MakeUseOf.com: “Cool Websites and Tools [October 6th]” plus 12 more |  |
- Cool Websites and Tools [October 6th]
- The Best Settings & Formats For Capturing & Publishing Videos For YouTube
- 5 Of The Best WordPress 3.0 Compatible Portfolio Themes
- 10 Helpful Resources on the Basics For The Computer Illiterate
- Hot Tech Deals [Oct 6th]
- 10 Real Time Twitter Games You Can Enjoy With Just A Tweet
- Facebook Announces More Control Over Your Profile & Friend Groups [News]
- Five Tips To Use Dropbox As The Perfect Writing Environment
- Preview Free Sample Book Chapters From Amazon & iBooks
- Google Launches Website With Feature Set For Google TV [News]
- Hotot: A Fast, iPhone-Like Twitter Client For Linux
- Send Us Your Pictures Of You Wearing The MakeUseOf T-Shirt
- Give Your Wordpress Blog Lightning Fast Speeds With W3 Total Cache
| Cool Websites and Tools [October 6th] Posted: 06 Oct 2010 08:31 PM PDT
These are just half of the websites that we discovered in the last couple of days. If you want us to send you daily round-ups of all cool websites we come across, leave your email here. Or follow us via RSS feed. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
    
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| The Best Settings & Formats For Capturing & Publishing Videos For YouTube Posted: 06 Oct 2010 06:31 PM PDT
It’s really not that hard to upload a video (it’s just hard to get noticed, but here are some tips), but if you want to actually get started, you might need to know a few things beforehand, such as acceptable formats, lengths, settings, etc. Capture YouTube Video Straight From Devices You Already OwnCell PhoneYou can start capturing a video even if you don’t have a camcorder. Nowadays, most people have cell phones with decent video-capturing capabilities. If your mobile plan allows you to MMS or use e-mail, you can even send it straight to YouTube via your personalized upload email address (you do need to be signed in).
You can even check out YouTube’s mobile version that can “record and upload DVD-quality videos“. WebcamIf your computer has a built-in webcam, or you have an external webcam you can connect to your computer, head to the webcam upload option in YouTube, give YouTube the OK to use your webcam and microphone and off you go!
You can also use something like Manycam (Windows) or Cheese (Linux) to record from your webcam and then edit in your preferred video-editing program. Digital CameraYour digital camera will most likely come with different settings that you might need to experiment with to obtain a video with good enough quality and that fits in your memory card, of course. It’s always better to capture with the highest settings or resolution possible to ensure less pixelated captures. Even in my older Nikon CoolPix L14, there are options for “TV movie 640″ (640×480) that produces a decent-quality, standard-definition 480p video. After your capture, import the video into your computer, head to Youtube’s upload page, and select the AVI video. ComputerYou have a wide variety of choices to record from your desktop.
To get started fast, try Screenr (see above screenshot), or ScreenToaster that I have found to be enormously useful as it records in HD and gives you a downloadable and Twittable video. For the serial screen recorder, there’s Camstudio (Windows), Copernicus (Mac), and recordMyDesktop (Linux). Additional screen recorders include Jing (Windows and Mac) and Wink (an excellent tutorial or demo creator), although these record SWF files only, which YouTube doesn’t process and thus, can’t allow. As a Camstudio user, I recommend that you download the Lossless codec 1.4 (find it immediately below the Camstudio beta download link on the download page) and check the Autopan feature so your viewers won’t have to squint or put your video on full-screen.
Digital CamcorderIf your digital camcorder records in Digital8, MiniDV, HDV, or any of the DVD formats, then you shouldn’t have too much to worry about because you’re all set to capture Youtube video. For HD videos, make sure you’re recording at least in 1280×720 (for 720p) or 1920×1080 (for 1080p). If your camcorder’s not HD-capable, you can always shoot in the highest settings and resize it with video-editing software later. Your raw footage can be uploaded directly without any editing, but a bit of editing can go a long way. Maybe your clip can do better without a redundant segment (just make sure it’s shorter than 15 minutes!), or the audio should be louder. Let’s see the best free options you have to get your videos ready for YouTube. Publishing With The Best SettingsMost capturing devices have pre-set resolutions and settings so if you go with the highest settings possible, you’ll usually do fine with some minor editing. Dimensions & HD SettingsYouTube recommends dimensions of 640 x 480 for standard-definition videos and 1280 x 720 for high-definition videos that will dance around the site with the HD logo. Original videos of 640 x 480 will have black bars on the side in the video page.
