Audiobookster - An audiobook player with smart integration with SkyDrive

[Peter Valtersson]

Audiobookster is a new audiobook player for the Windows Phone.

Features:

• Smart integration with SkyDrive allows you to start playing your audiobook quickly.
• Plays under the lock screen and in the background.
• Stream your audiobooks directly from SkyDrive.
• Make audiotracks available offline (download to your phone) for convenient access when you want to save battery or your data plan.
• Remembers the listening positon in each book so that you can have many books that you keep listening to.
• Rearrange the playorder to your liking
• Displays the total duration of the audiobook so no more guessing where you are in the book.
• Effortlessly add audiobooks spanning several folders (discs)
• Music+Video integration
• Playback is stopped when unplugging the headphones
• Windows Phone 7.5 and 8 supported

Dedicated developer that will update the app regularly with new features, stability and performance improvements.

Link to the app in Windows Phone Store:
Audiobookster | Windows Phone Apps+Games Store (United States)

Edit, 4th of May:
The release of the update has taken more time than I first anticipated. I am still working on a couple of bugs but hope to have them resolved within a couple of days. After that I will submit the update to the Windows Store and if everything works as expected the update should be available by the end of next week.

I would also like to point out that the app does not allow access to the phones media library, due to severe restrictions in the Windows Phone OS and lacking features in the programming interfaces. I and others would be grateful if you could please add your vote that Microsoft enhance this part of the Windows Phone. Please vote here: http://wpdev.uservoice.com/forums/110705-dev-platform/suggestions/2418187-integrate-backgroundaudioplayer-and-xna-medialibra

 

[Narse77]

Thanks! I will check it out.

 

[Jupast]

No trial? Yeah not willing to buy something sight unseen thanks, no matter how good it sounds.

 

[Peter Valtersson]

No trial? Yeah not willing to buy something sight unseen thanks, no matter how good it sounds.

I am well aware of this and am right now finalizing a trial. Hopefully it is on the Windows Phone Store in about a week.

 

[Jupast]

I am well aware of this and am right now finalizing a trial. Hopefully it is on the Windows Phone Store in about a week.

Well that wasn't mentioned in your initial posting. Either way, thanks, looking forward to checking it out, the Skydrive part is very interesting indeed, wish more Apps did that

 

[Peter Valtersson]

You're correct. I have fixed that now. Thank you.

 

[Frederiksberg]

Now this IS interesting! I went off Windows Phone because of the lack of the ability to play audiobooks. Or rather the ability of the phone to recognize my audiobooks and remember the position. It was insanely annoying.

Does your app support sideloading the audiobooks directly from the computer, or does it have to go through Skydrive?

 

[Minion007]

Can I copy mp3's with the data cable and play them with Audiobookster or do I have to upload them to Skydrive first and then download them? If so what folder do I put them in?

 

[tmservo]

If only the Audible app actually worked, it would be worthwhile.. but it doesn't, and I doubt this will play audioble format..

But it's the right idea. Hopefully it will encourage them to fix their app.

 

[mcnaldo]

I bought this app because it seemed to do what I have been searching for an app to do; play audiobook files that I load onto the phone - even if you get them onto the phone in a roundabout manner. I was however put off as soon as I went to download files from Skydrive, because it essentially required full access to my Microsoft account. I don't see why it would need access to anything more than my files. Until this is fixed I will continue using AudiobookMark which offers the same funcionality, but only requires access to my files. The problem with AudiobookMark is that it is a bit buggy due to it being coded for wp7.

I hope you keep your promise about a quick development cycle and fix the issues I mentioned and hopefully also implement a way to work on files already on the phone or sideloaded from the desktop.

 

[Peter Valtersson]

Thank you for your input, mcnaldo. It is much appreciated.
The permissions currently needed are: Access your name, gender, display picture, contacts and friends, access your info anytime, sign you in automatically and view your SkyDrive photos and documents. It may be that the app asks for more permissions than that it actually needs so I will check that.

I have understood that a lot of people would like to access their audiobooks stored in the phones media library. So would I. But, as of now it is not possible to make an audiobook app that can do that. Microsoft has put in some severe restrictions in the phones OS, that prevent background players from accessing the media library. Only foreground applications can access the media library. Please vote on this restriction being lifted here: Integrate BackgroundAudioPlayer and XNA MediaLibrary
I have also looked into the option of giving up background playing to get access to the media library but the next problem I encountered were that the programming api against the media library does not have any functionality for setting the listening position, ie it would not be possible to resume listening where you were last time.

