Nokia Audiobooks (beta) published - why don’t you start a new hobby?
Now, this looks promising. The guys from Nokia Research Center have built a beta concept that I really like:
Nokia Audiobooks is a beta concept that enables you to enjoy audiobooks while on the go. It includes a highly efficient audio compression technology optimized for voice (AMR-WB), a player application for S60 (Nokia Audiobook Player), and an audio converter tool for PC (Nokia Audiobook Manager). Whereas traditional music player applications are optimized for music, Nokia Audiobook Player is optimized for audiobooks, enabling you to browse chapters, set bookmarks, and automatically continue from where you last time stopped listening.
A typical 400 page novel translates into a 10-20 hours long audiobook, which would traditionally take more than dozen CDs or hundreds of megabytes of low-quality MP3 files. Nokia Audiobooks uses a codec called AMR-WB, which is optimized for voice. With Nokia Audiobooks, you will get 5-10 times more content to your phone with similar voice quality, compared to content compressed with MP3 at 64 or 128 kbps.
I’ve been listening the book Master and Margarita, and I really like it. You want to try this too.
As always, please send your feedback either privately to the feedback form, publicly to the comments section of this post, or by writing your thoughts at your own blog! (just link back, and we’ll hear about it)
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Ps. I did’nt add 2D barcodes pointing to download links this time, because I haven’t been able to figure out an easy way to keep them up-to-date…
Great work Tommi! (and labs too)
You have made a great difference when managing Beta Labs.
Your employer should be proud of you.
Comment by sim — November 7, 2007 @ 12:52 pm
Is it possible to use the player with Audible.com audiobook format?
Comment by Stefan — November 7, 2007 @ 2:13 pm
Sounds very good (pun intended)!
Where did you got Knalli ja Sateenvarjo -books? I have these in mp3 but are these available as Nokia Audiobooks somewhere?
Comment by Antti — November 7, 2007 @ 2:15 pm
> Where did you got Knalli ja Sateenvarjo -books? I have these in mp3
You can do the conversion yourself, using Nokia Audiobook Manager (available on the Audiobooks page). Since it’s not a free / public domain book, we couldn’t put it available as download. Don’t be evil, and stuff.
As far as I understood, you need to download the MP3 decoder separately, to convert MP3 files.
Comment by Tommi Vilkamo — November 7, 2007 @ 2:39 pm
Thisis very good news . . . However, what’s really needed is the Audible player. Has anyone actually got that java app to work on the N95 yet?
Comment by James @ Nokia Creative — November 7, 2007 @ 2:41 pm
Give yourselves a pat on the back. This application is terrific. Great sound quality vs. compression and perfectly stable on my Vista PC and N95.
It would be nice if you added support for .wma or .ogg files so we wouldn’t have to pre-convert them. Also, the progress bar in Nokia Audiobook Manager didn’t start when I hit “Process” and jumped to the finish when the task was done. That should be fixed as it gives the impression that the program freezes, especially for large files.
Comment by Bogdan Galiceanu — November 7, 2007 @ 5:21 pm
Thanks from a language student… However, the desk top application didn’t let me to copy to my phone (n95) memory card, claimed there wasn’t enough space. Copied with PC suite.
cheers,
Jussi
Comment by Jussi Träskilä — November 7, 2007 @ 8:13 pm
Tommi, won’t we ever see again a s60v2 edition cool apps from the beta labs? I’m really disappointed
The Mosh client was released even for s40 phones, but no version for us - the s60v2 users 
Looking forward to your answer. Thanks in advance, Chris.
Comment by Chris Karamanliev — November 7, 2007 @ 8:14 pm
This “resume where you left off” functionality would be great to integrate into the native Music Player. I can’t tell you how many times I accidentally exited a podcast I was listening to!
Comment by PhoneBoy — November 7, 2007 @ 8:44 pm
Tried to extract an audiobook: two disks with files in nested folders, didn’t extract. Dumbed the book (203 files) on to the hard disk without subfolders. Desk top application processed them ok but refused to make a book claiming there wasn’t enough space on target…
However, last night with one bk on one disk I was able to convert (though extraction didn’t work on that one either). Played nicely on my n95.
Comment by Jussi Träskilä — November 8, 2007 @ 9:52 am
> Tommi, won’t we ever see again a s60v2 edition cool apps from the beta labs?
Highly unlikely (except for Java apps etc), sorry.
The purpose of Beta Labs is to “shape the future together”, and 3rd Edition provides a better playground = larger volumes, better interoperability, better functionality, etc.
