óma is a Quenya word meaning "voice". Coincidence or not, but on August 1st , 2008 almost all Tolkien titles will be released as OMA Mobile Editions.

OMA mobile editions are downloadable audiobooks, the same as the ones already available on CD and as downloads from Audible.co.uk. These will be available for people to download onto their mobile phones through a company that specializes in this. It is not know yet how exactly this will work, but we will find out soon.

Already since last year, from November 10, 2007, HarperCollins UK offered the opportunity for readers to browse their latest book extracts on the Apple iPhone en iPod touch.

This application is still available to iPhone and iPod touch users at Apple's web apps site at http://www.apple.com/webapps/. As far as I know Harper Collins is the only UK publisher to currently offer such a feature to customers. I believe now on August 1st we will see a new feature, that goes further then just browsing extracts, namely to download books to the mobile device.

In November 2007 one of the initial fifteen titles that were made available to browse was The Children of Húrin by J. R. R. Tolkien. On August 1st Tolkien will go mobile and the following OMA Tolkien Editions will be available:

- The Hobbit narrated by Rob Inglis (ISBN-10: 0007298153)- The Lord of the Rings narrated by Rob Inglis (ISBN-10: 0007298250)- The Children of Hurin narrated by Christopher Lee (ISBN-10: 0007298137)- Roverandom narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi (ISBN-10: 0007298110)- Farmer Giles of Ham narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi (ISBN-10: 0007298099)- Smith of Wootton Major/Leaf by Niggle narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi (ISBN-10: 0007298129)- Sir Gawain and the Green Knight: With Pearl and Sir Orfeo narrated by Terry Jones (ISBN-10: 0007299168)- Letters from Father Christmas narrated by Sir Derek Jacobi (ISBN-10: 0007298102)- and maybe others…

Once I know more... i'll post it here!

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