Free audio books with Windows Phone 7

Free audio books won’t require any complicated download and installation instructions here, as Windows Phone 7 makes this process extremely easy via its Marketplace, which is where you will find all of these apps.

Basically, all you will need to do is hit the Marketplace tile and use the Search button on your phone to search for the free audio books app. Have a look at the app details and screenshots and then decide if you want to install or not – Windows Phone 7 will do the rest!  PCSpeed.net

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Android Tablets offer free audiobooks

Tablet computers using Google Inc’s Android-based system will steal some sales from free audiobooks and hold 15.2 percent of the market in 2011, industry tracker IMS Research said.

The firm said in a report that over 15 suppliers will sell Android-based tablets by mid-2011, including Samsung Electronics Co Ltd, Acer Inc, Cisco Systems Inc and Dell Inc.

On the strength of those devices, IMS projected that free audiobooks will command 15.2 percent of the tablet market in 2011. And that will grow to 28.4 percent in 2015, IMS said.  PCSpeed.net

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Free audiobooks application lands on iPhone

Google’s free audiobooks app has won approval to be on the iPhone after more than a year of haggling with Apple.

The breakthrough announced Tuesday resolves a stand-off that triggered a Federal Communications Commission inquiry into whether Apple Inc. and AT&T Inc., the iPhone’s exclusive U.S. service provider, were trying to stifle competition. CTV

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Google targets free audio books

Not content to revolutionize online search and email, Google is preparing to enter the fashion business on Wednesday with a website believed to be called Boutiques.com.

The attraction is obvious: with conservatively estimated revenues of $500bn (£310bn) worldwide making it the fourth largest industry globally, and estimated to be worth £37bn to the UK economy alone, fashion represents a potential e-commerce honeypot to the search company.  PCSpeed.net

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Best of 2010 free audio books lists

The Seattle Times took on the task of “mushing together” the gate-jumpers. Free audio Books editor Mary Ann Gwinn picked out titles that showed up on each of the three “Best of 2010” list she’s received so far, from Publishers Weekly, Amazon.com, and – assembling a best-of list for the first time, Library Journal.

“May I just say that librarians think differently from retailers?” Gwinn wrote of the Library Journal list.

Audio book App Tops iTunes Download Chart

The Open University ‘s audio book app claims to be the first university worldwide to reach 20 million downloads on iTunes U – Apple’s distribution platform for educational materials.

With the slogan “Learn anything, anytime, anywhere,” iTunes U allows students to download digital content, including lectures, labs and audiobooks, onto any Mac, PC, iPod, or iPhone. The site averages more than a quarter of a million downloads per week.    Martin Bean, The Open University vice chancellor, said the OU’s success lies in providing original, custom-built content, linked to current and popular courses.  NewFiction

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Finding good audiobooks online

Audiobooks are becoming an extremely popular way to consume consuming books (haven’t you heard that print is dead?) because people can listen on the bus, in the car or while biking to and from work.
Is any company offering audiobooks on a flash drive and a portable playback device? I enjoy audio books on CDs with a portable CD player, but it would be so much easier if they were available on a flash drive. — Flo Wineriter, Salt Lake City.
I haven’t been able to find audiobooks on flash drives anywhere. Probably because it doesn’t make a lot of sense to distribute them that way.  SL Tribune

If you have an interest in audio books, don’t start out by paying

The full retail price of $14.95 or $22.95 per month for an Audible audio books subscription, instead Try them free.
If you aren’t familiar with Audible’s audio books service and have an interest in audio books, you’re missing out. Audible.com, owned by Amazon, has a near monopoly in the sales of audio books online. The service has more than 60,000 titles and you can also download audio-versions of magazines, newspapers and listen to famous public speeches. You can listen to your Audible audio books on both Mac and Windows including a number of portable audio devices including the Apple iPod, the iPad, Android-based cell phones (soon), Amazon’s Kindle and the Microsoft Zune.  NewFiction

After I read an ebook, I listened to the audiobook.

It almost seems like a new genre—a dramatized audiobook.  I was mesmerized by the different voices.
Audiobooks have come a far distance from the “talking books” on vinyl made in the 1930s for the blind. Although those early recordings were rudimentary compared to today’s slickly produced compositions, narrators have always been carefully chosen. From an early Talking Books report: “We have auditioned literally hundreds of professional actors”.   Wall Street Journal via NewFiction

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Ebook Apps and the smartphone

Ebook apps are all over the smartphone platform.  There are over 20,000 apps and ebook apps are starting to show up.  Here is the breakdown on a variety of platforms:

• 37  for i Phone
• 22 for Android
• 14 for Palm
• 13 for Windows Mobile
• 10 Generic feature phone
• 10 for Blackberry

Here is a sample of one..