Any Audible users out here?

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gehenna

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#1980514 20-Mar-2018 14:14

mclean:

Maybe I have restricted concentration bandwidth, but I find having a phone conversation on the hands-free phone in my car really reduces my perception of what's happening on the road. I would have thought audio books would be the same.

No different for me than listening to talkback or some other spoken radio. Sometimes I find I've zoned out of the audio for a while and have to skip back a bit, but that's also no different than when I'm reading a book and find myself down 3/4 of a page with no memory of what I've read :) Good thing about it is if I want to skip forward or back then the steering wheel audio controls work fine so I'm not having to touch my phone (Which I won't do in the car either way).

lchiu7

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#1980524 20-Mar-2018 14:25

KrazyKid:
lchiu7: I got into audible because I was enjoying listening to podcasts as it helps pass the time.

Have you tried Stitcher for podcast. Has premium version which I've never used. Can download for off-line listening on the free version.

Can find Radio NZ and lots of other podcasts.

Soundcloud and podcastle also have a good mix of podcasts.

I use Google Play music for podcasts which had all those features for free.

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Dulouz

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#1980539 20-Mar-2018 14:53

MP3 Books is an app you can use to listen to audiobooks on an iphone.

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#1980544 20-Mar-2018 15:02

I listen to books when I was training for half marathon as I found I went too quickly through the podcastsI'm subscriibed to. I'm not interested in subscribing and just buy as I need them.

Slowly working my way through the Terry Prachett. Also like listening to them if I'm on a long solo drive somewhere.

My amazon account is a uk one so I haven't had issues unavailability of books cf .au

PhantomNVD

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#1980760 20-Mar-2018 23:26

I’ve been listening to ‘audio’ books for years now, but started with my iPhone 4 ‘voiceover’ in the kindle app about 7-8 years ago. Unfortunately (or fortunately?) this has ruined me for Audible type narrations as I’m a VERY avid (and fast) reader and the one thing I loved most about voiceover is the speed I can increase it to read at. Audible narrators seem to be doing ‘whale speak’ reading when listening at normal speed, and even at 2x are barely tolerable.

Definitely not for everyone as most of my family think I’m crazy listening to the ‘robot lady’, and I must have actually trained myself to decode the (sometimes very phonetic) way it reads, and slowly accustomed myself to increasing the speed as I have yet to meet anyone else who can understand Voiceover dictation at the ‘rabbit end’ speed I have it reading at ☺️

mattwnz

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#1980765 20-Mar-2018 23:52

Don’t most libraries have free subscriptions to similar services which you can connect to over the net?

lchiu7

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#1980855 21-Mar-2018 09:13

mattwnz: Don’t most libraries have free subscriptions to similar services which you can connect to over the net?

WPL has a service where you can borrow audible titles but I've never tried it.

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jonathan18

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#1980911 21-Mar-2018 10:37

mattwnz: Don’t most libraries have free subscriptions to similar services which you can connect to over the net?

I covered this in an earlier post. Many NZ libraries provide free access to audio books via BorrowBox. This includes an app for mobile devices, which provides for downloading of content, much like Audible. As mentioned, selection is far narrower than paid-for services - the equivalent of Kindle store versus library-sourced titles via Overdrive. Still, easy enough to find something interesting (as opposed to expecting a particular title to be held).

PhantomNVD

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#1980914 21-Mar-2018 10:40

The new ‘Libby’ app is very useable too, and there seem to be a good selection of audio books in there too.
Auckland Library supports this, not sure of the rest?

jonathan18

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#1980922 21-Mar-2018 10:51

PhantomNVD: The new ‘Libby’ app is very useable too, and there seem to be a good selection of audio books in there too.
Auckland Library supports this, not sure of the rest?

Yeah, our library (PN) has Libby, but I’m yet to try it out. The library’s website sells it more as an interface to access content also (and therefore I assume previously) available via Overdrive (both ebooks and audiobooks).

jonathan18

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#1980934 21-Mar-2018 11:10

So I’ve checked out Libby now, and can confirm it’s put out by Overdrive, so is indeed based around its already available content.

Key advantage I’ve seen thus far is the ability to have multiple cards loaded in the single app, and switch between these in a couple of clicks - useful for us as all four in my family use Overdrive, and often on the same device (eg listening to audiobooks while driving).

It also seems somewhat more stable than Overdrive, and can clearly replace that app for searching for and issuing books for direct delivery to our Kobo Aura One. (Edit: while this applies to ebooks not audio books, it seems the Libby app is currently not well adapted for use here. It only has the Kindle as a device to have content directly sent, plus it doesn’t give any information on the specific format of the files (important as only some formats can be read on a Kobo; some need to be access on a tablet etc.) Given Overdrive is owned by Kobo’s owner, hopefully this will be resolved soon, but in the meantime at least this isn’t an issue in the original Overdrive app.)

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