To have no bars on the YouTube page only, a dimension of 640 x 360 can do the trick (or you can resize it to an HD dimension), but you might see black bars on your SD video if it’s embedded elsewhere.
To upload an HD video, your video needs to be pretty large, specifically 1280 x 720 (for 720p) or 1920 x 1080 (for 1080p). If you have SD videos, they could also bear the HD logo as long as you resize them and use a codec in your video editor that outputs the best quality possible, such as DivX or Xvid. Codecs For CompressionDivX is a propietary codec that uses the H.246 standard to encode (or convert) HD videos while retaining reasonably-sized files. Xvid is the open-source alternative MPEG-4 video codec that also compresses videos and “allows for more efficient storage” which means it also makes the video smaller at the best quality possible. When you use either of these and configure them in video editors (like the very capable VirtualDub), you can create ultra-clear videos that don’t ‘weigh’ a ton of MBs, but for most people, the 2GB limit is more than sufficient.
Frame RateIf you’re using Camstudio for example, you can set the frame rate (as opposed to cell phone video recording that doesn’t usually offer frame rate options) of the video you’re about to record, which should be a number in the 24-30 FPS (frames per rate) range, though 30FPS is standard. You can also set the frame rate in the post-capture process.
FormatsThe more popular video containers (AVI, MP4, MOV) are supported in YouTube. Most cameras output to AVI, which is freely ready for upload and to be edited in most free Windows video editors, such as VirtualDub and Avidemux. Other uploadable formats include 3GP (videos from cell phones), MPG, Flash videos (in FLV, FLV1, and the newer F4V formats, but not SWF), as well as WMV (which you get when you make a video in Windows Movie Maker.) Now Make Your Own VideosIf you run Windows on your machine, you will most likely have Windows Movie Maker (if not, you can download it here), which you can use to make home movies from your pictures. If you’re satisfied with your product, press Ctrl + P (or go to File > Publish Movie). Choose whether you’re saving the movie to your computer, as an e-mail attachment, DVD, etc. Then give your file a name, and in the Settings screen, select More Settings and Windows Media HD 720p in the drop-down menu, which will generate a video with dimensions 1280 x 720.
Click on Publish. For a how-to on Windows Live Movie Maker, check out YouTube’s official tutorial that also has additional tutorials on iMovie, Final Cut Pro and Sony Vegas: To render HD videos in VirtualDub, check this short video: Now you can try your hand to make some HD videos, but it’s up to you to inject some creativity in your pieces to garner more views. If you have more recommended settings to help people capture better Youtube video, be sure to tell us in the comments! Image credit: jonsson Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| 5 Of The Best WordPress 3.0 Compatible Portfolio Themes Posted: 06 Oct 2010 04:31 PM PDT
If you've not used WordPress 3.0 yet, then it's probably worth taking a little look around. If you're upgrading then you're probably going to want a nice new theme to take advantage of all the new stuff. Here's a selection of themes for the photographers, writers, coders and designers who need a little bit more from their blog. Boldy – Demo / DownloadProclaiming itself a “free premium WordPress theme”, Boldy certainly looks the part. Complete with a sexy-looking JavaScript slider on the home page, this theme adheres to a tried-and-tested portfolio layout.
Navigation resides at the top, then come your social networks (complete with fancy buttons), the JavaScript slider, a customizable “get a quote” button and a widgetized footer. The theme is suited to a variety of individuals including photographers, designers and artsy-types. Also included is WordPress thumbnail support, compatibility with the menu manager, a latest Tweets widget, pagination, Ajax and jQuery contact forms and the fantastic jQuery PrettyPhoto Lightbox. PhotoBlog – Demo / DownloadVery much geared towards photographers (how did you guess?) PhotoBlog from Web2Feel is a somewhat basic yet fully functional WordPress 3.0 theme. With the emphasis very much on your portfolio, this is suitable for illustrators and photo-monkeys whose blog posts consist of their recent work.
