Saturday, October 15, 2011

It Shouldn't be This Hard

Plugging in...

How hard is it to buy a book these days? What happened to the good, old days when you found the book you wanted, chose hardcover or paperback, paid for it and had a story waiting in the wings to read? Technology happened, and the options can sometimes boggle the mind.

A client bought a new, Nano iPod, successfully synced it to their computer via iTunes, logged into the Apple store with their known Apple ID and password. The client was quickly able to find several desirable books, bought the books and downloaded them to the iPod Nano. The books, however, would NOT sync to the iPod Nano. They clearly appeared in the iTunes library on the computer (sounds a bit like the game of Clue), but not on the Nano, nowhere, no how.

The key word here is BOOK. Books cannot be listened to on an iPod. That's right, a book cannot be listened to on an iPod. The mistake the client made... was purchasing the BOOK versions instead of the AUDIO BOOK versions! Dear reader, book buying online now requires a bit of education and, more careful reading.

There are books to read with one's hands - hardcover and paperback; audiobooks to listen to in the formats of MP3, WMA and others; books to read on a bookreader (such as a Kindle) or on a computer in the format of ePub (and others). If one wants to listen to a book, it must be in audiobook form. Comprende?  Careful reading of how the books are being offered will lead to obtaining the proper formats for the proper technology devices.

ALWAYS REMEMBER: before calling for help - is it plugged in, is it in AUDIO format, and is it turned on?

Unplugged

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