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(Last updated Sept 21 2010)

It’s time for another installment of Palm Discovery’s wReview Wednesday!

Audible for iPhone and iPod Touch

Many of you who have been visiting Palm Discovery for a while know how much I love the Audible.com audiobook service. And for those who don’t, well, I truly do LOVE Audible.com. Audible.com for those who are not familiar with it, is a digital portal and service for audiobooks. But, they’re not JUST limited to audiobooks, but also offer periodicals like the daily Wall Street Journal, New York Times, Scientific American, etc. Plus! They also offer radio shows like Ricky Gervais, Opie & Anthony, Car Talk, etc and for those who love old-time nostalgia radio shows, you can get those too, like The Shadow, Jack Benny, Bob Hope, etc. If you’re more into learning, you can get language courses from Pimsleur, Earworms, Collins, or perhaps you’re into education offerings for school like Spark Notes or VangaNotes or other test preparation material. For even younger ones, there’s lots of great starter offerings from AudibleKids. As you can figure out, Audible.com offers so much more than just non-fiction and fiction audiobooks. It is more a life-learning and lifelong entertainment and educational service.

Aside from what you can download and enjoy, what I think really sets Audible.com’s service apart from many other service is that it’s immediate. Once I purchase an audio title, I can download it immediately and don’t have to wait weeks for the CDs or cassettes to arrive in the mail. I can download any previously purchased title an unlimited amount of times, even if I don’t purchase any more audio titles. And since it’s a digital downloaded audio title, I can listen to it anywhere and anytime I want whether it be during the morning or afternoon commute to or from work, at home or during lunch break. And it’s always ready to play and start right at where I last stopped in the audio title. No need to figure out where to start in the audio title.

Audible has been around for quite a while and have various versions of its mobile app for the Palm OS PDAs (eg. Zire 71, Tungsten T, etc) (my review of Audible here), Palm OS smartphones (eg. Treo 650, 700p, Centro, etc), Windows Mobile smartphones (eg. Treo 700w/wx, 750) my review of the Audible Air (OTA) for smartphones here, Blackberry, Symbian S60 (eg. Nokia E71, E66, etc) and now, there’s a dedicated mobile app for the iPhone and iPod Touch! Very much like earlier mobile versions for other platforms, the Audible app for iPhone allows you to have access to, download and listen to all the audiobooks, periodicals, you’ve purchased from the Audible store. The app will allow you to refresh your library and allow immediate download to your iPhone, very much like other smartphone apps. You can search and sort your audiobooks and audio files by Title, Author or recently accessed. What I find is a nice feature that was not found in other platform apps is the sleep feature, which allows you to set the app to sleep in 15 minute increments from 15 minutes to 1 hour. But there’s more features available so read on for more details.

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For those who want to skip over all the detailed review and just want a summary, you can jump to the review summary

The Audible app for iPhone as mentioned already is a dedicated program designed to play your purchased Audible audiobooks and other Audible branded audio (proprietary DRM digital rights management) files. That means that it will not play other audiobooks in mp3 or other compressed audio formats, which is a shame as it would be nice to have the program play other audiobooks you may have purchased elsewhere. But, for the licensing agreements between the author, narrator and publisher, it’s not hard to understand why.

Each time you run the Audible app on the iPhone or iPod Touch, you will see a screen giving you the option of either signing in to your Audible.com account (if you are already an Audible.com member) or proceeding as someone new to Audible and trying out the app. If you’re signing in as an Audible.com member, the program will automatically connect to the internet and refresh the program with your Audible.com library. If you’re trying out the app as someone new to Audible, you will see a list of seven free audiobook excerpts (The Pacific by Hugh Ambrose, The Last Stand by Nathaniel Pilbrick, A Farewell to Arms by Ernest Hemingway, Abraham Lincoln: Vampire Hunter by Seth Grahame-Smith, The Girl who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest by Steig Larsson, Beatrice and Virgil by Yann Martel, The Big Short by Michael Lewis) that you can download and start enjoying. Simply select the title you are interested in and click on the icon with a downward pointing arrow at the right for the title and the audio title will automatically download on your iPhone. You can start listening to the audiobook shortly after the download started as soon as the Play icon (with right pointing triangle) shows up. You don’t need to wait for the entire file to be completely downloaded before you can start listening. While listening to an audio title, you can drag the slider to the left or right to adjust where you want to listen in the audio title.