There's a theme options page in the admin panel, as well as compatibility with all major new WordPress 3.0 features. There's even some screencast video tutorials included in the admin panel to help you set up your theme. AutoFocus+ – Demo / DownloadThis one's the only theme on the list to use Thematic as a base, but worry not, the child theme comes with everything you need included and requires no more effort to set up than usual.
This portfolio Wordpress theme is the non-commercial version of AutoFocus+ Pro, which includes extended customizability over its free twin. Not to worry though, because AutoFocus+ still makes for a sexy stylistic choice for anyone working in the visual arts. Ideal perhaps if your blog is solely your portfolio, as each update is represented by an image on your blog's homepage. With some slick JavaScript for good measure, AutoFocus+ looks and feels beautiful. Modernist – Demo / DownloadOne for the writers, proof-readers and anyone whose portfolio mainly comprises of text. The focus is heavily on minimalism and typography, with no images or dependent plugins included. Because it’s tiny, Modernist will also keep you happy if you love an instant-loading website.
With support for WordPress 3.0's new features, creating a portfolio out of this one won't be too tricky with help from the menu manager. Easy to tweak, well-commented CSS means customizing the theme shouldn't take you long. There's native support for publishing to social networks including Facebook and Twitter (without the need for any plugins whatsoever), a widgetized sidebar and the theme's an SEO wet-dream due to its simplistic code. Webfolio – Demo / DownloadThis one pretty much follows the same formula as Boldy, which isn’t surprising as it was created by the same studio – Site5. The layout is very much similar, albeit with the Stepcarousel jQuery Slider on the homepage which allows for a bit more detail than the slider included with Boldy.
Suited to web designers and illustrators, the slider now highlights a number of “featured projects” with room for a neat little description too. There's a widgetized footer and room for three custom fields at the foot of the slider. Everything's administered through the theme options in your WordPress admin panel, so no tears to be had if you can't code. I can't finish this article without dropping in a sixth theme, which deserves an honourable mention… Twenty-Ten – Included With WordPressIt might sound a bit bizarre, but the new default WordPress theme is incredibly customizable. The best bit is you don't need to be a code junky to get it looking the way you'd like. Organising your sections with the new menu manager is a doddle, meaning that your portfolio is a couple of clicks away.
We’ve already got an article expounding the virtues of the new Twenty-Ten theme, which makes customization easy-peasy. This makes it a great choice for new users who want WordPress to just work, straight out of the box. Have you tried the latest WordPress yet? Got any favourite themes, or does Twenty-Ten do it for you? Share your thoughts and creations in the comments below. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| 10 Helpful Resources on the Basics For The Computer Illiterate Posted: 06 Oct 2010 02:31 PM PDT
There are a lot of people – particularly older folks – that really want to keep in touch with family and friends, and interact with other people online. Unfortunately, computer technology remains a very real barrier for them. Even basic computer terminology like file transfers, blogging, torrents…it all sounds like a foreign language to a very large part of the population. In an effort to help bridge the technological gap, I went out in search for free, high-quality online resources that can really help by providing tutorials and information about computer basics.
Top 10 Websites To Learn Computer BasicsJan’s Illustrated Computer Literacy 101The first site I’d like to touch on is called Jan’s Illustrated Computer Literacy 101. Upon first landing on the site I thought it was from the 1990’s. The design is a bit outdated and the some of the graphics are cheesy, but after browsing through the site you’ll see that Jan offers useful instruction that really will teach computers to someone who absolutely has no clue how computers work.
Custom Guide PDF Quick Reference GuideAnother very cool resource I found was a PDF quick reference guide from Custom Guide. While the site sells business training courses, it also offers this very useful two-page quick reference for novice computer users.
If you know anyone in your life that you’ve had to explain countless times how to copy files or the correct way to minimize or maximize a window – print out this PDF and give it to them. They’ll never have to ask again! Computer Basics & BeyondNext up is Computer Basics and Beyond. This site covers basic tips on computer maintenance, Internet browsing, security and more. There isn’t a lot of material, but for someone that is looking for very short, straightforward answers to basic computer issues, this will do the job.
Microsoft’s Digital Literacy Probably the most professionally done resource to learn computer basics comes directly from Microsoft at the Digital Literacy site. Here, you’ll find three “curriculum” levels – basic, standard and advanced. Each curriculum level provides a few tutorial videos that will walk the user through a list of lessons.
