Audio books on your pocket pc?

[Phillip Dyson]

Not sure if this goes in the multimedia or ebook section. But its all "e" right? And definitely books.

Is anyone listening to audio books on their pocket pc?

Audible or some other format?

Is there a text-speech software that works with any of the ebook readers?

[Jorgen]

>ebook?
Absolutely.

>Is anyone listening
Not me. I am visual and prefer to read.

www.Fictionwise.com have audiobooks, including some free ones, and whatever they have will be the most popular one.

Check here for Sherlock Holmes radioplays (free!):
http://cebooks.blogspot.com/2004_12_01_cebooks_archive.html#110318450383101515
(and, yes, I have listened to these - they are good!)

Project Gutenberg started recently on free audiobooks: http://www.gutenberg.org/audio/

http://www.audiobooks.org/
http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/screen_main.asp

>Is there a text-speech software that
Only for the PC (MS Reader) as far as I know.

Jorgen

[Jorgen]

On the topic of text-to-speech, see here http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/forums/viewtopic.php?t=34061.

Jorgen

[DerekAbney]

I've wondered about this too. I'm a huge book on tape person, and if I could get it on my pocket pc, I'd be awfully excited.

[Nurhisham Hussein]

i'm a big fan of audible, especially with the latest revision of their ppc software. Great for commuting - i've installed a pda mount in the car with car charger and a cassette adapter hooked up to the car stereo.

Unfortunately, the same can't be said of audible's winxp software, which crashes fairly frequently on my computer. if you don't want to deal with their drm, you can try ripping any audiobook cds into mp3 format and load that onto a media card. Typical size for one cd at 128 kps should be about 50-60 mb.

[ChristopherTD]

Format 4 Audible books are 32kps MP3 files wrapped in their DRM layer. If you make a CD, then ripping it at 128 kps is probably overkill. You could save space by using either mono, or a bitrate < 56 kps (or both).

[DerekAbney]

Thanks for all the good suggestions, I'm probably going to try this over the weekend and see how I like it.

[dMores]

my colleague ordered 2 audiobooks from amazon. dan brown's "angels and demons" and patricia cornwell's "point of origin".
since he wasn't in the office, and i accepted the package, i immediately ripped both cds (actually, there were 11 cds in all :)) and started listening.
the speakers were really good. dan brown's book was read by the german voice of harrison ford, and patricia cornwell was read by some lady i didn't know, but she sounded like the german scully (x-files).

i'm not sure if it's due to the fact that i already read "angels and demons", or that it was in german, but after about 10 minutes, i realized i'd rather read than listen.

so i deleted the MP3s that i just spent over an hour ripping :)

what's my point ? uhm, well, i'd suggest you look at amazon.com. because angels and demons was relatively cheap with only 10.99 euro.

[popabawa]

I've used Audible for over 3 years - a big thumbs-up from me.

I only listen to audio books whilst driving in the car (mainly to & from work).

You need to have a monthly subsciption to make it financially viable otherwise the books are VERY expensive. however, if you are a regular listener (I get through about a book a month) it's pretty good value for money.

My top tip is to use it on a PPC with Vito Button Mapper so it's easy to control with the hardware buttons.

[DerekAbney]

I have always rented the books from Cracker Barrel on long car trips and returned them for another whenever I'm finished. i would efinitely like to find a way to listen to books more often though.

[uzetaab]

I find Audible to work just fine too with a monthly subscription. I also listen to them when I drive to work. I would rather read a book too, but I can't do that when I'm driving & I get bored of music all the time.

Beware the cheap audio books. they are Abridged, which means that they are not the full novel. They have been edited down to about 15-25% of the original printed book. The Unabridged ones are full length.

[DerekAbney]

I've been tricked by the Abridged versions on occassion. I'll listen to the book and think there should have been more. Then I look at the case and get angry.

[Don't Panic!]

www.audiobooksforfree.com is a good source for some well free audiobooks in MP3 format. Mostly public domain stuff.

[uzetaab]

I hate abridged books and sometimes wonder why they make us suffer like that. The worst ones are the ones that don't have an unabridged version.

But then on the other hand to make an unabridged version that's 16 hours long must take a lot of effort.

[kevinsky18]

Audio books are absolutely great!

They keep me awake while driving, entertained while I run on the tread mill and help me fall asleep at night.

Yes you read right I use them to help me fall asleep at night. When I'm really stressed I'll lay in bed eyes closed and start listening to the book. It helps distract me from whatever is stressing me out. Then I drift off to sleep. The next time I listen to the book I simply start from the last point I remembered before dozing off.

I got into audio books when I was in University. After spending hours and hours of reading text books my eyes just couldn't handle reading another book so I started listening to them instead.

