Doubletwist

Doubletwist is a media player application that has a range of management features and can be used as an alternative to iTunes or Windows Media Player. However, it will be of most interest for anyone migrating from an iPhone to an Android smartphone as Doubletwist can move your music over to your new smartphone.

Doubletwist manages this by having two components – a PC program and an Android mobile app. The PC program links to Apple's iTunes and imports your music, then synchronises your collection with the mobile app. The process, while a little fiddly at times, allows you to preserve your music, playlists and ratings from iOS to Android, free of charge.

While the ability to transfer your established media collection is the main reason you might begin using Doubletwist, that's barely scratching the surface. Music can be bought from the Amazon MP3 store without leaving Doubletwist, so you can continue to grow your music library with ease. You can also search for new podcasts and import Windows Media Player playlists too, making it a great desktop jukebox regardless of the mobile features.

The mobile app is similarly impressive, with a simple design that can be easily operated with one hand. The playback controls appear on your phone's standard lock screen so you don't need to keep unlocking the phone every time you want to pause or skip a track.

The major caveat of using Doubletwist's free version is that every time you add to your music library, you'll have to connect your Android phone to your PC and manually enable syncing in the Doubletwist PC program. The only alternative is to buy a £5 Airsync update, adding the option for wireless and automatic syncing over a Wifi connection.

The Airsync upgrade brings several other features too, including the ability to stream media from phones to other networked devices, including games consoles and some AppleTV models. We tested this by streaming music to an Xbox 360 games console and found it to be straightforward. If you need help with streaming, well-written instructions are available on the official Doubletwist website.

How crucial you'll find the Airsync update to be will depend mainly on how fickle your taste in music is. If you change your playlists regularly, then Airsync is a vital upgrade to an already excellent music player and podcast manager, but if not (or you mainly use streaming services such as Spotify) then you may manage without it.

Whether or not you want Airsync, the core Doubletwist program and Android app should still be considered a must-have for anyone moving from an iPhone to Android. If you're not, then it's not as compelling unless you really hate iTunes and Windows Media Player.