The videos will request that you install Silverlight. Obviously, this may trip up a novice, but if they can get through the installation, the videos are animated, interactive and very high quality. University Of North Carolina The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill probably offers one of the best free lists of online PDF instructional material for new computer users that you’ll find anywhere on the net.
The list of handouts covers everything from computer basics up through an introduction to Craiglist and eBay. These are all high quality, professionally written handouts provided as part of a community workshop series. Sandy Berger’s Compu-KISS Another useful site for computer novices to bookmark is Sandy Berger’s Compu-KISS site. Sandy’s site covers just about any aspect of computing that you can imagine. Her tutorials are very short, very simple, and offers screenshots to boot.
Terry Bellavance Resource Centre Another community service site is one provided by the The Terry Bellavance Resource Centre in Ontario. It is basically a free online tutorial where you start at the “Introduction” and click “next” – working your way through the illustrated tutorial at your own pace.
Senior’s Guide To Computers If you know an elderly person that is constantly getting frustrated while trying to use the Internet, point them to the Senior’s Guide to Computers website. It’s not a joke – it’s actually a website devoted to providing technical information about computers and the Internet in a manner that older folks will be able to understand.
Computer Help A to Z Computer Help A to Z is another good resource. While it’s formatted a bit like one of those websites seeking to sell subscriptions, it’s actually chock full of free tips and articles on basic computer topics. If you can overlook the cheesy clipart, it’s a great reference site.
Microsoft Office Finally, the last site for the computer illiterate is the MS Office website. While I’d rarely point any newbie to the Microsoft site for “easy-to-follow” instruction, this site actually has a lot of useful content, like “getting started with…” tutorials for each Office product.
So, whether you or someone you know starts to panic at the mere sight of a mouse and keyboard, decide today to face your fears head-on. Read through a few of the articles at these sites, or walk through a couple of tutorials. Before long, you’ll realize that using a computer really isn’t that difficult after all. Image Credit: Michelle Kwajafa NEW: Download MakeUseOf iPhone App. FREE!
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| Posted: 06 Oct 2010 01:15 PM PDT
For more fresh hot deals, visit our Hot Tech Deals page, which is constantly updated. Keep reading to find out today’s Hot Tech Deals.
Image credit: Modified from Svengraph’s icon set Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| 10 Real Time Twitter Games You Can Enjoy With Just A Tweet Posted: 06 Oct 2010 12:31 PM PDT
Today, you can just about do anything with Twitter. Ask the tweeps, they know it all. I won't bother mentioning even some of them here, because I wouldn't know just where to start and finish. I will let you traipse through all our Twitter posts and discover it for yourself. You can easily lose yourself amidst the myriad of applications and fall asleep on the mouse. So, it's here I will wake you up with a list of Twitter games that will push you into the adrenalin pumping breast thumping combative groove.
Artwiculate
A fine use of Twitter which helps us learn a new word each day and replace the colorful adjectives we normally use at traffic snarls. Follow @artwiculate on Twitter and use the word they broadcast in one of your tweets. The more 'likes' or retweets each reply gets, pushes it up the popularity charts on Artwiculate. The prize: An enriched vocabulary which we can use to sound more intelligent than we actually are. Outwit.me
Outwit.me has a lineup of seven games based on Twitter. You can join and play anytime once one game is over and another begins. For instance, in Tweet Hangman you have to guess a secret word or phrase by replying with letters. Tweet Quiz is about guessing all the multiple answers that may exist for the quiz asked. Each correct guess that matches the majority earns a point. But my favorite was Crack the Code, where I could go on a clue hunt. It seems to be in R.I.P mode right now. Chess Tweets
The idea to play chess with a remote opponent is nothing new. Chess Tweets just takes the idea onto Twitter. You don't need to register separately. You can play against one or against the entire community by moving the set pieces and sending chess moves via your Twitter account. Depending on the responses, this game can be slow at times. Tweet Test
Find out if you know your followers or your friends as well as you think with the range of Twitter games that test your Tweeting I.Q. There’s a sliding puzzle game too. Bet Your Followers
If you hated losing the last game to your friends, bet them away in this one. As this Twitter game says, everyone has followers to spare. There’s the other side too: you will get new followers (and friends) if you win the game. Check out the game to really see how it works. Don't worry, your lost followers can easily re-follow you (if their egos don't get bruised), because they come to know that they are being 'gambled away'. Atlibs
