Droid and a Mac Book Pro

[MadisonMarine]

first things first...I really want to like this new Droid...I bought one this past week at Costco...I like the size, screen and overall look but I am not a techie and don't need/want a phone that plays games...it's just not my priority.

A couple things I'd like to understand/be able to do..

...Connect the phone to my mac and have it recognized

...Download my itunes and use some of them for ringtones

...Make sure the battery doesn't die in a day

...I am not concerned about the camera but as a photographer I want the ability to use my DSLR, upload to Picasa or another site I use and then send this image to my editor via the Droid..possible

 

[Mark5047]

I have my Droid connected to a Macbook Pro without any issues. Remember to mount your droid (from the droid) so the mac will recognize it as an external drive. From there you can copy any file to and from it. As for syncronizing from iTunes, you will need to get a 3rd party app to do that. I found some software called Salling Media Sync that is doing a good job so far. You select which playlists from iTunes you want to sync over to the droid. The unlicensed (free) copy resynchs every time you connect which can take some time, the licensed copy only synchs the changes.
As for the battery, of course it will charge while it is hooked to the mac, but when you are out and about depending on use you may need a charge during the day. I have been using it for a few days now and even on my heaviest day use I still had some charge left in the evening.

 

[bigjohn]

first, i have a mac background and although i love my droid it simply doesn't have the software/hardware integration that you get used to with mac devices. But you can't have everything, open source means less fanatical control, but it also means the entire participating user base is more directly influencing development. that said, music management sucks, file management sucks, even with 3rd party apps. luckily you can place folder shortcuts on your home screen, basically an "alias" on mac.

ok, rant over...

1. plug in via usb, use pulldown menu on droid, select "mount" and your sd card will be on your desktop. drag and drop whatever you want. bluetooth file transfer is trickier, i've only been able to send files to the droid not visa versa. didn't find the available apps. helpful for mac bluetooth.

2. you can drag and drop itunes content as long as it's not dmr protected. You can also use 3rd party apps for transfer, doubleTwist and Sailing Media are what are available on the mac atm.

3. battery management has a number of threads already, so i'd look there. 2.0 really needs a native, built in task manager that allows app. regulation but i'm sure that will come in time.

 

[jjb2]

first things first...I really want to like this new Droid...I bought one this past week at Costco...I like the size, screen and overall look but I am not a techie and don't need/want a phone that plays games...it's just not my priority.

A couple things I'd like to understand/be able to do..

...Connect the phone to my mac and have it recognized

...Download my itunes and use some of them for ringtones

...Make sure the battery doesn't die in a day

...I am not concerned about the camera but as a photographer I want the ability to use my DSLR, upload to Picasa or another site I use and then send this image to my editor via the Droid..possible

Download "doubletwist" on your MBP. It works just like iTunes.

 

[garrett]

first things first...I really want to like this new Droid...I bought one this past week at Costco...I like the size, screen and overall look but I am not a techie and don't need/want a phone that plays games...it's just not my priority.

A couple things I'd like to understand/be able to do..

...Connect the phone to my mac and have it recognized

...Download my itunes and use some of them for ringtones

...Make sure the battery doesn't die in a day

...I am not concerned about the camera but as a photographer I want the ability to use my DSLR, upload to Picasa or another site I use and then send this image to my editor via the Droid..possible

Download "doubletwist" on your MBP. It works just like iTunes.

+1 on double twise...

i use, love it, couldnt live without it.

 

[Mark5047]

first things first...I really want to like this new Droid...I bought one this past week at Costco...I like the size, screen and overall look but I am not a techie and don't need/want a phone that plays games...it's just not my priority.

A couple things I'd like to understand/be able to do..

...Connect the phone to my mac and have it recognized

...Download my itunes and use some of them for ringtones

...Make sure the battery doesn't die in a day

...I am not concerned about the camera but as a photographer I want the ability to use my DSLR, upload to Picasa or another site I use and then send this image to my editor via the Droid..possible

Download "doubletwist" on your MBP. It works just like iTunes.

+1 on double twise...

i use, love it, couldnt live without it.

So Doubletwist is a replacement for iTunes and Salling is an add on to iTunes, correct? With Doubletwist what happens to all the DRM protected media that is currently in iTunes?

 

[jjb2]

Download "doubletwist" on your MBP. It works just like iTunes.

+1 on double twise...

i use, love it, couldnt live without it.

So Doubletwist is a replacement for iTunes and Salling is an add on to iTunes, correct? With Doubletwist what happens to all the DRM protected media that is currently in iTunes?

Not sure what "DRM" means, but if it is your downloaded music from iTunes it does let you transfer it. It also lets you transfer pics and vids.

 

[jjb2]

oh yeah, doubletwist is a free program too.

 

[Mark5047]

DRM is digital rights management. It means the songs are limited to where they can be played. I dont think you can play DRM protected music outside of itunes and / or your ipod. Of course you can burn your music to a CD and reimport, but who wants to go through all that? Later versions of itunes did not put the DRM restrictions on music, but there are enough people out there who may have some issues if they convert from itunes to another player.

 

[bigjohn]

DRM = Digital rights management, and i don't believe that will play on the droid, so if you've got a bunch of DRM material pre itunes getting it's act together and creating a non-drm option you'll have to rip that DRM material (use a ripper or burn to cd and re-import as mp3). You can also convert AAC to mp3 directly from itunes by right clicking the selection but I don't know if that works on DRM AAC because i don't own any.

 

[bigjohn]

DRM is digital rights management. It means the songs are limited to where they can be played. I dont think you can play DRM protected music outside of itunes and / or your ipod. Of course you can burn your music to a CD and reimport, but who wants to go through all that? Later versions of itunes did not put the DRM restrictions on music, but there are enough people out there who may have some issues if they convert from itunes to another player.

lol, get out of my head.

 

[Mark5047]

Oh yeah, and just to be clear, there is nothing magic about the Salling software that will allow it to transfer DRM music to the droid - DRM is DRM and the only way around it is to burn and reimport.

 

[ReconMarine]

I have the surefire for figuring out this phone....give it to my 13 year old daughter for half a day and have her teach me afterwards..

 

[mfb]

Double Twist or Salling?

Do you download Double Twist to your Mac or the Droid?

With Salling do you have to put an app on the Droid?

 

[DroidFan]

I use a MacBook Pro and I just dragged and dropped iTunes songs right onto my microSD card. I've been able to play them without any special applications (meaning I'm using the Music app that came with the Droid) and the album covers are even recognized.

I've made some of them into ringtones as well... very easy to do.