Specialist devices that support mainstream audio book downloads
What is a mainstream audio book download?
Mainstream audio books are those not produced with a visually impaired audience in mind. They fall into two categories.
· Free audio books tend to be recorded by volunteers or the author. They are in a standard audio format like MP3 or WAV, and made available through websites like Project Gutenberg. There are no restrictions on these books.
· Paid-for audio books that are professionally produced. They are available on disk or, increasingly, as a download. They may be "protected" so that they can only be played on an authorised device, or with authorised software.
Ways of listening to an audio book
Audible (www.audible.co.uk) is the most widely used source of audio book downloads, but there are others sites such as:
· Silk sound books, http://www.silksoundbooks.com/
· Digital Audio Books, http://www.digitalaudiobooks.co.uk/
Silksoundsbooks offer their books as unprotected MP3s and other formats. With MP3s, you download your audio book to a computer, attach your specialist player, and copy it over.
Audible use their own audio format so that their audio books are protected. This restricts how you can play them. Digital Audio Books are linked to Audible, in that if you try to buy a book from them or sign up to become a member, you are pushed to the Audible site.
In order to buy an Audible book, you have to first create an account with them which will require an email address, password and your credit card details. You can then either buy books individually, or become a member where you buy one or more books per month at reduced prices.
When you buy an Audible book, you can download it to any device on which your Audible account has been activated, up to a limit set by Audible.
· There is a complicated system of working out this limit, but you can make four copies on computers and three more on wireless devices.
· This means you cannot loan an Audible book to a friend, and you are limited to copying it to devices that are supported by Audible. This includes both mainstream devices - computers and mobile phones - and a number of specialist audio players.
· For mainstream portable devices like an iPhone, iPad or Android phone or tablet, apps exist that you can download for free. When you start the app for the first time, you are prompted to activate the software by logging in with your Audible account. From then on, you can use the app to download and listen to your audio books.
· To listen to an audio book download on your Windows computer, you have to download the Audible Manager (AM) software, activate it by logging in to your Audible account, and then use it to download and listen to your audio books. On a Mac, you can use iTunes in place of the Audible Manager - the activation option is on the Store menu.
· To use a specialist MP3 device, you have to first download the Audible Manager software to a computer and activate it by logging into your Audible account. Then you have to connect your MP3 player to your computer and activate that also. Then you can copy your audio books onto the device and listen to them.
On most pages of the Audible website, there is a Software link near the bottom of the page. Use this to go to a page where you can download the relevant app or Audible Manager software.
Which specialist players can play Audible audio books?
The Audible website gives a list of the devices that you can play your audiobooks on. Among these are DAISY players like the Milestone, Victor Reader Stream, Plextalk, VoiceSense and BookSense. You may already have one of these players if you subscribe to RNIB’s Talking Books service. Note that the new Victor Reader Stream is not currently supported, although it is expected to be by the middle of 2013.
Additionally, some notetakers like the PacMate Omni and the BrailleNote will also support Audible books.
Note that desktop players like the Victor Stratus do not support Audible audio books.
How do I listen to an Audible audio book on a specialist device?
There are two steps to using a specialist device. First, you have to activate your player. You only have to do this once with a computer. Second, you have to transfer the audiobook onto your player. An audiobook may be one or more files. For a specialist player, audiobooks have to be downloaded onto a computer and then transferred from there to the player.
Activation:
· Connect to the internet and run Audible Manager.
· Connect your device. Usually it's a good idea to turn the device off, connect it, then turn it on and wait until your computer tells you it has been detected. If the player has an SD card, make sure it is inserted in the player.
· In Audible Manager, press Alt+D to open the Device pull down menu.
· Choose the Add New Device option.
· This will download a file from the internet and give a list of devices. Find your device in the list (Milestone will be listed under the name of the manufacturer, Bones)
· Some software will then be downloaded and installed on your player.
· Audible Manager will then close and reopen.
· Again open the Device menu and choose the option to activate your device.
· You will need to enter your Audible username and password.
· If activation has succeeded, there will be a new Audible folder on the SD card. You may need to use a computer to view this folder.
Transferring audiobooks to your player:
· Once you have purchased and downloaded an audio book to your computer, you can
· Connect your device directly to your computer a PC and copy the material across, or
· Copy the audio book to an SD card that can then be inserted into your device.
Deactivating a player:
· If you reach the limit of your Audible activations, you will need to deactivate a device before you can activate another one.
· If you still have the device you want to deactivate, this is done in the same way as the activation process.
· If you don't have the device you want to deactivate, you can contact Audible customer care on 0800 496 2455 and ask them to deactivate it for you.
rnib.org.uk