Audiobooks discussion

This thread is for comments that are for devices other than iPod (and iTunes).

I mentioned this in the Earbuds thread but this seems more proper now I've found it...

Whenever someone has experienced the new Sansa Clip Zip I would love to hear your thoughts about it, for Audiobook listing, thanks.

In particular I'm interested in if its operating system for Audiobooks is better, worse or the same as the Clip+ as I'm a huge fan of that one (Clip+) and dread improvements that might not improve Audiobook management/listening.

It would make my day to hear the operating system is the same but that the Menu is now customisable... yeah, dream on LOL

I have the regular clip not the clip zip, but it works great!

Not sure which thread to put this in. I have a Sansa Clip and usually download files from my library and ocassionally older books from booksshouldbefree.com on my Mac and sometimes the files appear weird places, but I can always find them on recent music, or whatever, and can manually transfer them to the Clip. Right now, I only have a PC available to me and I have itunes, but when I downloaded a book from booksshouldbefree, I couldn't do anything with it except by opening all the files and having them show up in itunes, which is fine, except that when I go to my files on my computer, my itunes lists never show anything recently added to itunes. It's like the files don't exist unless I play them in itunes itself. Where on earth did they disappear to, and why can't I drag them over to the Clip?

Sorry if that didn't make any sense, I'll try to clarify more if need be.

EDIT: I think I may have figured it out, it just takes more steps than the Mac. Even though it showed up in iTunes itself, I still had to manually add the files to the library. Why does it take so many weird extra steps?

I use a PC but not iTunes. I simply download (or rip) to a specific folder on my computer then drag to Clip+ from there.

It seems strange (but not surprising) that iTunes should work differently on Mac/PC. Hope you get it sorted, easiest is always best!!

I think our experience might be uncommon, but my son had one, and it never worked right when he listened to audiobooks. I worked with their customer support on a couple occasions, but just never got it to work right. We finally gave up on it. He now uses my old iPod...no problems since. (His might have been the Clip+...can't remember anymore.)

Alana wrote: "Not sure which thread to put this in. I have a Sansa Clip and usually download files from my library and ocassionally older books from booksshouldbefree.com on my Mac and sometimes the files appear..."

Try righ clicking on the file in iTunes and selecting 'show in folder' or 'show in win explorer' I can't remember which it says now. Then drag wherever from there. Also you can got into the drive you have iTunes in usually C if you don't separate and create your own and open the media library and it will list all the folders/files you have in iTunes but the first way is easier. Hope this helps!

I got it to work, but I don't remember how, now. The other problem is that when I downloaded a book from booksshouldbefree.com for some reason, several chapters did not download, so I had to add them later, and then there was no way to change the order on the Clip. I had to redownload the entire thing onto the Clip and it still had some of them out of order a bit. Strange.

Finally got my PC to recognize my Sansa Clip+ player after one month of trying. Turns out it was the USB mode in the player.

In case anyone else needs to try this, here's the link that helped me:

http://kb.sandisk.com/app/answers/det...

Love my Sansa Clip+ but gave in to curiosity (and much wants more-ism) and ordered a Zip today. White, 4GB, new.
Good price at €36.00 so I thought was worth trying :)

I was previously just using my computers (PC and netbook) and my iPod for listening, but was really frustrated using iTunes and generally not-very-good software.

Then I got a new phone, Sony Xperia S, and got the Audible app, and am so happy! The software is SO much better. I can have (so far) at least 4 different audible accounts active at a time on the app (if there's a limit, I don't know what it is) and can have books from each downloaded onto my device. I can log in/out of any of them and shop and download new stuff, and I can listen to it while it's downloading.

The battery life is fine as the screen is usually off, and it doesn't require any mobile data like streaming music, which helps. It has a really helpful button to skip it back 30 seconds if you zone out or get distracted, and it has a sleep function which is fantastic, so I can tell it to pause after a chapter, or a specific part, or time, and I don't wake up having slept through the entire book and having no idea where I left off.

