Easily Share Free Books With Your Friends Using Ownshelf

Browse the books your friends are reading – or share collections with your friends. You and your friends can download the books to read later. It’s called Ownshelf and it’s intended to be a way for friends to share freely distributable books.

It’s possible to use this to distribute copy-written material – because of encryption, Ownshelf wouldn’t even necessarily know you were doing so. This is not the intended use of the app, however: it’s supposed to be a way for people to share works in the public domain or otherwise free to spread.

There might be copyright issues here, long term, as The Next Web pointed out.

“We promote and provide books that are public domain or creative commons. Of course what users actually upload to their personal shelf is up to them,” said founder Rick Marazzani, according to the article. “We hope that by using real names and real friends via Facebook that people will stick to what they deem as fair use. All the content on the server is encrypted, so we cannot see what’s in the user’s files. So we could not manage DRM or rights centrally.”

So this is a great tool that may or may not end up being abused by pirates – much like the Internet itself. But enough background: let’s see just how Ownshelf works.

Your Online Bookshelf

Head to OwnShelf.com to get started. You’ll need a Facebook account to log in; there is unfortunately no email-only option. When you do log in you’ll be presented with an empty shelf and the ability to browse your friends’ books. If none of your friends use OwnShelf (likely) you’ll still see three sets of books to browse: the shelves of Paulo Coelho and MC Lars alongside a collection of books that later turned into movies. Feel free to browse these collections to discover how the site looks.

Click on any book and you’ll see the option to “borrow” it.

If you “Borrow” the book it will show up on your “Books” page, along with any EPUB files you’ve uploaded to the service yourself (more on uploading later).

Click any of the books and you’ll be given the opportunity to download them as EPUB files.

You can easily add these books to your iPad or iPhone using iTunes, or add them to any e-reader that natively supports EPUB files (Kobo, Nook). If you want to send this file to your Kindle Nook or just about any e-reader on the market, try Calibre. We offer a free Calibre manual if you need help.

Uploading Books

You can upload books from the “Books” page of OwnShelf; the button for doing so is right at the top. You’ll be able to browse your computer and add as many EPUB files as you like.

Want some books to upload? Why not grab free EPUB versions of our many manuals? They are free to download and to distribute. I uploaded a bunch of them to Ownshelf; you could too and share the information we offer with friends quickly and easily.

Of course not every free EPUB file on the web comes from us – just the best ones. If you want more choices for some reason you could check out these 3 Good Online Sources With Free eBooks To Read and Angela’s article that outlines 5 eBook Tools and Tidbits for more book tips.

What are you uploading to Ownshelf? Let me know in the comments below, or tell me about other websites for uploading and sharing free books.

Oh, and if someone from Ownshelf is reading: we’d love to be a featured shelf. Get in touch if you’re at all interested.

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iOS 6.1 Brings LTE To Many New Carriers Along With New Siri Features [Updates]

Apple has released a handful of updates for iOS 6 and its supported mobile devices. The 6.1 update includes expanded LTE support, several new Siri and iTunes Match features, and a new button to reset the Advertising Identifier.

According to Apple, the new LTE capabilities will provide 4G data access to 36 additional iPhone carriers and 23 additional iPad carriers around the world. It says the new update will provide “ultrafast wireless performance” to the iPhone 5, iPad mini and iPad with Retina display, so users can browse, download, and stream content faster.

The update also adds the ability to use Siri to purchase movie tickets in the US through the movie app Fandango. You can’t actually use Siri to complete the ticket purchasing process, but you can use vocal commands (e.g. “Buy tickets for Parker at 10:15pm.”) to search for nearby movie listings and times. Choosing a listing will send you to the relevant Fandango page to complete your selected purchase.

The update also allows iTunes Match subscribers to download individual songs to their iOS devices from their iCloud account. This feature was removed in a previous update, but is making a comeback now.

iOS 6.1 is available as a free software update, and is compatible with iPhone 5, iPhone 4S, iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad (except 1st generation), iPad mini, and iPod touch (4th and 5h generation). To install the update, launch the Settings app and go to Software Update.

Have you installed iOS 6.1 yet? What do you think of the new features?

Source: Apple

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What Are The Best Book Review Sites?