Solve user created puzzles via Twitter or create your own. The fun is in the off the cuff bizarre answers that get generated. The site could do with a boost as the responses seem to be flagging off. If you have a sense of humor play this Twitter game which is short and funny. Tweefight
If you have to brawl, do it on Tweefight. But make sure your Tweerank is right up there because the game calculates that when it pits you against your arch enemy. Even Sherlock Holmes would lose out to Moriarty if the latter tweeted more. You can enter a fight by just giving your and the opponents username. Tweet Bricks
This Twitter game is the equivalent of the classic game of Bricks, except that the bricks come from Tweets. Stack up your Tweets as they fall down with the arrow keys. You can choose to play with your own Tweets, with other users, friends or followers, with your mentions, or with all Tweets posted with a Hash tag. ChumpDump
ChumpDump is a Twitter game you can play on your iPhone or Android set. The free app is actually a Twitter friend management tool but it weeds out the ones bloating your stream in a fun and engaging way. Every day in ChumpDump the lottery chooses a friend at random from your twitter friends list, the ones who are boring the life out of you. The app gives an insight of the chosen 'friend' and you get to decide whether to save them or dump them. Check out the details on the points systems and the rewards. Die Fail Whale
This is a game which is actually not based on the Twitter API but it is a bit about the little Tweetie bird. And it is addictive. On this Flash based game you have to shoot as many fail whales as you can in 25 seconds. Why? Because that big whale is the irksome thing you see when Twitter goes down. So, reload, shoot, and compare how you are doing against the rest of the Twitter crowd (but in the real world, do respect this gentle creature of the deep). After playing some of these Twitter games, one can say that 140 characters can really be stretched. In the days ahead, it will be further stretched by others that are in the offing, including MMOPRG ones. The thing to be careful about is that your Twitter account can easily become a source of spam when you aren't playing a Twitter game. But which are the games are you playing? Do let us know about your favorite Twitter game or send in a Tweet. Image Credit: Shutterstock Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Facebook Announces More Control Over Your Profile & Friend Groups [News] Posted: 06 Oct 2010 11:48 AM PDT
Read on to find out more. Download Your Information
This function allows you to export all of your data from Facebook in a zip file. This includes profile information, friends list, comments, photos, videos and more. Security is built into the application to ensure your data remains safe. Once it is downloaded, your profile is available in what looks like is a plain HTML/CSS format, which should make this information available to import into other social networks. This feature is perhaps a direct response to Facebook’s critics concerned about the platform being ‘closed’ with your data being locked with no way to export or back it up. Apps That You Use Dashboard
This new feature allows you to have a finer-tuned access to how an external application will access your data. The granular controls give you the ability to enable and disable specific features like the ability to post to your wall, while allowing full access to other functions. A second part of this feature is an ‘audit log’ to see what exactly an App is doing with your data. Facebook Groups
This feature helps to mitigate the problem with having disparate groups of “friends”. It will aim to map real-world groups that share information to an area on Facebook which has similar features. Facebook has discovered that “people don’t want to make lists” quoting that only 5% of Facebook users made at least 1 list. But they also discovered that doing it algorithmically isn’t a great solution either, because who you interact with doesn’t necessarily indicate who you think should be in a certain group of friends. The new Groups aim to solve this by simplifying how you add friends to groups. Facebook hopes that making it as simple as tagging a photo will help to increase the adoption of creating separate lists of users. Groups is not replacing Lists (or old Groups), but is meant to augment small group communication. Think of it more like Google Wave functionality. Group features will include:
The features will be rolled out over the next few days. If you don’t see it now, be patient, it should be there soon. Let us know what you think of these features and whether they are good or bad.
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| Five Tips To Use Dropbox As The Perfect Writing Environment Posted: 06 Oct 2010 11:31 AM PDT
Writers from the internet era don’t use manual typewriters anymore, word processors are already an inseparable part of our lives, and going to the mountain cabin to finish a book is a time luxury most of us can’t afford. Many of us don’t settle with one place and one gadget to write, that’s why a synchronization tool like Dropbox can really help writers with their digital writing life.
