Beta Labs applications

Nokia Audiobooks

Nokia Audiobooks application
  • Some known issues

Overview
Welcome to the world of audiobooks! An audiobook is a recording of a book being read aloud. There are tens of thousands of audiobooks available in the world, in various languages, covering topics from education to entertainment.

Nokia Audiobooks is a beta concept that enables you to enjoy audiobooks while on the go. It includes a highly efficient audio compression technology optimized for voice (AMR-WB), a player application for S60 (Nokia Audiobook Player), and an audio converter tool for PC (Nokia Audiobook Manager). Whereas traditional music player applications are optimized for music, Nokia Audiobook Player is optimized for audiobooks, enabling you to browse chapters, set bookmarks, and automatically continue from where you stopped listening last time.

Data storage comparison

A typical 400 page novel translates into 10-20 hour long audiobook, which would traditionally take more than dozen CDs or hundreds of megabytes of low-quality MP3 files. Nokia Audiobooks uses a codec called AMR-WB, which is optimized for voice. With Nokia Audiobooks, you get 5-10 times more content on your phone with similar voice quality - compared to content that has been compressed with MP3 at 64 or 128 kbps. Consequently, you can easily store multiple audiobooks on your memory card - and still have plenty of capacity left for the other things (like pics and video) you find important.

AMR-WB codec: Nokia Audiobooks uses standardized Adaptive Multi Rate-WideBand speech encoder (3GPP 26.190 / ITU-T G.722.2 See www.3GPP.org / www.itu.ch) for audio data compression in order to keep memory requirement for a book very small while maintaining excellent speech quality.

Getting started

  • Compatibility and system requirements
    • All S60 3rd Edition terminals: see device list.
    • Download
    • For Nokia Audiobook Manager tool in PC
      1. Extract files (NokiaAudiobookManager.exe and NokiaAudiobookManager.chm) from NokiaAudiobookManager.zip into same directory in your PC
      2. If you are converting audiobooks from MP3 files you will also need MP3 decoder, which you can download e.g. from here: www.free-codecs.com/download/Lame_Encoder.htm. "lame.exe" must be located in the same directory in PC with NokiaAudiobookManager.exe and NokiaAudiobookManager.chm.
      3. Start Nokia Audiobook manager and follow instructions found in program help.

      For Nokia Audiobook Player client in phone
      1. Make sure you have at least one audiobook in your memory card. The copying can be done also with Nokia Audiobook Manager (copy to phone). If you copy converted books manually into memory card, they must be located in "/audiobooks" subdirectory under the root directory of the phone memory card (e.g. "e:/audiobooks”"). The content of the book (audio files, index file and optional cover picture) has to be located all in the same subfolder of /audiobooks. The subfolder name may indicate the name of the book (e.g. "e:/audiobooks/TheBestSeller").
      2. Download and install NokiaAudioBookPlayer.sis into your phone
      3. Start the player and select the book by selecting Options from left soft key and selecting option "Select book" from the list.
      4. Start listening. "Select" (joystick down) will start/pause book, joystick left/right keys will wind the book, joystick up/down keys will increase/decrease volume. If you exit the client, it will automatically save bookmark and you can continue to listen from the same position when you start the client again. The bookmarks are book dependent, so you can listen several books in parallel.
    • Installation instructions
    • For the Nokia Audiobook Manager tool on your PC

      1. Extract files (NokiaAudiobookManager.exe and NokiaAudiobookManager.chm) from NokiaAudiobookManager.zip into the same directory in your PC.

      2. If you are converting audiobooks from MP3 files, you will also need an MP3 decoder, which you can download here: www.free-codecs.com/download/Lame_Encoder.htm. "lame.exe" must be located in the same directory of your PC as NokiaAudiobookManager.exe and NokiaAudiobookManager.chm.

      3. Start Nokia Audiobook manager and follow the instructions found in the program help. For the Nokia Audiobook Player client on your phone

      1. Make sure you have at least one audiobook on your memory card. You can copy an audiobook onto your phone using Nokia Audiobook Manager. However, if you choose to copy converted books manually onto a memory card, they must be located in the "/audiobooks" subdirectory under the root directory of the phone memory card (e.g. "e:/audiobooks”"). The entire content of the book (audio files, index file and optional cover picture) must be located in the same subfolder of /audiobooks. The subfolder name may indicate the name of the book (e.g. "e:/audiobooks/TheBestSeller").

      2. Download and install NokiaAudioBookPlayer.sis onto your phone.

      3. Start the player and select the book by selecting Options from left soft key and then choosing "Select book" from the list.

      4. Start listening. "Select" (joystick down) will start/pause book, joystick left/right keys will rewind the book, joystick up/down keys will increase/decrease volume. If you exit the client, it will automatically save a bookmark and you can continue to listen from the same position when you start the client again. The bookmarks are book dependent, so you can listen to several books at a time.

Nokia Audio Book Player for S60 3rd edition

  • Compatibility
  • Tested with Nokia N73, N76, N80, N93, N91, E70, E65, E62, E60, E50, 5500 sport, 3250. Should work but not fully tested with all devices based on S60 3rd Edition.
  • Download
  • Download (SIS, 123 KB)
  • Change log
    • Bookmarks are now sorted correctly. Previous version sorted them in order of creation. The correct sorting method is by order of appearance in the book.
    • When the keylock is activated, sleep-pause is no longer activated.
    • Supports Finnish language in UI.

Nokia Audio Book Player for S60 3rd edition Feature Pack 1

  • Compatibility
  • Tested with Nokia N95, N76, E90, 6290, 6110 Navigator. Should work but not fully tested with all devices based on S60 3rd Edition Feature Pack 1.
  • Download
  • Download (SIS, 117 KB)
  • Change log
    • Bookmarks are now sorted correctly. Previous version sorted them in order of creation. The correct sorting method is by order of appearance in the book.
    • When the keylock is activated, sleep-pause is no longer activated.
    • Supports Finnish language in UI.

Nokia Audiobook Manager

  • System requirements
  • Windows PC, tested on Windows XP and 2000, may also work on other versions. Does not work on Windows 98.
  • Download
  • Download (ZIP, 877 KB)
  • Change log
    • Default chapter naming changed from "1: File1", "2: File 2", …, to using actual file names.
    • Routines for index file write and read rewritten. Will now read both big and little endian UCS-2 files with and without DOS carriage return characters (also with and without Byte Order Mask bytes).
    • CD ripper initializes the CD drive selection with the same drive that the user has previously used.
    • Book name used as default value for filename prefix in CD ripping settings.
    • New checkbox & info box for CD ripper to enable extraction into subfolder with filename prefix (\).

Optional MP3 Decoder

Free audiobooks from Librivox

  • Free audiobooks from Librivox
  • For your convenience, we have converted a couple of free public domain books from Librivox librivox.org into compatible format:

    Fiction:

    Non-fiction:


    Note: librivox books are read and recorded by volunteers, and the quality may vary.