nuTsie Mobile App (Sync iTunes Playlists & Stream To Mobile Phones)

Written by John Thompson on January 15, 2010 · Filed under Software, Tech 

Android’s been in the news a lot so far this month, with the release of the Nexus One just before CES 2010 and with more devices on the way, there hasn’t been a better time to switch to Google’s open source mobile phone platform. The only thing putting me off the purchase of an Android device has been the inability to take my music with me. My iTunes library is over 32GB in size, and the Nexus One comes with a measly 4GB storage via MicroSD, which caps out at 32GB.

For me to be able to carry around my music with me is essential in my decision to purchase a new device, and it seemed that my only option was to sync only certain playlists at a time, which is inconvenient at best. Why Apple don’t have an iTunes streaming application for the iPhone is a mystery to me, but why Google themselves don’t is a major question, with Google being very cloud-centric in their future plans.

Enter nuTsie, an application available for smartphones on most major platforms, including Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile, with a new version of the way very soon! With nuTsie version 3, the entire contents of your iTunes library will be uploaded to the cloud, and made accessible wherever you are without actually storing the tracks on your device. In current versions of the application, you are forced to use playlists only to navigate around your music, which is a major drawback, but it looks like version 3 of the application will come packed with new features to enhance the user’s experience.

Whenever a song is played, it will be cached on your android device, so you can listen to it again without requiring a connection to the internet. This would be a great feature if you’re about to get on a plane and won’t have an internet connection for a prolonged period of time, as you can still listen to your favourite tracks if you find yourself stuck without a connection.

I can’t judge the quality of the application until I’ve used it myself, which I most certainly will be doing upon the release of the new version, although I’m curious to see how it handles songs with a high bitrate, such as lossless tracks. Using a mobile connection, I’d be surprised to see if there are any streaming problems with such tracks, as it may be a deal breaker. Also, as well as the cost of the application itself, which is priced at $19.99, it will be interesting to see if you have to pay monthly for use of nuTsie’s servers when streaming music. As you upload your library to the cloud, I’d be surprised if storing my 40GB+ iTunes library is free of a monthly cost!

Whether you’ve used nuTsie before (currently at version 1.1.0) or have never heard of it, the next version is sure to bring a host of new features, so stay on the look out! When the new version is released, you can expect to see a review on Zath shortly afterwards and we can see how it compares to using the Spotify mobile phone apps along with using ShareMyPlaylists.com to find new music. What do you think to listening to online streaming music from “The Cloud”, is this the ultimate future for music?