StillILearn
New Member
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/10/13/technology/circuits/13pogue.html?th&emc=th
Last week, though, commuters, exercisers and people sitting around for jury duty gained an ingenious new audio alternative: books on phone.
Its actual name is Audible Air, and it's a way to download spoken recordings from Audible.com to the Palm Treo cellphone and other wireless gadgets - over the air, wherever you happen to be. But to appreciate its significance, you must first understand how Audible works.
Audible.com offers digital "books on tape" for the intellectually inclined. Today, 600,000 people listen each month to Audible's spoken recordings of over 7,000 books and 47 magazines and newspapers. Most people these days listen to Audible recordings - or "content," as the company annoyingly calls them - on portable players like iPods and Palm organizers, after first downloading them to their computers. (In fact, you get a free iPod Shuffle when you sign up for six months of Audible service, or a free Creative MuVo with a one-year contract.)
The company offers two plans. For $15 a month, you can download one full-length book and subscribe to one magazine or newspaper. This basic plan, the company says, is by far the most popular plan for commuters. For $22, you get two full-length books a month instead.
Last week, though, commuters, exercisers and people sitting around for jury duty gained an ingenious new audio alternative: books on phone.
Its actual name is Audible Air, and it's a way to download spoken recordings from Audible.com to the Palm Treo cellphone and other wireless gadgets - over the air, wherever you happen to be. But to appreciate its significance, you must first understand how Audible works.
Audible.com offers digital "books on tape" for the intellectually inclined. Today, 600,000 people listen each month to Audible's spoken recordings of over 7,000 books and 47 magazines and newspapers. Most people these days listen to Audible recordings - or "content," as the company annoyingly calls them - on portable players like iPods and Palm organizers, after first downloading them to their computers. (In fact, you get a free iPod Shuffle when you sign up for six months of Audible service, or a free Creative MuVo with a one-year contract.)
The company offers two plans. For $15 a month, you can download one full-length book and subscribe to one magazine or newspaper. This basic plan, the company says, is by far the most popular plan for commuters. For $22, you get two full-length books a month instead.