The Five Dropbox TipsThe goal is setting a writing environment around Dropbox in such a way that the writer should be able to write anywhere and using any available gadgets while still being able to keep track of his/her work. I could, for example, start writing a piece at my home computer in the morning, then while I’m on the road I could open my iPhone and pick up my writing where I left off. I could easily continue using another computer and the writing is always there, neatly organized amongst other pieces. There are several routes one might take. Here are five tips that I discovered after trying to customize Dropbox for my own writing life. 1. Use folders and sub folders to organize writings It’s easy to get lost in lots of text files, especially when you are writing regularly. So the first thing any writer should do when customizing their Dropbox environment is to create a dedicated folder for their writing, and create sub-folders to organize them.
It could be something like splitting the files into Fiction and Non-Fiction folders, then divide the Fiction into Short Stories and Novels while the Non Fiction gets divided into Articles and Books, and so on. If you are writing books, you could go further by creating one folder for each book and sub folders for each chapter. 2. Always write in plain text Since we are aiming for the ability to open the writing files from any possible device, it’s advisable to choose a format which is accepted by as many devices as possible. Plain text (.txt) wins without any noticeable opposition from other text formats.
3. Share folders to collaborate No man is an island, so it’s very likely that once in a while a writer would have to collaborate on writing something with someone else. Luckily, Dropbox has a feature to support collaboration called Folder Share. To share any folder within the Dropbox environment, right click the folder and choose “Dropbox – Share This Folder” from the pop up menu.
4. View “Previous Version” for “Revision History“ No writer that I know of is able to produce perfect writing in one go. There are always revisions along the way, and sometimes the latest revision is not always the best and we need to go back to the previous versions. Dropbox allows writers to view the “Revision History” of any edited file. Just right click on a file and choose “Dropbox – View Previous Versions” from the pop up menu.
You will be brought to the web interface of your Dropbox account, where you can choose, view and restore one of the versions of the file.
5. Bonus for iPhone/iPad/iTouch users: Use PlainText I stumbled into a new app for iDevices called PlainText (free – ad supported) that allows users to create and edit folders and plain text files from within their device, and then sync everything to other devices/computers via Dropbox.
Despite some minor early version bugs, this would be the perfect app to implement the folder and sub folder organization method and make your writing life easier. Creating new folders and text files is as easy as tapping the Folder/File icon on the bottom bar, and the interface is also beautiful.
These five simple tips help me navigate my writing life around the Dropbox environment. I hope they can also be useful for others. I’m also sure that there are other tips that more experienced writers out there can share. Write them down using the comments section below. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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| Preview Free Sample Book Chapters From Amazon & iBooks Posted: 06 Oct 2010 10:31 AM PDT
Amazon and Apple understand that browsing their online book store is not like browsing an actual brick and mortar book store, but their free sample book chapters get them pretty close. Kindle For The WebRecently, Amazon.com has made this book preview feature even more accessible through its Kindle for the Web Beta. You can now download the first sample chapter to your web browser directly from an Amazon overview book page.
If a book has a first chapter download available, you will see a ”Read first chapter FREE” button on the right side of the book’s information page. You won’t find this option in the Kindle book store, but on the regular Amazon book pages.
The free chapter downloads so that you can easily view and navigate its pages.
What’s really nice about this option is that you can also embed sample pages into your blog site, as well share the book pages via email, Facebook and Twitter.
As you can do with the Kindle, you can change the font size, line spacing, words per line, and color mode of the downloaded chapter. In the Safari web browser, the download sample is very smooth and easy to read.
Sadly, however, this Kindle for the Web is not very well optimized for the iPad. It will download via the iPad Safari browser, but at full screen the navigation controls are not easily accessible and you can’t change the settings as you can with a computer web browser. Kindle & iBook OptionsIf you have an iPhone, iPod touch, iPad, BlackBerry, or Android, you can use the mobile Kindle app to download sample chapters to these devices.
You of course need an Amazon.com account to use the Kindle app. After installing the app on your device, you simply navigate to the Kindle Store and locate books in their Kindle version. Most current and popular books will have a Kindle version. What’s great about downloading sample versions of Kindle books is that you can keep them stored on your app like a wish list of books to read. You need only pay for and download a Kindle book when you’re ready to read it.
