If you are often mindlessly behind the wheel of your car logging windshield time, perhaps with the radio on or maybe in silence, you could be missing an opportunity to engage your mind with positive or enlightening messages. Last year I read something Larry Winget wrote in one of his books about using driving time as another chance to learn.
Since then, I have used several different apps with my Android smartphone to listen and learn while in the car. I commute to my teaching job 40 minutes each day, and the average nonfiction audiobook is six hours in length. If I play an audio book on my way to and from school for each of the 190 days I make the trip, over the course of the school year, I will go through roughly 21 books!
These are the best and most used free apps I use to beam content to my Bluetooth connected radio:
Overdrive Media Console. This app will connect to your public library's audiobook collection and play them with a very nice interface. You are limited to your library's offerings just like you would be for regular books to check out, but if your library has a decent stock of titles, you'll be set. There are over 22,000 libraries that use the system, so chances are good you're a member of one. The other nice thing is that the audiobooks are automatically returned if you don't renew them... No late fees!
Umano. This app is unique in that it offers a curated list of interesting articles from major publications on many different subjects narrated by professional voice actors. I have found many thought provoking and interesting items using Umano. The people employed to read do a quite respectable job. At one time, I had a search in place for inspirational items. The app didn't disappoint, offering a wide array of news and general interest items that fit the category.
uListen is my current "go to" app in the car. It is just great. There are thousands of videos on the youtube with motivating, inspiring, informational, and fascinating topics. Many of these videos are perfectly understandable with no video playing at all (like taped motivational seminars) or are already audio only. uListen will search all of YouTube and will play only the audio from any given video. On the road, cell towers can be spread out. No video means less bandwidth and a smooth playback experience despite poor reception!
Stitcher bills itself as a kind of internet radio. What it actually is is a streaming podcast app with a wide array of content in 18 different subject areas, from current events to religion and spirituality. I like Stitcher because of its streaming platform. Podcasted shows aren't downloaded and don't take space on my phone. Episodes are also dynamically refreshed to the most current without my help. The app also allows the creation of a list of "favorites" to return to time after time.
Do you have favorites in this genre of app? Please share below. I'd love to hear from you!
Posted with Blogsy
No comments:
Post a Comment