There are many people who consider books as a dying art form, especially as physical objects. While I accept that books will one day be nothing more than words on a screen, stories will always live on. They’ve been with us for millennia – and written down for centuries – and they’ll outlive everybody reading this.

I’m an avid reader, getting through at least one book a week. I often have several on the go at once – usually a novel, a reference book, and an autobiography – which are consumed as and when the opportunity arises. I realized long ago that there are far more books out there than I could ever read in my lifetime, with hundreds of thousands more published each and every year.

This means choosing what to read is a big decision. Dedicate several weeks to War and Peace and you may have to forego reading Les Misérables. Decide to read every book from a certain author and you may have to miss out on several future classics by other, less well-known, authors. Sorting the wheat from the chaff is impossible without some help, which is why recommendations from other book lovers are crucial.

While friends and family are the obvious first choice, there are a host of book review sites on the Web dedicated to helping readers find the tome best suited to them. What follows are five of the best. They all offer similar features, but with a varying degree of success. In order to fairly and thoroughly test the book review sites, five books from different genres were chosen: The Hobbit, Life Of Pi, The Lincoln Lawyer, Angels and Demons, and James and The Giant Peach.

BookBrowse

Look & Feel: The homepage is a little busy and hard to navigate, with clunky drop-down menus. Things improve once you actually reach a particular book, with the layout making more sense.

Number Of Reviews: Three of the five test books are featured on the site, but the overall number of reviews isn’t made clear. A result of 60% for the sample titles suggests the site is lacking in this department.

Search: The search engine offers the bare minimum, with no advanced search options and no way of paring the results down. However, the results are fairly solid and well laid out.

Recommendation Engine: Each book has a ‘Readalikes‘ section, and there’s also a way of narrowing books down by different parameters. The results are sensible, offering similar books in the same genre or from authors with similar sensibilities.

Summing Up: BookBrowse is a good option, but it’s let down badly by the need to pay for a membership to unlock the best features.

Grade: C-

LibraryThing

Look & Feel: Although it could do with a visual overhaul to bring it up to date, everything is in place and easy to navigate. Once you click on an individual title the number of options available to explore expands massively.

Number Of Reviews: All five of the test books are present and correct, with 78 million books listed overall.

Search: The search engine is simple, but with enough added features such as tags and ways of sorting the results to make it worth exploring.

Recommendation Engine: The ‘Zeitgest‘ section offers a comprehensive way of finding new books to read, and there are also a lot of recommendations (using various methods) listed under each book. The books suggested for further reading make a lot of sense in terms of genre and style.

Summing Up: The vast number of books coupled with the robust collection of data makes LibraryThing a worthy contender. Unfortunately a small fee is required for full integration.

Grade: B-

GoodReads

Look & Feel: Clean lines and a modern feel make this site one of the best looking on the list. Everything is easy to find, and you never feel overwhelmed by an abundance of information or external links.

Number Of Reviews: All five of the test books are present and correct, and though the total number of books isn’t listed, the number of users suggests there will be few gaps in the library.

Search: You can search the site by title, author, or ISBN number, which is the bare minimum a book review site should be offering. A way of narrowing the results further would be appreciated.

Recommendation Engine: Recommendations are based on the ratings you give to other books. It’s a system which works well, but it does require a little effort to start working. Once the recommendations kick in they’re eclectic but improve as you rate more titles. In a similar way to the movie recommendation sites.

Summing Up: GoodReads is a strong contender with a huge community at its disposal. The site feels a little dry, but it does the job being asked of it extremely well. It’s completely free to use too.

Grade: A-

Shelfari

Look & Feel: A solid design sensibility shines through across the site, putting it on a par with GoodReads. Everything is based around book covers, which adds a nice visual element to proceedings.

Number Of Reviews: All five of the test books are present and correct, and though the total number of books isn’t listed, Amazon’s origins as a bookseller suggests there will be few gaps in the library.

Search: A startling number of advanced search options are available, such as narrowing by genre or binding, and setting the publication date parameters. This ensures even obscure titles should be easy to find.

Recommendation Engine: Recommendations are kept to a minimum by default, suggesting this isn’t the main focus of the site. However, there are sensible titles suggested for each book, so you can build out from your existing collection.

