Akimbo is one of my most-used applications on my Android.  Let me explain why.

I grew up without a television in our home from the time I entered elementary school until I was in college.  I read.  I read a LOT. The summer that I was 12, my brother and I would each check out the limit of 20 books at the library and, over the course of the next week or so, we’d real all 40 books.  All through my high-school years, I had a wallet in one back pocket and a paperback book in the other.  I’d read during classes, in between classes, after classes, and on the ride too and from school.  By the time I finished high school, there were several authors that I had completely read all of their works.

As I got older, my interests matured and changed.  I had less time to read, but still had a library at the house full of books on theology, religion, origins, apologetics, and so forth.  All that changed though on March 15, 2005.  I became disabled and could no longer concentrate enough to read much.  I haven’t read a complete book since.  Luckily though, than handicap doesn’t include listening to audio books.  I have over 200 titles in my Audible.com collection, and over 200 gigabytes (about 2,000 hours worth) of books in the popular M4B format.

The M4B format, for those of you that are not familiar with it, is kinda like an MP3, but is designed for longer works, often with chapters defined in it, that you might return to on occasion and want to pick back up at certain places.  In other words, you can bookmark it and don’t have to start the file at the beginning every time you want to listen to it.  And, like MP3s, you can include cover art, author, and other “tags” in the file.  This is perfect for audio books.  There is very reasonably priced software out there that will allow you to combine MP3 files into these m4B files yourself.  I myself use Chapter Master for creation of these files, but there are other products out there as well.

Once you have these created for your listening pleasure though, you need something to play them.  On a desktop, that is easy with iTunes.  On an iPhone or iPod, they natively recognize the M4B format and will play them.  But a dedicated player that allows for easy navigation between chapters and bookmarks is essential for the best listening experience.  And that, finally, is where Amimbo comes in.

Akimbo comes with a free trial version and a paid version for $2.50.  While there are a couple of other apps out there that will play M4B files, Akimbo is, by far, the best.  It has a comprehensive set of features, is regularly updated, and Reed, the developer, is lightning fast in answering user questions and incorporating user suggestions.  He can be reached directly via email, or via the app’s Facebook page.  Contacting him directly though is usually not even necessary due to the complete online manual available for the app.

And, while I focus on M4B audio book files, this player does a whole lot more.  It also plays M4A, MP4, MP3, and ogg vorbis files.  This makes it not only perfect for books, but also for podcasts and lecture series.  I even use it for sermon series from places like SermonAudio.com if I find a series on a topic of interest or a series on a particular book of the Bible.  And it does so with not only the player itself, but with an optional widget, as displayed in the image to the left.

Since audio capabilities differ a bit depending on the age of your Android and its OS, it is recommended that you try to free version before purchasing the full one.  It has the full feature set as the paid version, but pauses for 15-seconds after every 5-minutes of playback.

As I mentioned, the app has a great set of features.  Besides all the different formats of audio files that it plays, it boasts of the following:

• Reads cover images and chapter information from within audio book files.
• Parses WMA and FLAC (actual ability to play depends on your device).
• Maintain your last position and last set volume level for each book.
• Allows bookmarks for each book.
• Configurable step buttons for quick shifts forwards or backwards.
• Easy to use “go to” dialog that will take you instantly to any chapter or position throughout the book.
• Home Screen Widget.
• Allows a one-click automatic download of covers for any book, or for your entire library at once.
• A configurable “lock” mode, which prevents accidental changes of position during play.
• Sleep Timer, pausing play after a specified time.
• Loads your entire library at once: offers a one-click scan of any folder tree on your device.
• The player screen offers a host of accessibility and experience improving features, including large-font and human voice indication (and approval) for your actions.
• Allows undoing and redoing any accidental change in position while listening.
• For easy listening to your audiobook without looking at the screen (while engaged in some other action or for the visually impaired) it offers a range of accessibility features (including human voice indications) as well as an option to lock the player against accidental changes.
And the feature set continues to grow.  A recent update included new widget options, new cover options, new headset controls, and so forth.  For example, if your book doesn’t have a cover image associated with it, the app can go get that for you.  If it has one and you don’t like it, you can download others from within the app.  And, once you have multiple covers to choose from, you can choose which ones are displayed.  And, if you are like me and sequentially number books/files in a series, the app can even strip out those leading numbers when searching for the cover images for the book.
It is that level of detail and responsiveness to suggestions (yes, some of those were mine) that has me recommending Akimbo so highly.  I’ve tried every app out there for the Android that says it plays M4B audio book files.  Nothing comes close to the feature set, developer support, and update frequency of Akimbo.  It definitely makes my Must Have list and I’d give it 5 stars out of 5.  But that is not to say that there is no room for improvement.  So, as usual with my reviews, I’d like to offer some suggestions.
  • While there is currently a long list of primary, secondary, and tertiary sort options for the library, I’d love to have track number and file location added to those
  • While it is quite easy to jump to a specific chapter number and hour/minute location in a book, I would love for there to be some kind of chapter view that showed chapter names.  This would be very helpful when playing a file that came from combined MP3 files (like a podcast series) that had different titles for each MP3.
  • The Audible app allows you to add a comment or note to a bookmark.  I know that probably couldn’t be added to the M4B file itself, but it would be a cool feature to add.
  • Right now, you can store your library configuration file on your SD card.  I would love to see this idea extended so that you could have multiple files in a folder with a set of books.  This would allow you to have separate configurations for books versus podcasts, for example.

Don’t let my feature request list deceive you though.  This app either already does pretty much everything you need, or is likely to in the future.  So go ahead and grab it.  If you are a fan of listening to anything other than music MP3s, it will be the best $2.50 that you ever spent.  And, to help you along, I’ll even include the QR code for it! :)