doubleTwist Corporation is a digital media company founded by Monique Farantzos and

Jon Lech Johansen Jon Lech Johansen (born November 18, 1983 in Harstad, Norway), also known as DVD Jon, is a Norwegian programmer who has worked on reverse engineering data formats. He wrote the DeCSS software, which decodes the Content Scramble System used for ...

. It is backed by

Index Ventures Index Ventures is a European venture capital firm with dual headquarters in San Francisco and London, investing in technology-enabled companies with a focus on e-commerce, fintech, mobility, gaming, infrastructure/ AI, and security. Since its f ...

(

Skype Skype () is a proprietary telecommunications application operated by Skype Technologies, a division of Microsoft, best known for VoIP-based videotelephony, videoconferencing and voice calls. It also has instant messaging, file transfer, deb ...

Last.FM Last.fm is a music website founded in the United Kingdom in 2002. Using a music recommender system called "Audioscrobbler", Last.fm builds a detailed profile of each user's musical taste by recording details of the tracks the user listens to, e ...

) and Northzone Ventures. The doubleTwist application enables users to send photos and videos to their friends and sync their media library to a wide variety of portable devices.

Software

''doubleTwist Music Player'' is an application available for Android devices. It is compatible with

iTunes iTunes () is a software program that acts as a media player, media library, mobile device management utility, and the client app for the iTunes Store. Developed by Apple Inc., it is used to purchase, play, download, and organize digital mul ...

and

Windows Media Player Windows Media Player (WMP) is the first media player and media library application that was developed by Microsoft for playing audio, video and viewing images on personal computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system, as well as on ...

, allowing users to sync movies, pictures, music, and playlists to their mobile device through

USB Universal Serial Bus (USB) is an industry standard that establishes specifications for cables, connectors and protocols for connection, communication and power supply (interfacing) between computers, peripherals and other computers. A broad ...

. The software is available free of charge in the

Google Play Google Play, also known as the Google Play Store and formerly the Android Market, is a digital distribution service operated and developed by Google. It serves as the official app store for certified devices running on the Android (operating sys ...

app store. An in-app purchase enables "pro" features including "AirSync" which allows sync over

WiFi Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio waves ...

AirPlay Airplay is how frequently a song is being played through broadcasting on radio stations. A song which is being played several times every day (spins) would have a significant amount of airplay. Music which became very popular on jukeboxes, in n ...

UPnP Universal Plug and Play (UPnP) is a set of networking protocols that permits networked devices, such as personal computers, printers, Internet gateways, Wi-Fi access points and mobile devices to seamlessly discover each other's presence on the n ...

DLNA Digital Living Network Alliance (DLNA; originally named Digital Home Working Group, DHWG) was founded by a group of PC and consumer electronics companies in June 2003 (with Intel in the lead role) to develop and promote a set of interoperability ...

support, equalizer, album art search, and removal of podcast ads. Some individual "pro" features are available for purchase either in-app or as separate apps. As of 5 June 2017, doubleTwist Media Player is in version 2.8.1 and has between 10,000,000 and 50,000,000 downloads. ''doubleTwist Sync'' is the companion application for

Windows Windows is a group of several proprietary graphical operating system families developed and marketed by Microsoft. Each family caters to a certain sector of the computing industry. For example, Windows NT for consumers, Windows Server for serv ...

, required for USB sync. A free download is available on the company's homepage. It looks similar to

Apple An apple is an edible fruit produced by an apple tree (''Malus domestica''). Apple fruit tree, trees are agriculture, cultivated worldwide and are the most widely grown species in the genus ''Malus''. The tree originated in Central Asia, wh ...

media player, but with a few differences (such as the location of the album artwork). Under

macOS macOS (; previously OS X and originally Mac OS X) is a Unix operating system developed and marketed by Apple Inc. since 2001. It is the primary operating system for Apple's Mac computers. Within the market of desktop and lapt ...

, the Android device must support USB MSC mass storage mode. For devices supporting only MTP, AirSync must be used.

Controversy

On Friday June 5, 2009, “The Cure for iPhone Envy” billboard ad was put up on the

BART Bart is a masculine given name, usually a diminutive of Bartholomew, sometimes of Barton, Bartolomeo, etc. Bart is a Dutch and Ashkenazi Jewish surname, and derives from the name ''Bartholomäus'', a German form of the biblical name ''Barthol ...

exit outside the flagship San Francisco

Apple Store The Apple Store is a chain of Retail, retail stores owned and operated by Apple Inc. The stores sell various Apple products, including Macintosh, Mac personal computers, iPhone smartphones, iPad tablet computers, Apple Watch smartwatches, Apple ...

. DoubleTwist's contract with BART’s ad agency specified that the ad would go up on Monday morning, the day of the

Apple Worldwide Developers Conference The Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) is an information technology conference held annually by Apple Inc. The conference is usually held at Apple Park in California. The event is usually used to showcase new software and technologies in th ...

keynote. However, the ad agency put the ad up early, on the Friday before. Shortly after the ad was put up, it was taken down by a BART employee. BART cited several advertising criteria violations as reasons for the ad being removed, including the original being too dark, and the subsequent redesign inappropriately having a white background. With

being a multimillion-dollar client of BART, it is widely suggested that Apple pressured BART into removing the ad. Some versions of DoubleTwist use

OpenCandy OpenCandy is an adware module and a potentially unwanted program classified as malware by many anti-virus vendors. They flag OpenCandy due to its undesirable side-effects. It is designed to run during installation of other desired software. Produc ...

, which may install

adware Adware, often called advertising-supported software by its developers, is software that generates revenue for its developer by automatically generating online advertisements in the user interface of the software or on a screen presented to the ...

potentially unwanted program A potentially unwanted program (PUP) or potentially unwanted application (PUA) is software that a user may perceive as unwanted or unnecessary. It is used as a subjective tagging criterion by security and parental control products. Such software ma ...

s unless the user opts out during installation.Should I Remove It? summary page for DoubleTwist
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References

External links

* * * * {{Authority control Companies based in San Francisco American companies established in 2007 Android (operating system) software Technology companies established in 2007