Audible.com and PPC 2003 - Page 3

01-05-04, 08:12 PM

I just gave up with trying to listen to audible content on my AX. The AX is still alway by my side but it never really liked to read to me. I treated myself to an iPod and now everything is fine. Just a side note. My Iomega HipZip and Handspring Visor springboard both worked great with audible content. I'm sure it's just a PPC2003 incompatibility issue that will get ironed out someday. Anyway, let's see if I can fill up my 40 Gigabyte iPod.

03-17-04, 04:38 PM

Greetings,

I have an update for this old thread. Two things have been corrected since I wrote my original complaint back in September of 03. Dell came out with an Audio driver update that claimed, “This patch fixes issues with audio on the x5 with Windows Mobile 2003”. I can’t tell much of a difference after the update. My X5 still clicks, pop’s and crackles every time I try to multitask at all. Even when making volume adjustments. I did find however that once the volume was set properly and the X5 was used strictly for audio playback things seemed to work OK. The second change was that AudiblePlayer (The software that get's loaded on the PDA) was upgraded from version 3.5 to 4.0. I’m not sure when the Audible software was upgraded. When I first started having these problems Audible said “We are in the process of upgrading the software”. I asked how I would know when it was released and they replied “We will notify you by e-mail”. I never got an e-mail but a friend told me 4.0 was released.

With the news these two upgrades I decided to put down my now trusty iPod and try Audible.com on my Pocket PC once more. I excitedly downloaded the Audio driver patch from Dell and installed that first. After a soft reset I was ready to install AudiblePlayer for PocketPC. The first attempt to get the software loaded crashed my laptop AND the X5. The second attempt crashed ONLY the X5. And the third attempt disabled the mouse on the PC and I had to reboot. But hey, both the PC and PDA have Microsoft operating systems on them so this routine is acceptable, right? Finally thing appear to be up and running. Now it’s time to transfer some audible content. Hey! What happened to my SD card? The option to download to the SD card was gone. Main memory was the only thing on the pull down. Sooooooo... A soft reset for the X5 and another reboot for the PC. Same problem. Sensing my building frustration I decided to step away and grab an adult beverage from the fridge. After a few sips and a deep breath I tried again. But wait, the SD card was showing up now! Strange! See that, going to the fridge for a beer was a good idea huh? I should have tried that after the first lockup! OK, where was I. Oh yea, I transferred a wall street journal edition and one audio book to the X5. I opened Audible Player on the X5. The new interface looks exactly as the earlier version. With the exception of the clicks, pop’s and crackles I mentioned earlier the player seems to working better then before. One of my big problems with the previous version was that if you bumped the scroll lever the player would fast forward out of control. Version 4.0 fixes this. The scroll lever is now tied in with the volume control. Now if the scroll lever gets bumped the volume just goes up or down instead of losing you place in the book. I can live with that.

Some of the other things that were corrected are:

- The “Playback position bug”. This addresses the problem some users were experiencing with the player loosing bookmarks.

- The last title listened to is remembered when returning to the application.

- The time to start the Audio program has been reduced.

- Full support for 5-way Navigation button.

- Audio file list is presented alphabetically.

- Improved power management.

- Faster transfer speed.

Well it looks like Audible is headed in the right direction. Although not perfect I see this release as a great improvement over the last pile of bugs they released. The jury is still out on weather I go back to the X5 or stick with the iPod for my Audible.com / commuting needs.

Decisions, decisions….

Cio,
Tom

mhoel · 03-20-04, 08:54 AM

Thans for the update - I'll go get a beer and then sit down to reinstall Audible.

I'm going broke transfering to all those CD's :exc: :exc:

mhoel · 03-21-04, 09:31 PM

I just loaded the latest V 4.0 and it works great. The key is to install Audible on your SD card instead of the main memory. This allows for loading the books on the card. I don't see any real speed issues except for the initial startup of audible. Otherwise all works well.

03-22-04, 12:20 PM

Actually AudiblePlayer can be in main memory and read books from the memory card. That's how mine is set up. I would have installed the application to the memory card but forgot to change the default during install. The App is only 125K so it is not hogging that much space. I can always move it later.

