Gadget Guru
WWW.T3INDIA.COM AUGUST 2019 T3 Tomorrow’s Technology Today 57
What’sthebest
way tolisten to
audiobooks?
HARDEEP SINGH
Is wireless
charging safe?
PR ATH IKP.
Depending on your
tendency to keep frayed
cables in operation well
pasttheir fire hazard point, it’s
probably a lot safer than what
you’re doing right now. It’s slower,
too, by some margin. And, most
importantly, Qi charging doesn’t
match its namesake and actually
beam mystical Chinese energy
beams out into the air right next
to your sleeping brain. That
would be irresponsible.
Yes, it uses an electromagnetic
field to stimulate an induction
charger built in to the device
you’re charging or, in the case of
phones like the Samsung Galaxy
S10, channels its own battery to
spit out those same waves. But
Nikola Tesla’s mental wireless
electricity plan this is not: strength-
wise, the reason you need to plop
your device onto a charging pad
rather than just leaving it nearby
is that there’s less radio energy
coming out of a Qi charger than
your router. If you’re already
worried about that, GaGu
imagines you’re sleeping with
your tin foil hat on as it is.It would certainly appear
that Amazon, via Audible,
has as iron a grip on the
digitalaudiobook market as it does
on just about everything else. It’s
a behemoth, and it ain’t cheap:
while a `199 membership gets
you a book credit per month, which
generally lets you download books
being sold for much more than that,
voracious ear-readers may find
themselves spending a fair amount
more. Unless you have credits to
spend that desperation better be
strong enough to cough up to hear
Stephen Fry grind his way thorough
72 straight hours of Sherlock
Holmes books. To be fair, Audible’s
app is just brilliant, with a bunch of
features to suit people who like to
be read a story before they sleep or
hear words very quickly indeed.
If you’d rather not pay, there are
other options. Public libraries have
generally moved on from what
Guru’s old mum used to call her
‘story tapes’, offering online digital
rentals of audiobooks for nothing
more than the hassle of applying for
a library card. They’re usually
smothered in digital ‘protections’,
but if you’re listening through a
modern player – your phone, for
example – you likely won’t have any
trouble getting them going. Most
libraries seem to be partnering with
Rakuten Overdrive (overdrive.com)
to offer the service, so you can case
the joint (and use it to find your
local library) before you sign up.
Then there are the other options.
Librivox (librivox.org) for example is
a cute volunteer effort to record
public domain books in audio
format; Guru would dodge anything
marked collaborative, because your
narrator could change from chapter
to chapter, and not every reader is
particularly listenable. Poke around
Scribl (scribl.com) and you’ll find
a host of rickety audiobooks from
independent writers, delivered
in ad-supported podcast form.ABOVE
When listening
to audiobooks
be aware of any
approaching
snakes...A
A
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