Amazon sells eBooks and audiobooks (along with just about anything else you can imagine). Now you can use a single app to access both audiobooks and eBooks on your Android or iOS device.
The latest Amazon Kindle apps add better support for audiobooks from Audible, allowing you to switch between text and audio with a single tap.
You can also now “upgrade” eBooks in your library with just a few taps. Open a book you’ve purchased from Amazon, open the menu and if you see an “Upgrade with Audio” icon that means you can pay $0.99 or more to get the matching Audible audiobook version of that title. There are also audio samples, so you can get an idea of what the narration sounds like before spending any money — not all narrators are created equal.
Amazon’s WhisperSync for Voice will keep your progress synchronized, letting you listen to an eBook while driving or walking and then pick up where you left off in the text version of the book once you’ve got time to sit down and do some old-fashioned reading.
Of course, this is all kind of a way to get you to pay twice for the same book… but that’s a small price to pay for convenience… or sometimes it’s a small price anyway. Some of the books in my library would cost $12.99 to “upgrade” with audio.
Catching up to overdrive.