In a nutshell…

Audiobooks on your mobile, complete with chapters, bookmarks, sleep-proof playback and a PC management suite. It’s a literary fun-fest!

Judgement time…

Audiobooks might be an acquired taste, but there’s no denying they’re at home on a phone. See, it’s the perfect device – small, with a proper headphone socket (if you’re lucky), and packing enough capacity to squeeze in a library’s worth.

It’s for that reason Nokia has cranked out Nokia Audiobooks, and it’s good news for talking book fans. See, the package comes in two halves, a player for your handset and a ‘manager’ for your desktop PC, managing a pretty good job of shoehorning literature onto your mobile.

This isn’t a completely happy story though. While the handset app is fast and full featured, the PC software lets the side down. When we heard the word ‘manager’ used to describe it we expected an iTunes like experience, collating our audiobooks into a digital library, but that’s not how it works.

The desktop software is more use for converting CDs to Nokia’s file format. It doesn’t manage your library so much as translate it.

Once books are transferred to the handset though, things really hot up. Nokia’s player can handle chapters, mark your progress with bookmarks and even be set to stop playing between each chapter so you won’t miss too much if you fall asleep while listening. It’s not able to download audiobooks directly from the internet however, which is a disappointment.

As an early version this app shows immense promise. It’s clear more functions will be added soon, and lets not forget Nokia’s new Music Store, which could easily sell us books on the move.

For the time being, however, it’s a nice novelty. There’s enough here to please current audiobook fans, but little to convince new converts.