Making Nearly Perfect Audiobooks

January 30, 2009

This is an overview of my current process for importing audiobooks. It’s a preview of my forthcoming (no, really, I promise) update to my instructions for importing audiobooks from CDs into iTunes. For OCD types, anal-retentives, and Harry Potter fans (hello brothers and sisters!), this preview may be sufficient for you to follow along on […]

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Another way to import audiobooks from cassettes

January 29, 2009

The New York Times has an article about the Alesis TapeLink, which is a tape deck you can attach to your computer via USB, and use to convert analog cassette tapes to a digital format you can use with iTunes, or any other media player. I haven’t tried it, and at $299 list price, I’m […]

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Useful news feeds at Audible.com

December 19, 2008

If you are looking to stay “on top” of all the latest audiobook releases, there are a variety of sources. Most of the different audiobook publishing houses and audiobook stores have email newsletters, or even paper catalogs they will send you in the mail. I’ve signed up for a lot of these, and find them […]

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iPod-friendly downloads from libraries

December 15, 2008

A couple of weeks ago, OverDrive, a technology vendor that provides many libraries with the software behind their download-to-loan content, released a new version of the OverDrive Media Console that is now Mac-compatible and iPod-friendly. It accomplishes this by providing loanable downloads in MP3 format, instead of a DRM-wrapped WMA (Windows Media) format. It’s not […]

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Barack Obama for President

October 29, 2008

I’ve had 3-4 anti-McCain blog posts in draft status for weeks now, and have wanted to pull the trigger and publish them, sometimes coming within a button press of doing so. But I kept hesitating, and finally tonight decided to dump them, including those already published. Partly because it’s too late, I doubt there are […]

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iTunes 8 is great for audiobook lovers

September 11, 2008

The number one question I receive from visitors to Aldo on Audiobooks is “How do I get my audiobooks to show up in the Audiobooks section of iTunes and my iPod/iPhone?” iTunes 8 makes answering this question almost trivial. Here are the details.

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Crazy talk!

August 8, 2008

I was getting lunch at Rosamunde Sausage Grill on Tuesday, when CBS reporter Mike Sugarman was talking to people about a PETA-backed group’s proposal to ban hot dogs from school cafeterias. My reaction takes about a second in the two and a half minute segment, but it is me on TV, so I gotta point […]

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iPhone 2.0 and iPhone 3G

July 14, 2008

I upgraded my original iPhone to the 2.0 firmware release on Thursday night (before all the activation problems started), and have been using it for a couple days now. As others have written at length elsewhere, the 2.0 software release has a ton of improvements. While those are nice, I barely notice them. The real […]

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eBay is Broken

May 9, 2008

While I’m sure it’s still possible to buy and sell certain kinds of things on eBay, I’ve been thinking for a while that eBay has reached the point where they simply cannot police the volume of activity taking place on the site. If you become a victim of fraud (I’ve been burned twice), it’s virtually […]

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Another audiobook importing tool for Windows

May 1, 2008

In a recent post I recommended a few tools for importing audiobooks, which work around some of the more tedious aspects of importing audiobooks using iTunes. Last week I came across another interesting tool for Windows users, which might also be useful: Teridon’s Audiobook Helper I have not yet tested it with importing a book, […]

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iPhone user interface quirk #1 for audiobooks

April 23, 2008

Dan Sanderson provides a clear explanation, including pretty good photos, of one of the user interface “quirks” that can get you when using the iPhone for audiobooks, namely, the iPhone’s indicator and toggle buttons for Repeat and Shuffle modes are somewhat hidden, not 100% clear, and can be toggled accidentally if you’re not careful. When […]

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Free audiobooks via podcasts

April 16, 2008

The San Francisco Chronicle recently ran a story about fledgling authors who get their start by publishing their books online, via podcast: Take my book. It’s free. Giving away books as podcasts is new way to promote sales. The basic idea is, the author reads their novel a chunk at a time, recording it, and […]

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