Poking around the Nokia BetaLabs site recently, I learned about Nokia Audiobooks, which is pretty much just what you’d expect: Recorded books that you can listen to on your Nokia S60 phone.
The description points out that MP3 compression isn’t really suited for voice, and that using the AMR-WB codec* makes for way smaller files — 5 to 10 times smaller — that still have “excellent speech quality.”
So you take any audiobook, convert it to the speech-optimal format with Nokia’s free Audiobook Manager software, and listen to it with Nokia’s Audiobook Player on the S60.
Why bother? Well, why waste space? “A typical 400 page novel translates into 10-20 hour long audiobook, which would traditionally take more than dozen CDs or hundreds of megabytes of low-quality MP3 files.” Transfer times are faster and storage needs lower.
Maybe MP3 players will become MP3/AMR-WB players, handling this new format for on-the-go listening. But, honestly, I’d rather listen to an audiobook on my internet tablet than my phone.
Me, I don’t like headphones or earbuds, so I really like the NIT’s speakers. I wonder, Why doesn’t Nokia port the Audiobook Player to the tablet? Or adapt the built-in media player to handle AMR-WB?
It makes a lot of sense to me. And, well, that’s what I’d like to hear.
ADDED LATER:
Altruist** that he is, qwerty12 (aka fahim) has added the AMR codecs to mplayer. See this thread. Well, there are some hitches (can’t see your amr files in gmplayer to launch them). I’m actually listening to a podcast of Cory Doctorow reading the first installment of True Noise, which I converted from an 18.3 MB mp3 file. The amr file is but 6.7 MB.
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* “AMR-WB codec: Nokia Audiobooks uses standardized Adaptive Multi Rate-WideBand speech encoder (3GPP 26.190 / ITU-T G.722.2 See www.3GPP.org / www.itu.ch) for audio data compression in order to keep memory requirement for a book very small while maintaining excellent speech quality.”
** Doesn’t listen to audiobooks himself but added the codec just because we asked so plaintively!
I have some computer smarts, but sometimes I’m baffled by the Nokia Internet Tablet.
There are some things I just don’t understand about the tablets (or their OS or the pre-installed apps):
Why I can’t construct a playlist in the Media player?
You’d think this would be a no-brainer. I just want to grab 5 or 6 of the 80 songs on my N810 and play them together, even though they’re by different artists on different albums.
Why isn’t connecting to my PC via Bluetooth really easy?
Sometimes I’m at my office, where WiFi is verboten. I want the tablet to use my PC’s direct connection to the internet — I’ve done it plenty of times laptop-to-laptop in meetings where only one person was plugged into the wired network. Why isn’t this a snap with the NIT?
Why is Linux made so hard?
OK, it’s clear that Nokia doesn’t want to support unsophisticated users with all the things that can trip them up in Linux.
But why doesn’t File Manager have a simple switch (Show hidden) that lets me see the whole contents of my drive? Even with the trick of adding a symbolic link to root (or any directory), I still can’t see hidden directories (eg, whose name begins with a dot).
Which leads me to my next question:
Why can’t I easily add fonts to my tablet and use them in the browser?
Right. I had to make a /home/user/.fonts/ directory and mail myself a font and then jump through command-line hoops to put a simple font on my tablet. And go through contortions to tell the browser to use it. (Except I haven’t succeeded in that yet. Emoticon with amazed look of disbelief here.)
Might as well ask the real puzzler here:
Why can’t OS2008 et al just let you be root when you need to?
If us unsophisticates need so much protection against our careless actions, shouldn’t we be wearing goalie gloves when we handle scissors? Why isn’t there just a switch that says, “It’s OK. I’ll take the consequences. Just please let me make a directory or use apt-get without having to acquire developer-class knowledge.”
Heck. That’s the deep side. But what about the glam cam that arrived with the N800?
Why isn’t there a face-to-face cam call capability yet?
It’s only the most amazing possible use of this walkaround-web device — unlimited cam calling via WiFi without having to sit in front of an anchored webcam.
It’s visual IM — just leave the call connected and talk when you want to talk. It’s IM taken to the next dimension.
Btw, don’t tell me this is here. My wife has the N810 and I have an N800 loaner from Nokia, and we can’t manage it. It needs to be click-simple and using Skype.
Why does upgrading the OS obliterate every manually installed app I’ve put on my tablet?
I know, if I go from Windows XP to Vista (and I haven’t), I’d have to re-install my apps. But every upgrade and patch in WinXP is managed without that requirement. Shouldn’t it be possible in this marvelous Linux world?
Why can’t the application memory be extended to one of the memory cards?
Is swap the extent of this? You know, I’m willing to risk the possibility that my flash card will get the same spot written to 100,000 times and fail.
