMyWalkman (http://ilari.scheinin.fidisk.fi/itunemywalkman/) can do the same thing for Android phones or any other USB mass storage device on a Mac. Select playlists (or everything) and set it to sync whenever the drive is mounted. This plus something like DoubleTwist on the phone makes a pretty good syncing system. And yes I am pretty sure most Android devices will play (unprotected) AAC files.
Apple Watch out for HTC now and in the future they are on the come up!
btw I HATE iTunes and avoid using it on my iPhone 4 whenever possible.
I dumped iTunes altogether in favor of MediaMonkey. It syncs to my HD2 just fine (and my iPod, too).
@dlambert A wise man
@dlambert
I just dl MediaMonkey.
it sure doesn't look like iTunes. guess I just gotta get used to it.
@dlambert
No MediaMonkey for OS X nor Linux :(
@JO Yes, it's a little different. Probably not as polished in some ways, in fact. But having experienced a really uncomfortable feeling of lock-in on iTunes, I really wanted to see if there were alternatives. There were. ;-)
@brutek True. There's always VMWare or something, but that's a pretty large pain. Besides, if you're on a Mac, you've sort of drunk the kool-aide already, haven't you?
@brutek
I suggest you guys try doubletwist. Works for both Mac and PC. On all devices.
And when will we get the option to sync our digital copies on our android, specifically the EVO.
@Happyman Go on market and DL tunesync.. syncs playtlist with all android phones.
*Waits for Apple to encrypt the iTunes database*
@zangetsu2
Why would they do that?
@Jack
Same reason they broke iTunes syncing with the Pre. So the only mobile phone that can take advantage of iTunes and its database is the iPhone.
Does it work with the Nexus One?