> Is it possible to use the player with Audible.com audiobook format?
No, at least not yet. Good suggestion, though.
Comment by Tommi Vilkamo — November 8, 2007 @ 1:18 pm
Sounds exciting! And Master and Margarita is a great novel. Try Bulgakov’s short novels too!
Comment by Kay — November 9, 2007 @ 8:41 am
It’s a shame that it *requires* AMR-WB format, rather than optionally using it; that format’s awkward to create on Linux, because it’s patent-encumbered by Nokia and others. (It can be used, but it normally requires compiling your own ffmpeg or gstreamer audio libraries, which is no fun. Is there any chance that the format might be made more free by Nokia?)
Comment by Stuart Langridge — November 9, 2007 @ 1:34 pm
Hi,
We have tested audiobook manager on linux with Wine and at least in one machine it was working, if you first rip files with linux software to wav files and then use our PC SW with Wine to do the conversion. It is not very much tested but was working at least once when we tested it.
Comment by Janne Vainio — November 9, 2007 @ 6:26 pm
Hi.
The Audible Player works perfectly on my N73 and should also run on an N95.
Bye
Marc
Comment by Marc — November 14, 2007 @ 10:11 am
Hello Guys…need some help…The AudioBooks application is not working on my N80ie.
I installed Nokia Audiobook Player for S60 3rd Edition which is compatible with N80 and with that I assume it is also compatible with N80ie…
I also followed the instructions i.e i had manually copied in the folder “e:\audiobooks” the book Treasure Island from the download page. I keep on getting the error message “Audio File is Missing: treasure_island_01-02_stevenson.awb”
I tried this with the other free books i.e. Art of War and I get the same message only with the first file name for that book.
Please advice…
Comment by HB — November 20, 2007 @ 11:38 pm
I have managed to run the Java Audible player on my N95, but it was a real pain to use. The .jar file doesn’t seem to be digitally signed so you have to manually give permission for every access to the file system or internet (which is a lot).
A better solution is to use the Symbian audible player. When asked for your phone model select one of the other N-series phones (I think I used the N91 or N93). During the on phone stage of the installation you will get an “This software is not compatible with your phone model. Do you want to continue?” message. Select yes and you should be up and running. The best thing about running audible on the N95 is that I can download the books straight to the phone over WiFi and not have to bother going via the PC.
Comment by Gary — December 14, 2007 @ 12:08 pm
I am still waiting for the audio book update so that i can see the chapter name i have put on the main menu. now what ever name we give it always appear file 1 , file 2 and so on. i have tried editing the ini file but its not working. we dont know what chapter we are playing by just knowing there no. we should be able to se the chapter name also while its been played.
Thanks,
MRD
Comment by mrd — December 18, 2007 @ 8:46 am
I get the same problem as HB: Error msgs that say “Audio File is Missing”. But the file appears to be there. What could the problem be?
Comment by Misha — January 27, 2008 @ 9:41 am
Hi!
I have installed audiobook on my Nokia E90, great app. I have a question though, sorry if this have been answed before.
I have a Nokia bluetooth headset BH-503 and I can not use the pause or skip buttons in audiobook app. Why? This works in mediaplayer on my E90.
Best regards
Mattias
Comment by Mattias — February 4, 2008 @ 8:20 pm
2 Misha: the same problem, did you found a solution to the problem?
Comment by Leona — February 19, 2008 @ 2:49 pm
Files & Folder Names
Why russian language always ignored?
Comment by Russian — February 27, 2008 @ 4:37 pm
Charset bug with russian language names. Fix it, please.
Comment by Maxman — February 28, 2008 @ 6:19 pm
1. I get an error every time I do ’select book’ - which is ‘Please check the format of table of content on book ” on line 1′. As I’ve now got 16 books on my phone, this isn’t much clue about hwere the problem is. Can you advise please about how to fix this?
2. The “Silence Compress” feature is great, and saves a hude amount of file space. BUT,
a. It always defaults to “Off”, and doesn’t remember the setting when I change it, and
b. It’s hidden away in the “Expert UI”, which makes it easy to forget that it needs setting to “On” again.
Please make it remember the last setting, and rather than hide it away behind the expert UI, just provide a setting for phone model, or phone type, and let the program choose “silence compress” ON when the compatible phone model or type is selected.
3. Sometimes, CDs are created so that they change track in the middle of a spoken sentence, and currently the AudioBook player takes a second or so to move on the new next track or file, which introduces distracting gaps in the narrative. Can you buffer the output please to avoid this happening?
