Audiobook support question

[teraflame]

I'm looking for a way to listen to audiobooks while also reading along. The MP3 player function is very limited, you cannot even choose which file to play easily. If I put it in the audible section, I can listen as audiobook with these nice controls like fast forward/back but it stays stuck on that screen.

So is there any way? If not, has amazon addressed this?

[FF2]

That apparently is just the way it is. I understand that they have a suggestion page. You can post your comments there.

[chyron8472]

Yeah, that's the way it is atm. With files in the music folder, you can listen while you read, but have very limited control over them. With files in the Audible folder, you have more control (and the chapter forward/back buttons work with audible's .aa files) but you can't read simultaneously.

My advice is to put mp3 audiobooks on your mp3 player. I have a SanDisk Sansa Fuze and it works great for playing my audiobooks.

[kranu]

No way to do that at the moment

You can read along as the Kindle Text-to-Voice speaks, but that is obviously not as nice sounding as an actual audiobook.

[wscott]

You summarized it correctly. In so many ways the kindle could be much more awesome, but Amazon doesn't finish out of the OS. Browser, audio, simple apps, etc.

My assumption is that Amazon loses money on every Kindle sold, so they are paranoid that if they make any use other than reading books too functional people will buy a Kindle and not buy books. That is of course short sighted, you want these to be so useful everyone will have one.

But as a developer myself I have to assume management just said no and not just that it didn't occur to them that people might want to listen to audio books while reading along.

[r--t*nix]

i would suggest emailing them. i emailed them some time back.

this is what i sent them

i have owned a kindle 3 since it has come out and here is what i think
could be improved that would greatly increase the usability.

Browser:
1. in browser settings have the option to change the default search
engine maybe between google and bing so it can give people options of
who they want to support and which they like better.
2. have the default search function built in use google mobile... it is
a lot faster and cleaner looking for the user. this will greatly
increase the user experience and make the user feel that the browser is
faster. sense a lot of the time people spend on the web is surfing a
search engine finding stuff to read.

Audio Books:
1. having the ability to exit an audio book and have it keep playing.
one thing i find is i have an audio book and a ebook of the same book
and wanting to listen to the audio book while i read. i find this more
effective and less distracting that the text-to-speech.

also it would be nice to have the able to listen to the audio book while
surfing the web. how it is right now makes it hard for me to listen to a
book because i like to be doing something while listening. the kindle
can handle the workload as it is right now because the user is able to
play the mp3 shuffle while surfing the web.

MP3 player:
1. simply being able to select which songs would make it a great deal
nicer. even if it was as simple as just being able to select which
folder to play from as i normally have my albums in different folders.
this would allow me to select which albums to play while reading a
specific book to keep the mood right.

you can email kindle-feedback@amazon.com
they said that they would pass it on to their developers. for all that means.

if enough people email them then they will get the point.