Description of App
Simply Better. Easier-to-use, clean design, full control, and audio from more sources. Bookmobile provides a better experience for listening to audiobooks than any other app.
Try it for free! Download the app as a FREE TRIAL of up to 5 audiobooks for 60 days. If you like it, an In-App purchase will allow an unlimited number of audiobooks for $3.99 USD.
So, what do you get?
An interface optimized for listening to spoken word content, especially while driving. No sliders, dragging or other controls that are nearly impossible to get right while you are driving. Easy access to the controls that matter most while listening.
Get, play and manage audio content from a wide variety of sources: iTunes, Audible.com, Librivox.org, CDs, public library downloads, RSS feeds, Dropbox, and more.
Auto-Bookmarks make it easy to find your place.
Customizable, exportable bookmarks (name, color, and notes) to keep track of special audio passages.
Complete control over audio files:
- Reorder parts/episodes.
- Change title of audiobooks, podcasts, parts, episodes.
- Cover artwork can be added or replaced -- just a simple copy-and-paste of any image from web or photo library.
- Download/delete/re-download audio files whenever you want.
Audio File Types Supported:
- DRM-enabled content (from Audible.com or iTunes Store)
- non-DRM content (from web downloads, CDs, etc.)
- M4B audiobooks, including chapters, artwork
- MP3 audio files, including artwork, ID3 tags
- import individual audio files, folders of audio files, or Zip archives (including artwork image files)
Audio Import Options:
- add from on-device iTunes Library
- use your computer's web browser
- use iTunes File Sharing (no syncing required)
- Open in... Bookmobile from other apps, including Dropbox, Mail or Safari
- download from websites or local computer
Download straight into the app from iTunes Store, Librivox.org, and ListenUp Audiobooks.
Sleep Timer
- Easy access from main screen,
- Shake to add time before or after expiration,
- Auto-screen dimming,
- Stop at the current chapter end, or any number of minutes.
Podcasts
- easily search and browse through thousands of podcasts,
- import from RSS feed,
- import in mass from OPML file,
- check for new episodes in all your podcasts or each individually,
- customize artwork and titles,
- bookmarks fully supported with name, notes, and color,
- specify play order priorities (oldest, newest, next newest, etc) for each podcast,
- specify auto-download settings (limits, wifi-requried, replacement policy) for each podcast,
- specify skip amounts (opening, closing, driving mode) for each podcast.
Playback Speed can be adjusted from slightly faster (10%) to double speed, with lots of options in-between.
Bluetooth/Remote controls
- Pause/Play
- 30-sec skip (or your custom value)
AirPlay support allows redirection of audio output.
Mix audiobooks and podcast episodes in playlist.
and more!!!
Accessibility Comments
Although it is possible to use the app with VoiceOver, I would definitely not recommend it over the excellent, and very accessible, Bookmark app.
The developers of Bookmobile are keen to stress the simplicity of its interface. Unfortunately, it contains a few issues for VoiceOver users. Button labelling could be better, although in all cases it is possible to determine the function of a button.
However, there is a more significant problem with the operation of the buttons that allow you to skip through a track in incremental time jumps. This feature is operated via 5 buttons. 4 of these do the 'skip', whilst the 5th button toggles the time increment of these 4 buttons between seconds and minutes. So, depending upon the status of the toggle button, the first of the skip buttons will move the track position back by either 5 seconds or 5 minutes. Unfortunately, the labels of the 4 skip buttons do not change to reflect whether you are skipping in seconds or minutes, and in fact always have a label that suggests the buttons are set to skip in seconds.
When viewing the information page for a bookmark there is a series of 7 unlabelled buttons. I have been unable to determine what these do.
On one occasion, when viewing a list of books on my 'bookshelf', VoiceOver actually read part of the content from the previous page viewed. Although I have not been able to replicate this issue, it suggests a problem exists somewhere.
This app could be made significantly more usable by simply improving button labelling to be more descriptive and to reflect the status of buttons.
It is now more than a week since I first contacted the developers to ask about VoiceOver support, and I have yet to receive a response. This might be taken as an indication that improving accessibility will not be a high priority.