You can also download the same sample chapters to more than one device, including the PC and Mac version of the Kindle e-reader. iBooks Free DownloadWith Apple’s iBooks, the download process is even easier. You access the iBooks Store through the iBooks app for the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch. When you click on a book’s information page, simply select “Get Sample” and it will download to your app’s library.
Let us know if you have tried any of these free download options, and what you find useful about them. If you have never used these apps, check out my How to Use the Amazon Kindle Reader for iPhone and iPod Touch article. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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| Google Launches Website With Feature Set For Google TV [News] Posted: 06 Oct 2010 10:01 AM PDT
That all changed a few days ago, when Google launched a mini-site detailing the much anticipated Google TV platform. Included with a quick tour, this website reveals a bunch of juicy details about what we can expect to be included with the platform. Here are the key points illustrated in the tour:
Loads Of AppsOn the Features page of the site, Google includes a link to a YouTube video in which they demo the wide variety of apps that will be available on the platform. Check it out: Needless to say, you are going to be able to do a lot with your TV using Google’s platform. You can view more examples of how the service will look on the website’s Spotlight page. The page states that there will be more examples in the near future. Will you be getting a Google TV enabled television or box? What are your thoughts on the future of television? Source: CrunchGear Do you like MakeUseOf articles? Don’t forget to share our articles with others! It’s really important to us.
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| Hotot: A Fast, iPhone-Like Twitter Client For Linux Posted: 06 Oct 2010 09:31 AM PDT
One thing can’t be questioned, though: this sucker is fast. It’s quick to load and quick to browse; perfect for those frustrated with Gwibber.
Using HototFire up Hotot for the first time and you’ll be asked to log in. You can do so the old-fashioned way or by using OAuth. Once you do you should see your Tweets just the way you’d expect:
Buttons along the bottom allow you to quickly change from one view to the other. For example, you can see “@” responses all in one place:
The other columns included are direct messages, favorite tweets, retweets, user profiles and searches. Clicking any of these results in a slick sliding animation takes you to your selection. That’s Weird…
“But wait,” you’re saying, “this user interface doesn’t really match my Gnome/KDE theme!” You’re right, of course, but next time don’t interupt me. I’m trying to blog. Hotot’s user interface is entirely self-contained, not making use of the traditional locations for buttons and forgoing the “File Edit View” menu bar completely. The result is a program that feels more like a website or an iPhone app, which for a Twitter client I don’t think is completely unreasonable. The layout of this program seems logical to me. You might disagree though, and I’d be disappointed if you didn’t tell me what you think in the comments below. InstallationInstall this program on Ubuntu is easy: just add the PPA and away you go. Here are the commands to do so:
If you don’t use Ubuntu you need to install from source, at least for now. Check out Hotot’s installation page to find out how to install Hotot on your Linux distribution of choice. Other Features
DisadvantagesSo we’ve got a slick, fast client for Twitter here. Is there any reason to stick with more bloated options, such as Gwibber or Tweetdeck? Currently, yes. Right now the program only supports logging into one Twitter account at a time, which will turn off many who manage multiple accounts. The client also only supports Twitter at this time, which is a little disappointing to those of us who use Gwibber to check both Twitter and Facebook at once. That doesn’t mean these features won’t be included eventually, however; they probably will. This project is still Alpha, after all (although you wouldn’t know it from how well it runs). I’m willing to bet this one program will do pretty much everything this time next year, and I’ll be watching closely. What do you guys think? Is this a pretty cool Linux Twitter client, or is the market simply too flooded for another? Do you like the animated user interface, or will you be sticking with an old-fashioned program? Let us know below; we love talking with you guys. Follow MakeUseOf on Twitter. Includes cool extras.
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| Send Us Your Pictures Of You Wearing The MakeUseOf T-Shirt Posted: 06 Oct 2010 09:01 AM PDT
However, we would like to see you in your shirts. We want to see who our fans are and what they look like in MUO garb. That is partly the reason why we have revived the MakeUseOf Flickr account because we want to show you wearing your MakeUseOf T-shirt.
