My girlfriend's 80-something mother was an avid reader of romantic novels (I guess you're never too old), until failing eyesight and arthritis made it impossible for her to handle books. She lives in a seniors' residence and is a loner, so she is sensorily deprived.
What I'm looking for is some way to make Audiobooks improve her quality of life. I know NOTHING about MP3 and would appreciate it if someone in the know could tell me if an MP3 player would fit this requirement. I have a PC with Windows XP Home Edition, so I have the tools to download files. I am a pensioner, so I need to buy the right device the first time. Because I'm familiar with CDs, I placed some requests for advice in the CD threads on this site. Here is the criteria I listed for my requirements:
NEEDS -motorized slot-loaded -bookmark function -simple remote control -headphone jack -$150.00 or less (I'm a pensioner)
NICE TO HAVE -CD-R/RW/CD/MP3
NOT REQUIRED -Recording function
I suspect that MP3 technology would do the job better, but as I said, I know nothing about MP3. If someone could anyone could give me some suggestions, I would greatly appreciate it.
Most DVD players these days will also play MP3's. If she is not on-the-go, that may be a better option as the on-screen menus for search, pausing, ff, rev, etc. are usually well laid out and large enough to read (if she has a television). Headphone jack would have to come from the TV. You can buy them for less than $60 online. I bought a phillips dvp642 for $72. (It will play just about every kind of media file) If you have a DVD burner you could also burn DVD's for her instead of CD's and fit 6 times more on a single disk.
I also have a coule of cheap CD and Flash USB MP3 players. I would not recommend them for audio books because they are generally difficult to bookmark, search, and fast forward through very long books. They are OK for music, but with an 8 hour book can take 5 minutes to find your place if you loose it or fall asleep with it on.
I usually use a 20GB iPod for portability, but they are pretty expensive and CD media is more convieniant for someone not technical.
I also have a couple of fujitsu stylistic 1200 pen tablet computers I bought from ebay for $120 each. They run Win 98 with WinAmp players. You have to network into them to load books onto the 4GB HD. Too technical for her but a very cool and comparitively cheap full featured audio player.
Cheers and good luck. I applaud your cause and I'd be glad to burn some of my books and mail them to you if you like. Just email me. (not sure I have much romance but maybe some)