Clicking on the title, you’ll be taken to the audiobook cover page with a menu bar at the top and bottom. At the top, there’s a Back button (left pointing arrow) and a Details button at the right (list icon composed of three lines of a dot and line). Underneath this menu bar is a timeline that shows the length of the current audio title, where you are in the file and which chapter you are on. At the bottom, there’s a 30 second Review button (counter-clockwise arrow with 30 in the middle), the Play or Pause button (right pointing triangle for Play and two vertical bars for Pause), a Bookmark button (a book with a vertical line/bar near the left top). Tapping on the audiobook title cover or the main screen showing the book cover will display a previously hidden menu bar. At the left is an icon for the Button-Free feature (a multi directional bunch of arrows), next to it is the Sleep button (clock with z’s) allowing you to select a sleep mode of 15 min increments (15, 30, 45, 60 min), next to that is the Ratings button (star) by selecting the number of stars for the audiobook and the last on the menu is the Share button (group of three people) where you can share via email, Facebook, Twitter.

We will go back to more details of some of the buttons. Tapping on the Details button (top right) will take you to another page that will provide more details on the audio file. Depending on the bottom tab that was last selected, you may be viewing the Bookmarks, Details of the audiobook, or Chapters listing. Tapping on the Bookmarks button will show all the bookmarks you’ve created for the current audio file. You can tap on individual bookmark to take you to more details on that particular bookmark such as when it was created, where in the audio file it is located, and any notes you’ve created for the bookmark. You can play from this bookmark, share this bookmark (via email, Facebook, Twitter) or delete the bookmark. Tapping on the Details button will show more details and information on the audio file including the audio file length, file size, release date, publisher, Publisher’s summary. At the bottom of this page is a Remove from device button, which allows you to easily remove the audio title from your device and free up some storage space. To go back to the cover screen, tap on the top right which shows an icon of your audio file cover.

Back at the cover screen, at the bottom right, the Bookmarks button will automatically set or create a new bookmark on the current playback position. You can also enter your notes for the bookmark, great for those who are reviewing or studying a title for work, school to explain the significance of the bookmark.

Now, tapping on the cover screen brings up the normally hidden menu bar. The left multidirectional icon of arrows will bring up a screen that explains the Button-Free feature of the program. Tapping anywhere on the screen will Play or Pause the audio. Swiping left will review by 30 seconds. Swiping right will forward by 30 seconds. Swiping either upwards or downwards (vertically) will add or create a new bookmark.

The next button to the Button-Free button is the Sleep Mode button. Tapping on the Sleep Mode icon will bring up a dial that defaults to “Sleep Mode Off”. You can swipe upwards on the dial to scroll the dial selection to 15 minutes, 30 minutes, 45 minutes, 60 minutes and swipe downwards to adjust to your preferred Sleep time.

The button to the right of the Sleep Mode button is the Ratings button. Tapping on this button will bring up five tiny dots to designate the five star rating. Swiping your finger from the left to right will turn the white dots to orange stars. Swiping from the right to left will turn the orange stars back to white dots. Alternatively, you can tap on the dots to set the rating as well. Tap on the third white dot from the left will cause three orange stars to show up. Make the necessary adjustments to select your preferred rating for the audio title.

The last button on the right of this normally hidden menu showing an icon of three people is the Share button. Tapping on this button will bring up a pop up window that will allow you to share your current audio file to your friend by Email, Facebook or Twitter.

