Review: Audible Player
Posted on February 9, 2006 by LJ Earnest
Categories: Review,Software
Summary
Audible Player by Audible.com, is a audio book player.
Overview
Manufacturer: Audible.com
Platform: Palm and Windows
Current Version: Palm: 2.7.1; Windows: Audible Manager 5.0
Pros and Cons
Pros
- Audio books are available to me wherever I have my palm
- Easy to transfer books to my PDA
- Easy to download single books from the library
- Large selection of books available
Cons
- Cannot download more than one book at a time
- No way to change the format default for download
- New library application has limited features
Why Did I Buy This?
I first got into Audible.com when I had a Handspring Visor. An add-in module handled all of the storage and playback of the books. As I upgraded devices, first to a Zire 71 and then a Zire 72, I kept up with the subscription. On the Zire devices, Audible requires an external SD card to store the books.
I enjoy having audio materials with me. My reading time has significantly decreased since my daughter was born, and I make use of otherwise unproductive time by having audio material with me on my Palm. I subscribe to a program that allows me one periodical subscription and one book a month. The periodical subscription I purchase is the Prairie Home Companion monologues. My books range from fiction to non-fiction, classics to modern writing, across a broad range of subjects.
General Review
I have been going back and forth with Audible about issues with their latest releases. When I recently upgraded my player and desktop software, it connected with the “new” (read: beta) library, which removed features I really enjoyed. The old Audible manager allowed me to see from my desktop which items I had purchased but not downloaded, then select them and queue them for downloading, without any pop up windows or multiple download sessions. It also allowed me to default my preferences for books and subscriptions – I always choose small file sizes over quality because for spoken word that is listened to in the car, I can’t tell the differences between their levels of quality.
The new library negates all of these. I have to go to their website, make sure I select the non-default quality/size for each item, then singly download each item manually. And if I had recently joined, I wouldn’t be griping; it’s just that every release of the software seems to take away features that I find useful.
Overall, I have recommended and will continue to recommend this service. It is a great way to fill previously unproductive commute time. I do have to say that service-wise they are very good, their products are great, and the price is wonderful. In addition, they often offer discounts in conjunction with Palm – I purchased my most recent Palm and received $100 off for renewing my agreement with Audible.
How I Use This
By having reading material available in audio format, I expand the contexts where I can “read” books. Without my audio, I would not accomplish anywhere near the amount of “reading” I do now.
Update 5/4/2007
I canceled my Audible subscription about 6 months ago. It had nothing to do with the service or the software; merely because I have so many audio books backlogged that I could not see how I could keep getting them and adding to my backlog.
I also no longer use my PDA for listening to Audio books. After killing one device by popping out an SD card (under warranty, thankfully), I was very cautious. When I finally broke down and got an MP3 player, I purposefully picked one I could use with Audible. Now my MP3 handles any books that I wish to listen to.
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