While users have been able to playback Audible audiobooks on their iPhones/Touches for some time, the company has finally launched a standalone app for the devices.
The new app, available in the Apple App Store, is also available for the iPad. The app features Wi-Fi delivery of the Audible books, iOS4 multitasking, listening stats, and other smaller features.
Included is the standard audiobook features of chapter navigation, bookmarks, viewing/listening controls and the ability to control audio playback with gestures, eliminating the need for buttons.
Using iOS 4 to the fullest, the app has background audio playback and downloading.
As an incentive to get non-members to sign up, if you create an account through the app, you will get a free excerpt of David Kirkpatrick’s The Facebook Effect: The Inside Story of the Company That Is Connecting the World
Result for: audio playback
Sony Ericsson has launched its latest Android device, the Xperia X8, a mid-level entry to the smartphone market.
The device will have a 3-inch HVGA touchscreen, a 600 MHz processor,Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, 3G, GPS, a 3.2MP camera, a microSD slot, a 3.5mm headset jack, and will run the aging Android 1.6.
An update to 2.1 is expected “soon,” however, says Sony. On top of the Android OS, the device will use Sony Ericsson’s “four corners” UI layer.
Additionally, the X8 will run the Timescape app, which manages calls, texts, emails, and social networking.
As with all SE devices, the phone will come with strong video and audio playback players.
Price and release date were not revealed.
Result for: audio playback
According to the latest official blog, YouTube has now released an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player, giving users their “number one request” for new updates.
To join the beta, Google links to this page, as long as you have an HTML5-supportive browser: http://www.youtube.com/html5
The full post:
A while ago, YouTube launched a simple demo of an HTML5-based video player. Recently, we published a blog post on our pre-spring cleaning effort and your number one request was that YouTube do more with HTML5. Today, we’re introducing an experimental version of an HTML5-supported player.
HTML5 is a new web standard that is gaining popularity rapidly and adds many new features to your web experience. Most notably for YouTube users, HTML5 includes support for video and audio playback. This means that users with an HTML5 compatible browser, and support for the proper audio and video codecs can watch a video without needing to download a browser plugin.
Our support for HTML5 is an early experiment, and there are some limitations. HTML5 on YouTube doesn’t support videos with ads, captions, or annotations and it requires a browser that supports both the video tag and h.264 encoded video (currently that means Chrome, Safari, and ChromeFrame on Internet Explorer). We will be expanding the capabilities of the player in the future, so get ready for new and improved versions in the months to come.
