best audiobook player
 

Hello.
I both love and hate how the shuffle handles audiobooks.

It is small. it is eaisly concealable. I put the the ear-buds in, I put the pod down my shirt, I attach it to my pants and all I ever nee to do is pause and play.

Why should I pay so much extra for a screen when I dont need to pick and choose between different songs?
When I am at work, washing dishes or some other manual task, I love the ability to just quickly bring my hand down to my waist and discreately pause it, never drawing attention to the fact that I am listening to an audio book.


However, apple has put no effort into their software in regards to how the shuffle or Itunes handles audiobooks.
First, Itunes automatically syncs the audiobook. Which means I always lose my place. If I want to put a new Author's name would have been quite enough - no need to post a link... just looks like advertising podcast on my Ipod, Itunes will automatically synch everything on my ipod with what is on Itunes.... meaning that the bookmarks on my shuffle are replaced with the Itunes Bookmarks.

Further, every time I accidentally bump my Ipod the wrong way and hit the reverse button, it reverts to the verry beginning of the audiobook.
I used to just put a butterfly clip on the fast forward button to try to get my place back, but this is apparently so energy inefficient that It loses all of its battery life within an hour. Even if it is fully charged.



Honestly, how hard would it be to fix these two things.
Just make it so that, in the case of audiobooks, the bookmark in the Ipod is saved.
Next, whenever the reverse button on the Ipod is pressed, tell it to never revert to the beginning o the audiobook. only to reverse a little bit, as if it were held down.


There are other things that would help, such as how fast forwarding was handled, but the above two solutions are so common sense, and provides so much of an improvment, that I would have expected apple to do this a long time agao.

The new shuffle seems like it would be more akward in terms of trying to conceal it, as the cord of the earbuds would have to be work above the shirt. and it may take an extra second to fumble with where the controls are.

But even that would be fine if the voice over feature said at what point in the audiobook you were on. But it does now.




As it is, I am fed up enough that I am asking for advice. Moving away from the shuffle, and perhaps even away from Itunes.


Does anyone know of a small, clip on MP3 player/ application combo that would best handle audiobooks?
And if not, is there a way to fix my current problem without spending more money?


EDIT:
I really like my shuffle, and would hate to consider going to something like the player name would have been quite enough - no need to post a link... just looks like advertising, but even just being able to know what point I am in in the audiobook would help the auto sync problem. Of coarse, that doesnt play AAC files. and that is all my audiobook builder app creates.

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Edited to comply with the House Rules.
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You should keep iTunes on your pod; it's the easiest way to get updates from Apple. However, I wouldn't use iT for anything else. There are a number of free programs that make it easy to transfer files to/from your pod, and to as many computers as you want. Most of these programs will sync on command, or you can select files to transfer. I couldn't find a free prog that transferred videos, but not a prob for you.

download.co m or other free software sites will have a few of these programs, and many people have reviewed them; all can be found via Google, etc. There are a couple of these programs that can be stored on your pod so that you can download from any computer you plug into, regardless of OS. I don't know about bookmarks, but there are probably free readers that will run on your pod. Find easy instructions on the web if you need to learn how to tell your pod to act as as a mass storage device.

As to your accidently hitting the switches, you could probably inprovise a small hard case. A shuffle would likely fit into a medicine bottle.