Manybooks.net – Always Free

This is one of the best places to pick up free ebooks in just about any format you need, certainly epub files for your iPad will be handy for any of the books you choose here.

The site is very well organized, and I haven’t seen a poorly formatted book yet. Feel free to be a book snob.

Enjoy! Manybooks.net

The Poems and Prose Poems of Charles Baudelaire

Charles Baudelaire

A collection of Baudelaire poems including Flowers of Evil and Little Poems in Prose.

Starts with an Introductory Preface by James Huneker

Spinning Wheel Stories

Louisa May Alcott

A collection of twelve heart warming stories for children.

Premise: a winter storm forces a family, who have gathered for the winter holidays, to stay inside and listen to their grandmothers stories.

 

On liberty

John Stuart Mill

One of history’s most important political works. Mill declares that “over himself, over his own body and mind, the individual is sovereign”.

If you are interested in political philosophy – this is a must read!

My Own Story

Emmeline Pankhurst

A biography by one of last century’s most important persons. Her work with women’s rights has yet to meet its match.

Bitching

The only reason I won’t be purchasing another iPad will be the total disregard for flash. As a web designer, I have several webs I have done for various entertainment people that rely on Flash extensively to share music and music boxes in a nice way. I am sick of not being able to see these on my iPhone or iPad, and to be honest, there isn’t an alternative way to create these pages and have the same effect, eye candy if you will. And if there is, I’m not up to doing 10 Hail Mary’s under a full moon just to learn a new trick to work around something that shouldn’t need to be worked around in the first place.

I won’t be replacing (soon) my iPhone 3 with the new iPhone 5 when it comes out either. It’s a shame, because I like it too. I’ve got 75 apps on the thing, but I shouldn’t have a hard time finding something comparable on a new Android. I will miss my iPhone, but will enjoy the more Flash friendly web browser.

Here are some of my sites that rely heavily on Flash:

Ringo Records (my sister’s site)
Herschel Freeman Agency
Barbara Blue

I can’t be the only web designer who feels this way.

I’m loving my iPad 2 for all the other things it will do, but I have to admit this Flash thing is an iPad killer unless the next generation “does Flash.” I am thinking the next Amazon Kindle will be a tablet that will probably do the Internet (with Flash) and o by the way, do Kindle books too.

Right now… I’m just a lady in waiting… Waiting for Apple to figure this one out. I sure hope they decide in my favor.

Helper Software – Calibre

If you like to read with your iPad, Kindle and/or any other device, you really need Calibre installed on your computer. It is absolutely free and one of the best tools you will ever reach for to keep your books organized, edit the meta data (titles, descriptions etc) and cover art. It also has one of the easiest ways to send your books to your iPad you will ever find with a built in content server.

The Content Server is very handy. Click the Connect/share button at the top of the main window, then click the words Start Content Server. Once you have that going, the contents of your Calibre library will be available to your iPhone, iTouch or iPad via quite a few software apps. One of my favorites is MegaReader, an ebook reader I use on the iPad and iPhone.

The key is using Calibre to organize all your non DRM (protected) books. Then you can turn the Content Server on any time and turn your computer into a download machine. You will love it!

QuickTip

Quick Screen Shot

If you need to get a quick screen shot from your iPad, quickly press (and hold) the Home button, then press the Sleep button at the top of your iPad. If you have successfully coordinated these two buttons (not quite but almost simultaneously) being pressed, you will see your screen flash briefly. You may also hear the sound of a camera clicking. I love that part.

To find your snapshot, touch the Photos icon. You will see it in the camera roll section. From there, you can open the photo, then email it to yourself if you want to quickly have it available to use.

iPad Apps

MegaReader

To get MegaReader, go to the App store on your iPad and do a search for it. It is free, and a great app to read those odd books you collect from all over. Epub files are no problem and it is easy to get the files to your iPad. Anything you have in Calibre is easily accessible wirelessly from within MegaReader as soon as you turn on the server in your Calibre.

To start the special Content Server in Calibre, click the Connect/share button at the top of the main window, then click where it says Start Content Server. It is sooooo magic!

To transfer books from Calibre to your MegaReader, touch the words Download Books from the main MegaREader screen. A new screen will appear with your Calibre on your computer showing as an option at the bottom. Touch it once to see a new screen with a new list of choices. Touch one (I like By Newest) to choose the way your choices will be sorted. Touch the book you want and it is all over but the shouting.

iPad Apps – Evernote

Even though I have only had Evernote installed a few weeks, it has quickly become an app I use daily, and depend on a lot. It has even pulled my fanny out of the fire on more than one occasion.