Now that we have looked at the buttons in the audio player portion of the app, we’ll continue on to the rest of the app. We click on the Back button (left arrow) at the top left and we’re taken back to My Library screen. At the top left is the Categories button which will take you to the Categories screen that shows the various categories of audio files you have on your iPhone or iPod Touch (My Library, On My Device, Free Excerpts). Back to the main My Library screen, on the top right is the Last Played button. Tapping on that will take you to the last played audio file you have opened.

Underneath those buttons are more buttons that will allow you to sort your library titles. You can select to sort the titles in the library by Recent (recently accessed), Title, Author. To the right of these buttons is the Search button (magnifying glass icon). Tapping on the Search button will allow you to search your library by Title, Author, Narrator or All. Underneath these buttons is the Sign in button allowing those who are Audible.com members to sign in to their Audible.com account.

At the bottom of the screen is a menu of buttons/tabs. Normally, it’s defaulted to My Library which shows all your audio files in your library. Next to it is the News & Events which shows the latest news on Audible including what’s featured, new releases, your badge messages and other issues. Clicking on the next button, Listening Stats will show where you are in the App Listening Level: AudibleMaster (2000 hours), AudibleScholar (1000 hours), AudiblePro (500 hours), AudibleNovice (100 hours), AudibleNewbie. Going to the last button is the Settings. This screen will provide more settings on the app. At the top it will show the current version you are running. You can sign in to your Audible.com account by tapping on the Sign In button. Underneath that is the button toggle ON/OFF to Show iPod Audiobooks, Disable Auto Lock plus Legal Notices and Help & Support.

The last button on that screen, Help & Support can be very useful in contacting Audible’s customer service. Tapping on that button will take you to a screen that will enable you to call, email, send feedback and submit bug report. If you have this app installed on your iPhone, you can call Audible Customer Care by clicking on the Call Audible Customer Care button at the top of the screen. Tapping on the next button, Email Audible Customer Care will open up your email app with your email address already filled in. If you want to provide feedback, you can tap on the Submit Feedback button and again, it will open up your email app with your email filled in. If you need to submit a bug report on the Audible app, you can tap on the Submit Bug Report button and it will open up your email app with your email address and a log attachment that will help Audible diagnose the problem.

And that pretty much shows the app’s features and capabilities.

Here are more details of Audible for iPhone and iPod Touch (taken from iTunes App Store):

Audible.com, the Internet’s premier provider of digital audiobooks and more, is now available on your iPhone and iPod Touch! This free app features the most comprehensive audiobook experience ever, including Wi-Fi delivery of your Audible.com library, access to the Audible.com mobile store, detailed listening stats, and much more.

Not an Audible member yet? We’ve included eight great excerpts to sample, including the first chapter of Jon Stewart’s Earth (the Audiobook), or you can visit www.audible.com to get started today.

Audible for iPhone features the best audiobook experience:

• Chapter Navigation, Bookmarking, Sleep Mode, Button Free Mode, and Play as you Download

• Wireless transfer of your books from My Library to your device over Wi-Fi

• Browse and discover over 85,000 digital audiobooks and more in the Audible.com mobile store

• Multitasking for background audio playback and background downloading (iOS 4 and compatible device required)

And the fun extras you’ve been waiting for:
• Earn badges and check your personal listening habits

• Get insider information about author events and more with the Audible Newsfeed

• Connect to Facebook and Twitter and let your friends know what you’re listening to and more

Note: This version of the application only accepts audible.com accounts. Audible.co.uk, .de, and .fr are coming soon.

What’s New In Version 1.3

- Link to browse, search, and buy Audible titles via the mobile web store
- Several bug fixes

Slideshow of Audible for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Slideshow of updated features in version 1.3

Video of Audible for the iPhone and iPod Touch

Video review of Audible for iPhone and iPod Touch at YouTube

Quick look at the latest app update version 1.3

Here are my observations:

I Liked:

Detailed info on audiobooks

I like being able to view and read up on more details and information on the audiobook titles including the file size, length, publisher. Extra information on when it was downloaded can be very useful for those who keep track of how much they listen and how long they’ve been listening to an audiobook.

