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I have been an Iphone user for a long time but I am now considering moving to an Android device (Samsung Galaxy S2). The only thing that is giving me cause for concern is the convenience of the syncing experience.

I use my IPhone largely as a media device that accepts phone calls, so syncing is important for me. I subscribe to podcasts and manage my music using ITunes on a Mac. I then attach the Iphone and press the sync button. Everything else is then automatic, new music is copied to the phone, new episodes of podcasts are downloaded and old ones removed. I then listen to this media in the car using a bluetooth connection. I could not be much happier with that experience at all.

I appreciate that the Android experience will not be as slick as the IPhone one and I can accept that so long as I can get to the same goal, however I do not want to find myself copying files/podcasts manually on to the device.

How do other OS/X users rate the Android sync Experience, and what application do they use to achieve what I am doing with my IPhone.

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  • Asking people their opinions on the user experience is not generally the kind of questions we want here. Please review the FAQ.
    – ale
    Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 17:40
  • @AlEverett. I do not believe I am merely asking for opinions I am asking people to describe the syncing experience and asking for details of appropriate software to achieve the desired result. There does not seem to be a definitive place on the web where the android to mac sync process is described, I was hoping this might be the place.
    – Steve Weet
    Commented Oct 11, 2011 at 9:12
  • No, and there's enough else in your question that it didn't get closed out of hand. Still, this site is mostly for concrete problems with definite solutions. While interesting, your question is not a very good fit.
    – ale
    Commented Oct 11, 2011 at 13:00

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For things like Podcasts, the experience should be far more slick than the clunky Apple need to plug into a PC and use iTunes. Most services on Android are about the device itself doing all of the syncing directly with the internet, not needing to have a PC in the middle that you have to plug into to get updates.

For Podcasts, you can use something like Google Listen, this keeps the list of your Podcast subscriptions in Google Reader, and syncs and downloads new episodes wirelessly throughout the day (though if you're concerned about data usage you can configure it to only download when you're on a wifi network). I haven't personally used it, but other apps like DoggCatcher keep your subscriptions on the device and wirelessly sync throughout the day in similar ways.

For music syncing, there's nothing built-in, but apps like WinAmp allow you to do a wireless music sync with a PC running WinAmp, again other apps also allow that, but I haven't used them.

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  • What future does Google Listen have now that Google Labs is no more? Also I am using a Mac so WinAmp is not an option, is anyone aware of Mac solutions for automatically syncing music to an Android device.
    – Steve Weet
    Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 15:20
  • Sorry, missed the fact you're on a Mac, WinAmp is available for Mac if you want to try that, otherwise DoubleTwist is one option for syncing with a Mac's music library market.android.com/details?id=com.doubleTwist.androidPlayer (their non-free AirSync app handles a wireless sync). According to googleblog.blogspot.com/2011/07/… "many of the Labs products that are Android apps today will continue to be available on Android Market" we don't know anything specific about Listen, except that at least one update has been sent since that announcement.
    – GAThrawn
    Commented Oct 10, 2011 at 16:12
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I've heard good things about DoubleTwist from Mac users, allows you to continue using iTunes to sync your music. Haven't tried it myself since Spotify does enough for me, and iTunes isn't really pleasant on a PC, had enough of it when I had an iPhone.

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