Tag Archives | eBook

Upcoming Review: VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide

By Matthew Guay on May 20, 2010 in Techinch

Regular readers know I’m a fan of ebooks, and have recently written several posts about reading ebooks on your computer. I’m also a fan of desktop virtualization, and have published numerous articles here and at How-to Geek about Virtual PC, VMware, VirtualBox, and the (in my words) Desktop Virtualization Wars. So, when I was recently contacted by a representative of Packt Publishing about reviewing a book they’ve recently published on VirtualBox, I thought it’d be an interesting opportunity to try something new – reviewing an ebook.

First off, VirtualBox 3.1 Beginner’s Guide, the book I will be reviewing, is available both as a print book and an ebook. Packt Publishing always published their books both in paper form and as a DRM-free PDF, which is very nice. This book is aimed at helping users who are new at desktop virtualization get up to speed quickly with step-by-step tutorials on using VirtualBox. The book’s style is similar to the For Dummies books, so if you enjoy those type of books you may find this book both enjoyable and helpful. You won’t learn how to manage enterprise virtualization from this book, but for those who are starting out, it may be a great help.

I’ll be reading this book over the next couple weeks before I write an actual review, but I’d also like your help. What would you like to find out about this book? Do you have any questions I could help answer in the review? Check out the free preview chapter of the book at this link, and then sound off in the comments about what you’d like to see in the review. Hopefully this will be the first of many tech ebook reviews here at Techinch, so please give your feedback and we’ll see where this goes together!

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Make Your PC a (nicer) Kindle

By Matthew Guay on May 3, 2010 in Techinch

Kindle for PC is one of my favorite new programs for Windows, and a recent update made it even better. The Kindle Store offers more new ebooks than most other ebook stores, and the terms usually allow you to keep books on up to 5 computers and devices. I use my netbook as an ebook reader, and with all the ebook programs I’ve tried I still prefer the Kindle app. Here’s what the newest update brings to Kindle for PC

Getting the Update

Kindle by default automatically downloads updates and installs them, so you’ll usually have the latest version of Kindle for PC installed. Kindle for PC was released as a beta shortly after Windows 7’s launch last fall, so if you installed it when it first came out you may still be running the older version. Just open Kindle for PC while you’re connected to the internet, though, and the latest version should automatically download. Next time you open Kindle, it will automatically install the update without requiring you to click or select anything.

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After the update installs, you’ll be asked to accept the license agreement.

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Welcome to your updated Kindle for PC! Notice the changes?

Changes in Kindle for PC 1.1.0

The latest version of Kindle for PC has several changes, so let’s explore them quickly. Most noticeable is the old-style File menu at the top of the window. This is an unfortunate design decision; previously Kindle had a consolidated menu on the right of the top toolbar similar to IE8. Hopefully they’ll adopt a more modern UI instead of the File menu with future versions, but one thing we can be excited about is that they expanded the menu to contain more features. On the front screen, most of the menu items are grayed out since they’re book-related features (another reason why modern, context-centric menus would be nicer … but I digress).

So let’s dive into a book to see the new features. Here I’ve opened Linchpin by Seth Godin, the latest ebook I’ve been reading (very good reading/ideas, by the way!). First off, Kindle tells us that we can now add notes and highlights directly from Kindle for PC! This is the biggest features Kindle for PC was missing up till now, so it is a very nice addition.

To make a note or highlight text, just select the text and a context menu automatically pops up. Choose the option you want.

Highlighting looks just like you would expect (though maybe they should make the highlight less straight to look more like my real-world highlighting!).

If you choose to add a note, the Notes & Marks sidebar will open so you can enter anything you want. Click Save when you are finished. Remember, Kindle will sync these notes and highlights to all of your computers or devices via WhisperSync, which is very handy!

If you decide you don’t want the highlight, right-click on it and select Delete.

Nice UI Enhancements

Another nice new change is the darker background color and shadow behind the ebook. This is mostly a cosmetic change, but one I found very nice.

But for even more options, click the “Aa” button. This button used to only change the font size, but now it contains a variety of options.

You can choose the font size, number of words per line, color mode, and brightness. All changes can be previewed by simply hovering over the option, which is very nice. The new color modes are especially nice. The Sepia options looks more like real paper, while the Black option gives you White text on a Black background which many prefer for on-screen reading. Here’s our book with the Sepia color mode … very nice.

And, right beside the Aa button is the newest button … which activates full screen mode! You can also activate full-screen mode by pressing F11 on your keyboard, which is the universal “full-screen mode” shortcut. Nice!

Here’s our book in full screen mode. Now your PC really feels like a Kindle! Press Esc on your keyboard to exit full-screen mode when you’re done reading.

The file menu offers the same options that we’ve used with the standard buttons, so it seems to be there just to help those who prefer file menus. I hope they remove the file menu in a future update, but I’m one user that really wants File menus to die

Conclusion

That’s all the changes I noticed; if you notice any more, be sure to let us know in the comments. As is, though, Kindle for PC is my favorite ebook reader for PCs, and I highly recommend it. These changes only made it nicer, and I can’t wait to see what other features Amazon brings to Kindle for PC over time!

Download Kindle for PC today!

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Make Adobe Reader a Better Ebook Reader

By Matthew Guay on April 19, 2010 in Techinch

Want to make Adobe Reader a better ebook reader? There are a wide variety of ebooks available in PDF format, including the free Microsoft Press ebooks I mention regularly here, and Adobe Reader is the de facto standard PDF reader. In general, Adobe Reader works great for reading PDF ebooks, but here are a few tips to help make it an even better ebook reader.

Keep Reading Where You Left Off

Have you ever read several chapters of a PDF ebook, only to have to find your place again the next day when you continued reading? This can be very frustrating, but thankfully there’s a way to make Adobe Reader remember where you were last reading.

Open the Edit menu, and select Preferences. Select the Documents category on the left side, and then check the first box that says “Restore last view settings when reopening documents”. Press Ok, and now Adobe Reader will always remember where you left off reading when you close a PDF.

Remove Distractions

Taking Adobe Reader full-screen might be the best thing you can do if you’re trying to concentrate and read a full ebook. In many programs, including most web browsers, pressing F11 makes the program go full-screen, but F11 does nothing in Adobe Reader. Instead, to make Adobe Reader go full-screen:

Open the View menu, and select “Full Screen Mode”, or
Press Ctrl + L on your keyboard

This will take Adobe Reader from this:

to this:

Now, on a widescreen, that still is not the optimal way to read an ebook. Zoom in by holding the Ctrl button down on your keyboard while scrolling up on your mouse, or by pressing Ctrl and + on your keyboard. My netbook has a multitouch touchpad, and if you’re using one you can simply pinch or spread your fingers to zoom. Now doesn’t it look inviting to read?

To continue reading, click your left mouse button or press the space bar to go down a page down, or your right button to go a page up. You can do the same with the Page up and Page down buttons, but often I find pressing the space bar to scroll a page down works the nicest. When your finished reading, press Esc on your keyboard to return Adobe Reader to its normal size.

If you’d rather just maximize your reading space in Adobe Reader while keeping it in windowed mode, then use Adobe Reader’s Reading Mode. To activate Reading mode:

Open the View menu, and select “Reading Mode”, or
Press Ctrl+H on your keyboard.

Here’s how the same PDF looks in Reading Mode:

Rotate your Widescreen to view more text at once

This tip is mostly useful for netbooks, but you may find it useful on a desktop if you can easily rotate your screen. I use my netbook as an ereader a lot, and strangely, it feels very nice to hold it sideways almost like a book. Of course, to read like that you need to rotate your screen. But I’m not using my full computer this way; I only flip it to read ebooks. Adobe Reader’s ability to rotate PDFs is very useful for this. To rotate your PDF:

Open the View menu, select “Rotate View”, and then choose Clockwise or Counterclockwise,
Press Shift+Ctrl+Plus or Shift+Ctrl+Minus, or
On a multitouch touchpad, twist with your fingers to rotate.

It doesn’t make too much sense to use Adobe Reader rotated in windowed mode, so I usually both rotate the document and view in full-screen. See how much we can see on the screen at once now?

Conclusion

While these may not be groundbreaking features, the are some that have made ebooks much nicer to read for me. I hope you find them useful, and feel free to share your favorite ebook tips and tricks in the comments!

Oh, and by the way … The ebook I used in this example is the free ebook Unleashing the Ideavirus from Seth Godin … great ebook, by the way!

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Get ready for Windows Phone 7!

By Matthew Guay on March 25, 2010 in How-To Geek, Techinch

Mobile devices have become the most interesting sector of computing in recent years. The iPhone has brought smartphones to the masses, and now everyone around the world expects their phone to be as fast and capable. Microsoft was an early leader in the mobile devices market with Windows Mobile, which has powered millions of PDAs and phones from numerous manufacturers around the globe. However, innovation lagged in recent years, and newer devices and mobile operating systems made Windows Mobile look stale in comparison. Last year Microsoft released Windows Mobile 6.5 to address some of the problems and update the user interface, but even this was not enough to keep even their own employees from switching to competing mobile platforms, usually the iPhone.

The past two months, however, have entirely turned around the tech industry’s perspective of Microsoft’s mobile platform. In February during the Mobile World Congress, Microsoft unveiled their new Windows Phone 7. Borrowing heavily from the Zune HD’s UI, Windows Phone 7 offers a simple and elegant way to compute and communicate on the go. Then, during the recent Mix’10 conference, Microsoft unveiled more information about Windows Phone 7 and its development ecosystem. This includes a free development kit containing Visual Studio Express for Windows Phone, XNA Game Studio, and a Windows Phone 7 emulator. This means you can run a pre-release version of Windows Phone 7 on your PC right now!

Want to try it out for yourself? Check out my article at How-to Geek about the free Development tools for Windows 7 at:

Try out Windows Phone 7 on your PC today

But, unfortunately, the default emulator doesn’t include all of the features of Windows Phone 7; in fact, it only contains the Internet Explorer Mobile browser, and can run any apps you develop for it. Enterprising developers discovered, however, that the emulator did contain all of the features, but they simply weren’t unlocked. Thanks to developer Dan Ardelean, now we can all try out all of the pre-release features in Windows Phone 7 today! Check it out, and my How-to Geek article about it at:

Test All Features of Windows Phone 7 On Your PC

Now, what if you actually want to develop, too?

Playing around with the emulator is fun, but if you’d like to actually get a head-start on developing for the new platform, Microsoft’s got lots of resources for you. Not only the developer tools we just looked at, but how about a free ebook? Microsoft Press is offering a free draft edition of their upcoming “Programming Windows Phone 7 Series” book for download on their blog today! So what are you waiting for? Head over to the blog post and check it out, or just download it directly in PDF or XPS versions along with code samples.

Also, check out the Windows Phone 7 Training Kit from MSDN’s Channel 9. It contains step-by-step tutorials on how to get started with your first Windows Phone 7 app. Check it out at the link below:

Windows Phone 7 Training Kit

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Outlook and UAC and VirtualBox, oh my!

By Matthew Guay on March 5, 2010 in How-To Geek

It’s been a busy week between finals at Florida Tech and a major problem with an article I wrote on running XP Mode in Virtual Box, so here’s your chance to catch up my How-to Geek articles if you’ve been waiting for me to post them here.

Outlook:

I wrote two articles about my favorite plugins for Outlook: Forgotten Attachment Detector and the Drop.io plugin.

Never Forget to Send an Email Attachment in Outlook

Send up to 100MB attachments with Outlook and drop.io

Windows:

Is IE 8 any good for web developers? Check out a fun trick you can do with IE8 at:

Edit Text in a Webpage with Internet Explorer 8

And then, Find your computer’s location with Windows 7 and Geosense

UAC is often unloved and misunderstood, which is why I wrote Understanding User Account Control in Windows 7

All work and no play …. well, let’s look at Window’s ancient ancestors! Geek Fun: Virtualized old school Windows 3.11

And then, to continue my series on running XP Mode in extreme and unusual ways, I wrote an article on how to run XP Mode in VirtualBox. Windows XP didn’t appear to activate correctly when users started trying to follow my directions, so we quickly went back to the drawing board. Thankfully, MysticGeek at How-to Geek dug up a great way to still get XP Mode to work in Virtual Box via the VMLite plugin. This integrates XP Mode with Windows 7 very nicely, including showing XP programs directly in your Windows 7 Start menu just like the official XP Mode. Check this method out at Install XP Mode with VirtualBox Using the VMLite Plugin, and you can even still see my original infamous article if you’d like at How To Run XP Mode in VirtualBox on Windows 7 (though remember, you won’t actually be able to activate XP Mode this way).

Books, books, and more books!

Microsoft press has the good habit of giving away free ebooks periodically, and they recently released a new on on their blog for free. This book, Own Your Future: Update Your Skills with Resources and Career Ideas from Microsoft, offers some unique and interesting pointers to make your career more successful in any field. Check out their blog post for more info, and download the book for free in PDF or XPS formats.

One more thing!

The neatest new download of the week was the new Opera 10.50. It brings a sleek Aero UI and great Windows 7 integration to the most popular browser that no one uses (on the desktop anyhow). This new version should help change that; it’s fast, pretty, and easy to use with streamlined menus. But this wasn’t Opera’s only new release of the week; they also released a beta version of Opera Mini 5 for Windows Mobile. Unlike previous versions that ran in Java, this version is a native Windows Mobile browser, includes tabbed browsing, and is amazingly fast. Opera Mini was already my favorite browser on Windows Mobile (Chrome and IE8 tie on the desktop for me ), and this just made it even better. Check them both out when you have a chance; you’ll enjoy it!

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