I will upload your picture to our Flickr page, along with all the other pictures we receive and we will show the best of them here on MakeUseOf.com in a special feature article sometime in the future. Here to inspire you to send in your pics is Justin relaxing in his T-shirt, after a hard day editing our manuals.
Oh and don’t forget, if you have a Flickr account yourself, make us a contact on the site. Then when we update our Flickr page, you will be the first to know! We will be updating the page soon with all kinds of stuff such as staff pictures, fan pictures and much more. Got Questions? Ask Them Now FREE on MakeUseOf Answers!
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| Give Your Wordpress Blog Lightning Fast Speeds With W3 Total Cache Posted: 06 Oct 2010 08:31 AM PDT
One plugin I’ve seen on a lot of these lists is WP Super Cache, a caching engine designed to produce static HTML pages and load your blog faster. WP Super Cache is a good plugin, don’t get me wrong, but is it really the fastest? If you’re really looking to speed up your Wordpress blog, I recommend you check out the W3 Total Cache plugin.
What’s All The Hype About?Before I show you how to set up this plugin, I figured I should give you a little more incentive to check it out. According to the plugin page, W3 Total Cache is:
It boasts a significant improvement (at least 10x) in overall site performance, as well as “instant” second page views. Don’t know what a CDN is? Read on and I’ll show you how to set all this up. Getting Started With W3 Total CacheOnce you’ve installed and activated the plugin, head over to the settings page. On the General Settings page, you should see a few messages at the top of the screen. One may ask you to ‘empty page cache’. Go ahead and do that and make sure you disable/uninstall any other caching plugins (like WP Super Cache) for the time being.
W3 Total Cache’s default settings are fine to start with. Go ahead and check the box under General to turn caching on. You should already see an increase in speed just from using W3 Total Cache, but to throw your site into warp drive, I’ll show you how to set up a CDN. Why Use A CDN?If you are hosting your own Wordpress blog, chances are you are renting server space from somewhere. Regardless of what hosting provider you are using, your server is probably in another state/country. Add that to the fact that it’s a shared server (probably a busy one) and sometimes it can take a while to load all of your files (images, etc.). A content delivery network allows you to eliminate this delay. A CDN will use a server close to you to deliver your content when called upon. It’s this efficiency that allows your website to load faster. Setting Up Amazon CloudFront
Still on the General Settings page, scroll down until you see the Content Delivery Network settings. Check the Enable box, and under CDN Type select Amazon CloudFront. Save your changes and you should now see a bunch of new messages at the top of the screen. Go to the CDN Settings page from the drop-down menu at the top and scroll down to the Configuration section. To fill in this information, you’re going to have to input some data from Amazon.
Head over to the Amazon web services page and click Sign Up for Amazon S3. Then, head over to the CloudFront page and sign up for that as well. [Note]: Technically Amazon S3 and CloudFront are not free, but they’re awfully close. It costs roughly 15 cents per GB of monthly bandwidth transfer, which most of us won’t come close to using. Not a bad way to make use of the change you find in your couch.
Once you’ve signed up, head to the Account tab and select Security Credentials.
You’ll want to copy your Access Key ID and Secret Access Key and paste them into their respective Wordpress fields.
Now, you can scroll up to the top of the Amazon web services screen and click on the Sign in to the AWS Management Console link. This will take you to your management page.
Click on the Amazon S3 tab and select Create Bucket. Name your bucket (preferably something short) and go back and enter in that name in the Bucket field of Wordpress.
In the management console, select the Amazon CloudFront tab. Click Create Distribution, select your bucket under Origin, and click Create. When the State column goes from ‘InProgress’ to ‘Deployed’ (takes a few minutes) we’re ready to move on.
See where it says Domain Name? Copy what’s in front of
Finally, head to the top of your Wordpress screen and click on export your media library. Click Start and it will upload your existing media files to your CloudFront account. When finished, go through the other buttons and do the same thing. [Note]: You only have to do this once, when you first install the plugin. Everything you upload to your media folder from here on out will automatically get copied over to your CloudFront account. ConclusionThe first time you visit your website after setting up W3 Total Cache it should load at normal speed or even slower than usual. Don’t be alarmed, as this is normal. Click refresh and see how much it speeds up your Wordpress blog! What do you think of this plugin? Let us know in the comments below. Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already!
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