The World Wide Web has become a great place to listen to music, executive speeches, news broadcasts and even talking books, but many people feel silly sitting in front of their computers to hear them. It is, of course, also inconvenient to remain rooted to the spot.
But what if you could listen to such entertainment without being tied to your desk? If you could listen while you were taking the train to work, for example?
Simply using a tape recorder would be one way to achieve this, but it would not give you the same quality as the original file from the Internet. You would also have to record the entire file in real time first, staying connected to the Internet for the duration of the broadcast.
Enter the Audible MobilePlayer - a $199 handheld, battery-operated device, weighing less than 3.5 ounces and developed by USbased, Audible, to allow the storage and playback of up to two hours of "netcast" audio.
The device is connected to the PC to download web-based audio broadcasts. They can either be listened to on headphones or, with an adapter, the Audible MobilePlayer can be plugged into a car's cassette player and listened to through the car speakers.
Audible says it takes as little as five minutes to download one hour of audio into the device via a 56 kbps (kilobits per second) connection.
The desktop PC portion of its software also enables audio programmes to be downloaded automatically. This would be useful when you were asleep and your phone line was not being used. As well as using the MobilePlayer to carry portable copies of Internet broadcasts, the company believes customers will be prepared to buy audio books over the Internet for use with the device.
It is offering spoken books available for download from the Internet at prices it says are far lower than those for traditional books on tape.
The device is available only from Audible's Web site (www.audible.com) at the moment and for users outside North America there is a catch. The company is not shipping outside the US and Canada.
Audible, whose backers include Intel, Compaq Computers and AT&T Ventures, says it hopes to be able to rectify this problem soon.
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