KA1 with audiobook capability

[wroane]

When I heard that Kobo would have a new reader coming out, I really hoped that it would be an update for the KA1 that would be able to download and listen to audiobooks. That's the thing that would make me upgrade and spend the money for essentially the same e-reader. Why haven't they done this? That to me would make this the perfect gadget.

[Mivey]

Let me precede this by saying I totally love my KA1, best way of reading for me.
But at the end of the day, it's a fairly clunky box. Why would I wanna listen to anything on it, when I can just use my smartphone, which I always carry with me? An audio jack would likely make it harder to make the device water proof, and possibly raise the production price (wrt. to said waterproofing), while providing - to me personally - next to no added benefit.

[mgrimace]

Instead of an audio jack, audiobook functionality could be executed via bluetooth (i.e., how the Kindle Oasis does it). Since audiobooks on the Kindle are limited to Audible subscription only (as far as I understand), adding this feature to a premium Kobo IMO would be incredible, especially if they kept their usual open file support. Whether or not it's practical (i.e., vs. smartphone) is a whole other thing, but personally for my usage I'd love to have all my books (audio and ebook) on one dedicated reading device.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by mgrimace

Instead of an audio jack, audiobook functionality could be executed via bluetooth (i.e., how the Kindle Oasis does it). Since audiobooks on the Kindle are limited to Audible subscription only (as far as I understand), adding this feature to a premium Kobo IMO would be incredible, especially if they kept their usual open file support. Whether or not it's practical (i.e., vs. smartphone) is a whole other thing, but personally for my usage I'd love to have all my books (audio and ebook) on one dedicated reading device.

Have you compared the size of an audio book files to the same book as an epub ebook? The HQ audio books I've seen average around 29MB per hour and an average length between 8 and 13 hours so between 232MB and 364MB (72,000 to 117,000 words). On an 8GB device with about 5.2GB available for user files, that would allow about 14-22 audiobooks. On a 32GB device, with 29.2GB for user files, that would allow about 82-128 audiobooks. If you go to the lower quality files offered by some sources, you can get about twice as many books into the same storage. I don't even want to think about how big the Lord of the Rings trilogy in audiobook form would be -- the trilogy totals about 455,125 words so about 50.5 hours to read.

The other issue for me is how slow audiobooks are. At 150 WPM which seems to be average for a non-chipmunked audiobook, it would take ~7 times longer for me to listen to an audiobook compared to the time to read the ebook.

As usual, YMMV.

[mgrimace]

Right that makes sense re. size, I didn't think of that - I would say that may even be a smart factor for Kobo to leverage (if they chose to go down this route) to encourage people to buy larger capacity versions of their e-readers.

On the topic of time to listen vs. read - I've been using the Overcast Podcast app (not audiobooks per se, but related) which has a smart speed feature which dynamically shortens silences and it'll speed up or slow down around a chosen speed (e.g., 1.5x) to minimize distortion. Apparently this feature has saved me 41 hours of listening time... Something like this would definitely be on my wish-list for an audiobook player (which I find way more listenable than iBooks 1.5x chipmunking for example).

Originally Posted by DNSB

Have you compared the size of an audio book files to the same book as an epub ebook? The HQ audio books I've seen average around 29MB per hour and an average length between 8 and 13 hours so between 232MB and 364MB (72,000 to 117,000 words). On an 8GB device with about 5.2GB available for user files, that would allow about 14-22 audiobooks. On a 32GB device, with 29.2GB for user files, that would allow about 82-128 audiobooks. If you go to the lower quality files offered by some sources, you can get about twice as many books into the same storage. I don't even want to think about how big the Lord of the Rings trilogy in audiobook form would be -- the trilogy totals about 455,125 words so about 50.5 hours to read.

The other issue for me is how slow audiobooks are. At 150 WPM which seems to be average for a non-chipmunked audiobook, it would take ~7 times longer for me to listen to an audiobook compared to the time to read the ebook.

As usual, YMMV.