How to sync Android smartphones, tablets with iTunes

While walking past one of those mobile phone carrier kiosks at a local shopping mall, I overheard a sales associate tell a customer the only phone that synchronizes music with iTunes — the popular and free software for PCs and Macs — is an Apple iPhone.

This simply isn't true.

There are a few different — and easy -- ways to sync all your music (and podcasts and audio books) with other smartphones, such as Android.

The simplest way on a PC is to use Microsoft's Windows Media Player which is included in all versions of the Windows operating system.

Simply connect your Android smartphone or tablet to your computer via a USB cable and a small window should pop up with a number of options. Double-click the one that says "Sync digital media files to this device," which has a Windows Media Player icon beside it.

If the Music tab on the left of Windows Media Player isn't already highlighted, click Music and you'll see a list of all the music on your computer. Or you can select a particular folder, or click to see or create Playlists. Note: not all iTunes music files may be supported by Android, especially if they've got digital rights management (DRM) encryption to prevent them from being played elsewhere (not likely, but worth mentioning).

You'll see your Android device listed on the right side of Windows Media Player. The last step is to drag and drop the music you want onto your Android device onto the right pane, and you'll see it will say "Add to Sync List."

A small and green "Start Sync" tab can now be clicked at the top of the screen.

From this point on, whenever you connect your phone or tablet to your PC, Windows Media Player will look for changes between the library on your phone and its own current collection, and update as needed.

Twist and shout

Another, more powerful option is called DoubleTwist, a free media manager can easily sync your music (and other media, such as photos and videos) with your Android smartphone or tablet. Plus, it can import playlists and ratings from iTunes, too. (Note: there's also a $5 DoubleTwist AirSync app that enables Wi-Fi syncing in your wireless network, but the free USB version should do the trick just fine.)

The first step is to download and install DoubleTwist for PC. There is a DoubleTwist media player app for Android on this same website, but you need only the desktop version to set up synchronization.

Next, launch DoubleTwist and it will scan your PC for media. Just like Windows Media Player, whatever it doesn't find you can manually import on your own, be it music, music playlists, photos, and videos.

The last step is to connect your Android phone or tablet to your computer via USB, and select "USB Mass Storage" or "Disk Drive mode" and you'll see your device listed under Devices in DoubleTwist.