Posts Tagged ‘study’
When it comes to burning (or copying/writing) a downloadable audio book into CD, you must be sure that it isn’t for commercial purpose, but strictly for personal use. This is very serious, breaking this law can get you into a whole load of trouble as you would be performing copyright infringement.
Yes, the downloadable audio books are still under copyright, even after paying to download them.
The only instance where they are no longer under copyright is when the authors or translators have died over 70 years ago. There are certain publications by government that is not under copyright.
But this rule, "only for personal use" still applies when you are burning any of your downloadable audio book onto CD or any other format.
Even though it is for you own use, there are some publishers that will not allow you to burn your audio book to CD. Such audio book publishers will then choose to disable the ability to transfer the file onto a compact disk.
To be sure if your audio book publishers allow this, check it out before going ahead to buy it.
It will not be beneficial for you to buy it with the primary purpose of burning it to CD to listen with your CD player, only to find that you can't burn it to CD.
Also, when you are transferring audio books onto a compact disk you may need to use multiple CDs. For example, an audio book of about 10 hours can take you as many as 7 CDs to copy into, especially if you want to playback the CD with an MP3 player.
That being said, below are the steps to take to burn (or copy) any downloadable audio book into CD:
NOTE that the below instructions are based on Windows Media Player Version 10. If you are using an older version, you can download the latest version from Microsoft's website. This is the URL - http://www.microsoft.com/windows/windowsmedia/download
First, the computer you want to use to burn the audio book into CD must be equipped with a recordable CD drive and CD-burning software.
In other words, it is this CD-burning software that can burn the audio book into the CD. And it is your CD drive that can be used for this purpose.
Second, play the audio book on Windows Media Player. Ensure that you choose "Full Mode" when doing this, not "Skin Mode".
3rd. you will now see a 'now playing' message to the right side of Windows Media Player. If this does not show up you can press "Restore the Video and Visualization Pane" button to display it.
4th. Now slect the 'Library' tab. You will notice the “Start Burn” button displayed.
5th. Now it is time to actually put the blank CD into your CD drive.
6th. Now you need to Select 'Start Burn'. You will now see that Windows Media Player will start to burn the CD you placed in your PC.
Lastly, Most audio books will be larger than one CD, if your's is, Windows Media Player will ask you to insert a new CD. You can take out the CD and replace it with a new one.
Once the full 'burn' procedure is completed you will see the message "Complete".
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network.
You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0018
The beauty with audio books is that you have more than one option for listening to them.
There are many options when it comes to listening to to audio books, you are not forced into one option.
If you are someone who likes listening while seated on your favorite couch or seated on your desk, listening to your audio book on your cassette tape player (if the audio book is in audiocassette tape, of course) is the option for you.
But if you have a desktop or laptop computer, you might prefer listening to your audio book from it.
Pretty much all Personal computers have software built in for playing back audio books. If your PC doesn't have any (very unlikely), you can still download them completely free on the Internet. The best two free digital audio players that you can download are:
- RealOne Player: This can be downloaded free of charger here; http://www.Real.com
- Windows Media Player: It can also be downloaded completely free from their website - http://www.Microsoft.com
But if you would rather listen to your audio book while doing your household chores, dancing, exercising, jogging, commuting to and fro work, etc, then you would need portable audio playback devices that you can carry around and listen to, preferably with an earphone.
The advantages of portable audio players have made their market grow as more and more people are starting to use them.
The most common form of these portable audio playback devices are the normal audio CD players or CD-ROM devices. These can be carried easily when you go around the shops, go for a run or when you are on the way to work for example.
The more advanced form of these portable audio playback devices for playing audio books, especially those for listening to downloadable audio books, include:
— Audio-ready PDAs (Personal Digital Assistants). Some of these PDAs include the Casio CASSIOPEIA and Compaq iPAQ. These can both be very expensive, they can cost up to $499 for the Compaq and around $399 for the Casio.
— Compatible Portable Audio Players. Some of these include the Creative’s NOMAD Jukebox 3 and the SONICblue’s Rio 900. These are cheaper than PDAs. For example, you can get the SONICblue's Rio 900 for about $250 from sites such as Sonicblue.com
Finally, like I said in the start of this article, whatever tool you decide to use in listening to your audio books will depend largely on “how” you prefer listening to your audio books.
For example, the 'young and restless' teenagers can't be without the PDAs. You wouldn't either, if you were their age, right? The 'good old' cassette tape could not be a better format for the "aged and rusty", who would rather just be sat on their favorite sofa!
A really good place that I have come across to download audio books is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0017
Despite how great CDs are, many people still prefer audiocassettes to them, especially when it comes to listening to audio books.
Here is a list of reasons to explain;
1. Audio books in CD format can only contain a maximum of seventy five minutes of audio whereas audio tapes can hold an extra 15 minutes, sometimes even more, of audio content.
I agree you can have the entire audio book spread out in several CDs, but not many people like to carry around too many CDs.
This means you would need maybe one or two tapes for a specific audio book when you would need much more for the same audio book on CD.
