Netbook Network

Previously reviewed on Netbook Network was Angel’s Vox, an audio player like no other dedicated to playing audiobooks. The program itself may had been great, but the issue of finding audiobooks to listen to comes up. For finding music, you have applications such as iTunes and Zune in which you can purchase music and even get some tracks for free. Such a program now exists for audiobooks – the newly released Audiobook Downloader Pro is an application that aims to make finding and downloading audiobooks simple and straightforward. By searching and indexing LibriVox.org, Audiobook Downloader Pro provides a vast collection of free audiobooks to download. The program, however, is $30 – and download links are provided on LibriVox.org – so is Audiobook Downloader Pro worth to buy? Read the full review to find out!

This review was performed on a desktop computer with an Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600, 6GB DDR2 memory, and an ATi Radeon HD 4650. The version reviewed is Audiobook Downloader Pro 1.0. Special thanks to SuperUtils.com for providing a license.

Attention all GiveAwayOfTheDay users: Please read the second comment below about the differences between how I think of the software and reviewer Ashraf.

The first thing you see when you open Audiobook Downloader Pro is it’s squeaky clean interface. The SuperUtils.com team have really done a great job – it’s organized, easy to use, and makes sense.

At the very top, you get a nifty search bar that will provide results as soon as you press the “Enter” key (similar to Google or Bing). The “?” button on the search bar provides suggestions for searching – such as “Romeo and Juliet”, “Moby Dick”, “Homer”, and more. I don’t know where the suggestions come from exactly, but I believe they’ve either been predetermined or selected at random. Searching around is rocket fast, at no point in time was I at all frustrated by the search speed because results would always appear instantly.

Underneath is a toolbar consisting of four buttons (see first picture) – the first is used to open the page that has information on the chosen audiobook (at LibriVox.org), the second is used to download the audiobook, the third opens the settings for the program, and the fourth displays program information. They’re each pretty much self-explanatory to use, and you can even drag around some of the objects to your heart’s content – in the above photo, I’ve placed the toolbar next to the search bar.

Right underneath, you’re given your search results. The names are organized by language (if not english), then author, then the name of the book. Right clicking on anything in the list will give you the option to open the its website page, or download the audiobook. It’s a little messy in terms of organization – I’d love to see multiple columns on the search results with each column providing language, author, and then title.

If you want to open an audiobook’s webpage or download an audiobook, you can highlight it and use the toolbar or right click on the selection. Opening the page of an audiobook will provide you with information such as a brief description, various links, and more. I’d love to see this integrated within the program itself – where you can open a “Properties” window without having to open the actual webpage containing information. It’s not all that big of a deal, though. If you want to download an audiobook, a small list will pop up providing the various formats you can download in.

You’re provided with three formats available to choose from: MP3 at 64 kbps, MP3 at 128 kbps, and Ogg Vorbis (bitrate unspecified). The addition of more formats would be great, but it really depends on what LibriVox.org provides. Here’s an interesting feature that Audiobook Downloader Pro has: on LibriVox.org, you’re provided with download links for separate chapters of an audiobook, but in Audiobook Downloader Pro you can download the entire thing.

Which brings me to my next point: Audiobook Downloader Pro only supports LibriVox.org at the moment. That means there are only about 3800 or so audiobooks to choose from – mostly classics. There are other websites which provide audiobooks for free under the public domain such as BookShouldBeFree.com – but I’m not sure if the databases are identical or not, I couldn’t find an audiobook that was only available on one of the websites. It’s not really an issue of quality, but more of a quantity limitation. You won’t find any modern novels, because none of them are under the public domain. This means that the program simply won’t have that much appeal for those who aren’t fans of older books.

When you download an audiobook, you’re prompted with a download window.

It provides you with a progress bar, details, and the ability to pause, cancel, play, or open the location saved for a download. It’s quite well organized, but when you download multiple files at once, your desktop will be cluttered with these download windows. A download manager (such as the one in Firefox) would work a lot better than having separate windows. You can always minimize each window, though, so as long as you don’t download too many audiobooks in one run, you should be fine.

Opening the settings pane, you’re provided with a few options to choose from.

You can select a place to save all your audiobooks, modify what happens when you double click a list item, and choose whether or not to check for updates on program startup. It’s a pretty fool-proof settings window – simple and straightforward.

Well, that’s just about it – time to wrap up this review.

Conclusion:
Audiobook Downloader Pro is a brilliant application – with its clean, easy to use interface, users will get familiar with using the program instantly. By linking to LibriVox.org, a provider of free audiobooks in the public domain, Audiobook Downloader Pro searches and brings up results instantly. Downloading audiobooks is a snap, with the ability to choose from various formats, and if you want more details, you can always open up the audiobook webpage. Some users may not like the audiobooks available – but all of them are free anyway. Overall, it’s a great program and has the potential to be even better in updates ahead.

Pros:
-Clean, straightforward, easy to use interface, customizable (to an extent)
-Searches extremely quickly, with search suggestions
-Provides multiple formats for downloading
-Provides a link to the audiobook page at LibriVox.org
-Pause, play, and open the folder of a downloaded audiobook
-Audiobooks are completely free!

Cons:
-No proper download manager (each download is a separate window)
-Book selection may not interest all users
-List could be more organized (with columns)

Audiobook Downloader Pro has earned our Golden Award for excellent software – congratulations, SuperUtils.com! You can purchase Audiobook Downloader Pro on its website for $30.