Free Audible Listening For Windows Media Player 10

[Brad Adrian]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/ir_site.zhtml?ticker=ADBL&script=412&layout=-6&item_id=629741' target='_blank'>http://www.corporate-ir.net/ireye/i...&item_id=629741</a><br /><br /></div>Here's a bit of interesting news for users of the new Windows Media Player 10:<br /><br /><i>"<a href="http://www.audible.com/adbl/store/welcome.jsp">Audible</a>, Inc., the provider of digitally delivered spoken word audio, today announced it has teamed up with Microsoft to provide Windows Media Player 10 users with easy access to more than 55,000 hours of entertaining and engaging digital audio programs available for download and transfer to Windows Mobile-based Pocket PCs. Audible expects to achieve compatibility with other portable devices in the near future. As part of the launch in Windows Media Player 10, Audible is offering free streams of best-selling audiobooks as well as a free month of the AudibleListener(R) membership to users of Windows Media Player 10."</i><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/audible.gif" /> <br /><br />I've used Audible for quite a while now, mostly because their selection of audio books has just the kinds of titles I like to keep me awake and entertained during long car trips. So, I think that giving away a bit of free listening to users of the new Windows Media Player 10 is a pretty good idea; I think once you give Audible a try, you may end up enjoying it as much as I do. Be prepared, though. As great as their content is, the Audible site is notoriously slow, users have to go through a cumbersome process for registering their listening devices/PCs and their DRM methods can be a real pain.<br /><br />But, hey, give the free content a try and decide for yourself if Audible is for you.

[hamishmacdonald]

Actually, in this case it's up to my OEM to decide if Audible is right for me. RRR! :evil:

[jhmurray]

I am still stuck on the fact that I am on my third PPC and Microsoft can't offer an upgrade to the end user. I would love to have everything on my PPC that MS has to offer, but makes no sense to buy new equipment.

As far as Audible, I listen to books constantly in the car.

John

[paris]

Audible is crap for me!!!! I have subscribed for over a year and their player is useless you have to use MS Reader instead.

Also be warned since there is no option to unsubscribe!!!! I have been trying for the past 3 months to cancel my subscription without out luck!!! If someone from audible reads this it will be very interesting to hear any excuses for not giving an option to unsubscribe in the user account settings!!!!

[silver99]

I am still stuck on the fact that I am on my third PPC and Microsoft can't offer an upgrade to the end user. I would love to have everything on my PPC that MS has to offer, but makes no sense to buy new equipment.

John

When I first read your comment I thought, "c'mon how is Microsoft supposed to supply a customized version of Windows Mobile to every vendor". But the more I think about it - you may have a point. Microsoft distributes Windows that runs on a multitude types of hardware from various manufacturers.

Is it not possible for Microsoft to develop a 'generic' version of Windows Mobile to run on 'all' devices? Vendors could then supply minimal software updates to enhance their machines (ie. for specialized video accelerators).

When you think about all the PPC devices out there, the basic processors are mostly alike, and the specs are the same (when comparing apples to apples). Even Microsoft could supply a couple versions (one for VGA, one for QVGA).

I'm getting the Dell X50v (whenever it ships) and I'm gratefull that I'll get an opportunity to try audible for free. But I can really sympathize with you on this point. From a technical standpoint I think it's possible for Microsoft to do this.

Silver

[muaddip]

You have to call them to unsubscribe. It should have said so in the fine print when you subsrcibed, or if you do a search in the help. Actually it is right on the frontpage of the help, question 10, HERE (http://audible.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/audible.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=547&p_created=1023394631&p_sid=xYDL_4ph&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01MTEmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=) is the direct link.

It is a very common practice with most companies, especially credit card companies, to make you call them to unsubscribe. That way, they can try to talk you out of unsubscribing or sign you up for something else.

Good Luck.

[Marcel_Proust]

Audible is crap for me!!!! I have subscribed for over a year and their player is useless you have to use MS Reader instead.

Also be warned since there is no option to unsubscribe!!!! I have been trying for the past 3 months to cancel my subscription without out luck!!! If someone from audible reads this it will be very interesting to hear any excuses for not giving an option to unsubscribe in the user account settings!!!!

Yes I can verify this is a problem I did not appreciate. I shouted loudly enough to get a refund in the end. Very bad customer service.
Great content!
Doesn't Bill own this company too?

[foebea]

Here is what I have found to be an extremely useful tip in continueing to enjoy Audible content.

Firstly, I hate thier player. It takes forever to load and frequently it loses my place. The Audible Manager doesnt recognize my device half the time and it is almost impossible to use.

Here is the complete workaround which has solved all of my problems.

PocketMind Pocket Player has full support for audible codec 3, and they claim to be working of getting permission from audible to support codec 4.
Install the audible player software and license the device like normal, then never use it. Pocketplayer will read the license file and let you listen to your audio book, it supports as many formats as you want and hardware button can easily be mapped to anything you want. I have never lost a bookmark and it supports microdrive buffering.