If anyone has a smart phone and hasn't tried audible on their phone yet, I really recommend it. Huge leap above trying to listen on my iPod or with iTunes etc.

I just got a windows phone and have discovered they are not very audiobook friendly. I had to convert the wma books to mp3 through the special program I bought for my last phone and then download a program to change them into "podcasts" so it would hold my place when I stop listening. Oh well! I think I figured it out and added like 4 audiobooks so I wouldn't have to do it again for awhile!

Good to know. We're going to be upgrading to some kind of smart phone this summer (I know, way behind the times...) and I want to make sure whatever I get is audiobook friendly. Although, I pretty much use the Sansa so it may not matter.

Alana wrote: "Good to know. We're going to be upgrading to some kind of smart phone this summer (I know, way behind the times...) and I want to make sure whatever I get is audiobook friendly. Although, I pretty ..."

My little (cheap) sansa is the best out of my audiobook players! My ipod touch takes forever to load Overdrive books (WMA) and so does my phone but the sansa loads them in like 5 minutes :)

Alana I love the Windows phone otherwise (I am not huge into apps so that helps) -- if you end up getting one and need help let me know!

My parents have them and seem to like them ok, but they don't do audiobooks so I'm not sure they have an opinion on that. They don't do all that many apps, tho, either.

Well I have an ipod touch for all the apple apps so I know that Windows is lacking in the apps dept. but I like how easy the windows phone is to use and how it looks in general :) They (Windows) do have an audible app that works well but I get a lot of audibooks from Overdrive.

After getting tired of scratched CDs from the library, I bought an inexpensive MP3 player to listen to library rentals via Overdrive. But the darn player was not the easiest to use. Then recently I realized I could use Overdrive to load audiobooks onto my XM satellite radio. Plays them perfectly and much easier to use.

I finally took the time to figure out how to get my Android smartphone (Samsung Galaxy SII) to be my one solution for listening to audiobooks when I'm in the car, walking, or doing housework. Between the Audible app and the Smart AudioBook app (for books off CD from the library), I think I'm finally set. The only thing I haven't yet tried is to download books from OneClickDigital to the Smart AudioBook app. I did get Overdrive books to work in it. (I know there's an Overdrive app, but I'd rather not have any more audiobook apps than I have to at this point.)

Until this point I've been using an iPod nano. I have no beef with the nano...it's served me well for many years. I just am tired of having multiple devices with me. (Plus my youngest is starting to clamor for her own iPod to use for listening to audiobooks, just like her brother. :) )

Martin wrote: "After getting tired of scratched CDs from the library, I bought an inexpensive MP3 player to listen to library rentals via Overdrive. But the darn player was not the easiest to use. Then recently I..."

Use Overdrive to do books over XM radio? How does that work? I have XM radio capability in my car, but I don't use it. You can link with Overdrive?

were it not for the Sansa Clip, I never would have fallen in love with audiobooks! that being said, there were a few occasions where I had to use a Coby and that player was actually pretty dependable...until it broke. the Sansa feels solid and is lighter than an egg, I've dropped mine more times than I would like to admit, and there is on physical evidence of those falls on the device.

I don't like some of the newer ones, the ones with a track-wheel, and colour screen...its not as intuitive. the only thing I wish the clip would do is pause when the headphones are unplugged...other than that, I love this little cube so much

were it not for the Sansa Clip, I never would have fallen in love with audiobooks! that being said, there were a few occasions where I had to use a Coby and that player was actually pretty dependable...until it broke. the Sansa feels solid and is lighter than an egg, I've dropped mine more times than I would like to admit, and there is on physical evidence of those falls on the device.

I don't like some of the newer ones, the ones with a track-wheel, and colour screen...its not as intuitive. the only thing I wish the clip would do is pause when the headphones are unplugged...other than that, I love this little cube so much

yeah, praising when my headphones get unceremoniously ripped out would be nice :)