Sleep feature

One main feature that I LOVE about this iPhone app is the new Sleep Mode feature that wasn’t available on other mobile platforms. Since I tend to listen to Audible just before I go to sleep, having the Sleep Mode (15, 30, 45, 60 minutes) is very useful for me as I know that the app will turn off my iPod Touch after the specified Sleep Mode time.

Button-Free

For those who find that there’s too many buttons to choose from within the app, this Button-Free feature can be very nice to have. Simply tap on the Button-Free button and then you can use swipes to control the program. It may been a bit too simplistic in features and action but it may be still be a nice feature for those who don’t want to deal with looking down on the iPhone to figure out which button to press or tap.

Submit bug report from within app

I really also like the capability to be able to submit bug reports from within the app. Simply go to the Help & Support and submit the bug report. The email will contain a log that will help Audible’s customer service to diagnose the problem. Now, if only more apps provide this feature.

News and Events

It’s a helpful feature where Audible can provide news and events that is happening either at Audible or from within the app and other information that you may find useful. Plus, you get notified of your newest badges you’ve gotten too.

Listening Stats

For those who love to get a reward for listening to audiobooks, the Listening Stats will help encourage you to keep listening more as you can graduate up from AudibleNewbie level to AudibleMaster. This will help keep you on track.

Listening Badges

There are various Listening Badges you will earn at various times ranging from listening to audiobooks to using the Button-Free feature and much more. However nice it is to earn these badges, unfortunately, there’s no “trophy” or badge area that will show all your badges, except in the News & Events. But then, it will disappear from there after a certain period of time.

Bookmark feature with note support

One of the nice features with this iPhone app is that not only does it offer bookmark support much like other mobile platform versions, it also supports notes. This will allow students or professionals to add personal notes to specific passages or areas of interest.

Access via chapters

The Audible for iPhone app not only allows to drag the slider to wherever you want to go within the audiobook, you can also access via chapters of the audiobook. So, if you want to listen to a specific chapter or go back to a specific chapter of the audiobook, you can easily jump to that particular chapter without needing to forward through the book to get to that chapter.

Easy and quick removal of titles from within app

Another great feature of the app is that once you’re done listening to an audiobook title, you can quickly and easily remove it from your iPhone or iPod Touch. No more needing to plug in your iPhone to the computer and doing it. Just delete it directly from within the app.

I Didn’t Like:

Only plays Audible DRM .aa format files

One of the biggest complaints about Audible is that the audio files are digitally encrypted and licensed (DRM) and so, you can’t share your purchased audiobooks or files with others. As well, the Audible app for iPhone can only play Audible files and not other audiobooks or audio files in mp3 or other compressed audio format. So if you purchased audiobooks from other audiobook services, you won’t be able to play them with this app.

Doesn’t support landscape mode

It almost seem it’s expected that any app support viewing in landscape mode. Unfortunately, the Audible iPhone app doesn’t support it. I can understand that viewing in landscape isn’t going to provide much better viewing as you aren’t actually “reading” the book but it would be nice to have it however.

Crashed when refreshing my library

Although many Audible members may not necessarily have over 800 audiobooks or audio files and may not experience a crash when refreshing the library, my Audible app crashed shortly after reaching 400 files. Trying again would yield the same result again and again. Very frustrating as I won’t be able to access all my audiobook files.

(Updated) No longer an issue. With a newer update, that bug was fixed.

Only displays and plays audiobooks and not periodicals

Now, I may be wrong about this, but due to the crashing experienced and discussed in the previous point, I have no idea if this Audible app supports playback of my periodical subscription to the Wall Street Journal as well as to This is Audible and Le Show. If this Audible app only supports audiobooks and not periodicals, then, it gets a big negative point for me as I consider the daily periodicals an essential part of the Audible.com service.