Comment by Geoff — March 1, 2008 @ 12:20 am
hi! Does this app works for nokia n91 8gb?
Comment by niranjan premara — March 27, 2008 @ 10:32 pm
Python script to do the conversion
http://z00854.googlepages.com/bookmaker.rar
Was intended to include chapters from wma markers
And generally barebones
However can be customised to accomodate most feature requests i saw here.
And in theory should work on any platform with python, Mplayer and C compiler.
Comment by Vetal — March 30, 2008 @ 4:57 am
How does BokMaker works?? I downloaded and run it but it seems it did nothing… Should it work in assosiation with AudiobookManager?? Should I install other programs to make it work?? Sorry for my basic experience…
Comment by Stefano — March 31, 2008 @ 12:03 pm
Small update
http://pybookmaker.googlepages.com/
Comment by Vetal — April 7, 2008 @ 3:55 am
I got tiered of conversion and wrote an audiobook listener myself, can be downloaded at http://www.platysoft.com.au/Downloads.aspx
Here is a list of features:
1. Drag and listen design, no conversion to weired formats or index files needed.
2. You can delete parts that you’ve already listened to, in order to free up some space.
3. Remembers your listening position seperately for each book/podcast.
4. Multi level directories for each book (supports Book/Chapter/file or more levels of directories)
5. Supports single file books/podcasts, just copy the file to AudioBooks folder on your phone.
6. Short rewind/forward by pressing left and right keys, default period is 20 seconds, adjustable by sellecting settings menu
7. Long rewind/forward by pressing 4and 6 keys, default period is 60 seconds, adjustable from settings menu
8. Rewind can take listening position to previous chapter if it is at the begining of a file, likewise forward can take it to next chapter.
9. pressing 7 and 9 keys will take the listener to previous and next chapters.
10. Ok key acts as play/pause. There is a rewind on pause effect helping the listener to remember the story next time play is pressed. the auto rewind on pause is 5 seconds by default and can be changed from settings.
11. File progress bar on the top of the screen indicates listening position in the current file.
12. Total progress bar on the bottom of screen indicates listening position relative to the book.
13. Can play any file format the phone plays, this by default includes “.wav”, “.mp3″, “.m4b”, “.m4a”, “.wma”, “.amr” and “.acc”
14. Other formats can be added by installing the MMFs, for example “.awb” and “.flac”
Comment by Ali — April 10, 2008 @ 4:09 pm
I think it is really stupid. It keeps complaining that there is not enough space on the disc when I try to create the files. I think I have managed to solve this now by each time deleting the folder C:\audiobooks. Why doesn’t it want to create an e-book larger than about 80 Mb??
… and you need to download separately Mp3 encoder …. Come on!!
… and why do we need to search the internet for software to do a simple thing??
I am very disappointed with Nokias sofware now. I have an N95 8 Gb and I just want to listen to e-books. Each book consists of many files (usually MP3). Each e-book is in a separate folder. I want a program that remembers for each folder where I stoped listening. I tried this with the built in Music player (with playlists) but it was no way. The program just mixed up files from different folders. How difficult can it be - one folder - one playlist, each playlist starts playing from where it stopped last time. This way you can play music, e-book or whatever you have in the folder. I don’t understand why this can be so difficult to make? Give the user some flexibility to decide freely what he wants to do.
I spent days looking for a suitable software. This Audio manager (besides that it complains for not enough space) takes forever to create the books. I have enough space (8 Gb!), I just want to play MP3s from my folders and just copy the folders to wherever I wish in the phone memory. Think that this was actually possible in my prior Sony Ericsson K800i! … despite of the fact that I have always considered Nokia software to be superior Sony Ericsson software.
It is a pity to spoil such an advanced phone with such primitive software.
/Livius
Comment by Livius — July 29, 2008 @ 3:06 am
I installed the Nokia Audiobook Player like 3 times.It starts then when I want to select book, it shuts down! What more can I say?
I removed it.I installed Ali’s software (29). Works perfectly! Thanks man!
No more comments Nokia!
Comment by Livius — July 29, 2008 @ 4:00 am
I have exactly the same problem as Livius on my E61.
Tried several times, but no luck.
Finally switched to Scheherazade as well.
Works great! Thanks.
Comment by Trond — August 19, 2008 @ 10:24 pm
Any chance of play/pause functionality from Bluetooth headsets?
Comment by Tomhe — September 9, 2008 @ 12:53 pm