You still need to you the Audible manager software to download the books, but once they are downloaded just copy them to your device from c:\progra~1\audible\programs\. You can put them anywhere you want on the pda, and add them to playlists just like any other file, mp3, whatever.


Definately worth checking out as without it I would have personally gone to audible.com hq and burned the place to the ground in frustration and having to hard reset several times trying to get thier lousy software to work. okay not really but it would have made me feel better, because the customer support left something to be desired.

As it is I am perfectly content with this setup and go through my 2 books a month from audible happily.

[silver99]

Does Windows Mobile Media 10 support bookmarks? Anyone?

[popabawa]

I'm feeling quite lucky - I've never had a problem with the Audible software. It could be greatly improved I agree!

My tip is to use it in conjunction with Vito Button Mapper (http://www.vitotechnology.com) for easy hardware button navigation in the car.

Iain.

[dean_shan]

Granted the Audible software is a little buggy but the service is great. They have very high quality books. I would recommend Audible to anyone who enjoys audio books.

[jhmurray]

[quote="silver99
Is it not possible for Microsoft to develop a 'generic' version of Windows Mobile to run on 'all' devices? Vendors could then supply minimal software updates to enhance their machines (ie. for specialized video accelerators).

Silver[/quote]

As far as I know, I have the current versions of Pocket Streets and Pocket Money from Microsoft and both work fine. Many other vendors of similar products for playing back Audio and Video have no problem with multiple machines. Writing to the Rom image cannot be such an insurmountable problem.

So why is it that I need to buy a new PPC?

John

[paris]

You have to call them to unsubscribe. It should have said so in the fine print when you subsrcibed, or if you do a search in the help. Actually it is right on the frontpage of the help, question 10, HERE (http://audible.custhelp.com/cgi-bin/audible.cfg/php/enduser/std_adp.php?p_faqid=547&p_created=1023394631&p_sid=xYDL_4ph&p_lva=&p_sp=cF9zcmNoPSZwX3NvcnRfYnk9JnBfZ3JpZHNvcnQ9JnBfcm93X2NudD01MTEmcF9wYWdlPTE*&p_li=) is the direct link.

It is a very common practice with most companies, especially credit card companies, to make you call them to unsubscribe. That way, they can try to talk you out of unsubscribing or sign you up for something else.

Good Luck.

I am in Cyprus and i am not happy to call in the USA for do someting that SHOULD BE able to be done via the internet.! I subscribed throught the internet and i should be able to cancel my subscription the same way.

I am so pissed off that i am gonna record ALL my books that i bought, which are ALL best sellers, in mp3 format and distribute them on the internet.

Audible can you hear me? Yes these are the customers that you gain by being totally unprofessional. You cannot force people to be your customers, but you can certainly force them to go over the edge to get some satisfaction.

- Edit - just called them, waited for 5 min in the queue (international call) :roll: and canceled my subscription! going back? NOPE!!! Audible = good content + completly crap service!!!

[Brad Adrian]

I like the Audible content, but was disappointed that the don't support my Dell Digital Jukebox (which I really like). I just like having all of my listening content in one place, not some on my Pocket PC and some on my Jukebox.

Well, I'm just finishing up a step-by-step tutorial on how you can (finally) rip Audible content and reformat it for listening with WMP or any MP3 player. The resulting files are a lot bigger than the original Audible ones, but with a 20GB Jukebox, I've got plenty of room.

I'll try to get the procedure posted here within the next day or so.

[organon]

I've been an audible subscriber for many years, now. Long ago, they used to sell the hardware (theirs and others) as well as the content. I went thorugh a number of devices, including a Casio BE500 (?), which I got at a nice discount through the site. This was okay, but their software did, in fact, leave MUCH to be desired. The main bad things I remember were the fact that it took FOREVER to load when you had a large'ish file (mine were limited to 64MB at the time, since this was the limit of my MMC card), and that it would not record a bookmark unless you specifically pressed stop (as opposed to, say, turning the thing off or having the battery run down). Once the iPod came out with support for Audible, though, I dropped the PPC player like a hot potato and have absolutely loved the experience ever since. I've decided that a dedicated music/spoken word player is the way to go. Trying to put all of my eggs in one basket just never quite worked.

As for the encoding of audible content to MP3, I tried this as well. Actually, the best solution I found was to decode it using goldwave and record to WMA using windows media encoder (I think) and the same codec that audible uses (ACELP--incidentially the same one used by most digital cell phones). This resulted in files that were the same small size as the orignial AA files with no loss in audio quality. The problem was that WMP on the PPC didn't support this codec, nor did any other PPC player at that time. It may work on one of the newer players, though. Windows Media Audio 9 Voice and SPEEX are also codec options now that may produce acceptable quality/size results and may be more supported in the PPC environment.