(Updated). Originally, since the older version of the app crashed when it reached 800 titles, I wasn’t able to determine if my periodicals would be loaded. With a newer update, I found out that it did. So, yes, it displays and plays audiobooks and periodicals too.

Can’t buy audiobooks from within app either with credits or from account

Now, keeping in mind that previous mobile versions of the Audible audiobook player doesn’t support shopping and Audible purchases from within the app, it may seem a bit unfair to expect that the Audible iPhone app should. However, since Apple has revolutionalized how mp3s, movies, TV shows and other media can be purchased directly from within the iPhone, it may seem that the ability or capability for purchases for Audible audiobooks should be there. Not only should the Audible iPhone app support purchases of audiobooks from within the app via your stored credit card info at Audible.com, it should also allow purchases of audiobooks and content using available credits as well. Plus, with that in mind, it should also make sense that you can search for any title, file available from Audible.com from your iPhone and make the purchase from there. I guess I may be asking for too much here, but it only seems like this should have been there.

(Updated) With the new Shop button at the bottom of the screen, you can now go directly to the mobile version of Audible.com and make purchase, search for books, etc just like you normally would.

No selection for file size (1/2/3/4) for download

When you download a purchased Audible.com audio file from Audible.com, you have the option of selecting the file size (1/2/3/4) format before you download it on your computer. It only makes sense that you should also have that capability to do so on your iPhone. Even my Symbian S60 platform Nokia E71 allows me to at least select the preferred format (1/2/3/4) of my download. Unfortunately, I don’t see that option in the iPhone app.

(Updated) A newer version update since then has added a choice for Download options. You now have a choice of downloading a Standard Quality file or a High Quality file (most likely format 3 or 4).

No Wishlist support

This app doesn’t support Wishlists or allow you to set a Wishlist for a title, obviously since you don’t have access to the entire Audible.com library. Sigh, it would be so useful if you can actually have that power and access from within the iPhone app.

(Updated) This issue has been addressed with the mobile store button on the main My Library screen where most features that previously were only available on the site is now accessible.

Button-Free support only in “Button-Free” mode

Although the iPhone app has a “Button-Free” mode or feature in the app, unfortunately, you can only have it work when you have tapped on the “Button-Free” icon. Outside of this, you are back to pressing the regular buttons and your finger swipes won’t be recognized.

Review Summary

Audible for iPhone and iPod Touch, an audiobook player for Audible.com audiobook offers pretty much what you’d expect from an audiobook player. You can play your Audible purchased audiobooks and be able to download and refresh your library from within the app. There’s also a Sleep Mode feature that is great for those who wish to have the app automatically turn off the iPhone from 15 to 60 minutes later. You can even delete a downloaded audiobook title straight from within the app. In the updated version 1.3, the previous bug that crashed when it reached 800 titles has now been fixed. Also, I have pleasantly found that periodicals such as the Wall Street Journal is very much supported. The newer version now offers the Shop button which takes you directly to the mobile version of Audible.com where you can access the Wish List, buy your audiobooks using your credits or credit card on your account and other tasks so the previous issues I once had with the earlier versions of the app are now taken care of. With version 1.3, I can now get back to enjoying my audiobooks, periodicals again. Thanks, Audible for fixing and taking my ideas into account and making it great again!

More information on Audible via my review of Audible here) as well as my review of the Audible Air (OTA) for smartphones here. Don’t forget to check out a huge list of free Audible files you can download and listen! You need to be an Audible member (it’s free to join) to download the free files. Join now and get a free audiobook of your choice!

Enjoyed this review? Check out the many other Palm Discovery software reviews here such as palm os software review, windows-mobile software review, symbian os software review, iPhone and ipod touch software review.

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