So, my experience with the Windows Phone is that it is a closed system with some half-baked programming interfaces, and it is not well suited for audiobook listening. Within these strict limitations I have done my best to develop an app that will enable audiobook listening. As long as the phone does not support access to the media library, we will have to resort to external file servers like SkyDrive.

With the first update I aim at solving many stability and performance issues that has been reported. I will also add a few new features that has been requested.
This update will hopefully be available at the end of the next week.

 

[Adam Lindholm]

Hi,

Thank you for putting in time on making an audiobook player for WP, it really neads a good one! Im using Audiobookmark right now but it is really really buggy.

There is still no trial on WP7.8. In the works?

 

[Peter Valtersson]

Hi,

Thank you for putting in time on making an audiobook player for WP, it really neads a good one! Im using Audiobookmark right now but it is really really buggy.

There is still no trial on WP7.8. In the works?

Hi and thank you very much. I'm aware of the problems and has been working hard on solving them. A few days ago I submitted version 1.1 for certification and it will hopefully be available for download in a few days. Hopefully this update will solve most of the problems. Trial will be enabled with this update as well.

 

[dalogrus]

Hi, first of all - thanks for developing an audiobook app for WP8...
I did buy the app a few hours back and I'm really struggling with making an audiobook that I uploaded to Skydrive available offline.
The app claims that its forever syncing - yet when I leave the phone be - the screen will go off and when i wake it up it tries to resume and pops up an error and then still says it is syncing, but I dont't know if it starts from scratch, tries to continue or failed and does nothing?
Can you please tell me, what your thoughts were when designing and coding the app? Is it supposed do download in the background or do i need to sit by the phone and keep it alive until the audiobook downloads?
Regards
dalogrus

 

[Peter Valtersson]

Hi, first of all - thanks for developing an audiobook app for WP8...
I did buy the app a few hours back and I'm really struggling with making an audiobook that I uploaded to Skydrive available offline.
The app claims that its forever syncing - yet when I leave the phone be - the screen will go off and when i wake it up it tries to resume and pops up an error and then still says it is syncing, but I dont't know if it starts from scratch, tries to continue or failed and does nothing?
Can you please tell me, what your thoughts were when designing and coding the app? Is it supposed do download in the background or do i need to sit by the phone and keep it alive until the audiobook downloads?
Regards
dalogrus

Hi dalogrus,
What does the error message popping say? Please make sure you have version 1.1 of the app. Version 1.1 became available yesterday but I am unsure whether it has been rolled out in all regions yet. The app downloads using the phone's built-in background download manager. There are however some problems with this background downloader as it sometimes will take long time for it to communicate back to the app, the progress of the download. You should not have to sit by the phone and keep it alive, but please try connecting it to external power and use wi-fi while downloading. Please let me know if this problem persists and I'll try to help you.

Kind regards,
Peter

 

[dalogrus]

Hi Peter,
I managed to get the book downloaded by adding one chapter at a time. I have another book at home and will upload it later, make screenshots of the errors (should any occur) and send them to you by e-mail.
Regards
dalogrus

 

[Peter Valtersson]

Hi Peter,
I managed to get the book downloaded by adding one chapter at a time. I have another book at home and will upload it later, make screenshots of the errors (should any occur) and send them to you by e-mail.
Regards
dalogrus

Great, thanks a bunch!

 

[Adam Lindholm]

I couldnt wait so I bought the 1.0 I have since updated to 1.1 but the same problem I had persists. When I try to download from SkyDrive I get the formentioned error. It doesnt matter if I have WiFi and external power connected.

Error message: "Unable to add background transfer request. The application request limit has been reached"

Any suggestions?

 

[Peter Valtersson]

I couldnt wait so I bought the 1.0 I have since updated to 1.1 but the same problem I had persists. When I try to download from SkyDrive I get the formentioned error. It doesnt matter if I have WiFi and external power connected.

Error message: "Unable to add background transfer request. The application request limit has been reached"

Any suggestions?

The new version won't be able to fix any already broken downloads. Delete the book and add it again, select the files you wish to sync down. If you still have problem, let me know.

 

[Adam Lindholm]

Yes I tried that, several times actually. The book spans 38 files and 800mb, does that factor in?