Nothing like a pandemic to make you think about how you spend your time. With families locked down for weeks, activities and projects are a welcome and downright necessary distraction.
But as the weeks pass, it becomes increasingly clear that there are only a limited number of 5,000 piece Monopoly puzzles or games we can solve. You’re probably already taking on more productive projects, like these 10 technical spring cleaning tasks.
Why not spend some time learning too? Magazine articles and in-depth articles from your favorite publications are a great place to start. We’ll show you how to listen to them with Audm, effectively turning those stories into podcasts.
Wait, is it like Audible?
You’ve probably heard of Audible. The Amazon-owned platform is synonymous with the audiobook marketplace. It sells and produces audiobooks and even shows that you can listen with you on just about any device.
Audm does something similar but with a whole new form of media. With Audm, owned by The New York Times, you can listen to a commented version of an article or story, without a physical or web version of the publication.
Audible and Audmn are both subscription-based and allow you to download content to listen to later on the go.
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So how does Audmn work?
The Audm app, available for Android and Apple smartphones, gives you access to thousands of stories from dozens of publishers, read by top audiobook narrators. Publications include:
- The New York Times
- the new yorker
- Atlantic
- WIRED
- rolling stone
- The New Republic
- New York magazine
- BuzzFeed News
- vanity lounge
Here’s the catch: it’s a paid subscription. Audm costs $8.99 per month for iOS or $7.99 per month for Android. You can save money with a $59.99 ($5 per month) annual plan for either operating system.
Keep in mind, however, that the monthly fee is much lower than what you would pay to subscribe to all of those magazines or news outlets separately. If you’re a news junkie, this might actually save you some money.
You can try it for free for three days, but be sure to cancel if it’s not worth the monthly payment for you. Once your trial period is over, you will automatically be charged for the subscription you have chosen.
How to Setup and Use Audm with iOS
Whether you’re listening at home or on the go, the app is simple to use. First, use this link to download the app.
Click Get Started, create an account, then click Register. Choose a plan, tap Continue, and follow the iTunes subscription steps.
Scroll through the stories and tap the play button to immediately start listening to any track, or tap the share icon to share the story on social media or via messages or email. Select the plus icon to download the article for later listening or play afterwards to enter it into the queue.
The options at the top of the home screen allow you to filter articles by publication or by author. Tap Refine to sort stories by original publication date, date added to Audm, narrator, or length, which ranges from 10 minutes to three hours.
To find stories you’ve saved for later, click Queue at the bottom of the screen and select the story you want to listen to. At any time while listening, you can adjust the narrator’s playback speed, pause the story, rewind or reverse the article in 15-second increments, and set the duration to play all the stories in your queue. waiting, until the end of the current article, or total playing time.
Tap Account to enable Use cellular data if you’re on Wi-Fi, Always use dark mode, or Manage your subscription.
How to Setup and Use Audm with Android
Tap or click here to download for Android.
After installation, launch the application, click start and follow the steps to subscribe. The Android version is not as robust as the iPhone app. Android users can sort stories by editor, narrator, or author.
Other features including Queue are same as Apple except Account. Here you can enable Use cellular data when Wi-Fi is off and set notifications when disk space is low.
One thing you can’t do is manage your account within the app itself.
To cancel or make changes, you must access your Google Play Store account. Just click manage.
There you have it, a simple way to listen to all the articles you wanted to read.
Now that you’ve switched up your reading game, why not mix up your game show when you’re stuck at home? Tap or click to find out how you can get personalized TV show recommendations with a free streaming app.