2. The extra cost in buying CD format audio books, the same product can be much less expensive as tape.
For example, while purchasing the unabridged version of "Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire" on twelve tapes has been found for only $31.96 on Barnes & Noble website, the CD format from the same Barnes & Noble costs almost double that amount – exactly $55.96 for 17 sets of CDs!
Of course, its not that they want to rip you off because it costs much more to produce CDs than it does to produce audiocassettes.
Three, when you put off your CD player while listening to an audio book, you won't be able to resume from the particular spot you left off.
But when you have a tape, you can simply press play and you'll be where you left off.
With CDs it can be frustrating when driving because each time you put off your car, it would mean restarting the audio book or trying to locate where you stopped.
Of course there are modern and more advanced CD players that now save your location on a disk when you turn off your car, thereby allowing you to resume at the exact same spot you left off.
this doesn't happen if you stop the car and remove the CD. But it will work with an audiocassette!
Four, because audio books are mainly just narration, many users don’t see why they should spend the extra money to buy CDs because of issues of recording quality when they can get the exact quality with audiocassettes.
They would argue that the quality of the content is greater on CD, when actually the quality is the same for audio books.
In more succinct terms - "the voice of humans (without drums and other musical paraphernalia) has very little to gain from the depth and clarity that comes with digital recordings in CD format!
An excellent source that I have found for audio book downloads is Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0014
Old habits die hard, they say. How right they are.
I am a novel freak and have been since the 4th grade when I read an amazing novel that started me down the road of reading.
The thrill of reading stayed with me all the way through my education, going to college and even when I started my career. Nothing stopped this craze, not even when I got married and had my first child.
As you can imagine, my life is changing - my kids are growing up, my career is taking off, so I'm have much less time to do the things I really enjoy, like reading novels.
Being a die-hard at anything I do, I continued to read novels, albeit, sadly, I took 3 months
to get through only one book, not the three hours I used to spend reading when I had more free time.
I would read a chapter today, put the novel aside. Then read the next chapter later, in the next couple of weeks when I could get a break. Read another chapter in another 2 or 3 weeks. And so on, until I would finish just one novel.
I didn't like this and I wanted a way of still getting the value of a full novel in three hours like it used to take me, not the three months it now takes me to complete just one novel.
I started asking for a way out.
Thankfully, there was a way out…
In audio books!
I simply buy the novel I want to buy, not in hardcover or paperback, but in audio book format --containing the exact same content of the novel in spoken-word!
Now I don't have the limitations I used to have with "reading" my favorite novels.
I listen to my novel in audio book format when getting ready in the morning, getting dressed and working out. When I'm travelling to my office, I pick up from where I last stopped.I listen to it while on my lunch hour at work too. And before driving back home from work, I complete the remaining part of the novel.
I would take around three hours to read a whole book.
Phew… how I love how much time audio books save me through each day and I am still getting all the same value!
If you haven't seen for yourself how awesome the advanatges of audio books are yet, don't hesitate.
Apart from novels you can get almost any kind of book in audio book format. You can now find business audio books, professional audio books, motivational audio books, etc.
Go on the internet and find the book you've never had the time to read but always wanted to do so. It's easy… using audio books!
Simply use any of the major search engines like Google to search for phrases such as "the title of the book + audio book".You are given the result of web sites where you are able to purchase the title of your choice in audio book format.
Yes, it's now far easier to find the audio book format of that favorite book of yours than you imagined!
I found an amazing place that has all my favorite books as audio book download, Spoken Network. You can find them at:
www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0012
You may have read another article I wrote recently, about how hectic my life was before I found audio books. Well I wanted to tell you more about how much my life has changed since then.
I have added so many more hours to my life because of audio books – it’s amazing that I’ve managed to gain back at least the 2 extra hours that were taken when I was promoted.
How?
First, I now get a 2 hour value of books every morning before I get to work.
During the 1 hour it usually takes me to prepare for work, I listen to an audio book.
I usually spend an hour commuting to and from the office, and I now listen to an audio book during my travels.
During the 1 hour or so I spend to have lunch and break times, I listen to an audio book.
I have managed to gain back an incredible three hours a day from listening to audiobooks in the morning, afternoon and evening.
I can still work hard in my job, while continuing to enjoy listening to books.
Second of all, I now play an audio book for my children before bed, instead of them having to listen to tired old Dad struggling for an hour. It was a bit of a shock to learn that they prefer listening to an audio book than to Dad.
I think I heard my daughter mumbling about how the voice from the audio book is “more awake than dad’s”. It just goes to show how tired I can get on some nights while trying to read a bedtime story to my children.
Now… aren’t audio books wonderful?
If you have had similar problems to me, you can gain back your time by taking advantage of the amazing value of audio books – especially audio book downloads – these are fantastic value.
Many, many best-sellers are now available as an audio book, and they really do make it far more interesting.
I’d suggest that you go online and do a search for the audio book version of a book you have been wanting to read but have never found the time for. A great site that I found is Spoken Network, http://www.spokennetwork.com?cam=ama0006
Even books that your kids or spouse love to read could be available in audio book format. If they are, they will be a great time saver for you.