Shelf Control: Listen Up With Tales2Go, The Netflix For Children's Audiobooks
Earlier this month, I featured Epic! here on Shelf Control. Essentially, Epic! is a kids' version of Oyster, in that it's the “Netflix for children's books” just as Oyster is, well, the “Netflix for books.” For this week's edition of Shelf Control, the spotlight is on another Netflix-type app for young book lovers. Specifically, this app is the so-called “Netflix for children's audiobooks,” Tales2Go.
Launched back in 2010 with a library of just under a thousand titles, Tales2Go now offers a library of thousands of children's audiobooks from leading publishers. These include the audiobook editions of classics like the “Curious George” and “Encyclopedia Brown” books and contemporary hits like the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” and “Hunger Games” series. The app offers easy streaming of audiobooks, with caching support for offline listening.
If you can't see the video embedded above, please click here.A couple of weeks ago, Tales2Go was updated to version 4.0. Tales2Go 4.0 introduced a new design inspired, of course, by iOS 7 along with several new features:
- Multivariable search. Now search for titles using multiple criteria, e.g., a history book for a 3-5th grader that's between 2-5 hours.
- Images of book covers on all returned lists.
- Expanded information on each title within a dedicated information section.
- Improved Menu features, including account information and a toggle switch for playing the next story (the default is one story at a time).
Tales2Go is free to try for 30 days. After the trial period, you can continue enjoying the service by getting a subscription for either $9.99 per month or $99.99 per year. Note that each subscription is available across up to five devices at a time.
Tales2Go is also available via special bulk pricing for schools, enabling use of the service by both students and teachers across a number of school devices ranging from 10 to hundreds.
Tales2Go 4.0 happens to also add support for school bookmarks. This new feature allows students and teachers to individually set and retrieve bookmarks on school devices for a dedicated school account and easily access the bookmarks on their personal devices.
As always, if you have suggestions for Shelf Control, please feel free to email me at aldrin@appadvice.com or simply leave a comment below.
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