Beyond 23

I have a cute little red MP3 player! I love the way it looks; I've been less than delighted at its functioning so far.

I charged it up as instructed, then I had to reset it (using a pin, in the little reset hole) before I could even get it to turn on. When I was trying to get the player to start up, I went to the Coby website, and the pdf manual online had significant differences from the paper manual that came with the player, which didn't exactly clarify things!

Windows XP (on both computers I've used) recognizes the player and allows me to transfer files, but then there is no trace of it in the task bar, so I can't "eject" or "safely remove" it via the operating system before physically disconnecting it. I wonder whether anyone else has had this problem?

Anyway, I now have some music and an eAudiobook on my player, so I'm off to enter the Grand Prize drawing!

CCLS 23 Things #22: E-Audiobooks

I had forgotten that you have to install the Overdrive Media Console in order to download. I definitely don't want this on my home computer, so will wait until I have time at work...

Update: Wednesday, January 14
I've successfully downloaded an audiobook onto my PC at work, and listened to the first chapter. The process of installing the software went smoothly and quickly. The process of choosing a title to download was not so simple.

I decided to try a children's book, and searched for a few of my favorite authors: Gordon Korman, Donna Jo Napoli, Jordan Sonnenblick. Nothing.

Eventually I chose one of Lemony Snicket's Series of Unfortunate Events, The Ersatz Elevator, because I had heard that the reader, Tim Curry, was fantastic. It's true, but I still don't like being read to.

I discovered that the Overdrive media player allows you to speed up or slow down the playback of the file. That makes for some really weird effects. I felt really anxious and unsettled listening to the speeded-up playback. It was difficult to understand, too. Even for informational text, I can't imagine using this option.

But the good news is, I've completed all the projects! So, mission accomplished!