You don't want it anyway, smiles. I wasn't seriously suggesting it as
an alternative. I put it out there in regards to some one questioning
whether Ebay wasn't the only one of it's kind. Which it flat isn't.
No, if you're going to start out with a download service,
1 check it to make sure it has the selection you want. Audible is a
safe bet in this regard.
2, look for something that has the audio quality you like. Audible
falls over here unless you have leaf letis for ears. The bass is
missing from many of the audio files, and the trebbel is boosted
through the roof. That means you can hear every swish in the 32 kb
encoding.
3, make sure it's compadible with your player of choice. The safest
way to do it is to use a service that sells raw mp3. Right now the
best one of these is emusic, though since it's only been around for 8
months or so, the selection is a bit peekid.
Before you decide, check out audible and at least emusic, if not pay
per listen as well. Do some searches. listen to some demos. Don't
forget about kitabe as well. You can't get brilliance titles from
audible as far as I know. Brilliance likes exclusivity agreements,
and so all their stuff's gone to overdrive. But if you're a
brilliance feand, you can sign up for kitabe and get mp3's on cd
through the mail. Now, mp3 cd quality is vast and stunning overkill
for mp3 listening, but the quality will never be matched by any
download. Kitabe also has bbc audiobooks america mp3 cd's. BBC
titles are recorded and marketed only for libraries and are farely
exclusive. I usually like to buy my mp3 cd's and keep them, but I've
seriously considered kitabe just to get the bbc stuff.
best,
Erik
erik burggraaf
Certified Technician
Assistive Computing LTD Support and training
Sales department: 888-828-2445
Support and Training: 888-255-5194
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website coming soon
On 21-May-08, at 1:45 PM, Brent Harding wrote:
The thing with Overdrive is signing up for it, or finding someone at
the regional library for the blind who knows what it is so I could
get my login for it.
----- Original Message ----- From: "erik burggraaf" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of Mac OS
X by theblind" <[email protected]>
Sent: Wednesday, May 21, 2008 8:50 AM
Subject: Re: My Wife Has a Question
True, although that is no great loss from a quality or ownership
standpoint. It is a bit of a loss if you want to download
brilliance audio titles, but if you buy them on mp3 cd or rent them
on mp3 cd you get absolutely magnificent mp3 quality on any player
of your choice.
So, I think I will not morn overdrive. I only wanted to mention it
to round out the list of major download providers. I believe net
library is also not mac os compadible. Toronto Public Library is
an overdrive provider I do believe. I've never checked it out, but
I'm pretty sure we don't have access to netlibrary anyway.
Best,
Erik
erik burggraaf
Certified Technician
Assistive Computing LTD Support and training
Sales department: 888-828-2445
Support and Training: 888-255-5194
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website coming soon
On 20-May-08, at 7:21 PM, Richie Gardenhire wrote:
Overdrive only works on Windows, I was informed. Richie
Gardenhire, Anchorage, Alaska.
On May 20, 2008, at 3:32 PM, erik burggraaf wrote:
Oh my goodness no.
The two services I really like are emusic download service and
kitabe.com audiobook rentals on mp3 cd.
There is also pay per listen, which is a service of
audiobooks.com. Then there is overdrive which sells and loans
downloads. Then there is netlibrary, which is a competater to
overdrive that just serves library markets. Books in motion just
released it's own direct to customer download service which is
kind'a nice since they just happen to have a pile of stuff I
want, and their files are non-drm. I haven't bought one yet
though. I just found out about it yesterday, so I can't say what
the quality is like.
Randomhouse is also supposed to have it's own download service I
got a big press release about it from a couple of sources but
that was before the great imap disaster that tossed a thick stack
of email out the window. I just googled it and got the audiobook
download faq, but it just sends you off to emusic, audible, and
overdrive. .
So, of the mainstays of download, audible, overdrive pay per
listen, and emusic, the only non-drm provider is emusic. That
might in fact, probably will change now that amazon owns both
Brilliance Corporation and Audible.com. Just how it will change
is going to be interesting, since all of briliance's titles are
right now licenced exclusively to overdrive, which is the direct
competater of audible, which is the download service owned by the
same company that owns the publisher. It's a nice little conflict
of interest that has people speculating that the entire world of
mainstream audiobooks will go fully non-DRM driven by Amazon
which already has a major label non-drm mp3 music service and a
streaming ebook service.
You can wake up now, smiles. So to answer your question,
audible's not the only one.
Best,
Erik
erik burggraaf
Certified Technician
Assistive Computing LTD Support and training
Sales department: 888-828-2445
Support and Training: 888-255-5194
Email: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Website coming soon
On 20-May-08, at 1:04 PM, Brent Harding wrote:
Isn't Audible about the only one out there?
----- Original Message ----- From: "Richie Gardenhire" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]
>
To: "General discussions on all topics relating to the use of
Mac OS X by theblind" <[email protected]>
Cc: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Monday, May 19, 2008 10:37 PM
Subject: My Wife Has a Question
For Father's Day, my wife wants to get a subscription for me to
get audiobooks. Of the services out there, which one gives the
overall, best service for the money? Richie Gardenhire,
Anchorage, Alaska.