Summing Up: Shelfari is owned and powered by Amazon, but that’s mostly to its credit. It’s free, it’s comprehensive, and it’s extremely user friendly.

Grade: B+

BookRabbit

Look & Feel: The homepage is rather busy, with little to differentiate the various sections. The color scheme works, but the small icons and even smaller text make it something of a chore to navigate.

Number Of Reviews: All five of the test books are present and correct, but there is no data regarding the total number featured on the site. With user-submitted reviews being the order of the day I suspect it lags behind GoodReads and LibraryThing.

Search: There are both basic and advanced search options, which combined offer the best of both worlds. One nice touch is a snapshot of the book on an actual bookshelf, as uploaded to the site by a user.

Recommendation Engine: The only recommendations are via the discussions taking place around each title. Which is fairly limiting in terms of its ability to inform you what you may want to read next. This is the biggest weakness of the site.

Summing Up: BookRabbit is slightly different from the other sites on this list, which is both a blessing and a curse. It wouldn’t be my first choice, but it’s definitely worth a look for those seeking in-depth reviews of popular titles.

Grade: C+

Conclusions

Having tested each site for an expended period of time, I rank them as follows:-

1. GoodReads


2. Shelfari


3. LibraryThing


4. BookRabbit


5. BookBrowse

GoodReads wins out thanks to a strong user base, a huge database, and an overall look and feel which just edges out Shelfari and LibraryThing. BookRabbit will appeal to some but not all, while BookBrowse suffers mainly as a result of the need to pay membership fees.

My love of books is going nowhere, even if the method by which I read them has to evolve in the years to come. In the absence of infinite time to read everything we want to, book review sites that gather reviews and recommend titles that should not be missed are essential tools.

Let us know what you think of this article in the comments section below, or add your own book review site to the list.

Image Credit: Ian Wilson

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Prepare Your Account Privacy For Facebook Graph Search [Weekly Facebook Tips]

Every time Facebook releases a new feature to learn more about our friends, many people realise that their privacy settings are not adequate anymore. Their latest new feature, Facebook Graph Search, is no exception – many people are a little concerned about what sorts of things will be found and by whom.

Thankfully, all it takes is a little understanding about how Facebook Graph Search works, then you can tweak your privacy settings accordingly. Today, we’ll go into a little detail about what exactly the Facebook Graph Search is and the sorts of things strangers may be able to find out about us. Then, we’ll make sure you have double-checked your privacy settings in anticipation of the full Graph Search roll-out.

What Is Facebook Graph Search?

Facebook Graph Search is a new way to search for information on Facebook, which uses natural language and finds results across a broad spectrum of things. For instance, Facebook suggests you might like to do a search for “People who like cycling and live in Seattle, Washington“. It’s also possible to do a similar search for “My Friends who like cycling and live in Seattle, Washington“. This would mean you could quickly find out which of your friends you should talk to in order to go cycling with them while you’re in Seattle.

As you can see, Facebook graph search takes information about people’s Location, Liked Pages, Other Likes, Places, Photos, Education, Work, Hometown, Timeline and more. Also, because all of this information is protected by a variety of privacy settings, searches performed by different people will yield different results. This is due to the privacy settings of friends and strangers for each individual part of their profile. Only things that were previously available to a given person will be viewable via the Search Graph, however they may find that information more readily now.

Which Privacy Settings Are Likely To Create The Most Trouble?

Since it’s now easier to find information in the sea of data in Facebook, strangers and friends alike will now be able to find out information about you more easily. I personally recommend that all users check their privacy settings for their current location, hometown and tagging for places, as these could very quickly lead a person to your current physical location.

The next most important thing to do is to review photos of yourself. On Facebook, there is also a little confusion with photo privacy. The privacy of any given photo is determined by the person who uploaded it. The privacy settings you set for photos you are tagged in will determine who else may see the photo, but they can’t stop someone who already could view the photo from seeing it.

For instance, if your cousin uploads photos of you and makes them visible to all of their Facebook friends, all of those Facebook friends will be able to see the photo despite your privacy settings. Even if you have set your privacy to ensure your grandparents can’t see photos you are tagged in, they will still be able to see your cousin’s photos if your cousin is friends with them on Facebook.