There are lots of sites that sell audio books but I find most of mine using Limewire.

[Webidiot]

I guess I'm one of those that aren't too thrilled with listening to an audio book on my PPC.

I have though. I use one of those cassette adapters in my car, to have the sound come through my car speakers.

Don't get me wrong. In the car, using a traditional book on cassette, etc, is okay. But for a PPC--downloading zipped MP3 files, unzipping, copying to SD card, etc, is a pain to me. Also, I have trouble with the darn playlist sometimes and have to reselect the files, 'cause I'm an idiot... :oops:

[dMores]

i know i already posted my thoughts, but i had another one :)

when i was young, my mom bought me a load of books that i loved to read. my uncle, however, seemed to prefer my cousins listening to books. so whenever i visited them, we would listen to tapes with fairy tales, and those hitchcock mysteries called "???" (the three questionmarks? rough translation from the german title!).

so when my colleague bought those audio books, and i read that they were german translations of english authors, and abridged versions no less, it was a combination of feeling like an 8year old and not getting the full opus that pretty much killed audio books for me.

but there are a lot of audio books on p2p networks. but, they're massive downloads that take a long time to download, so i guess it's less of a hassle to just buy them on CD.

[kevinsky18]

You can get full length and abridged books in audio format. Just like you can in paper. It's just a matter of ordering the correct version.

I have all the Harry Potter, unabridged audio books and they are word for word to the paper books, unlike the movie which of course cut out a bit of stuff.

[Jolard]

I love listening to audio books on my PPC. There are lots of ways to get them, and quite a few places to legally buy them. Lots of Libraries now allow you to "check out" audio books online too, and that is a great option.

One hint though, make sure your player can remember where in a file you are. Usually audiobooks are either broken into files by chapter, or they are broken into files on a regular time frame (i.e. every 5 minutes). However a lot of audio file players (Microsoft Media Player for example) will not remember where you were within a file (just the file you were up to). That means that everytime you start listening you have to skip through the file to find where you are.

I use Pocket Music to listen to most of my audio books (unless the DRM requires a different product) and it is great. It will remember exactly where you stopped, and when you start it up again it is right at the correct place.

One other hint? The Harry Potter books are great on audio book. The guy who does the reading is very good. In fact he is so good that I prefer listening to him rather than reading the book. Very entertaining. The last one was very good also (the half blood prince).

[DerekAbney]

I just finished reading the new Harry Potter, but my brother listened to it and raved about the voice-over.

[dean_shan]

Audible is really the way to go. $15 a month will get you one audiobook (any price or length) and one subscription based program. That is a very good deal compared to the price of buying the books on CD. I used to use Audible on my PPC but have stop since I bought my iPod.

[JDTagish]

Another note about Audible: you can purchase an Ultimate Listener package for a fixed price (about $125) and get about a dozen book credits which never expire and avoid the monthly charges. You can use the book credits then for any book or program. One thing, the package is not listed on the website, you have to call customer service and ask for it.

Also, Beta Player works well for remembering where you are in a file as well, and it will play the mP3 and wma files, but not audible drm files.

[Matilda444]

I have been a happy customer of Audible.com for something like fifteen years now - going back to before PocketPCs. The whole activation thing is a necessary evil, but I can't imagine life without audio books.

[debbi8]

I have also been a satisfied premium listener for a few years now, and use the audio books when I commute (an hour each way) as well as for an occasional sleeping aid (I thought I was the only one that did that). I love audible.com, I feel the price is right for the service, but I found early on that PPC player software left alot to be desired. I purchased Pocket Music, the full version supports audible files with bookmarking, and has an equalizer for improved sound quality. I love having my books wherever I am - when someone tells me "Sorry, there's going to be a delay" I just smile & grab the headphones! :D

[Paragon]

Audible rocks!

I have two premium accounts, which gives me 4 books a month. In my work I need minor ear protection. Instead of wearing earplugs I plug a set of wireless headphones into my PPC and spend several, otherwise boring hours, everyday listening to books.

In the past few months they have made some very good improvements to their software, both the WinXP Audible Manager, and their Pocket PC version.

Now that I'm using an Eten M500 which has Bluetooth audio gateway I can listen to Audible using my Bluetooth headset when I'm driving, walking, or any other time I'm out and around....very cool. NOTE: Audio gateway only works with headsets. It is NOT A2DP which allows stereo Bluetooth headphones such as HP and a few others make.

Dave

[Matilda444]

<snip>I have two premium accounts, which gives me 4 books a month<snip> I am so relieved to know I'm not the only one that does that!

[Paragon]

Me too! :beer: