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Get a Free Graphing Calculator App for Your PC – Microsoft Math 4

By Matthew Guay on January 18, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Does Windows Calculator not quite cut it for you? Calculator has been a default app in Windows ever since the release of Windows 1.0, and while Calculator was given a total refresh and gained tons of new features in Windows 7, it’s still not powerful enough for most Algebra and higher math. The free Powertoy Calculator that was released with XP does not work on Windows 7 or Vista, and for a while, the only other good free graphing calculator solutions for PC users have been online tools like WolframAlpha.com.

That’s now changed, however, as Microsoft recently released Microsoft Math 4. Previously a commercial program, Microsoft Math 4 is now fully free for Windows users. It’s a great app that lets you solve equations, differentiate or integrate, and create 2D and 3D graphs. Whether you’re using your keyboard or a tablet input device, you’ll be able to get your math facts figured out quickly. Plus, the entire app uses the ribbon interface, so it’s easy to learn how to use.

Microsoft Math can solve equations, differentiate or integrate them, and even show you the steps needed to find the answer. While some teachers might fear it being used for cheating, it’s actually a great way to understand how to solve more complex problems you might have stumbled through otherwise.

Then, from the Graphing tab, you can create beautiful 2D and 3D graphs in seconds. Zoom in or out with your scroll wheel. The graphics are amazingly smooth for a utility app like this!

All work and no play … well, you won’t have to worry about that either. Microsoft tucked away 7 cute calculator skins in the View tab ranging from flowered to flaming to traditional calculator styles. There’s even a cute sketched skin as you see below.

It’s a pretty handy app to have around, especially if you or anyone in your family’s still in school. In fact, the only problem with it is that you might get tempted to just use it to solve your tough math instead of using your grey matter!

Download Microsoft Math 4 (Microsoft.com, free)

Get more info about Microsoft Math 4

Comments { 2 }

Giveaway: CSS3Machine – Web Creativity on iPad

By Matthew Guay on January 17, 2011 in Featured, iOS Apps, Techinch

Even though the iPad was released almost a year ago, the jury’s still out on whether it’s a device for consumption or creation. I personally feel it’s a great creative app, and even find it great for writing in Pages or PlainText. Today we’re going to look at an exciting app, CSS3Machine, that can take your creativity on the iPad to new levels and let you design animated sites all in native CSS3. We’ve even got 5 free licenses for a giveaway, so keep reading to find out how to enter.

Getting Started

CSS3Machine starts with a site selector hovering over the main screen. You can pick from 2 impressive premade demo sites to try out, or tap the plus icon to create a new site. If you want to copy a site to your computer, press the arrow button to email it to yourself.

Alternately, tap the gears icon to see CSS3Machine’s settings. You’ll notice a web address listed; this lets you access your CSS stylesheet from your desktop browser. You can also set a default email address to send templates to, or get more info about the app.

Flash? Who Needs Flash?

Let’s dive in and see what you can do in CSS3Machine. Once you’ve opened the template you want to play with, you can immediately see the impressive animated transitions built in, or start tweaking the code to get it to work like you want. Each property is listed on the left, and all of its functions are on the right where you can quickly tweak them as you like. As soon as you tweak a property, the preview on the bottom will update to reflect your changes.

Tap the plus icon in the properties list to add a new property to your site. There’s tons to explore here, and with time, you can make some truly impressive animations powered only by CSS3.

The preview box only shows a static copy of your rendered code, so if you want to see the animated CSS in action, tap the Animations button on the bottom of the left pane. Now tap the play button at the top of the preview window to see your CSS animation fully rendered on your device. If you’d like to see a video of it in action, check out the CSS3Machine official site.

Not Just Fancy Animation

If you’re not trying to create the most amazing CSS animations and effects, CSS3Machine is still for you. You can create a new basic style, and then add your own text CSS to tweak as you want. Here I’m tweaking the H2 style on the default text used on document samples in CSS3Machine.

Drag sliders and tap color swaths to find the perfect look for your shadows, colors, background gradients, and more. The great thing is, you can try out so many different options and then immediately see what it creates in the preview on the bottom. I’ve never seen a web editor that works like this on a PC; it’s a fun and creative way to make your code look just like you want!

CSS3Machine is also a great way to learn more about CSS. Just tap the i icon in the top right of any property editing screen to find out more about that CSS property. You’ll get a quick overview of its history and what it does, as well as which browsers currently support that property.

Want to switch to your own text or change something else about the base document? Tap the arrow button in the bottom left corner of the site preview box to open the HTML template editor. The editor includes common HTML characters and snippets so you can type in what you want without shuffling between iPad keyboard layouts. You can then copy the text to your clipboard from the top arrow button if you wish, or just save the changes to CSS3Machine.

Get Your CSS on Your PC

Now, to put your code into use, browse to the address in the settings screen we saw before from your desktop browser while CSS3Machine is running on your iPad. You can then copy the code directly to your favorite code editor, WordPress Dashboard, or whatever you use to manage your site. From a touch interface to standards-compliant code, CSS3Machine is a pretty awesome tool. The app did crash on me a couple times while I was testing it, but other than that, it was a very cool way to try out all of what CSS3 has to offer on my iPad!

Enter the CSS3Machine Giveaway

Edit: Giveaway now closed. Thanks everyone who entered!

If you’d like to win a free copy of CSS3Machine for iPad, just leave a comment below with a valid email address. The contest closes at Midnight EST, Thursday, January 20th, so make sure to leave a comment before then. If you don’t have an iPad but want to comment, please state so in the comments so we’ll be sure to pick someone that can actually use the app. Want another shot at winning? Tweet the following (or something similar with a link to this post), then leave a second comment with the link to your tweet.

Win a free copy of CSS3Machine for iPad from @techinch! http://bit.ly/e1LYuX

If you don’t win, don’t worry … you can still pick up a copy from the App Store for $4.99. It’s a great way to explore what CSS3 has to offer while learning what each property does. If you create some awesome web art or a new site using CSS3Machine, be sure to let us know in the comments … we’d love to see it!

Purchase CSS3Machine from the App Store ($4.99 – iPad Only)

Get more info about CSS3Machine from its official site (Numerosign.com)

Comments { 7 }

Speed up Evernote on Windows

By Matthew Guay on January 14, 2011 in Featured, Techinch

Have you ever fired up Evernote for Windows to find something you’ve jotted down only to find that it’s running glacially and takes forever just to open a note? Even with the new and improved Evernote 4, sometimes it still is one of the slowest apps on my PC. So much so, in fact, that I’d nearly switched to using Evernote web instead of the desktop interface.

Today, thanks to an Evernote forum thread, I found a couple tricks that can help speed up Evernote. Follow along, and we’ll see if you can get Evernote feeling snappy again.

Activate Detective Mode

Ok, it’s not quite that dramatic, but Evernote does have some hidden developer tools that can help improve Evernote for Windows’ performance. First, if you have Evernote running, exit it from your system tray.

Now, open the Run command by pressing your Windows key and R at the same time (Win+R). Enter the following in the box, the press Enter or click Ok:

Evernote.exe /DebugMenu

When Evernote opens, you’ll notice a new [Debug] menu on your toolbar. This includes two options that really seemed to speed up Evernote on my computer: Optimize Database and Recreate Note Images. Optimizing your database is likely to help Evernote’s performance the most, though if you have some notes that have odd thumbnails (or no thumbnails), then you might try recreating the note images as well.

Both of these options will take several minutes to run, during which time you’ll see the status updated in a progress bar. If you’d like to give both options a shot, just run one, then the other.

Once it’s finished, you can continue to use Evernote as normal, or restart it to get rid of the [Debug] menu. Evernote still isn’t the fastest app, but it’s much improved after optimizing my database. I’ve got tons of notes in Evernote, and love the Evernote apps on iOS, so would really hate to quit using it. I really hope Evernote works to optimize Evernote for Windows and make it run faster, but in the mean time, this at least provided a bit of help for me. Hopefully you’ll find this helpful too … let us know in the comments!

Comments { 7 }

Move Your Tumblr Blog to WordPress

By Matthew Guay on December 10, 2010 in Featured, Techinch

Would you like to move your blog from Tumblr to your own WordPress blog? There’s no one-step way to do it, but you can move everything from your Tumblr blog and make your new setup as nice or nicer than your old Tumblr blog. Let’s see how you can move everything and get your new WordPress blog working as much like Tumblr as possible.

1) Getting a New Site

First, you need to get a new site. If you already have a hosting account, simply make a new WordPress install for your new site. Otherwise, you’ll need to sign up for hosting account. I highly recommend DreamHost – they’re hosting this site, and have done a much better job than other hosts I’ve used. Other highly recommend options from others include Media Temple and HostGator. They all offer one-click installations of WordPress so it’ll be easy to get your site up and running.

Here’s 2 articles that can help you install WordPress if you’ve never done it:

Install WordPress Manually on Your Website

Install WordPress on Your Own Server With Softaculous

Or, if you need help, ask away in the comments!

2) Install a Tumblog Theme

Once WordPress is installed, you’ll need to get a theme running to make your site look like you want. Any WordPress theme would work fine for a normal blog, but if you want to keep using Tumblr’s unique post types, including image, link, and quote posts, then you’ll want a theme designed for a tumblog blog. You can either turn any WordPress theme into a tumblog theme, or you could purchase a premade tumblog theme from WooThemes. These include Canvas, Retreat, Slanted, Cinch, and Crisp, my personal favorite. Once you’ve got a Tumblog theme running, you should see Tumblr-style editing options on your WordPress Dashboard.

3) Export Your Tumblr Content

Now it’s time to start moving your posts from your old Tumblr site to your new WordPress site. Head over to Benapps.net, which contains a free tool that can export your Tumblr posts. Enter your Tumblr blog address, select HTML export format, and then select how you want your post addresses to be imported. For most purposes, the first option is fine.

Scroll down, and under Export for, select Self-Hosted WordPress Installation. You could leave the other options as default or change them as you wish; it’s up to you. Finally, press Export. Seconds later, you should be prompted to save a tumblr_yourblog.xml file; save it to your computer, as you’ll need to import the data from this file into your new site.

4) Import Everything Into WordPress

Back in your WordPress dashboard, select Tools on the left sidebar and click Import. Then, click WordPress on the list of Import options. The tool you used before put your Tumblr posts into WordPress format, so this is the best way to import them.

You’ll now be prompted to install the importer. Click Install Now so you can get your content imported.

Once it’s installed, click Activate Plugin & Run Importer.

Click Choose File, then select the file you just downloaded from the Tumblr export site previously. Click Upload file and import to get all your posts moved over. Moments later, all of your posts should be imported into WordPress!

Now, select the author to assign these posts to, and check the Download and import attachments to get your images copied over too.

You can see all of your imported posts from the Posts menu. As you can see here, all posts were organized into categories based on what type of post you’d created in Tumblr.

There’s only one problem: your posts aren’t taking advantage of your theme’s tumblog features. This is fine; your posts will still be fully readable in WordPress. However, if you want to take advantage of the tumblog features of your theme that let you have link, image, quote, and other post types, you’ll need to edit them. To do this, you can bulk edit the posts by category.

On the top of the posts page, select the category you want to change and click filter. Then, select all the posts and click Edit under Bulk Actions.

Now, select the correct Tumblog post for the category you selected, and click Update. You’ll now need to repeat this for each of your categories. Once you’re done, though, your blog will look much more like it did before.

5) Move Your Domain and Redirect Old Posts

If you had your own custom domain in Tumblr, you should now move it to your new hosting account or redirect it to your new site. If you’re unsure about how to do this, you can follow the directions at the first part of this post, this time directing your domain to your WordPress site rather than Tumblr.

Then, you can redirect the links to your old posts by editing your .htaccess file, or with a simple WordPress Plugin. To do this, install the Simple 301 Redirects plugin in WordPress.

Open the Simple 301 Redirects tool under Settings once it’s installed. Now, enter your tumblr post link on the left, leaving off the initial domain name (the link should look something like /post/123456789/name), then enter the correct address for that post on your WordPress site. You’ll need to repeat this for each post. This is tedious, so if your content isn’t very important then you may not want to do it. Otherwise, though, if your posts have been linked on many other sites, this will keep your traffic flowing to your new site.

6) Add Plugins to Automatically Share your Content

One of Tumblr’s best features is that it can automatically share your new posts with your friends on Facebook and Twitter. With two new plugins, though, WordPress can do the same. Just install the WordTwit and Wordbook plugins from the Plugins menu, and activate each of them with your personal Twitter and Facebook accounts, respectively. Now when you publish a new post, it’ll automatically be shared with your friends around the world.

Additionally, if you had enabled Disqus comments on your Tumblr blog previously, you can now install the Disqus for WordPress plugin. It will automatically move your old comments over, so you can keep the discussion going on your new site.

7) Post from Anywhere

Tumblr’s mobile app makes it easy to post to your Tumblr blog from your iPhone or iPod Touch. Thankfully, you can get the same features on WordPress. You can install the WordPress Mobile app on your iOS, Android, Blackberry, or Symbian device, so no matter what phone you’re using you can always share the latest things that are going on. The only problem is, the default free WordPress app only lets you post normal blog posts, not newer Tumblog posts. For that, you’ll need the Express app for iPhone, which is an app from WooThemes specially designed to post to Tumblog blogs. Check out my review of Express on AppStorm.net, or head over to the iTunes Store to download it today.

Conclusion

Phew, you made it! Congratulations, your Tumblr blog is now safe on WordPress. Hope the move went good for you, and if you hit any snags, feel free to ask questions in the comments below and I’ll do my best to help you. Or, if you’d like to see a WordPress blog that was imported from Tumblr, check out my tumblog at www.maybring.com. I just got it moved to WordPress this week, and it’s working great.

Happy Blogging!

Comments { 7 }

Students: Read Hacker Monthly for Free

By Matthew Guay on November 22, 2010 in Featured, Techinch

Want to keep up with the latest ideas, advice, and interesting stories shared by some of the best tech and entrepreneurial bloggers today? Hacker Monthly is a new PDF and print magazine based on the best news from Hacker News, and now thanks to a new student offer, any students can read it for free! Here’s how.

Intro to Hacker News

One of the best resources for entrepreneurs, programmers, tech students, and anyone fascinated by the world of computers and startups is Hacker News, an amazingly high quality forum ran and moderated by Y Combinator. Anyone can join in and share their thoughts about the articles and questions shared, and the discussions are often very informational and educational. Plus, the Hacker News community is very helpful, and I’ve received many tips from questions I’ve posted on it.

There’s only one problem with any tech forum: it takes time to keep up with. Several months ago, Lim Cheng Soon of Netizens Media began producing a beautiful magazine version of the best articles and advice shared in Hacker News that month: Hacker Monthly. While you can read the articles for free online, Hacker Monthly brings them together in a beautiful layout that makes it easy to read, on your computer or in print.

Again, it Pays to be a Student

For many of us, though, the biggest objection to Hacker Monthly is the price. It takes time and effort to curate these articles and get them laid out in a readable and beautiful fashion, but when you’re buying textbooks and paying for ever higher classes, there’s not much money left to go around. That’s where the new student promotion comes in. Hacker Monthly is now offering a free one year digital subscription to all college students around the world. Now you can keep up with the latest tips and advice and hopefully learn more than you are from your classes directly from some of the most articulate techies in the world.

If you’re not sure if Hacker Monthly is for you, feel free to check out the free PDF versions of the first three issues of Hacker Monthly. You’ll be able to read them in all of their PDF glory, just like the print version, for free. You can also check out the full archive of back issues, which includes links to the real Hacker News discussion links featuring the articles that were included in the magazine. This is a great resource everyone can take advantage of, as it includes links to many well written articles that you can read for free online.

I’ve found the Hacker News site to be very useful and educational over the past months, and only wish I’d come across it sooner. Now, with Hacker Monthly, I hope to learn even more from the network without having to check it every day!

Signup for a Free Student Subscription of Hacker Monthly

Not a student? Signup for a digital ($29) or print ($88) subscription

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Getting Things Done on Your iPhone or iPod Touch

By Matthew Guay on November 22, 2010 in Featured, Techinch

Over 17 years after launching the Newton platform and jumpstarting the PDA market, Apple today is a leader in the smartphone category that has taken over both PDAs and phones. These devices were originally designed to help you keep your life organized digitally. Although many of us enjoy playing games and goofing off online from our modern iDevices, there are many apps that can help you keep your life organized and productive on the go.

This week on Techinch.com, we’re going to be featuring a number of to-do list apps that can help you stay on schedule and get everything you need to get done, done. Many of us have trouble fitting everything into a schedule; there’s no specific time of the day you need to change the oil or buy that new domain name, for instance. I much prefer flexible project-orientated to-do lists with all of the tasks I need to do. There’s tons of great options for this on iOS, so we’re going to look at a number of different to-do list apps, including some well-known apps and some newer ones:

Things
2Do
SpeedTask
Zenbe Lists
Firetask
Today Todo
TaskForce
Plus, we’ve already covered Satchel and Summit, both of which can be used to make Backpack and Basecamp, respectively, into great to-do list tools.

While we all know there’s always more than one way to do anything, it’s impressive how each of these apps has managed to be unique and offer different ways of managing your tasks. Whether you prefer to keep all of you to-dos managed by date or project, sorted with tags, simple or filled with notes and locations, or just a plain list with no extra bells and whistles, there’s an app for everyone that will help you manage tasks just like you want. Stay tuned for our reviews, and then we’ll follow up with a thorough overview to help you choose the app that’s best for you. Or, if you have a favorite to-do list app that you’d like to see featured, leave a comment and let us know why this app is your favorite!

Comments { 1 }

Use Droplr on Your PC with windroplr

By Matthew Guay on November 4, 2010 in PC Software, Techinch

If you’re a PC users but have friends or collegues that use Macs, you may have envied Droplr, the cool Mac file sharing service. Thanks to a new app, windroplr, PCs can now get in on the action. Let’s take a look at windroplr and the Droplr service, and see you can use it to quickly share files, links, and text with anyone.

What is Droplr?

Droplr is a dead simple way to share files, images, notes, code, or almost anything you can think of on the internet. Simply drag your content to the Droplr icon, and it’ll be uploaded and ready for you to share in seconds, no second step required. Until now it was only available on Mac OS X and iOS devices via Droplr for iPhone. Today PC users can get the same great service thanks to the brand new app windroplr, which gives you all of Droplr’s features on your Windows PC.

Getting Started

Head over to the windroplr site and download the installer, then install it as normal. Windroplr requires .NET 4.0, so if you’re still using XP you’ll need to install it first. Once it’s done installing, run windroplr and click Next to start setting it up. Droplr uses your Twitter account, so enter your username and password, then click Go!.

windroplr will verify your settings, then within seconds you’ll be ready to start sharing files and more. Once it’s done, you’ll see a Droplr drop target on the bottom right corner of your screen, as well as a new windroplr icon in your tray. You can press Win+Shift+W to show or hide the Droplr drop target.

Using windroplr

To start sharing files, just drag and drop any file you’d like to the drop target in the corner of your screen.

If the file you’ve selected is large, you’ll notice the windroplr tray icon filling up with purple to show the upload progress. Do note that you cannot upload any over 32Mb, so this works best for sharing smaller images and documents.

Seconds later, you’ll see a link for your file. Click the notification bubble to copy the link to your clipboard so you can share it in a tweet, email, or any way you want.

Here’s how our image looks online once it’s been uploaded. Droplr’s web interface gives you a very stylish way to share content.

Droplr also makes it easy to send a screenshot to someone. Right-click the tray icon and select Grab screenshot or press Win+Shift+S to capture and upload a screenshot automatically.

When capturing a screenshot, your screen will darken and you’ll be able to select any area to capture and upload.

You can also upload plain text in a drop. Simply right-click the tray icon and select Compose Note, and you’ll see a small text editor open. Alternately, just select some text in any application you’re currently using, and drag it to the drop and it’ll automatically open the text editor with the text you’re uploading. Now, type or paste any text and edit it as you want in the box, select whether it’s plain text, formatted with Markdown markup, or code, and click Upload.

Here’s how a text Drop looks:

Update: After using Droplr for a while, I discovered you can upload more than one file at a time, too. Simply select all the files you want, or a whole folder, and drag it to the windroplr drop button. Your files will be uploaded as a zip archive, ready to share just like any other files. This is a great way to send everything you need from a project to your coworkers or friends quickly and easily.

Viewing your Droplr Files Online

Once you’ve got some files uploaded to Droplr, you may want to manage them online. Simply head to the Droplr site and click Sign in in the top right corner to get started.

You’ll need to verify your account with your Twitter account before you’ll be able to see your files.

Once this is done, you’ll see your online Droplr dashboard with all of your uploads. You can view all of your uploads by type from the buttons on the top, or select a file to delete it. You can even see the number of times each file has been viewed and get its link again, or search for a certain file from the top bar. This gives you a great way to manage all the files you’ve shared as easily as you’d manage files on your computer.

Select the Gear icon to view the Droplr preferences. You can even add your own custom domain to Droplr if you redirect it to Droplr!

Conclusion

Droplr is a Mac app we’ve envied for a long time, and we’re excited to get to use it in Windows 7. Droplr is truly an easy way to share small files, and makes a great alternative to simply adding shared Dropbox folders will everyone you need to share files with. Since Drop.io is closing down this year, Droplr is a great alternate service that works similarly but looks much nicer. Plus, if you have an iPhone or iPod Touch, you can get the Droplr app to add files to your account and view your old drops on the go. Give it a try and let us know your thoughts on Droplr below!

Download windroplr and get started sharing today! – Update: http://windroplr.com/ now works as well

Check out Droplr’s site

Hat tip to AddictiveTips for the link!

Comments { 6 }

Integrate Dropbox With Windows 7 Libraries

By Matthew Guay on November 4, 2010 in Techinch

Would you like to make it easier to save files directly to your Dropbox folder so you’re sure to not lose them? Here’s how you can fully integrate Dropbox with Windows 7 with Libraries.

Dropbox is a great way to keep your most important files synced between your computers, mobile devices, and the cloud. This lets you keep the latest version of all your files everywhere, easily share folders with friends and coworkers, and be almost certain you’ll never lose any files. The only problem is, you have to save your files in the Dropbox folder, which is usually located at:

C:\Users\your_username\Documents\My Dropbox

It’d be much easier to keep your files in Dropbox if it was just the default place that came up whenever you wanted to save a file. Windows 7 makes this easy, so let’s see how to do it.

Add Dropbox to Your Libraries

First, if you aren’t already using Dropbox, signup and install it on your computer. Open your Dropbox folder otherwise, and add folders for things you’d like to sync. The default Windows 7 libraries are Documents, Music, Pictures, and Videos, so you’ll want a similar folder in your Dropbox for the appropriate content. I wanted to keep my Documents, Pictures, and Music synced, as well as some specalized Dropbox folders and those I’m sharing with friends and coworkers, but I didn’t make a video folder since I didn’t want to fill up my Dropbox with them.

Now, right-click on the folders you want to add to your Windows 7 Libraries, select Include in Library, then select the Library you want to add the folder to. Here I’m adding my Dropbox Documents folder to my Documents library. Repeat this with each folder you want to add.

Once you’re finished, you’ll be able to easily browse your folder from Dropbox in your Library and add files. But if you want to make Dropbox the primary place you save new files, you’ll want to make one more change. Right-click on any of your Libraries on the left side of Explorer, and select Properties.

Your new folder from Dropbox should be on the bottom of the list of folders. Right-click it, and select Set as default save location. Now anything you save to the Documents Library will be saved in the Dropbox Documents folder by default. The folder closest to the top will also be the one you see first when you open the Documents Library, so you may wish to select Move Up as well and have the Dropbox Documents folder be at the top.

Here’s my new Documents Library, with all of my files synced via Dropbox. If you’re using a free account, you’ll likely be able to fit most of your most commonly used files in Dropbox, and then you can keep the rest in your normal folders. Alternately, if you have a pro account, you should be able to fit anything you’d like in Dropbox.

Conclusion

Now, no matter what program you’re using, you’re only one click away from your Dropbox folder. I use Dropbox as my primary way to save files to make sure I’ll have them everywhere, and this trick makes it work so much better.

Do you have any unique Dropbox tips you’d like to share? Let us know in the comments!

Signup and Download Dropbox today

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A Tale of 4 eBook Textbook Systems: CourseCompass, CourseSmart, NookStudy, and Kindle

By Matthew Guay on November 4, 2010 in Techinch

eBooks are one of the hottest topics this year, with eReaders, tablets, netbooks, and even smartphones making it easier than ever to read your favorite books wherever you are. Unfortunately, it’s not just as simple as deciding to purchase an eTextbook and then getting it. The system right now is somewhat a mess, but we’ll help you wade through it and see what’s best for you.

What’s Available?

eTextbooks are just digital copies of the normal paper textbooks students have carried around on campuses for decades. Unlike dead-tree books, however, eTextbooks are often only available from one store, and then can only be used on certain programs and devices. Additionally, many eTextbook systems only rent their eBooks; you’ll pay for the book, but only be able to access it for 180 days or so.

Some of the most popular eTextbook systems with the most books available are Amazon Kindle, B&N’s NOOKstudy, CourseCompass, and CourseSmart. Between these, you can find almost any standard textbook you need. I’ve personally used textbooks from all of these systems for classes I’ve taken, and here’s what I’ve found with each:

CourseCompass:

CourseCompass is an online course system from Pearson education. It’s designed to offer extra study aids to go along with your courses, which you’ll usually access via an access code from the back of a book (a trick publishers invented to try to curb the used textbook market … another frustration I have with textbook publishers). Alternately, you can also purchase a CourseCompass subscription directly for your class. These usually include an eTextbook, and since it was cheaper than other options, I chose this for my Accounting textbook this past year since I was required to use the CourseCompass extra study aids for the class.

Unfortunately, CourseCompass eBooks are almost unusable. They are only available online, and are powered by Adobe Flash. You first have to jump through several clicks just to open the online textbook.

Once it’s open, you’ll be hard pressed to make the book comfortable to read. The fonts are somewhat blurry, and it’s hard to get the reader window the size that works best for you since the reader is Flash based.

Switching to another section of the book can be difficult, and there’s no built in search or links in the index to help you quickly jump to the section you want.

Simply switching to the next page takes several seconds. You can’t easily keep the book offline, either, since you’re only allowed to print one page at a time.

Since CourseCompass books are tied to your class, you’ll only have access to them while the class is active. Once the class is finished, you won’t be able to access the book again. I personally recommend staying away from CourseCompass eBooks as much as possible, and even if you need to use their online course companion resources, I would not recommend using it for textbook access.

CourseSmart:

CourseSmart is currently the leader in eTextbooks, as they offer over 90% of the standard textbooks used in colleges across America. CourseSmart eBooks look just like they would on paper, including images, sidebars, indexes, and more. All of their eTextbooks are available for an 180 day rental period, and you can choose to either purchase on online subscription or download a special app and have your book offline. The online reader is all HTML based, so you can read the book easily, copy text, highlight, and more.

One great advantage is that you’re allowed to print up to 10 pages at a time, and up to a total of 150% of the total number of pages in the book, so if you need a hard copy of the book or want to keep it offline, CourseSmart lets you have it.

If you purchase an online subscription to a CourseSmart book, you can access it on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad with their free CourseSmart eTextbooks for the iPhone app. Unfortunately, the books are very difficult to read on iPhone or iPod Touch since they render the entire page of a textbook just like it would appear on paper, making it hard to read on a small screen. Additionally, you have to be online to access CourseSmart books from your device.

While CourseSmart is still not perfect, it’s my second choice after Kindle, and with the amount of textbooks they currently have available, you’re almost guaranteed to find some of your textbooks there.

Kindle:

Amazon Kindle is my personal favorite eBook platform, and it currently offers more books and runs on more devices than any other eBook system. They now offer an increasing number of eTextbooks, and would be my first choice when purchasing an eTextbook for a number of reasons. First, all books are sold, not rented, so you can keep them forever. Second, they work great on a multitude of devices, and the new Kindle for PC lets you search, highlight, and bookmark content in books.

The only problem I’ve had with Kindle eBooks is that they reflow to fit your screen, so you don’t know what the current page number is. This generally is not a problem with reading books, but makes it difficult to cite books. If this does become the standard, though, I expect that citation rules will change to accommodate this.

Kindle’s best advantage is that you can read your textbooks anywhere. They’ll work on a Kindle device, in the Kindle for PC reader, or your mobile device such as an iPod Touch or iPhone. Since Kindle books reflow to fit your screen, it’ll be easy to read your book no matter where you are, even without an internet connection. This is one case where having a book locked to a platform doesn’t limit you at all!

NOOKstudy:

Barnes & Noble has been ramping up their eBook offerings with their NOOK eReader device, and they’re also a leader in eTextbooks. They offer a very nice eBook reader for Mac and PC, the NOOKstudy, which lets you read full-quality textbooks offline on up to 2 computers. You can search for content in books, highlight and copy text, and even print a portion of the book, depending on publisher restrictions. Textbooks look very much like they do on CourseSmart, and many popular ones are avilable.

The only problem is, most of their textbooks are rentals just like CourseSmart, so you’ll only be able to use your book for 180 days. Additionally, one very odd thing is that NOOKstudy books do not work on the NOOK device or on B&N’s mobile apps, so they’re only accessible on a Mac or PC. For more info about NOOKstudy, check out my review on HowtoGeek.com.

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Other Options

Thankfully, in addition to these eTextbook publishers, there are some other options becoming available. Some publishers are selling eBooks directly in more open formats such as ePub or PDF, or via an online reader. O’Reilly Press offers almost all of their books in open PDF and ePub formats, while MIT Press offers many of their books via an online flash-based reader. Many tech, design, and business eBooks are also available through Safari Books Online, a subscription-based online library. Then, some newer publishers such as Flat World Knowledge are perusing even more adventurous publishing models, offering eBooks that are free to read online but cost to download or get the audio version. Hopefully we’ll se even more innovation in this area over the coming years, and maybe we’ll start seeing textbooks that are easier to obtain and cheaper for everyone.

Conclusion

No matter what subject you’re studying, the chances that you’ll find the textbook you need in digital format is better now than ever before. Unfortunately, varied formats, platforms, and eBook features make what would be an ideal situation into a confusing mess. And if there’s one eTextbook system to stay away from, it’s CourseCompass. Their eBooks are almost unusable, especially if your internet connection is any bit slow, and it’s painful to move through their books and find what you’re looking for. All of the other eTextbook systems are much better, so whenever possible, pick them.

Have you used an eTextbook? Please share your experiences below! We’re looking forward to the future of eBooks, and hope to see it get easier and cheaper to get the eTextbook you need.

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Turn Your WordPress Blog into a Tumblr-style Tumblog for Free

By Matthew Guay on November 1, 2010 in Techinch

Would you like to be able to post Tumblr-style image, link, quote posts, and more from your blog? Here’s how you can give your WordPress blog a makeover and give it the Tumblog power and simplicity you need.

Tumblr is a popular hosted blogging service that helped popularize Tumblogs, a type of blogs typically filled with short posts. Tumblr makes it dead simple to post images, videos, quotes, or links on your blog, and many users prefer this to full blog posts. Whether you’ve wanted to switch to a simpler blogging style or simply wanted to add some Tumblog-style posts to your existing blog, there’s now a way to do this without leaving WordPress behind. WooThemes recently released a free plugin, WooTumblog, that makes it easy to transform your WordPress blog into a perfect Tumblog. It’s slightly complicated to integrate with your site, so let’s see how it works.

Installing WooTumblog on Your WordPress Site

First, you’ll need to add the WooTumblog plugin to your site. Simply open the Add new Plugins page on your WordPress dashboard, search for WooTumblog, then install and activate it.

Now, open your Permalinks settings page under Settings on your WordPress Dashboard. Click Save on the bottom of the page without making any changes to register the custom taxonomies that WooTumblr added to your site.

You can also tweak your Tumblog settings from the Tumblog Options link under Post on your Dashboard.

There’s one more thing you’ll need to do … you need to add some code to your theme files to get WooTumblog fully integrated in your site. Here’s how to do it.

Editing your Theme Files

sshot-2010-11-01-1-12-20-39 You’ll need to edit two of your theme’s PHP files to get the Tumblr functionality working on your site. Depending on your theme, you’ll need edit your index.php or loop.php file, as well as single.php. Open the Editor page under your WordPress Appearance menu, then select the appropriate file and make the following changes, or edit the files in your favorite offline text/code editor and upload the files once you’ve added the new content.

Editing loop.php

First, you’ll need to change your title style. Find the line that contains <?php the_title(); ?>, and replace that line with:

<?php woo_tumblog_the_title(“entry-title”); ?>

You can do this easily by searching for the_title on the editor page; now just replace that whole line with the code above. Do note on some themes, including most themes from Elegant Themes, you’ll need to edit entry.php instead of index or loop.php, so you may need to look through your theme a bit to be sure. Alternately, if you’re using the WordPress 3.0 default theme, TwentyTen, just replace line 126 with that.

sshot-2010-11-01-1-12-27-41

Now, scroll down a bit, and add the following code in a new line above both <?php the_excerpt(); ?> and <?php the_content:

<?php woo_tumblog_content(); ?>

These are located on lines 134 and 139, respectively, in the TwentyTen theme.

Once you’ve made the changes, be sure to save your file with the button on the bottom of the editor, or in your code editor program.

Editing single.php

Switch over to single.php, and add the same code as before. Replace the title line the same as above, then add <?php woo_tumblog_content(); ?> above the line containing <?php the_content(); ?>. These will be located on lines 23 and 30, respectively, on the TwentyTen theme.

Save your changes again, and if you’ve been editing your theme offline, go ahead and upload the changes.

If you need more help adding the Tumblog support to your theme, click the Help tab in your WordPress Dashboard Tumblog Options page.

Adding Tumblog Posts

Your site won’t look any different until you start adding new Tumblog style posts. The good thing is, WooTumblog makes it easy to do that. Directly from your Dashboard, you can start adding new Quote, Image, Video, or other Tumblog-style posts via the new Tumblog widget. Simply select the article type you want, start adding your new content, and click Submit when you’re ready to publish your content.

If you’re adding a picture post, you can upload the picture directly from the Tumblog widget. Quick and simple!

Alternately, if you have an iOS device, including an iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad, you can purchase the Express for WordPress app, which lets you post Tumblog posts with images, links, quotes, and more directly from your device. Since Tumblog posts are generally shorter than full blog posts, this is a great way to keep your blog updated on the go. We plan to review the app soon, but if you try it out, let us know what you think!

Once you’ve got some Tumblog-style posts up and running, visit your site’s homepage to see how the new posts look. With those few changes, you’ve just added a ton of functionality to your site!

My favorite Tumblr feature is the Link posts, which let the title of your article link directly to the site or article you’re mentioning. And this works the exact same on your WordPress blog with WooTumblog.

See it in action

Want to see WooTumblog in action? Here’s the official video showing how to add it to your site and create tumblog posts:

Use a Theme With WooTumblog Built In

Although it’s not too hard to get WooTumblog integrated with your existing theme, sometimes it’s easier to just get a pre-existing theme that’s ready to use out of the box and go with it. WooThemes already offers 5 themes that include tumblog functionality already, so you won’t have to do anything extra to get it working. These include Retreat, Slanted, Cinch, and Crisp, my personal favorite. Canvas, WooTheme’s popular theme that lets you tweak it to no end, now also includes tumblog support. If you’d like to see how any of these themes work before you purchase one, be sure to test them out for free on the WooThemes Playground.

Conclusion

There’s a great reason WordPress is such a popular option for building blogs and websites of all shapes and sizes. The WooTumblr lets you keep using WordPress’ power while taking advantage of the simplicity of Tumblr. There’s a ton of uses for Tumblog themes, so let us know in the comments how you end up using your WordPress Tumblog … feel free to leave a link to your Tumblog site so we all can see it.

Get more information about the WooTumblr plugin

Get the Express App for your iPhone or iPod touch to post Tumblog posts on the go [App Store]

Check out all the tumblog WooThemes

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Getting Started

Flash? Who Needs Flash?

Not Just Fancy Animation

Get Your CSS on Your PC

Enter the CSS3Machine Giveaway

Activate Detective Mode

1) Getting a New Site

2) Install a Tumblog Theme

3) Export Your Tumblr Content

4) Import Everything Into WordPress

5) Move Your Domain and Redirect Old Posts

6) Add Plugins to Automatically Share your Content

7) Post from Anywhere

Conclusion

Intro to Hacker News

Again, it Pays to be a Student

Getting Started

Using windroplr

Viewing your Droplr Files Online

Conclusion

Add Dropbox to Your Libraries

Conclusion

What’s Available?

CourseCompass:

CourseSmart:

Kindle:

NOOKstudy:

Other Options

Conclusion

Installing WooTumblog on Your WordPress Site

Editing your Theme Files

Editing loop.php

Editing single.php

Adding Tumblog Posts

See it in action

Use a Theme With WooTumblog Built In

Conclusion

Sponsors: