Hi Sarah, I believe that once you sign up for the audiobook downloads you also get information about downloading the OverDrive Media Console for your computer, but I gave the link to their page for software downloads in my message:
>> The OverDrive Media Console software is available for both your computer and >> as a free app for mobile device listening: >> http://www.overdrive.com/Software/omc/ This web page should contain links to downloads for both Mac and Windows versions of the software. They also have information on getting the app versions of OverDrive Media Console for iOS and Android devices, but basically for getting the audiobook downloads during the promotion period you only need the version for your computer. The process works the same way that you can get audiobook files that you borrow from public libraries via electronic download: you install the software on your computer before you try to download any audiobooks. (For these books you can start over again if you try to download the files without having the software in place, because the small license file that you download before you can actually get the mp3 files for the audiobooks doesn't expire, and you can also download a valid license file for each book again any time within the 1 week period if you've made an error.) If you're borrowing audiobooks from a public library, the license file with a ".odm" extension determines the active borrowing period, and they don't give you multiple copies of this file. It used to be the case that you could only use one license file on a single designated computer, so you had to have the OverDrive software in place before you started retrieving files. However, I think it's now possible to download copies of library audiobooks both directly to your iPhone or other iOS device and to your computer from your library account -- they recognize that you might want to listen to the same material on both mobile devices and on your computer. Once you have a valid ".odm" file for your audiobook, the OverDrive Media Console software on your computer will handle the download of the multiple parts of the audiobook. You can download any or all of the files during the period they are available. (For the SYNC YA books, this has to be done in the 1 week period of availability. For library books, this can be any time during your "borrowing period" for the books to let you delete earlier parts of the book as your listening progresses, in case you want to save disk space on your computer.) The files you get are simply mp3 files stored on your computer in a default directory that the software uses. You could add them to iTunes or play them in Cog, VLC, or any other application for playing audio files. However, OverDrive Media Console has extra features for bookmarking, speeded up playback, etc. Each individual file part corresponds to about 70 minutes of listening -- the amount that could be burned to a separate audio CD, if this is permitted by the individual audiobook publisher under their "borrowing" terms. So you can also use the computer program to transfer the audio files to different listening devices (including iPods of various sorts). If you want to use OverDrive Media Console to play your downloaded files you should remember to back up the .odm license files, as well. Bryan has used OverDrive Media Console on his Mac and iOS devices, so he may have some more comments or suggestions about usage. HTH. Cheers, Esther <--- Mac Access At Mac Access Dot Net ---> To reply to this post, please address your message to [email protected] You can find an archive of all messages posted to the Mac-Access forum at either the list's own dedicated web archive: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/pipermail/mac-access/index.html> or at the public Mail Archive: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/>. Subscribe to the list's RSS feed from: <http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]/maillist.xml> The Mac-Access mailing list is guaranteed malware, spyware, Trojan, virus and worm-free! Please remember to update your membership options periodically by visiting the list website at: <http://mail.tft-bbs.co.uk/mailman/listinfo/mac-access/options/>
