Tech Tonic

Lots of people after reading the last column seem to be interested in trying audiobooks though they’re even more interested in “free audiobooks”, which I guess is only to be expected. No wonder Chris Anderson’s next book (a preview of which is the cover story of the latest issue of Wired magazine) is all about the power of free! If it’s anything like his previous bestseller, then it’s surely worth a read! I wish though he’d practise what he preaches and give the book away FREE as an e-book or even better, as an audiobook…

So anyway, here’s a great list of free audiobook services. I listened to the samples on Librivox.org and lets put it this way … there’s a reason why people are willing to pay for Audible - there’s no comparison at all in the quality of narration! But then again, free is a tough proposition to beat so do give some of those sites a shot!

No, not because the CEO read my column and was convinced

After some initial hiccups, the deal seems to be done! Rick Munarriz of the The Motley Fool has some great analysis of why Amazon.com was so interested in snapping up Audible. This line was the most interesting:

I would be shocked if in the 2008 holiday season, Amazon doesn’t pitch portable media players sold on its site without some form of extended free trial of Audible as a carrot.

Read full article here.