Hi All,
I guess the number of android apps that wrap the librivox library of audio books is expanding.
I had tried several of the earlier ones, and had encountered various difficulties, so tried my hand at creating an Android App. The result is LibriDroid, which allows searching, downloading, and listening to books from the LibriVox site, all in the same app.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.oakonell.libridroid
Using this app had made it much easier for me to find and listen to books from LibriVox (and keep track of where I am in each book that I'm listening to).
Please let me know any feedback about the app!
Thanks,
Rob O'Connell
[DEFUNCT?]Android app with access to all LV books-LibriDroid
Thanks for the info.
I use an ipod and I find the apps that I can get often do not include collaborative projects. I search my name and only get my solo recordings. My question is this: Does your app have the complete LV catalog and if so is it updated as per new releases and how?
Esther
I use an ipod and I find the apps that I can get often do not include collaborative projects. I search my name and only get my solo recordings. My question is this: Does your app have the complete LV catalog and if so is it updated as per new releases and how?
Esther
"Reasonable people adapt themselves to the world. Unreasonable
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people." George Bernard Shaw
people attempt to adapt the world to themselves. All progress,
therefore, depends on unreasonable people." George Bernard Shaw
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RobOConnell
- Posts: 4
- Joined: January 4th, 2012, 9:21 am
Hi,
Thanks for the interest. I chose to use the "official"(?) API on http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/LibriVoxAPI, and query the librivox service for each search (while caching some results for some time), similar to the URL in the example (which I think searches mainly by title, author, and genre):
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search_xml.php?extended=1&simple=Austen
I didn't see a good interface to search by readers, so didn't really expose it.
At first, I would have asked "why" (from a listener's point of view), but I think I've listened to enough now to know that a listener might develop a favorites list: preference for a nice voice, and possibly similar interest in content... That's a good idea for a future feature (I don't think I saw such a feature on any of the existing android apps, either.)
Thanks,
Rob
Thanks for the interest. I chose to use the "official"(?) API on http://wiki.librivox.org/index.php/LibriVoxAPI, and query the librivox service for each search (while caching some results for some time), similar to the URL in the example (which I think searches mainly by title, author, and genre):
http://librivox.org/newcatalog/search_xml.php?extended=1&simple=Austen
I didn't see a good interface to search by readers, so didn't really expose it.
At first, I would have asked "why" (from a listener's point of view), but I think I've listened to enough now to know that a listener might develop a favorites list: preference for a nice voice, and possibly similar interest in content... That's a good idea for a future feature (I don't think I saw such a feature on any of the existing android apps, either.)
Thanks,
Rob
Starlite wrote:Thanks for the info.
I use an ipod and I find the apps that I can get often do not include collaborative projects. I search my name and only get my solo recordings. My question is this: Does your app have the complete LV catalog and if so is it updated as per new releases and how?
Esther
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RobOConnell
- Posts: 4
- Joined: January 4th, 2012, 9:21 am
I have released an update to version 1.2.
I added a new feature that allows sharing (via text, email, facebook- whatever android apps support the send action) what books are being listened to. Others can click on the link on their Android device, and be brought directly to an in-app activity for the book.
Rob O'Connell
I added a new feature that allows sharing (via text, email, facebook- whatever android apps support the send action) what books are being listened to. Others can click on the link on their Android device, and be brought directly to an in-app activity for the book.
Rob O'Connell
Hi Rob,
I tried your app and, overall, I like it
It's brilliant that it searches the actual catalog rather than just some already-out-of-date snapshot. That, for me, puts it head and shoulders above any other librivox app I've tried.
I have a few small niggles, if you don't mind:
Streaming : worked fine until it got to the end of a file, then it stopped and crashed. happened twice in a row. So I moved on to ...
Downloading : it seemed to miss out a few files (5 out of 44) and the only way I could see to get it to download the missing ones was to click on each file in the library view, which then plays the file and downloads it at the same time. The downside of that is, of course, that you lose your place in the book! Is there another way?
Playback : I like that you can see your progress in each file and the book as a whole, that's really nice. For me, though, the buttons are too small - on my phone, the bottom half of the playback screen is empty, and there are the 5 buttons squashed together on one row near the top.
Oh, and a "switch off after ... minutes" type of thing would be really nice too.
As I say, these are just niggles really. Personally, I would only ever use streaming for previewing, once I decide on a book I would always download it.
Overall it's a big
regards
Phil
I tried your app and, overall, I like it
It's brilliant that it searches the actual catalog rather than just some already-out-of-date snapshot. That, for me, puts it head and shoulders above any other librivox app I've tried.
I have a few small niggles, if you don't mind:
Streaming : worked fine until it got to the end of a file, then it stopped and crashed. happened twice in a row. So I moved on to ...
Downloading : it seemed to miss out a few files (5 out of 44) and the only way I could see to get it to download the missing ones was to click on each file in the library view, which then plays the file and downloads it at the same time. The downside of that is, of course, that you lose your place in the book! Is there another way?
Playback : I like that you can see your progress in each file and the book as a whole, that's really nice. For me, though, the buttons are too small - on my phone, the bottom half of the playback screen is empty, and there are the 5 buttons squashed together on one row near the top.
Oh, and a "switch off after ... minutes" type of thing would be really nice too.
As I say, these are just niggles really. Personally, I would only ever use streaming for previewing, once I decide on a book I would always download it.
Overall it's a big
regards
Phil
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RobOConnell
- Posts: 4
- Joined: January 4th, 2012, 9:21 am
Hi Phil,
Glad that you like the app.
I've had another comment suggest that a browsing by category/author would be a nice feature. I agree, but it does run counter to the direct searching- I'm glad you like that feature. I guess a combination of the two would be beneficial.
I am relatively new to programming for Android. I guess there may be more variation in different models than I thought. The usual "it works on my machine" comment applies for the downloading and streaming issues. I will try to investigate these issues- they do seem rather important in how to gain access to the audio files.
For the playback- I can certainly cleanup the buttons and lay them out a little better. I can probably also add the switch off feature.
I'm glad you like the app. It was off to a slow start from the android market, but has been picking up more purchases lately... (unfortunately, with the number of reported bugs growing as well...)
Rob
Glad that you like the app.
I've had another comment suggest that a browsing by category/author would be a nice feature. I agree, but it does run counter to the direct searching- I'm glad you like that feature. I guess a combination of the two would be beneficial.
I am relatively new to programming for Android. I guess there may be more variation in different models than I thought. The usual "it works on my machine" comment applies for the downloading and streaming issues. I will try to investigate these issues- they do seem rather important in how to gain access to the audio files.
For the playback- I can certainly cleanup the buttons and lay them out a little better. I can probably also add the switch off feature.
I'm glad you like the app. It was off to a slow start from the android market, but has been picking up more purchases lately... (unfortunately, with the number of reported bugs growing as well...)
Rob
