The Zune and audio books: More headaches at the public library? Other compatibility woes?
iPod owners fond of audio books are out of luck at countless public libraries. Their machines can’t play DRMed books formatted for other devices.
Now, in all respects, I’m curious how the Zune will work on audio books from public libraries and other sources.
Will it function with audio books from NetLibrary? So far, Audible customers are apparently out of luck with the Zune. I don’t see the Z or M name within the pull-down menu in Audble’s device center.
What about bookmark functionality? How are the controls for listening to audio books?
The e-book angle: Nothing like incompatibilities to interfere with the spread and enjoyment of new hardware, eh? What applies to audio books, of course, applies to e-books. Consumer group should be relentless and insist on standards that address the incompatibility problems created by DRM, on which, alas, big publishers insist.
November 19th, 2006 at 10:34 am
The Zune really seems like a transparent attempt to copy Apple’s vertically integrated business model. But the bottom line (and the thing which will doom Zune to failure) is that people just don’t like Microsoft very much. Of course, there is also the fact that Microsoft’s DRM is far more restrictive than Apple’s DRM - which, while it is deplorable that the music industry finds it necessary, is one of the least onerous major commercial music DRM schemes I’ve encountered.
The other problem with Zune is that Microsoft actually took out a feature that EVERY other portable music player (including the iPod!) has - the ability to use the device as a USB mass storage device. This is a pretty bizarre decision on Microsoft’s part (and no doubt it was implemented as a copy protection measure to prevent people copying songs back off the Zune onto someone else’s computer) and I imagine it will contribute to Zune’s failure.
October 19th, 2007 at 9:21 am
Im sorry, Dan, but do you even own a Zune? You can definitely use it as a storage device and use it to store and transfer files. You have been given bad information.
November 11th, 2007 at 12:44 pm
I have begged to have the Zune compapible with audible.com and/or the library audio books. No response from Microsoft or Audible.
Will ANY books be available to download?
I don’t listen to music much, but I listen to two books a month. I have an old ipod, but am eager to switch to Zune.
BTW, I don’t think it is true that people dislike Microsoft any more than they dislike Apple.
November 22nd, 2007 at 5:06 pm
I also have called Microsoft Zune support about the compatability issue with audible. I found that the majority of the tech support hasn’t heard of this problem or audible itself? Through the supervisor I found that the 30g will not be compatible.
They said the 80g is I have to wonder still if they are thinking these are podcasts?
If anyone know’s if the 80g is compatible with audible.com please post.
December 12th, 2007 at 3:49 am
The solution for audio books is simple but a bit of work. Just check out audio book CD from your public library and rip them to MP3 and then put the files onto any zune or ipod.
If you have downloaded audio files from Audible or overdrive, they have the option to burn them to CD and then you can rip them.
December 20th, 2007 at 4:30 pm
How about just having software specifically dedicated to audio books?
something like the audible player to play mp3 or wma books. Its not a new function as otherwise the player just treats books as albums, but boy would it be nice to deal with multiple books, multiple cds that make up that book, bookmarks, etc. just a basic but purpose built application. Audible did it brilliantly on the palm
December 24th, 2007 at 4:56 am
I got my wife the 30g a while ago and just got my mom a 30g for Christmas. Mainly, my mom will listen to audio books. While it might not be directly compatible with audible.com, it can be used for audio books. The problem is that it doesn’t have the bookmark feature. However, since most audio books are broken up into a bunch of 5 minute tracks, I don’t really see the problem. The user just has to remember about where they stopped, then skip over to that track and time… not too much of a problem. Having the bookmark feature would be nice, though. I think another problem with the zune is that it is dependent on the zune software, so I am not sure how it would work with the audible software.
I am content with ripping the CDs and then putting them on the zune… a timely process, but satisfactory, nonetheless.
January 3rd, 2008 at 10:25 pm
I just downloaded an audiobook to my Creative MUVO MP3, which has NO bookmarking capability. Can I now transfer that audiobook to my Zune? Is there a way to add bookmarking?
May 22nd, 2008 at 8:46 am
My wife’s 30 g zune worked with audio books she gets from the library. Until she did the upgrade to 2.5 now the zune soft ware cant read the cda format of the audio books, have been jerked around by micro soft for two days trying to fix. Now we use micro media player to rip then drag to a desk top folder then added the folder to zune monitored folder list and can now sync to the device
September 18th, 2008 at 11:49 pm
Zune is compatable with Audible and Overdrive. If you go to their site you can see it along with free trials and such.