New Audio Tours: iJourneys

Today's NY Times has an artucke about a new audio tour company, iJourneys. It looks like a good one. [iJourneys]

Sounds for Sights - Audio Walking Tours

There was a comment on this blog a while back about another website offering audio tours, Sounds for Sights. I don't think they offer them directly through iTunes, but you can buy them off their website. It seems to be limited now to New York City, but expanding to Boston and DC soon.

More on PodGuides

Today's Boston Globe has an article, Audio-tours de force, today on PodGuides, though they don't use the name. The article talks about one company, Audissey Guides, which is producing digital audio tour guides, though these don't seem to be avaible directly on iTunes. The Globe is also carrying an AP story, Georgia college pushes for iPod ingenuity, about iPod uses for the classroom. One of these uses is an an audio museum tour for one of the classes. I am seeing more and more audio tours available online. For a recent trip to Chicago, I found a free audio tour to Chicago's new Millenium Park.

Be a Podguide!

I have writtien before about audio tour podcasts, where anyone can make a audio tour of anywhere and distribute it as a podcast to anyone with an iPod. I would like to call on anyone with something interesting to say to create podguides about their favorite places. Whether it is a museum exhibit or the local downtown or ever a nearby mall, take a walk through it with your tape recorder and let everyone know why it is worth visiting. Though this would help any person see what you see, it would greatly help the visually impaired, like myself, see what we cannot see alone.

Lend us your eyes!

The Complete Guide to iPod Audiobooks

The iPodLounge website has an excellent introdcution to using iPods to listen to audiobooks. So, if you have been thinking about becoming an audiobook listener, but have not yet taken that first step, this is for you.

Audio Tour Podcasts

The Times featured an article, With Irreverence and an iPod, Recreating the Museum Tour, a few months back that highlights a great idea. Folks are creating their own audio tours of museums and distributing them as podcasts. This is fantastic for two reasons.

First, this open up more possible source for audio tours. Museum-goers no longer need to depend on museums to develop decent audio tours. Many museums don't have the resources or choose not to spend their resources on developing audio guides, so there are many museums and exhibits that don't have audio tours. Now anyone interested can make one. Not all podcast tours will be good, but some will be. There is now opportunity for varied viewpoints to emerge. Competition among any tour guide developers should eventually develop a good selection for the museum goer. This could also be extended outside museums to walking tours of cities or other places of interest. [Audible.com already offers audio walking tours of the Big Apple in the Soundwalk series.]

Secondly, creating podcasts is a very democratic process, meaning that it is free and fairly easy to do. So anyone, including you or I, can create our own audio tours of our favorite places. Many people have amazing knowedge and insights that would make for great audio tours. Now, with a computer and a little drive, you can share your thoughts and insights with the rest of us.

All we need now is a directory of audio tours which may already exist. Podcastdirectory.com already lists a few audio tour podcasts. Podguides.net appears to be a good effort to coordinate and encourage these audio tours.

PS The LA Times also has an interesting article on audio tours.

Audio Books - New York Times

According to the New York Times today, Audio Books are becoming both more popular and more acceptable to the reading purist. I hope this trend continues as I rely on audio books for all of my non-professional reading. As the demand grows, so will the supply and variety of good quality audiobooks.

A Site for Sore Ears: A Review and Tour of Audible.Com - AccessWorld - March 2005

AccessWorld has an updated review, A Site for Sore Ears: A Review and Tour of Audible.Com, of Audible.com. I know I have posted about the virtues of Audibble.com before, but this update is worth looking st.

Talking Pages - An Audio Book Lending Library for the Visually Impaired

Someone in New Jersey has launched a web-based lending library for audio books, Talking Pages - An Audio Book Lending Library for the Visually Impaired. The aunt of Talking Page's creator is visually impaired, which isnpired him to start this website to make expensive audiobooks more widely available. Check it out. Don't forget to check out your local library as well.

Review: Audio Travel Guides

The NY Times had a review a while ago called Put the Guidebook Away and Listen While You Look about a new service that provides audio travel guides. Though I have not had a chance to try these $10 guides, I look forward to doing so on my next trip. I am very sick and tired of trying to fish for my reading glasses to squint at the tiny print in today's printed guides. Currently, the site only offers tours of five US cities and one English city, but I imagine that they are busy expanding their selection.

Easy Reading with Audible.com

Many people have realized the convenience that audiobooks provide. Not only are they great for many handicapped people, but audiobooks can be helpful to just about anyone. The main inconvenience has always been managing the large number of tapes or CDs for any unabridged book. If you have not heard about it already, there is a online company that provides books on tape without the this problem. Audible.com delivers audiobooks over the internet as computer files to be loaded on to your MP3 player or listened to at your computer. I have used this service for serial years now and love it. I can only read regular print text with low vision aids, so recreational reading was out of the question until I came across this service. The company has several subscription plans that keeps the cost of audiobooks around $10 per book, much less than the costs at your local bookstore. Many libraries are also beginning to offer Audible.com's services as a well. There are a few downsides. Audible.com does not offer the Harry Potter books, thought their collection is growing by leaps and bounds. You may only use 'certified' MP3 players, which include the iPod and the Creative Muvo. MP3 players have not been designed with accessibility ideas in mind, so they vary in their ease of use. [I will post my thoughts on the accessibility of MP3 players later on.] Lastly, the service is not free. Services for the blind, such as the National Library Service for the Blind and Physically Handicapped, and your local library offer audiobooks for free. Despite the drawback, I am a big fan of Audible.com. Give it a try. PS Here is a great article, Books on Tape Without the Tape! about Audible.com from the January, 2003 issue of AccessWorld, the American Federation of the Blind's online journal of Technology and People with Visual Impairments, on Audible.com. The article goes into detail about accessibility issues and links to an email list for blind Audible.com listeners.

NYTimes: MoMA Helps Visitors To Use Ears To See

This is a little off-topic, but interesting nonetheless. A few weeks ago the New York Times ran an article, "MoMA Helps Visitors To Use Ears To See" on the front page of its Arts section describing the Museum of Modern Art's launch of a new set of audio guides. One of these audio tours, called Visual Descriptions, is meant to present "extended visual descriptions of highlights from the Museum’s permanent collection especially for blind or partially sighted visitors." MoMA claims that it is the first of its kind. I hope that it is not the last. Audio guides are very helpful for me, even when I can see the exhibition. You can find out more about this audio guide from Acoustiguide's website. More and more museums seem to offer audio tours, so check with any museum that you visit. It never hurts to ask.