Did I mention they even have a FREE version? That is what I started out with, but the more I began to depend on it and the more I discovered how valuable it was, it was just natural to sign up for an annual account.

In the free and paid version, there is no limit to the number of “notebooks” you can create. Once installed on one machine, you will want to install it on every computer you use, then sign in with your account information. You will notice your notebooks will appear wherever you are, and be as handy as a mouse click if you want to add a note, an image, or edit an existing entry.

It really came in handy right away when I began using it to gather my thoughts when writing blog entries. I used it sort of like a playground for various ideas. It was perfect for fleshing out articles without actually committing them to the blog. When I was ready, it was a simple matter to transfer (copy and paste) the information to the blog, then send it up. Evernote makes it very easy to work on several ideas at once, no muss, no fuss. And you probably thought I was some kind of nerd/genius? NOT… I have good tools!

iPad Reader

Oh yes! Your iPad is unsurpassed when it comes to reading pdf books. iBooks does the job just fine… no special app is required.

If you like news and blogs, begin saving your favorites as shortcuts right on your desktop. Drag one on top of another to begin a special folder. Give it a name and use it for all your favorite news and blog sites.

EBooks anyone? You should already have the Apple iBooks app on your little machine. That is turning out to be a very nice book store. Since it is tied to my Apple Store account, purchasing is as simple as entering in your password. All my credit card info is already stored. Certainly get the Kindle app (free in the app store) from Amazon. And while you are at it, pick up the one for Barnes & Noble. All of these fine establishments have enough free offerings to keep you occupied for a LONG time.

Inkmesh is a great website that keeps track of just this sort of information, so you don’t need to go hunting on your own. They always have the most current free eBooks available, with convenient links to where you can get them. They keep track of Amazon freebies, but offer several others too. If a book is available at more than one outlet, there will be links to all of them. You get to choose, and that is good.There is nothinglike a good book. Enjoy, dear readers!

iPad Skills – Charging Your iPad

iPad cable and charger

It is amazing how far technology has come just these last few years. It wasn’t that long ago I was lamenting the loss of another laptop battery by using the laptop plugged in most of the time. I had “taught” it to take a short charge basically, and eventually rendered the battery pretty much useless.

Batteries have evolved into much more durable and “idiot proof” accessories. You don’t have to keep them exercised any more by periodically running them down to almost nothing, then recharging them. The iPad, iPhone, Kindle, and all of our favorite little goodies hold their charges much better than ever before. You can plug them in whenever it is convenient for you to charge them and rest assured, they will last in a much more predictable manner.

Ain’t technology wunnerful!!

Cover Your iPad with an Oberon

My Oberon iPad cover

Oberon Design is a company in Santa Rosa, California that has been making special covers for the Kindle and iPad since they were first available. I love their stuff, and have managed to purchase a cover from them for every Kindle I have ever owned. When I ordered my first iPad (the iPad 2) I could hardly wait to order the cover for it so it wouldn’t feel neked.

This is a relatively small company, but they have been around for a while and from the looks of the covers I have purchased, don’t use an assembly line, but create each one… one at a time. I think they are expensive, but certainly worth the price and the wait to receive your order. I wouldn’t have them any other way.

I read a lot on the Kindle and the iPad, and neither feels like a piece of electronic equipment. The leather covers on them fit perfectly and when I am reading I can be in another world, with the smell and feel of the leather filling my senses with the ambiance of old and very special books.

I hate to say this Amazon, but add my Oberon cover to my iPad, and the special effects of the iBooks app, and there is NO better way to read a nice pdf file. The Kindle does have its advantages, but it is pretty easy to get spoiled by all that color the iPad gives you in a book with illustrations and/or photos, and magazines? I won’t even think about them on my Kindle. Right now the iPad is definitely the way to go there!

iTunes Dragging

Drag an ePub file directly to your iPad while it is showing in the iTunes software.

The iTunes software is another good way to transfer files directly to your iPad, especially ePub files. They are automatically associated with iBooks, so just dragging the file to the area where your iPad is will automatically send the file to your iPad and the next time you open your iBooks program, the book will appear. This also applies to pdf files.

Another thing about epub files. If you have an ePub book on your iPad, and the same book on your iPhone (in iBooks), they magically sync, so whichever device you open the book in, you can be sure to be taken to the most recent spot. This includes non DRM (like public domain books) eBook files you did not purchase from the iBooks store.

Take that Kindle!