If you ’re a rooter of audiobooks , you ’re plausibly familiar with the many option available for listening to your preferent authors . you’re able to download audiobooks from a figure of services — including the iTunes Store and Audible.com — and buy books on CD . ( An clause I write last year discusses those different pick . )
Whichever itinerary you choose , the bill can add up quickly , as audiobooks are generally more expensive than their print equivalent . Even if you get a subscription with Audible.com , you ’re limited to a couple of books a month , and if you listen a muckle , this might not be sufficient .
Browsing the collection on Audiobooks.com .
Browsing the collection on Audiobooks.com.
A Modern servicing calledAudiobooks.com(nice work snagging that domain , by the way ) aims to help oneself the heavy - listening bunch — think of it sort of as Netflix for audiobooks . For $ 25 a month , you get unlimited access to its choice of audiobooks , and you listen to books by teem them , rather than by downloading them and adding them to your iTunes depository library . In addition , since it is a internet - establish religious service , you may take heed on your computer , your iPhone , your iPad , or any other equipment that can reach the Web .
( Audiobooks.com is actually a a subsidiary ofSimply Audiobooks , which offers a similar all - you - can - listen - to service for audiobook CD rental . )
The windowpane you utilise to play a al-Qur’an is little , and has all the necessary controls .
The window you use to play a book is small, and has all the necessary controls.
The Audiobooks.com web site is light to navigate , and all you need to do to begin listening to a book is click a button . A small windowpane opens in your browser app — or , if you ’re on a mobile gadget , such as an iPhone , a new tab or window — and you could originate listening . you’re able to pause , play , adjust the mass , and contribute a bookmark .
If you listen to part of a Word of God on your Mac , then want to switch to your iPhone , say , not to worry : the internet site stash away your location , so you may pluck up where you left off . I found this feature more often than not accurate , though sometimes it was few second off from the point I stopped .
In increase , when you go to the land site , you at once see the previous Holy Writ you ’ve been take heed to , along with any other books that you have n’t end . If you want to remove one from that leaning , just snap on thexin the top - right corner of the book ’s graphic .
Listening on an iPhone.
Unfortunately , there are no chapter marker , so you ca n’t say how much sentence is left in a chapter , or skip onward to the commencement of the next chapter ( which is peculiarly useful in collections of essays or poor stories , for object lesson ) .
While mind to audiobooks works well on iOS devices , a dedicated iOS app would be a addition . ( The company is plan to release aboriginal iOS and Android apps later on this year . ) It ’s also crucial to note that because listening is an streaming affaire , these record use up bandwidth , so if you have a detonator on your data program — if you ’re not listening via Wi - Fi — you need to be careful . The internet site say you should have “ at least 150 MB of storage available , ” for caching books , but does n’t say how much size any given playscript pack up . ( With its 64 - kbps information rate , that ’s about how much data a 5 - time of day book would employ . ) Also , if you do n’t have web entree , then you ca n’t listen ; so if you ’re on the route , and go through an area of poor coverage , you may lose access temporarily ( as you will as well on a plane or on the tube , or any other spot when you do n’t get a data signal and Wi - Fi is n’t an option ) . When the native apps are available , the ship’s company promises some kind of offline modality .
Audio calibre was fine , and generally sounded like audiobooks from other source .
Listening on an iPhone .
The genuine trial run for a service like this is , of line , the selection . Audibooks.com claims to have “ more than 10,000 good sellers , top new sacking and classic favorites , ” and if youbrowse through the extract , you’re able to see sure literary genre are evenhandedly well - stocked , while others are a bit light . When I check , there were 957 Book in the Mystery , Thriller genre , 314 in Romance , and 714 in Science Fiction & Fantasy , which are all fair humble bit compared to , say , Audible.com . Horror hold only 83 book of account , but Business has 772 . Drilling down , there are only 11 books in European History , eight literary life history ( which oddly let in Einstein , and Hemingway ’s novelA Moveable Feast ) , and six Shakespeare make for . In other words , if you ’re a big consumer of audiobooks , you may not find much to listen to in Audiobooks.com ’s current choice .
There ’s much to be said for this eccentric of help , where for a deposit monthly fee , you get all you could listen to . The toll is fair , given the price of audiobooks , but whether it ’s worth it for you depends on how many books you find to mind to . The site has just launch , so it ’s probable that the selection will improve . In any case , there ’s no commitment , so even if you only observe a few months worth of books , you may offset your subscription at any time . And if you ’re on the fence , there ’s afree seven - day trialyou can enjoy as well .
So , the idea is practiced , it works well , and the terms is fairish . All Audiobooks.com involve now is a lot more books .
[ Updated at 2:24PM with additional information on mo charge per unit and forthcoming native Io and Android apps . ]
