September 21, 2005

My “Broken Records”

On my iPod and around my apartment I have several audio books that I would call my “broken records.” These are audiobooks that I’ll throw on somewhat continuously in the background when I’m walking places, cleaning, making something to eat, etc. I don’t necessarily listen to them in a linear, start-to-finish fashion. Rather I’ll just pick them up whereever I happen to be and listen to them for 10 to 20 minutes or longer.

With many audio books it’s hard to do this because there is some sort of sequencing required and if you pick them up mid-way through you don’t really have the proper context. And of course with many audio books you really don’t have much need to listen to them more than once. But my “broken records” are titles that I honestly don’t feel I could listen to too much. They serve as almost a kind of spoken word “soundtrack” for my life.

So without further ado, let me present to you my list of broken records along with some comments. I hope some of you will order these and allow yourself to become immersed in them as well. They contain timeless wisdom and are a great alternative to having the TV or radio blaring in the background during daily life:

My Broken Records

• Think and Grow Rich – Napoleon Hill’s classic on achieving financial success. What I love about this book is that there is so much in here that can contribute to success in all areas of life.
• How to Win Friends & Influence People – Dale Carnegie’s classic tome on interpersonal relationships is a favorite of mine despite the somewhat cheesy title. What’s amazing is the fact that the vast majority of the advice in this book is common sense and yet it’s rarely practiced by most people.
• The Secrets of the Power of Intention, There is a Spiritual Solution to Every Problem and It’s Never Crowded Along the Extra Mile by Wayne Dyer – Dyer probably consumes a good 20% of the space on my iPod. He has a magical voice and I truly feel that listening to him is a superior experience to reading his books. His live stuff is particularly good and there is so much incredible wisdom in here that, if you’re like me, you’ll find yourself returning to it over and over again.
• The Bible – I certainly don’t listen to it as much as I should but I do find that having the Bible on my iPod makes it convenient for me to return to it when I have a few minutes waiting in line somewhere. (I don’t know exactly which version is on my iPod so I just linked above to our super cool “The Bible on Audio” page where dozens of audio versions of the Bible and individual books.)

I have a couple other broken records that run in the background as well during specific times of my day. Wayne Dyer’s 101 Ways to Transform Your Life wakes me up each morning from the stereo system in my bedroom. Pimsleur’s Spanish I runs in my bathroom while I’m taking a shower or brushing my teeth. Yup, I’m pretty much addicted to this stuff…not that that’s a bad thing.

Feel free to let me know if you’ve got other suggestions for broken records. I’d love to get your take on this.

September 19, 2005

32 GB iPod Nanos and a Podcast Directory on Your Phone?

I spent the better part of the day today immersed in the future of digital audio and video at the Digital Hollywood conference here in Santa Monica. I had a few cool chats with some people on the inside of what’s coming down the pipeline next. I had a particularly cool talk with the founder of Melodeo, a company that is bringing you podcasting to mobile phones. You can check out a demo of their “mobilcast” technology here. It’s a pretty cool technology and no doubt represents a part of the future for podcasting.

Speaking of the future, last week Samsung announced that they will be doing a flash memory chip that can hold up to 32 GBs of data. What does that mean? How about the possibility of a 32 GB iPod Nano? How cool would that be? Devices will get smaller and storage capacity will get larger, the latter being particularly relevant as “videocasting” (the video equivalent of podcasting) grows in popularity. Here’s a link to the Samsung announcement:

Samsung to do up 32GB flash memory chip

One final cool thing that I found today. The Digital Hollywood conference that I attended has put some sessions from their Spring confernece online as a free of charge podcast. I think you’ll see this happen for a lot more conferences. It seems that at least once a week a cool conference comes across my desk (like the M Squared conference next week in San Francisco). I certainly don’t have the time or the money to attend all or even most of these. Why shouldn’t they be made available as podcasts? Heck, I bet more than a few people would be willing to pay for that…

Here’s the link to those sessions from the Spring 2005 Digital Hollywood conference.

