# iPods and books-on-tape

**URL:** <https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ipods-and-books-on-tape/383845>\
**Category:** In My Humble Opinion\
**Created:** [December 12, 2006, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ipods-and-books-on-tape/383845 "2006-12-12T18:05:04Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 2

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![RickJay](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/bb73d2/32.png) [@RickJay](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RickJay)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 3:37am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ipods-and-books-on-tape/383845/21 "2006-12-29T03:37:13Z")

</div>

Bear in mind, however, that the iPod limits you to using [audible.com](http://audible.com). You can’t use competing services (without considerable difficulty, anyway) which I think is supremely irritating, as there is at least one competitor in that marketplace and, IMHO, they’re better.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Archergal](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/c89c15/32.png) [@Archergal](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Archergal)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 4:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ipods-and-books-on-tape/383845/22 "2006-12-29T04:46:05Z")

</div>

[QUOTE=RickJay]  
Bear in mind, however, that the iPod limits you to using [audible.com](http://audible.com). You can’t use competing services (without considerable difficulty, anyway) which I think is supremely irritating, as there is at least one competitor in that marketplace and, IMHO, they’re better.  
[/QUOTE]

Ok, I gotta know: who’s the competitor?  
[Audible.com](http://Audible.com) lets you use quite a few different mp3 players, btw. I’ve personally used about 5 different devices, and nary an iPod in the bunch. Not that I have anything against iPods, just haven’t used one.

---

<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Sierra\_Indigo](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/f0a364/32.png) [@Sierra\_Indigo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sierra_Indigo)\
**Post date:** [December 29, 2006, 9:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ipods-and-books-on-tape/383845/23 "2006-12-29T21:38:04Z")

</div>

I’ve just got a shuffle for xmas (not ideal for books, I know. But it was cheap and that’s cool) and I’ve loaded Neal Stephenson’s _Snow Crash_ onto it. 17 hours of book, and it’s used less than a quarter of my 1gb that’s available. My biggest problem with the audiobook was the cost, though. $45 AU for a book that physically cost me $19.95 to buy. The abridged audiobooks are around $15 or so, but for the unabridged versions (which I prefer) they’re just as expensive if not more so than buying a hard copy of the book from a retailer.

[Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/ipods-and-books-on-tape/383845.md?page=1)