I downloaded Audible Manager and 1 book from the Audible.com site toady, as Audible now supports the new iPOD running 2.0.
At first it would not recognise the iPOD. Calling Audible I was advised that I needed to install MusicMatch for it to work.
Being a huge MC fan and liking MM about as much as a hole in the head I decied to find another way.
It seems that the Audible Manager only needs the iPOD Manager utility and not MM for it to work.
This can be found on the iPOD CD under Programs/iPOD windows. Running the set-up file found here installs the iPOD manager without MM.
The sync with Audible Manager works great and so far is not interfering with synching with MC.
What is noticeable however, is the poor performance of the iPOD when playing Audible files.
They are found listed by Genre under Spoken Word, not by Artist or Album, but are listed under song.
Sound quality is fine but the speed of the iPOD degrades and there can be a wait of 10 seconds for a reaction after button presses and the screen occaisionally freezes, when playing Audible files. It seems that this has something to do with the iPOD marking the last position heard so that on next listening you can start where you left off.
When returning to playing MP3s, however, the performance returns to nornal.
Maybe this will improve with an upgrade to 2.0.