This is the eighth article in the series App of the Week series.
I normally am a podcast person listening to a wide selection from youth ministry to the daily thirty minute technology uploads. This is usually enough for me in the traveling and dish duty time that I have. This month though, I am driving up to Denver (a one hour trip one-way) and stuck with only the radio to entertain me on my travels. In the past I have enjoyed audio books to pass the time and decided to get another through my iPhone with Audible.com and their iOS app.
The Good
Audible has some really good points that make it the best app to listen to your audio books.
- Ease of Use My initial attempt to listen to the Audible books was to go through iTunes on my laptop and sync it with my iPhone. 30 minutes later I was super frustrated and searched for a better solution. That’s when I found the Audible app and 2 minutes later the audio book was downloaded on to my phone.
- Background Listening I personally cannot multitask with audio books, but for those that can listen and check emails, Facebook, or play Angry Birds at the same time, you can minimize the Audible app and press into other tasks.
- Listening Stats For the statistic nerds out there, you have the ability to see your listening statistics for all audio books, which is actually a great idea for those with 2013 resolutions out there and want to read more books. Commit to 1 hour a day or 3-4 hours a week listening to a book and track your stats on this app.
The Bad
While this is the best app out there, it is far from great.
- No Store You would think that a company that solely makes money off of books purchased would have integrated their stores into the app so that you can quickly buy them off of impulse purchases. That may be able to double their money, but as of now, they require you to buy it on a desktop and then download it to the app.
- No iPad Support Another illogical problem is that Audible does not have any iPad support. Tablets are quickly killing eReaders and becoming the standard for digital reading with eBooks and audio books should be right behind them.
- No Time Bar I was surprised to not find a time bar if I wanted to skip back or go forward. Your reply might be that you do not need to, but what if I had started it in iTunes and then decided I wanted to finish it here? It starts at the beginning and I’d have to let it play, sometimes hours, until I get to that point.
What do you love or hate about the Audible app?
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