Amazon Audible 2.0 app launched for Apple iPad

Posted on 21 Feb 2013 at 09:41, by Gareth Halfacree

Amazon has finally upgraded its Audible audiobook app to support Apple's iPad and iPad Mini, marking the first time the service has been available on non-iPhone devices.

Audible 2.0, which remains a free app, not only brings support for Apple's latest tablet devices but also comes with a revised user interface designed to look more like the sort of app a user would be running in the 21st century and address some of the usability concerns customers had with the original version.

Accordingly, the software now tracks the user's progress throughout a book correctly - putting an end to the annoying fast-forwarding required to continue listening to an audiobook on a second sitting. The software also includes Amazon Whispersync integration, allowing users to synchronise their progress through an audiobook with the eBook version on the Kindle app or Kindle eReader device: get the the start of chapter three in Audible, and a linked Kindle will turn to that chapter automatically when you open the eBook; finish that chapter on the Kindle and Audible will start from chapter four the next time you launch the app.

Additional tweaks and features include a simplified start-up sequence with Amazon account support, a progress bar indicating the remaining time on a book, mobile-optimised downloads that allow for up to three hours of data over a mobile network connection and a clever library filter that can hide titles once they've been listened to - with a single tap bringing them back if the user wants to hear them again.

Combined with a better search system, both for the library and for the integrated Audible store, Amazon appears confident that the long wait for the iPad version has not been in vain.

Audible 2.0 can be downloaded now for the iPad, iPad Mini, iPhone 3GS and higher, iPod Touch 3rd Generation or higher from the Apple App Store.