Travel Technology - Any use audible.com?

I was wondering if anyone has experience with the audiobook, newspaper, etc. subscription with this service? I was thinking that the basic monthly subscription (one audiobook and one newspaper subscription) seemed reasonable at $14.95/month.

TF :cool:

I bought a french book on it and hooked it up to the pod and it worked really nicely - i think if you go to fatwallet you can get 50% off a purchase and some other deals too... enjoy

I have been a member for over a year and am pleased as punch with them. I don't use the "newspaper/magazine subscription" feature, I just download audiobooks. I use iTunes and an iPod with no problems.

I had a billing problem once and found their email customer service to be quite responsive, too.

I'd recommend Audible. ^

I have been pleased also. I prefer to buy directly through the iTunes Music Store, since it's easier to handle the authentication (one less account to keep up with).

The only thing that you have to watch out for is if there is any printed documentation that came with the hardcopy version of the audio book. If there is, you won't get it buying through Audible/ITMS.

The only thing that you have to watch out for is if there is any printed documentation that came with the hardcopy version of the audio book. If there is, you won't get it buying through Audible/ITMS.

This is a valid point. Sometimes Audible will have such content available for download at no additional charge. But more often than not, you are SOL.

If you are an occasional buyer, the iTMS has lots of audible content, but if you are a regular audiobook consumer -- you'll save a good chunk of change with an audible membership.

I have been a member for over a year and am pleased as punch with them. I don't use the "newspaper/magazine subscription" feature, I just download audiobooks. I use iTunes and an iPod with no problems.

That describes me as well. I would recommend Audible to anyone interested in audio books. Regarding Audible vs. iTunes, one nice thing about Audible (in addition to cost savings) is that they keep a library of everything you've purchased, and you can re-download at any time. I think that with iTunes, if you delete the file off your machine, you've got to re-purchase it if you want to listen to it again. And, unabridged audiobooks can eat up quite a bit of disk space over time.

I received a free month's trial of Audible.com from the purchase of my Treo650, so though my experience is limited I'll try to share my impressions.

Like the OP, I wanted to try the magazine/book subscription option, so I downloaded an issue of Scientific American and a copy of David Sedaris' Me Talk Pretty One Day. True to the nature of this board I downloaded "Me Talk Pretty" so that I could listen to it on the trans-con flights I take once a month from BOS to SFO/LAX to SBP; I downloaded the magazine so that my girlfriend could listen to it on her long drives home from SBP to SFO.

First of all, being able to easily listen to a book on tape without the hassle of juggling 6 CDs or even worse 12 audio cassettes is a great relief. After (finally) getting the download manager to recognize my Treo, I thoroughly enjoyed listening to Me Talk Pretty One Day on my flight, which Sedaris himself narrates. The sound quality itself was very good (though the Treo can only handle up to quality level "3") and the 5 hour 51 minute in length book turned out to be the absolute perfect length for my flight. The magazine was less wonderful, but I think that's largely due to the differences in content and style between the two mediums.

As for Audible itself, (not quite sure if you're familiar with its interface), you basically have two areas that you work with "My Library" which is where your purchases are stored after you buy them, ready for download at your convenience and your "download manager" which gets your downloaded files from your computer onto whatever you want it to. The online portion of the interface is very easy to manage, it neatly sorts all of your purchases by type (individual or subscription) and by age (new, downloaded, and archive). To download a title you simply select it and then choose the quality of the recording you wish to download. Audible offers four different quality recordings of each title, and you can download them and re-download them as many times as you'd like.

The download manager on the other hand, I found somewhat difficult to work with, although this was largely due to the fact that it didn't want to recognize my Treo and the help material relating to that problem was unusually unhelpful. However, once I realized that it would recognize my Treo as a "generic palm device" (read: PDA) it was smooth sailing from there and the file quickly downloaded. The interface is easy to use and also updates your subscriptions (if you have one) and automatically downloads the files for you.

Overall I'd say it's a pretty good deal, since the cheapest books on tape around (at least for semi recent releases) are 15$ and they get up into the $40 range, then $22 a month (for the "premium" subscription) seems to be a pretty good deal, especially if you like books on tape. Also, one of the nice things about Audible is that even after your subscription expires you can still continue downloading your books or magazines. So, if you have a subscription for say, 5 months, get 10 books and find that you've only listened to 3 of them you can just put your subscription on hold till you catch up.

Thanks for your replies. I think I'm going to take the plunge and subscribe. I also noticed that I get $100 off a MP3 player if I subscribe for one year. This would take care of my desire to listen to audiobooks and get a MP3 player.

BTW, I don't think I've ever posted a Tech question on this board without many people having tried it before or having a solution for a similar problem. I'm so glad so many FTers love technology!!

TF :cool:

I recently qualified for a free one-month subscription when I purchased an iSkin for my iPod.

I've downloaded two free books but have not listened to them yet. I plan to do this in the next couple of weeks.

One comment about the Audible.com interface is that it is difficult to navigate. It would be nice if I could do a search and then add my selections from the results to either my wish list or my shopping cart. Currently I have to display the details of each book to add them to my wish list. Then I have to go back a few pages to the search results and display details of the next book. It wastes a lot of time.

Other than that I am happy with their service.

BTW - I use Audible Manager to download the files and then Anapod Explorer to synchronize them to my iPod.

I was wondering if anyone has experience with the audiobook, newspaper, etc. subscription with this service? I was thinking that the basic monthly subscription (one audiobook and one newspaper subscription) seemed reasonable at $14.95/month.

TF :cool:

I am a customer of audible.com. I use it when I go to the gym. My favorite feature is the New York Times review. Also I download mistery fiction. It helps me in the gym and travelling.

I have the year suscription

Update on my experience:
I signed up for the 12 month basic listener option (one audiobook and one subscription to a newspaper, magazine, radio broadcast per month). This gave me a $100 gift certificate for Crutchfield.com. I found a link from my Mastercard for $20 off a purchase from Crutchfield. I purchased the Rio Carbon because I wanted the bookmark function. The Rio Carbon was $169 with a $20 mail-in rebate. I got $20 off from the Mastercard link and used the $100 gift certificate from audible.com. Total cost for the Rio is $29 plus shipping ($10 for me).

I'm very happy with my audible.com subscription although it is strange to listen to someone read the WSJ to me.

TF :cool:

We've been using Audible for almost a year now with no complaints.

One thing is you have to remember to get your book every month. The monthly subscription doesn't carry over month to month. Audible now has a new feature where you can pick what you want and if the Audible will automatically purchase the books when due. It's called My Next Listen. Saves the trauma of missing a book your due.

Does Audible work with DAP's that don't have any DRM built in? There are easy work-arounds to get music out of iTunes and Connect. Anything like that for Audible?

Does Audible work with DAP's that don't have any DRM built in? There are easy work-arounds to get music out of iTunes and Connect. Anything like that for Audible?You have to use an Audible-approved device to use their service. The files won't play on any old DAP. That said, I have a branded Audible Otis player with a 64 MB MMC card (that is obsolete now that I have a Treo 650) that I will part with for a reasonable sum, if anyone is interested. It stores/plays both Audible and MP3 files, runs on 2 AAA cells, and it's about half the size of a deck of cards. PM me if interested.