A MP3 player would have made the time off better

So I have been gone for the last week, anything happen? Nothing of any value that I can see. Is it that hard to get away for a week and not have to check in to the office and the news and the stock markets? To be honest, I did not check in with work at all, stock markets just a passing glance if I was around any ticker tapes, and the daily news, well, that I did tune into on more than one occasion, though not as often as I am used to. Radio is just an arm reach away in the car and it is pretty easy to tune yourself in to the top of the hour news or the daily talk shows while you pass the time and the miles.

I didn’t have as much time to get ready for this trip so I didn’t take nearly as many music cds nor did I take any books on tape this time. Quite often I will hit the library and pick up a half dozen books on tape to listen to on the road and this time I was going to copy them over to MP3 files to save space and play on the new car stereo. I was also going to do that with many of my own cds building a quick and simple library that would give me variety and save space on the trip. As I said, I ran out of time.

I may be a little slow getting onto the technology band wagon but usually it is because I am waiting for it to catch up to where I want it to be. As I have started to convert my cd collection to MP3 files I have found that my collection is rather large and it will take a pretty good size player to be able to capitalize on it. That doesn’t even count the video collection.

The real reason I haven’t jumped at getting a personal MP3 player is because of the way they handle books on tape. I have been looking for a player that had two major features that greatly enhance the value of any audio book player, the ability to bookmark your place since chances are high that it will take more than one time listening to get through most books, and the ability to vary the playback speed so that you can have a chance of listening to a book slightly quicker than actually reading it the old way.

I like to listen to the unabridged versions and I have gotten in the habit of listening at double speed for most things. I found a tape player at Radio Shack that was able to play back tapes at up to double speed while adjusting the pitch of the voice so that you weren’t listening to the chipmunks. It was the best. I was able to keep up with my reading during my daily commutes to work. Then I found out the current versions of Media Player had the capability to also vary the playback speeds of audio recordings. I was in happy land. This gave me the ability to speed through books while on the computer or even better speed through training videos if they were recorded in a playable format.

Of course the problem with listening at double speed is you have to pay attention to make sure that you comprehend what is being read. It does take effort. You cannot do a whole lot of multi tasking while listening or you find that you are missing large sections and doing a lot of rewinding. This is why I have been looking for a player that has the ability to vary the playback speed in a portable unit that I can use while walking or hiking or such. So that is why I have been shopping for a player for such a long time, and alas not having much luck.

There are a very few players that will vary speed playback and some will bookmark, but none do either vary well from what I have been able to read from various websites. Most manufacturers do not even consider the audio book fan when designing or marketing their players. In my search for a player I went so far as to contact many of the manufacturers to see which players they would recommend for my audio book playing pleasure but I got one common response, we don’t do one of those. What a shame. Now before the fruit fans start letting me know about the Apple IPods player abilities, let me just say that they do in fact have the ability to alter playback speeds with their fast playback mode offering a whopping 40% speed increase which doesn’t seem like much when you are used to listening with a 100% speed increase. Of course the Apple’s come with the other down side of being an Apple tool and limited to Apple type formats though it does play the common everybody tool of MP3. In many ways the Apple, although sold as the great MS alternative, is operated and marketed much the same way the MS machines are. In a lot of ways they are like the current two party system where only those smart enough and brave enough can venture into the realms of a third party.

So I put off my search for a player at least for the time being. I will pick up the search at a later date when I think that a new generation of players has come along to offer up some new solutions to fill my desires. Until then I keep doing what I have been doing, waiting for the next best thing.

This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.