Cool Tricks for The Economist

We subscribe to The Economist, and that means we have access to the full version of their online edition. It also means we have access to the word-for-word audio version of the print edition. Every week, you can download a zip file containing upwards of 91 (or so) MP3 files (48kbit/mono, about 150MB download), all neatly grouped into their own subject folder.

Having everything neatly grouped sounds good, but in practice, it's a bit of a mess. I don't want a jillion sub-folders in my iTunes library, so I am using a *fantastic* tool called Audiobook Builder to merge all the tracks into one giant AAC track with chapter stops and category stops. Oh, and it's bookmarkable, so you can pick up where you left off, or if you want to go back to a specific timestamp, you may. I could also add artwork to each of the chapter stops, but it only had the cover art, and I am too lazy to create an app/macro that will impose the chapter name onto the cover art. Hmm... actually, perhaps I should investigate that... it'd be really cool, but then I'd also have to figure out a way to add it to each file (I wouldn't want to do that manually).

Cool Tricks for The Economist

We subscribe to The Economist, and that means we have access to the full version of their online edition. It also means we have access to the word-for-word audio version of the print edition. Every week, you can download a zip file containing upwards of 91 (or so) MP3 files (48kbit/mono, about 150MB download), all neatly grouped into their own subject folder.

Having everything neatly grouped sounds good, but in practice, it's a bit of a mess. I don't want a jillion sub-folders in my iTunes library, so I am using a *fantastic* tool called Audiobook Builder to merge all the tracks into one giant AAC track with chapter stops and category stops. Oh, and it's bookmarkable, so you can pick up where you left off, or if you want to go back to a specific timestamp, you may. I could also add artwork to each of the chapter stops, but it only had the cover art, and I am too lazy to create an app/macro that will impose the chapter name onto the cover art. Hmm... actually, perhaps I should investigate that... it'd be really cool, but then I'd also have to figure out a way to add it to each file (I wouldn't want to do that manually).