Playing with Audio Book Players
Have you checked out audio book players lately? If you haven't, you're in for a pleasant surprise. The audio playback industry offers high-tech players with special features made especially for listening to audio book recordings.
The Problem with Music CD Players
For years, audio book readers have listened to their audio book recordings on audio book players that were made for listening to music CDs, one track at a time. If a music listener wants to hear a particular song but doesn't know which track the song is on, the listener can skip quickly from one track to another until finding the right song.
On the other hand, if an audio book reader wants to restart a recording where he or she left off, the reader must make a note of the track the audio book player was playing, and how far into the track the playback had progressed, before ejecting the CD. The reader must then reload the CD, skip to the appropriate track, and fast-forward to the point where the reading stopped. This process requires focus and attention, and since most audio book players are located in vehicles, the process can be dangerous as it detracts the driver's attention from the road.
A New Generation of Audio Book Players
Makers of audio book players have been making innovative changes to the playback experience, and audio book readers will be delighted to see improvements in the next generation of players. With audio book players devoted exclusively to recorded books, readers can browse a book's table of contents and navigate from chapter to chapter or page to page. Readers can even go directly to a specific page in the book or set multiple bookmarks to save their place. These advances in technology are a vast improvement over the old process of forwarding and fast-forwarding, and audio book enthusiasts are certain to respond to new product offerings by purchasing a dedicated audio book player.
Other features in these new audio book players are easy-to-operate playback buttons in high-contrast colors. These buttons stand out against the keypad, making operation easy for the many audio book readers who have some degree of visual impairment. The players use rechargeable batteries with a battery life of about ten hours. These audio book players allow playback through headphones or through their own high-quality speaker system. If the auto makers are smart, they will start to offer some of these same features on the stereo equipment installed in new cars as well; it is just a matter of time.