September 19, 2005

Stargazing Audio

I just had a pretty good idea for an activity to do while you learn on audio. How bout learning astronomy while laying down and gazing up at the cosmos? That’s something you can’t do with a book and it’ll let you contemplate the enormity and awesomeness of our galaxy while you learn about it. A few authors I recommend listening to while you gaze:

Stephen W. Hawking
Timothy Ferris
Seth Shostak

And don’t forget the many Astronomy Podcasts that are out there:

www.learnoutloud.com/Podcast-Directory/Science/Astronomy

Unforunately I can’t partake in this idea due to light pollution and smog. But for those of you outside the big city, take a moment at night to get your mind off this earth and onto the big picture with audio books and podcasts. Soon you’ll stop staring at the stars in puzzlement and you’ll start stargazing with intelligence.

September 16, 2005

New Volkswagens to be iPod-enabled

Earlier in the week I offered a statistic: In 2006, 30% of all new cars sold will be iPod/mp3-enabled.

That number might be heading north very quickly.

Today Volkswagen AG announced that it will offer a stereo component on all new vehicles that will allow drivers to plug in iPods and other mp3 portable players into directly into their car stereos. How cool does this sound?

Just plug your device into a built-in console in the center armrest. The option comes in two varieties, one for the iPod, another for other USB-based players. Up to six of the player’s folders will be displayed on the car stereo system, and the radio buttons can be used to scan, search or shuffle your mix.

Portable media. It’s the wave of the future. And as more vehicles become enabled for portable players it will get increasingly easier to Learn Out Loud. And as more automobile companies offer this service expect to see more hop on the bandwagon real soon.

Complete article from CNN

September 14, 2005

A couple of fun audio book articles…

I recently came across a couple of articles about audio books and audio learning that I thought I would share:

Audiobooks compute for lengthy commutes (Catchy title!)

Favorite quotes:

“It usually took me an hour and a half to get to work,” she says, “and [the books] made sitting in traffic a breeze.”

“Audiobooks are wonderful tools to help people experience books, whether they’re in a hellish commute or working in the garden,” says Mary Beth Roche, president of the Audio Publishers Association.

Katherine Truesdale, 33, has listened to more than 60 audiobooks while working out at the gym. Otherwise, she says, her exercise sessions would be boring, and she wouldn’t be able to keep up with everything she wants to read.

Roche cites studies that show children can listen to books two levels beyond what they’re able to read in print. And the listening experience helps build their vocabulary, she says, because they hear new words in context.

Did You Hear the One About a 31-Hour Marathon with Tom Wolfe?

Favorite quotes:

I see all of these developments as great supplements to my reading regime, but I wonder if one day, hearing literature will be more common than reading it. Could the printed word ever go the way of the eight-track?

It remains critical that we cultivate reading as a valuable pastime in our culture, starting with the printed page but supplementing with audio from grade school upward.

I can’t concentrate when I listen to audio books at work or at home—my mind wanders. Instead, I use my 15-minute ride to and from work to squeeze in more “reading.”

As they become more popular, I’m hoping bigger stars will be lured into the process. I’d also like to see more cross-pollination between existing audio material and books. Why not, for example, cut in historical voices when appropriate—as Simon & Schuster Audio did when it inserted Harry Truman’s voice into the recording of David McCullough’s biography of that president. The effect is startling—and adds something that can’t be done in print.

Cool stuff! The Audio Learning Revolution has officially begun.

September 12, 2005

Dead Time Learning

I was listening to the Marketing Online Podcast today and heard the hosts use a great term: Dead Time Learning. Dead Time Learning refers to time that you have where you’re not really doing anything else and you could be learning. Commuting is probably the #1 opportunity for Dead Time Learning that most of us have. Exercising is another great time. You can even be a Dead Time Learner when you’re doing chores around your house, brushing your teeth, making dinner, etc.