You can remove the tag, although it will do little to help you in this circumstance. The best thing to do would be to ask your friends to set stricter privacy settings on the photos you appear in or to remove the photos altogether.

Also important are the settings for your work and education, previous posts and activity. Check your activity log to see what is viewable and make changes as you like (go to https://www.facebook.com/YOUR-PROFILE/allactivity ).

Review your Likes and remove or change the settings for anything that you don’t want people to see. Pages you have liked were changed to public by default a while back, but they can now be made less public. So, it’s vital that you change the privacy settings or Unlike anything that you’d prefer to stay private. Since many people have been Liking activities, TV shows, movies and music since long before they all went public, this is important.

To edit your settings for Likes, go to your timeline and click on “Likes“, then “Edit“. Each category of Likes has a different privacy setting, so you can fine-tune it as you wish. Ensure you remember to click on “Done Editing” when you are finished in order to save your settings.

Also note that minors have certain settings locked to a maximum exposure of friends or friends of friends (who are also minors). To read more about privacy for minors, see this page.

How Do I Fix & Check My Privacy Settings?

Facebook has a new privacy navigation menu, which is accessible via the little padlock icon in the top-right of any page on Facebook. The menu makes it easy to check your privacy settings, to access the activity log and to access the full privacy menu. This also allows you to quickly view your timeline as another person to verify what they can see.

As you saw above for the privacy settings of “Likes“, it is now possible to edit the settings of many other items on your Timeline in the same way. It’s worth checking each section of your Timeline and ensuring things are as private as you expect, particularly the “About” section and the “Friends” section.

Don’t forget that privacy settings can be dictated using custom-made friends lists. It’s therefore well worth setting up some friends lists to help you manage your privacy.

What Else Should I Know?

Facebook have written their own guide to Facebook Privacy and the Graph Search and it is well worth taking a look. In particular, it will demonstrate the sorts of photos which can be found via Graph Search that are not viewable on your timeline. These are the ones you should be reviewing and discussing with the person who uploaded them.

Have you checked your privacy settings for Facebook Graph Search yet? Were you surprised to find some things were more public than you had hoped?

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Turn On Click-to-Play and Make your Google Chrome More Stable

You are watching a video in Google Chrome and suddenly a yellow notification bar pops-up saying that the Shockwave Flash plug-in isn’t responding. While Chrome may have come a long way, these frequent Flash Player crashes still remain the most annoying thing about Google’s browser. →

Shockwave Flash isn’t responding – the most frustrating error in Google Chrome?

Fixing Shockwave Flash Crashes in Chrome

The easiest solution to the problem would be that you completely disable the Shockwave Flash plug-in inside Chrome. Go to the Chrome address bar, type chrome://plugins and find the entry that says “Adobe Flash Player /Shockwave Flash.” Click Disable.

While this certainly resolves the crashing behavior, you now have to deal with another problem. You can’

YouTube is probably the biggest reason why we need the Flash Player in our browser and once we disable the Shockwave Flash plugin, some of the videos won’t play. YouTube does offer an HTML5 video player but videos that are enabled for advertising (most professional content) still require the Flash Player. Also, the YouTube video player served with Flash seems to offer more features.

Run the Flash Player On-demand inside Chrome

A better alternative is that instead of completely blocking the Flash plugin, you configure Chrome such that the plugin loads only when required.

In this case, the plugin stays inactive by default but if you happen to visit a web page that requires Flash, you can load the plugin on-demand.

Go to the address bar and type chrome://settings to open the Chrome Settings windows. Choose Show Advanced Settings -> Content Settings (under Privacy) and then choose “Click to Play” under the Plug-ins group.

If a YouTube video or an audio clip on the Soundcloud requires Flash, you can click the plug-in icon to temporarily enable the Flash Player for that page. This obviously isn’t a permanent fix but just a workaround to deal with a very frustrating and common problem of Google Chrome.

Also see: Why is your Flash Player Green?

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This story, Turn On Click-to-Play and Make your Google Chrome More Stable, was originally published at Digital Inspiration on 29/01/2013 under Google Chrome, Software.