Saturday
Jul172010
Audible App for iPhone is Buggy
Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 04:35AM
This is the review I posted on the App Store:
I hate rating free apps with one star, but this app is a poor reflection of an otherwise good service from Audible.
1. Downloads are slow
I've tried for two days to successfully download "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" from my library. First, it takes an hour for a 250MB part 1. The same download on the same broadband from my Mac takes 15 minutes.
2. Downloads are incomplete or corrupt
Three times, the app downloaded an incomplete part 1 and the fourth time the book was corrupt after chapter 30. The app doesn't seem to support IOS4's ability to download in the background. Plus, there is no way to resume a failed download! You only have the option of deleting and starting over.
3. Audio playback isn't implemented correctly
IOS4 apps like Pandora and Podcaster play audio that can be paused with the iPhone headset, even when the phone is locked. This app doesn't do that, you have to use the play/pause buttons on screen which forces you to unlock the phone just to pause playback. There is an option to force the screen to stay on (never lock), but this drains battery very quickly.
4. Playback controls are inconsistent
Audio scrubbing doesn't work properly. In one case it brought me back to the beginning of the whole book. Chapter skips are inconsistent as well. I skipped from chapter two and ended up on chapter five. Very frustrating.
5. Bookmarks are local to the device
If you remove the book, you remove the bookmarks. They are not sync'd to the cloud. It sure would be great if I had to delete a book for space reasons. Then, when I was ready to read it again, after downloaded, the bookmarks were there.
Based on these problems, I'm going back to listening to Audible books using the iPod app. Audible, please fix these issues! This app has great potential.
I hate rating free apps with one star, but this app is a poor reflection of an otherwise good service from Audible.
1. Downloads are slow
I've tried for two days to successfully download "The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo" from my library. First, it takes an hour for a 250MB part 1. The same download on the same broadband from my Mac takes 15 minutes.
2. Downloads are incomplete or corrupt
Three times, the app downloaded an incomplete part 1 and the fourth time the book was corrupt after chapter 30. The app doesn't seem to support IOS4's ability to download in the background. Plus, there is no way to resume a failed download! You only have the option of deleting and starting over.
3. Audio playback isn't implemented correctly
IOS4 apps like Pandora and Podcaster play audio that can be paused with the iPhone headset, even when the phone is locked. This app doesn't do that, you have to use the play/pause buttons on screen which forces you to unlock the phone just to pause playback. There is an option to force the screen to stay on (never lock), but this drains battery very quickly.
4. Playback controls are inconsistent
Audio scrubbing doesn't work properly. In one case it brought me back to the beginning of the whole book. Chapter skips are inconsistent as well. I skipped from chapter two and ended up on chapter five. Very frustrating.
5. Bookmarks are local to the device
If you remove the book, you remove the bookmarks. They are not sync'd to the cloud. It sure would be great if I had to delete a book for space reasons. Then, when I was ready to read it again, after downloaded, the bookmarks were there.
Based on these problems, I'm going back to listening to Audible books using the iPod app. Audible, please fix these issues! This app has great potential.
Reader Comments (6)
Hi Mike,
I totally agree with your observations on the Audible application. Its really buggy but shows great promise. In addition to what you mentioned, I can't stand the fact that other audio apps can't play an Audible App downloaded book. This is made worse by the fact the Audible App (at least in my situation) will not initiate the power up of my FM Transmitter. Finally, in addition to fixing these problems, they really need to add the ability to do an in-app purchase. So, in the end, I really enjoy the Audible product and listening to audio books, but darn that app is buggy!
Paul
I totally agree with your whole review. I have experience the same problems and have reluctantly gone back to using the itunes player. I would be especially nice you you could sync to the cloud.
Their official help site FAQ actually states that the solution to the problem is to uninstall the app. Then two questions down they tell you that when you uninstall you loose all your downloads. Poor.
hmm.. app has been working fine for me. i use it daily to listen to my WSJ subscription and other audiobooks. i love that i dont need to download and sync through itunes. i wish all the data like listening stats and bookmarks were saved in the cloud.
I just stumbled across this post via Google. If you haven't tried the Audible app again recently, I suggest giving it another whirl. I think most of your concerns have been addressed, except the bookmark syncing issue. Overall though I'm really loving it.
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