Amazon announces: Echo

[Purple Lady]

I just tried it in the family room and it doesn't sound too good here either. Since it sounded better in the living room right next to a pile of books, I put two boxes of crackers behind it and it really improves the sound when it gets reflected back. It's funny that the directions say to place the speaker at least eight inches away from a wall when it sounds much better to me with the sound reflected back. Maybe it's just the type of music I listen to. I have to figure out something I can use to reflect the sound back that looks better than cracker boxes! And it needs to be portable as well.

[mlewis78]

I've heard that Echo doesn't play audio books yet. There may be a workaround.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by mlewis78

I've heard that Echo doesn't play audio books yet. There may be a workaround.

It does to a point. You can play some LibriVox recordings inside the TuneIn Radio app.

[fjtorres]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

It does to a point. You can play some LibriVox recordings inside the TuneIn Radio app.

It plays music from your Amazon cloud, no?
Nothing stops you from uploading audiobook mp3s to the cloud.
Plenty of those in the PD and from copyrighted but free (libraries and BAEN CDs, for example) and non-audible commercial audio ebooks.

Audible is the leader in digital audiobooks but not the only player.

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

It plays music from your Amazon cloud, no?
Nothing stops you from uploading audiobook mp3s to the cloud.
Plenty of those in the PD and from copyrighted but free (libraries and BAEN CDs, for example) and non-audible commercial audio ebooks.

Audible is the leader in digital audiobooks but not the only player.

It's doable, but it'll cost you $25 a year to do so if you wish to store your audiobooks permanently in the cloud. To get access, the audiobooks need to be uploaded to the Music Cloud (250 songs free), which is separate from the Cloud Drive (5GB free). Unless you're willing to pay $25 a year to increase the storage to 250,000 songs, you don't have much room to store audiobooks permanently; especially since each chapter is considered a song.

I've long ago maxed out this limit with my all time favorite LPs and have no room left. I'm not willing to pay for increased storage, especially for Amazon content that's already stored free in another cloud (Audible - the bulk of my audiobooks).

If you're limiting yourself to the free storage, I don't think it's worth the time to be constantly swapping out audiobooks. It's much easier to play them on your media player and use the Echo as a bluetooth speaker.

If you're paying for the storage, remember to group the chapters of each audiobook into a playlist, and in proper sequence. Also resign yourself to playback with MP3 controls; no fancy audiobook controls.

Dedicated audiobook apps (Audible, Downpour, Nook, etc) are ideal. They'll come with free cloud storage and proper playback controls.

Overall, audiobook playback on the Echo is a bit primitive.

[fjtorres]

250 chapters is about 5-6 audiobooks, no?
That's about three weeks "reading".
Should last until Echo gets updated.

The earliest ebook readers weren't much better.
http://www.gutenbergnews.org/2011071...ebook-readers/

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by fjtorres

250 chapters is about 5-6 audiobooks, no?
That's about three weeks "reading".
Should last until Echo gets updated.

Sure it can be done that way, but I'm not willing to delete my 250 songs in favor of temporary storage of audiobooks. Hopefully, Amazon will add Audible support fairly soon.

The earliest ebook readers weren't much better.
http://www.gutenbergnews.org/2011071...ebook-readers/

But we're beyond that stage. We now have free cloud storage for all Amazon content and it's readily accessible from most Amazon and non-Amazon devices. So there's no reason to upload content to the cloud on a temporary basis.

[DreamWriter]

Can't you listen to audiobooks on Echo by connecting the tablet to Echo via bluetooth? I sometimes play music that way. Or are you using a device for audiobooks that has no bluetooth capability?

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by DreamWriter

Can't you listen to audiobooks on Echo by connecting the tablet to Echo via bluetooth? I sometimes play music that way. Or are you using a device for audiobooks that has no bluetooth capability?

Sure you can, but then it becomes a speaker and speakers have no legitimate place for discussion on this message board. If we discuss pairing the Echo with a tablet via bluetooth, then we have to do so in the Lounge and not in the Audiobook Forum.

[jemc]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sure you can, but then it becomes a speaker and speakers have no legitimate place for discussion on this message board. If we discuss pairing the Echo with a tablet via bluetooth, then we have to do so in the Lounge and not in the Audiobook Forum.

I do wish the three current Echo threads were in the same location...

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by jemc

I do wish the three current Echo threads were in the same location...

Three? Where's the other two?

[pidgeon92]

Originally Posted by tubemonkey

Sure you can, but then it becomes a speaker and speakers have no legitimate place for discussion on this message board.

You think? I don't agree, especially when discussing audiobooks.

[jemc]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Three? Where's the other two?

One is in the Lounge: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=253924

The other in the Audiobook Issues forum: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=253920

Edit: And for completeness, tubemonkey's request for an Echo discussion location is here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=253708

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by jemc

One is in the Lounge: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=253924

The other in the Audiobook Issues forum: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=253920

Edit: And for completeness, tubemonkey's request for an Echo discussion location is here: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=253708

Thanks!

[tubemonkey]

Originally Posted by jemc

I do wish the three current Echo threads were in the same location...

That would be nice.