Glisson · 04-01-04, 09:03 PM

I am running Audible 4.0 now on my AX w/ PPC2003 and it is a mojor improvement! It definately loads faster! I didn't realize the jog dial was fixed. I hated that! I did notice it wasn't fast forwarding like it used to. I guess I thought I was just being careful. LOL. The new version also has a setting to turn the screen off after a delay and it really stretches your battery farther. I would like to see it override the auto shutoff in the power settings. I keep getting shut down after a few minutes. A quick bump of the power button resumes right away. I finally just disabeled the auto poweroff but then forgot to turn it back on when I was done and ran the battery down. :( I also like the fact that I no longer have to hit the "bookmark" button it just automatically bookmarks it when I exit. Audible is one of my most used apps and was very nervous when I upgraded to PPC 2003 but all is good in my Audible world. There will always be room for improvement in any software but this was a major overhaul of the app and I am very pleased with the forward progress that they have made.

Keep up the good work Audible!! You guys rock! In steeo!

Glisson

aximx5user · 04-02-04, 12:57 PM

Can someone who is using PPC2003 and Audible confirm
something for me? I find it has a problem which is chewing
up memory. Every time I quit Audible (closing it from the memory
tab, or forcing a quit from something like Wisbar, icbar, etc), it
hangs around in the background. It doesn't show up as a running
program, but if you use a task manager like Pocket Hack Master
or http://www.phm.lu/Products/PocketPC/TaskMgr/ it shows
audibleplayer.exe still running. Furthermore, this process takes up
some memory.

Could some kind soul take a look and see if they have this same
problem? Each time I launch/quit the Audible Player in PPC2003,
I get another process and lose memory. Furthermore, this tends
to fragment memory since it is stuck in place, making memory
problems worse over time.

A soft reset fixes things.

craig139 · 04-02-04, 01:14 PM

I have long since removed the Audible Player software. The MP3 player I use is PocketMind's Pocket Music, which is now Audible format compatible. I have noticed no problems with it at all.

04-02-04, 01:39 PM

you do realize that audible books will play in MS reader, right....

aximx5user · 04-02-04, 02:03 PM

I find MS Reader is not as nice to use. I get some skips
in the audio (on my 400 MHz device with lots of free RAM),
delays in the controls (press play, wait a few or more seconds,
etc) and the interface just isn't as efficient. I will check out the
other MP3 player recommendation.

If someone could check, that would be great. I'm curious to
know if I'm the only one having this problem with audibleplayer.exe.

aximx5user · 04-02-04, 02:13 PM

Pocket Music looks nice, but it looks like I have to pay 20$US
to get Audible support. Not great, but I'll give it a try.

Glisson · 04-02-04, 05:07 PM

I actually won a copy of PocketMusic about 6 months ago in a contest. They never fail to send me a link to download the new version when they make any changes. A lot of companies wouldn't do that. I'm sure my address is just on a list that automatically gets sent a notice but it's a nice touch from the company. I use their software all the time for MP3 format audio and really like it. It is a purchase that you would not regret. Top notch.

Glisson

mhoel · 04-04-04, 10:00 AM

I tried PocketMusic V3.0 this week and found it as difficult as the older version of AudiblePlayer. While driving I couldn't pause easily without causing the player to start the book all over again.
Version 4 of AudiblePlayer seems a lot easier than earlier versions and that large Play/Stop button lets you pause easily. And no more toggle switch problems:exc:

Still having problems with Audibles activation/deactivation. Every time I go to load a book onto my Axim I have to reactivate. If I've run out of allowable activations I have to call to re-set. If it's a Sunday I'm SOL. But, things do seem to be getting better.

cabbagekitten · 04-26-04, 03:53 PM

i do duane

mhoel · 04-30-04, 09:14 PM

What's a Duane? Sounds like a lucky guy !!

I just discovered GoldWave. Allows you to rip an Audible file(convert any type of sound file) to play on a standard mp3 player - not one of those over priced pieces of crap Audible offers. A 5 hour book takes up ~250 mb but it beats trying to fight the Audible program while driving and is a heck of a lot faster than burning a CD. Not cheap ~$40 US but is fairly fast.