Reading | Beyond The Defaults

Read When You Can’t Read – with Audible

Back in May, I wrote a 3 Ways post that talked about ways to use your mobile music player; way #3 was titled “Read When You Can’t Read – with Audiobooks”. I’m a big fan of audiobooks – they make mundane tasks like mowing, exercising (ugh) or watering the garden (which in this drought has been more frequent than I’d like) a lot more enjoyable by making them more productive.

My favorite source for audiobooks is Audible. Like its parent Amazon.com, Audible simply makes finding and buying books ridiculously simple. As a result, I recommend it often.

(DISCLAIMER: I’m a paying Audible subscriber; no freebies here, I just happen to like the service.)

The question I’ve been hearing lately, though, is now that I’ve bought the book, how do I listen to it?

Well, there are two avenues to pursue – one is through the music player on your mobile device or computer, the other is using an Audible App.

If you’re an iOS person, iTunes has some functionality built into it that integrates Audible audiobooks into a playlist. When you purchase an Audible book, there’s an option to download it using the Audible Download Manager – which has a feature that will automatically inject it into your iTunes library. Pretty nifty – except now the device has to be synced with the desktop iTunes library. To me, that takes it from nifty to being a little bit of a hassle. And besides, who listens to audio books on their computer?

Enter the Audible Apps

To me, the easiest way to enjoy Audible is through their apps – available for Windows/Mac computers, but more importantly for all of the mobile devices – Apple, Android, BlackBerry and Windows Phone. The best part is they’re free.

Once the app is installed and you log into your Audible account, your entire Audible library is available for review; from there, it’s simply a matter of selecting the books you want to download to your device. Here’s an image of my (not so vast) library, sorted by title.

To download a title, simply tap on the gray download arrow (one is displayed for any title that is not present on the device) – which then reveals the Download button.

I recommend that downloads be done over a wifi connection versus using a mobile data plan; notice that this 4-hour book is 56MB in size – a pretty hefty download for mobile bandwidth. Once the downloading begins, you can actually start listening to the book once the green Play arrow appears.

Once the download is complete, the gray download indicators disappear. If you’ve started a book, the app will tell you how many hours/minutes remain for that title.

The playback features and controls are really what makes using the apps a much better way to enjoy Audible:

A Chapter Listing is available at the top right (so you can keep track of where you are).
Swipe controls, for “button-free” playback options.
A Sleep Timer, which will stop the playback after X number of minutes or at the end of a chapter (one of my personal favorite features). Think of it as story time for adults.
Playback speed controls, which let you listen at double speed (particularly handy for listening to news reports).
A 30-second rewind, to pick up when interruptions happen.
Bookmarks, to make note of favorite sections.

The 30-second rewind is the only feature that’s comparable in the Music Player app.

The only negative to using the Audible app is that it may not integrate with other components to which your mobile device is paired or connected – say, a car audio system. In my case, I can use the app, but none of the car audio system’s controls will work with it. A small price to pay.

So what happens when you load up a device with a bunch of books and music, and now you’re pressed for space? Simple – you can simply remove a book from the device with a swipe and a tap.

Simply swipe from side to side (doesn’t matter if it’s left-to-right or right-to-left), and a Remove from Device button will display.

This will only remove the title from the device – not remove it from your Audible library. That library will always stay with you – displaying all of the titles you’ve purchased.

If you’ve not considered audio books in the past, give Audible a try – and they’ll let you do it for free. Visit the website, shop around a little, take a look at their plans and member benefits (there are several of each).

And if you’ve got any great audio book recommendations, be sure to share them with us in the comments.

Carry Your Reading In Your Pocket

Spring time for me means a lot of time spent at the baseball fields. My husband usually coaches my son’s team, which means I have some free time on my hands before each game. To help pass the time, I’ve been using an app called Pocket (formerly called Read It Later) to catch up on my reading while sitting at the baseball field.

Pocket is a free app that collects articles, videos, and images I want to read and saves them in the app until I’m ready to read them. I add articles to my Pocket account from the browser, RSS Reader, and from over 300+ apps. Just like I don’t get paid to send and receive email all day, I don’t get paid to read articles online all day either.

Getting Started With Pocket

To get started with Pocket, first go to their site or download the app (iPhone, iPad, Android) and create an account. Remember your account information as you will need it to log onto each device you want to use.

Next, install the Pocket extension in Chrome or Firefox. If you aren’t using Chrome or Firefox, there is a bookmarklet you will need to drag to your bookmark bar. Follow the instructions on the screen. Once you’ve installed the extension, there will be a new icon in your toolbar. Mine showed up next to my Evernote icon (I use Chrome).

Saving to Pocket

Now you are ready to start saving to Pocket. As you find an article you want to read later, click the Pocket extension or bookmark and it will be saved to your account. If you are using Chrome and Google’s RSS Reader, you will see the Pocket image on each item in your RSS Reader (hint: its next to the star). (Don’t know what an RSS Reader is? Don’t worry, we will get to that.) If you are using another browser, you will need to open each article individually and save them to Pocket.

You can also send articles to Pocket via email and other apps. For the iPad users, I recommend you check out the list of iPad apps that integrate with Pocket. Twitter, Feedly, Zite, and Flipboard are iPad apps I frequently use and add articles to my Pocket account from those apps. (Hint: Some apps still reference Pocket’s first name, Read It Later. I expect the apps will be updated over time but until then you have to look for both Pocket and Read It Later.)

Reading Your Articles In Pocket

Finally, the good stuff. You can view the articles you have saved in Pocket through all the devices you used to save articles. My favorites are the iPad and my Android phone. The days I know I will be sitting at the baseball fields, I make sure the iPad is charged and I’ve synced with Pocket while I still have wifi access. (If your iPad is wifi only, you will need to sync the app before you leave otherwise you won’t be able to access your reading list.) I primarily access my Pocket account on my iPad, so that is what I will discuss here.

Your Pocket list will include the title, images, and the first few lines of the article (the list changes to fit the content, so sometimes you see text and sometimes you don’t). Tap on the article you want to read and you will see the entire article with the any sidebar text and advertisements stripped away.

As you finish reading an article, you can add Star it for later reference or you can use the checkmark to remove it from your list. You can also highlight sections of text and tap the Share button and send it via email, save it in Evernote, tweet it, post to Facebook or Tumblr, and more. Repeat the cycle until your list is empty or its time for the baseball game to start (whichever comes first).

Don’t let the length of the article fool you, Pocket is easy to use. I like that I can keep all the articles I want to read in one trusted place and know they are ready for me to read whenever I have a chance. You could also use Evernote to do what Pocket does if the thought of using another app does not appeal to you.

Any other Pocket users out there? Why do you like Pocket? Anyone going to sign up for a free account and give it a try? Let us know in the comments.

Do you have a Kindle Fire? Then you should check out Sam’s Send To Kindle post.

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Read When You Can’t Read – with Audible