Yeah, there are more things I don’t understand about my tablet’s design. Just getting the answers to Why not a model with a keyboard? and How can you call it an internet tablet without handling Flash and YouTube? have really lowered my orneriness. I won’t pick and pick and pick.
On the other hand, it’s your turn. What behavior or aspect of the Internet Tablet makes no sense at all to you?
Added later:
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* Tablet-to-tablet cam calls via Gizmo apparently arrived during my recent period of submersion. I’m happy, even if it isn’t Skype. (I mean: even if the five friends I know with VOIP all use Skype instead of Gizmo.) Me-to-wife cam-IM is plenty great
In the New York Times this morning, a longish article about e-books begins with discussion of the Sony Reader, a proprietary, monocolor, non-WiFi, non-programmable e-book reader that nowsells for $299.
David Pogue, the Times’ star technology columnist, writes about internet radio devices, single-function handhelds enabling you to listen to music over the internet without being tethered to a desktop or lugging around a huge laptop. Prices: Revo Pico $350, Terratec Noxon $330, Roku SoundBridge Internet Radio $300, and so on.
Or you could listen to the same stations on your NIT. While reading an e-book in FBReader.
The devilishly well-executed iPod seems to have misled everyone into regarding single-function devices as viable — single-function e-readers, single-function internet radios. But when you see how poorly every single-function music carryaround fares compared to the iPod, you realize that execution — usability, design, stylishness — carried Apple over the single-function barrier and not that no such barrier exists.
Then there’s the opposite phenomenon: the companies that treat you like all you want is a phone or PDA and everything operates from there.
Different misconception: that we love every single thing we do being monetized by greedy mega-companies.
In Pogue’s column about internet radio, he points out that it’s so hard to tolerate commercial radio because of all the commercials. “These days, it seems as though AM radio has 52 minutes of ads an hour,” he writes.
So one of the lures of the single-function internet radio device is simply to restore the balance of pleasure against monetization of music. The New York Times is preparing to abandon its Times Select pay service because it has discovered (finally!) that we readers can find just as entertaining writers are all over the web without charge.
If there’s a course to be charted between the Scylla of single-function and the Charybdis of one-device-for-everything, Nokia seems to be following it: The internet tablets do several related things really well, with the form of its devices (no hard disk, super-high-res screen that’s 800 pixels wide, under 8 ounces) rigorously matching the real needs while keeping every possible subsidiary use available (e-books, chess, even spreadsheets and word processing for goodness’ sake) without charging for it.
Nokia and RealNeworks announce wireless access of Rhapsody’s three million song library, radio channels, music editorials, and album reviews using the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet.
…U.S. consumers can now enjoy mobile access to the award- winning Rhapsody(R) digital music service through the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet. This innovative collaboration gives Nokia N800 Internet Tablet users rapid access to Rhapsody’s three million songs anywhere they have a Wi-Fi connection.
The new Rhapsody features are available to Nokia N800 Internet Tablet users beginning Tuesday, March 27, through a free software update, accessible via the device’s Tableteer menu and also at http://www.nokiausa.com/n800. In addition to playback from Rhapsody’s robust music catalog, this update will enable Nokia N800 Internet Tablet users to listen to customized Rhapsody playlists, stream hundreds of professionally programmed Internet radio channels and browse Rhapsody’s critically acclaimed music editorial and album reviews.
“We are thrilled to be working with Nokia to bring the Rhapsody experience to the Wi-Fi enabled Nokia N800 Internet Tablet,” said Philip W. O’Neil, senior vice president of music, RealNetworks. “Innovative integrations like these reinforce our vision of Rhapsody as a single service that delivers a personalized music experience that consumers love, at any time and on any device.”
“Giving consumers direct access to Rhapsody via their wireless Nokia N800 Internet Tablet gives new meaning to music on the go,” said Bill Plummer, Vice President, Sales & Channel Management, Multimedia, Nokia North America. “Our goal at Nokia is to make the Nokia N800 the ultimate portable Internet entertainment device, giving consumers the convenience of easy wireless access to their favorite online services beyond the confines of home.”
The sleek, pocket sized Nokia N800 Internet Tablet is a Linux-based handheld product dedicated to convenient Internet browsing, messaging, email communications, Internet calling and other applications over Wi-Fi or Bluetooth phone data connections. With stereo audio, media support and an integrated web camera, the Nokia N800 Internet Tablet lets users enjoy streamed and downloaded content while on the go. The Nokia N800 Internet Tablet includes a high-resolution widescreen display (4.13 inches) with zoom functionality, built-in stereo speakers for enjoying music, an on-screen keyboard, and an intuitive user interface that is ideal for browsing for music through Rhapsody.
