Daily Gadgets, Computer, and Electronics News » audiobooks

Free Downloadable AudioBooks

cosa — Wed, 21 Sep 2005 00:45:57 +0000

Audiobooks can be described as a combination between e-Book and podcasting. Basically, audio books is a book but instead of paper, it produced on audio media (more technical explanation on the bottom of the post). This kind of book will probably replace a real book in the future. Several library in U.S have already started to rent audio books to citizen.

Anyway, if you’re looking for a good source for free downloadable audiobooks, try AudioBooksForFree (http://www.audiobooksforfree.com/screen_main.asp). AudioBooksForFree has a huge collection of free audiobooks. They are well-categorized under three main categories: Fiction, Non-Fiction, and Children. A search form also available, so you can easily search for any audiobooks topic you want to ~~read~~ hear.

Audiobooks is works produced for distribution on audio media, typically audiotape cassette or audio compact disk (CD). Audio books are usually spoken-word adaptations of works originally created and produced in print. These works sometimes feature the author’s own voice although many are given dramatic readings by one or more actors and/or at times embellished with sound effects. [ source ]

Too Busy to Borrow a Book? Borrow the Audio Then

cosa — Sat, 27 Aug 2005 00:46:08 +0000

Public libraries from New York City to Alameda, Calif., now offers something new. People not just able to borrow a book, now the can also borrow the audio, called audiobooks. They only need to donwload the audiobooks to their computer or portable music players, from home.

First, people log onto the library’s website and choose the desired audiobooks, which is encrypted. Once he found the audiobooks he want, he download the necesarry files to their computer. These files can also be loaded to their portable music player or burned into CD. After the borrowing periods over, files become unplayable. However, user can renew the loan.

Unfortunately, the audiobooks is currently only playable through Windows-platform music player. Apple Computer Inc.’s popular iPod player is not yet supported by the audiobooks. It’s because OverDrive Inc. and OCLC Online Computer Library Center Inc.’s NetLibrary as the vendor of the audiobooks use Microsoft’s Windows Media Audio format to save and encrypt the audiobooks. They have licensing deals with publishers which includes copyright protections designed to help audiobooks stand apart from the often lawless world of song swapping.

[ Source ]