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audiobook posts

Filed under: iPhone, iPod touch, App Review

The Bookmark App: Audiobooks finally done right

The Bookmark app [iTunes Link] has solved a number of problems I've always suffered while listening to audiobooks on an iPhone. It isn't pefect yet, but what is currently in the app store is the best implementation of digital audiobook listening I've found. It's earned a place on my home page and that alone is quite a recommendation. I'll get to a play-by-play in a bit, but first a bit of context is in order.

I have always been a fan of audiobooks. Long before the inception of the iPod, I was a constant Books on Tape customer. I'd choose a book and in a few days, receive a sizable box filled with anywhere from two to over forty cassette tapes. It was worth it to me to go through all the hassle of keeping the tapes in order and carrying a stack of them with me to play on a portable cassette player when I wasn't listening in my car.
When the iPod came out, I found Audible.com and life became much easier. I always carried at least a dozen books with me on my iPod Classic. The books usually downloaded in one or two big files making a book easy to manage. A few years later, Audible.com started embedding chapter markers in their books so jumping to a particular chapter was a snap, but I always had a problem with the iPod losing my place in a book. It could have been due to syncing, or being knocked around, but it was constant and always annoying.
When I bought my iPhone, I found the way the iPod module handled audiobooks had changed. Instead of downloading a few big files, what wound up in the library was a separate file for each chapter. So, for example, Fool by Christopher Moore, which my iPod Classic saw as one file with twenty-six chapters, appeared to be twenty-six files on the iPhone. That would have been fine, except for the fact that the iPhone was no better than my iPod Classic in losing my place seemingly at random. Worse, I never knew which file I was on when my place got lost.

Read on to see how Bookmark has solved this dilemma for me.

Continue readingThe Bookmark App: Audiobooks finally done right

Filed under: Podcasts, iPhone, iPod touch

Inside iPhone 3.0: Enhanced controls for podcast & audiobook playback

It's on the master list of 3.0 features, but we've been sent enough tips and suggestions about it to conclude that the advanced podcast/audiobook controls came as a pleasant surprise for lots of iPhone and iPod touch owners who upgraded.

In the 3.0 version, from the playback display for a podcast, tapping the screen brings up a set of expert controls: a button to email a link to the podcast's page on iTunes; a 30-second "What's that, now?" instant rewind button; and a playback speed control to give you 1/2 speed, normal or 2x "FedEx mode" playback.

The scrubber bar itself has been given a charge, even though it doesn't look any different until you tap it; it displays the relative playback position within the episode being played. Dragging horizontally gives you high-speed scrubbing (previously known as "just plain old scrubbing"), but if you keep your finger on the screen and drag down, your scrub rate lowers step by step through half-speed, quarter-speed and 'fine scrubbing.' This detail control makes it a lot easier to cue up a particular spot in a long show or book chapter.

I've started to enjoy listening to some of my longer subscriptions in 2x mode, especially when I have a fixed amount of time to listen to the podcast but I still want to cover as much of it as I can. Even shorter news-centric podcasts can sometimes benefit from a speed boost. If any of you try out the 2x mode on an audiobook, do let us know how it works for you.

Surprisingly, I find myself using the 'email this' button quite a lot, especially to let friends and family know about some of my favorite shows. I imagine they'll be getting tired of that pretty soon.

Filed under: Audio, iPod Family, iTS, iTunes

Turn audiobooks into Audiobooks

Playlist Magazine has a nice little tutorial for converting audiobooks you obtain from somewhere other than Audible.com or the iTS into iTunes recognized Audiobooks. For instance if you rip an audiobook CD, or download free audiobooks from any of a number of sites, you can convert them so that they will appear as Audiobooks on your iPod and in iTunes which gives you access to bookmarking and speed controls.

Basically, it consists of joining the tracks and converting the result to a special type of AAC (.m4b), but check out the tutorial for full details.

Filed under: Humor, iTS, Odds and ends

John Hodgman's (aka PC) Areas of My Expertise Free on iTS

As many people have observed already, if there's one problem with the Get A Mac campaign, it's that PC (John Hodgman) often comes off as more likable than Mac (Justin Long). Mr. Hodgman is a talented comedian, appearing often on Comedy Central and This American Life. Well now Apple and Audible.com have an early Christmas present for you: an abridged audio version of his recent book Areas of My Expertise is available for free on the iTunes Store (and don't worry, the abridgment is still nearly 7 hours long). It's read by the author in his inimitable deadpan style and offers humorous observations about a whole variety of topics. Erica already mentioned this as part of our weekly iTunes Free Weekly post (and a couple of commenters realized Hodgman is PC), but I thought some of you might have missed it.

Thanks Alexis Cordova!

Filed under: Cool tools, How-tos, Blogging, Podcasting

PodcastConverter Automator action: automatically turn your podcasts into audiobooks

PodcastConverter screencap

The other day, I said that slowing down podcasts sounded like a great job for automator. TUAW reader Dave agreed, and sent us a link to his PodastConverter (jpg) Automator action. Dave takes the long way around and follows the conventional wisdom of turning the podcasts into audiobooks rather than using QuickTime to manipulate the MP3s directly. The advantage to this approach is that the 'casts will be listenable at much higher speeds. Many people claim to be able to listen to most podcasts at 2.5x or faster. That's almost twice as fast as what you can get from QuickTime, where things start to sound garbled around 1.5x in most cases. On the other hand, converting a bunch of podcasts from MP3 to AAC takes time, processor power, and storage space, so YMMV.

Dave hasn't posted the action for download, but he has posted a JPEG of the entire action, complete with detailed instructions. So in addition to being a useful little app, this is also a great introduction to Automator if you aren't already familiar.

Tip of the Day

F11 moves all your windows off the screen so you can quickly glance at your desktop. F10 shows you every open window in an application. F9 shows every open window for every application that isn't hidden or in the dock.


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