My guess is that most of us probably have at least two and probably more like three or four hours each day of Dead Time Learning time. For instance, my morning thus far has consisted of the following:

-1 1/2 hours spent in traffic after dropping my friend off at his hotel (gotta love LA traffic). My Dead Time Learning? Dan Millman’s audio course The Path of Self Discovery.

-An 8 mile jog on the beach. My Dead Time Learning? The Marketing Online Podcast (where I learned the term “Dead Time Learning”!), The Diggnation Podcast (love those guys!) and a couple of podcasts from Podtech.net.

3 hours worth of Dead Time Learning and it isn’t even noon yet!

Now it’s your turn. During your Dead Time Learning time today what will you be Learning Out Loud?

September 9, 2005

Audio Book Sales en Fuego

From the Association of American Publishers:

Another big winner was the audiobook category, which gained 197.9 percent in July ($33.5 million), and 40.5 percent for the year. “We have seen a nice increase in the audiobook category over the years,” says Kathryn Blough, vice president of the AAP. “It’s been pretty steady.” Blough stresses that despite recent reports that in an age of media saturation, people have less time to devote to reading, she doesn’t see audiobooks replacing their printed brethren any time soon. “We’ve seen steady growth on the print side,” she says. “I think the growth in audiobooks is due in part to the exciting varieties of titles out now.”

(Here’s the complete article.)

People have less time for reading? An exciting variety of titles out now? I guess it’s time to Learn Out Loud!

August 31, 2005

Cancel the Noise

I don’t get annoyed easily but here’s something that does it for me. I’m walking down the street listening to an audiobook and I’m just getting to a really good part and WHOOOOSH, a big old bus rolls by and drowns 10 all-important seconds’ worth of sound. Since I live in LA this actually tends to happen quite a bit. I’m pretty wedded to my iPod headphones but I’ve been thinking about buying a pair of those nice noise-cancelling headphones that they sell. I came across a good article from the Detroit Free Press that discusses the available options. Here’s the link:

Some headphones that dampen noise can create sticky situations

The Shure E4c headphones sound great for my situation (not sure I’m ready to walk down the street the Bose headphones on!). Guess I’ve got something to add to the holiday wish list…

August 24, 2005

A Calmer Commute

My mother clipped an article for from a recent Reader’s Digest entitled “A Calmer Commute.” It’s a short article but really captures the essence of what we’re trying to do with LearnOutLoud. Since I can’t find an online version of the article, here are a couple of passages:

No wonder road rage grips America’s highways. While the average commute is 26 minutes, some 3.4 million of us clock 90 minutes or more each way.

Wow…3.4 million people who spend an hour and a half commuting each way!

The article goes on to mention safer ways to spend your commute than talking on a cell phone. Here’s one of them:

Improve your mind – Listen to the latest James Patterson thriller on CD or choose a business tome, such as T. Harv Eker’s new Secrets of the Millionaire Mind. You could also learning to speak Italian. Berlitz’s Rush Hour Series offers many languages.

Cool. We have Secrets of the Millionaire Mind up on our site here as well as many titles from Berlitz.

Improving your mind is indeed a fantastic way to spend your commute. Look no further than our catalog for almost 7,000 ways to do so. 🙂

August 5, 2005

Three Leaf Group

Stumbled upon this article today about Three Leaf Group, a company that rents motivational and training audiobooks to corporate businesses. This is an interesting idea and something that we’ve contemplated doing in the future. Companies spend billions of dollars each year to train their employees but a huge untapped potential for development exists in commute times. To allow salespeople, executives, etc. to get “trained” on their way to and from work seems to me like somewhat of a no-brainer.

It’s truly a win-win. Audio courses are cheap enough that the company gets a lot of bang for the buck. Employees get something to listen to that they might not normally shell out the cash for and that helps to make their commute more enjoyable. Companies have been buying books for their employees for years. Why not do the same with audio?

To read the entire text of this article, click the URL below:

Audio books thrive in downsizing economy