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Message Playaway Founded upon a single, novel idea, Findaway was a fledgling digital media company that came to IDEO to develop their introductory product offering. The idea, conceived by Findaway’s three founders, was to produce the first self-playing digital audiobook. The concept would streamline a modern storytelling/listening process that had evolved in technology from multivolume cassette tapes and CDs, to most recently, memory-consuming internet downloads. In an attempt to bring both compact scale and plug-and-play immediacy to the audiobook market, Findaway and IDEO designed a preloaded, portable MP3 player that came with everything but the ears to listen to it with. Little bigger than a Tic Tac container, a single Playaway can hold up to a 500-page book—from best-selling fiction and business titles to instructional language editions—that plays with the press of a button. The simple and intuitive button functions allow the user to bookmark sections, adjust the speed of the narrator’s voice, and return to the latest stopping point. The included headphones, lanyard, and AAA battery lend to the convenience and travel-readiness of Playaway. In exactly one year, IDEO helped take Playaway from an idea to a fully executed consumer electronic product, conducting human factors research, designing the product’s wedge-shaped form, overseeing the electronic engineering, and acting as a trusted advisor in the sourcing of a manufacturer and materials. As of November 2005, Playaway is available in bookstores, electronic stores, and libraries around the US. http://www.ideo.com/work/playaway/