* The sound quality is good, not great.” There are actually 4 different formats (plus a version of one for the Sony IC Recorder). The low end format is especially useful for getting a lot of “Spoken Word” audio into a small amount of space. I can put about 50 hours of audio onto my Rio 500 (128 MB total memory). Yes there are noticable artifacts but perfect for getting books onto my player. I now have an iPod and am reloading all the books I previously purchased in the highest quality format which is comparable to high bitrate mp3.
* They have a lot of content.” Check for titles you’re interested in before signing up.
* Very easy to use. On Mac OS X (Jaguar) I didn’t have to install a thing,…” On Windows PC you must use Audible Manager which manages your collection, transfer to listening device and/or burning CDs.
* This is no MP3.” True, it uses digital rights management, but I do burn books to audio CDs (however many are required for the length of the book at 74 minutes per CD) and listen to them on my car CD player.
* Unfortunately, Audible’s advice to ‘Download this program to your computer and then burn it to a CD or transfer it to your iPod.’ doesn’t work, because it’s over 8 hours and won’t fit onto a CD, nor can I cut it up, because iTunes won’t let you. No CD for this track, oh well, there goes that flexibility.” Again I don’t know how this works on an Apple with iTunes, but Audible Manager on Windows automatically divides the file into the necessary number of CDs.

I actually just bought an audio book CD from Amazon called Ruby, because I loved it so much growing up. If you haven’t heard of it before, check it out. I didn’t trust Audible enough to risk not being able to listen to it in the future. (plus they don’t carry it anyway.)