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How Do You Prefer To Read Your Books? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Posted on 06 November 2011. Tags: Books, MakeUseOf, Poll, Prefer, Read

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/polls.jpg" alt="polls" />Last week we asked if href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/date-leaves-iphone-ring-default-makeuseof-poll/">you would date someone who leaves their iPhone (or any other phone!) ring on default. In general, MakeUseOf readers don’t see ringtones as a deciding factor, and over half of the voters think it doesn’t make any difference.

Out of 276 voters, 57% don’t care if the ringtone is left on default, 8% think leaving the default ringtone is totally lame, 5% think it’s OK only if it’s a brand new phone, 11% would help change the ringtone and 19% are true Android fans.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

With almost 60% not caring about the default ringtone at all, almost 25% state they do care about it somewhat, and will accept it only under certain conditions or help change it first. Is it the idea of the default ringtone that bothers people, or is it the default iPhone ring itself that’s a little hard to swallow?

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-05-15h38_11.png" alt="2011-11-05 15h38_11" width="332" height="631" border="0" />

This week’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/service/polls/">poll question is: How Do You Prefer To Read Your Books?

The world of books has gone through a dramatic change over the last few years. It started with cheap paper books that ship for free all over the world, continues with e-ink eReaders such as the Kindle and the Nook, and has no evolved to actual tablets that are meant to be used as readers. So how do you like your books?

align="center"> />

If you chose paper, why do you prefer it? And what makes a tablet reader better than e-ink? Will paper books vanish off the face of the earth, or is there a fight in them yet? Share your opinions!

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Read Google Reader In The Terminal Using The Text-Only Browser eLinks [Linux & Mac]

Posted on 26 October 2011. Tags: Browser, eLinks, Google, Linux, Read, Reader, Terminal, TextOnly, using

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/creader-icon.png" alt="text only google reader" />Do you want an immersive, text-only Google Reader? Try going through your reading list in the terminal. It’s easy to do with terminal web browser elinks and Google Reader’s mobile interface.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-reader/">Google Reader‘s interface is famously minimalist, but browsers hardly make ideal reading platforms. They give you convenient access to a plethora of distractions, from social networks to pictures of kittens. Avoid such distractions and focus on your reading by doing your reading in the command line. Besides, the command line is just plain cool, so you should be using it anyway.

eLinks is a text-only browser you can run from the command line. It is easily installed on Linux and Mac systems alike, so this idea works on both of those systems.

Installing eLinks

The first step, of course, is installing eLinks. Using Linux? Installing eLinks is simple, then. Just check your package manager of choice for it. Using Ubuntu? Simply href="apt:elinks">click here to install.

Are you a Mac user? Congratulations, most of you aren’t awesome enough to be interested in the command line. You think different. href="http://www.macupdate.com/app/mac/26416/elinks">Find a Mac download for eLinks here. You’ll find the Terminal in your Applications folder, under “Utilities“.

Once you’ve got the program working, you can open it in the terminal by typing “elinks” and hitting enter.

Launching Google Reader

Want to get to Google Reader quickly? Type this command into the terminal:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/creader-command.png" alt="text only google reader" width="580" height="119" />

elinks google.com/reader/m

Just like that, you’ve opened a web browser straight to Google Reader’s mobile page. You will need to log in now. Use the arrow keys to get to the entry fields, then hit enter to add text. Log in and you will see your reading list:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/creader-list.png" alt="text only rss reader" width="580" height="199" />

Use your arrow keys to open up your article of choice. You will then see a text-only version of the article in question:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/creader-content.png" alt="text only rss reader" width="578" height="192" />

I highly recommend pressing the space bar to scroll down; it will “turn the page” completely.

Of course, this all assumes that the RSS feeds you subscribe to are full text. If some of them aren’t, Google will do what it can to convert links to a mobile version if you click a link. Alternatively, you can href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-ways-view-full-rss-feeds-google-reader/">convert any RSS feed to full text with these tools. FullTextRSS in particular worked wonderfully for me.

Do you want a completely immersive reading experience? In most Linux distros, including Ubuntu, you can switch to terminal-only by hitting “ALT”, “CTL” and any of the “F” keys from 1 to 6. Pressing “ALT”, “CTL” and “F7″, for example, will bring you back to your graphical environment.

Alternatively, you could simply go full screen or maximize the terminal. That works too.

Other Potential Sites

eLinks doesn’t just work with Google Reader, of course – it’s a full blown web browser. Just about any site should work, but mobile versions of famous sites tend to work best, like the href="http://www.bbc.co.uk/mobile/i/">BBC Mobile version.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/creader-mac.png" alt="text only google reader" width="580" height="205" />

Can you think of any other sites you’d like to read in this way? Share them in the comments below, as always! Also feel free to share any other simple command line tricks you use to keep yourself from being distracted.

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Read Web Content On The Go With Read it Later Free [Android 2.1+]

Posted on 04 August 2011. Tags: 2.1+, Android, Content, Free, Later, Read

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image93.png" alt="" />There’s a famous class="vt-p" href="http://dilbert.com/strips/comic/2007-10-23/">Dilbert strip where Dilbert says “I can’t do my work because the Internet is too fascinating“. If you’ve ever felt this way, perhaps class="vt-p" href="http://readitlaterlist.com/">Read it Later can find a place in your life. In a nutshell, Read it Later is a service that lets you save interesting articles you come across and don’t have time to read right away.

It’s been around for a while, and has been integrated into over class="vt-p" href="http://readitlaterlist.com/apps/">256 different applications which let you bookmark things you’d like to read. If you don’t know the service but the idea sounds interesting, take a moment to read our class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-multiplatform-app-save-information-read/">Read it Later review which explains the concept far better. In this review, I’ll be taking a look at the class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ideashower.readitlater.free&feature=search_result&rdid=com.ideashower.readitlater.free&rdot=1&pli=1">free version of the Read it Later Android app. There’s also a class="vt-p" href="https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ideashower.readitlater.pro">Pro version which adds tagging and searching, but the free version is quite powerful as it is.

A synchronized reading list obviously requires a central server, which is why the first thing you’ll see when you run Read it Later for the first time is a login/account creation dialog:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image94.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

Such a clean look, I like it already. I already have an account, so I’m just going to log in. The minimalistic aesthetic doesn’t stop with the login screen:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image95.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

Let’s take a look at the reading list:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image96.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

As you can see, some of the entries are white (which means “ready”), while others are still loading. At this point, the app felt rather sluggish – I guess it was busy downloading my entire reading list en masse, which is a first-use kind of thing (the list would later just stay synchronized as I add articles using my browser).

Now let’s see what reading feels like:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image97.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

This is an old Lifehacker post, which looks quite nice as formatted by Read it Later. It takes just one tap to remove the Read it Later formatting and view the article in its original format:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image98.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

I prefer the app’s own formatting – I find it quite readable. The button to the right activates Android’s sharing menu, so you can tell the world how fantastic (or stupid) this article is. Note the “Email Article View” option, which is unique to Read it Later:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image99.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

The default article display uses a white background, which may not work so well for bedtime reading. Let’s see what we can do about that:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image100.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

Tapping Text Style opens up a small menu with some Kindle-like options:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image101.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

I can increase or decrease the font size, change the typeface, justify the text (or left-align it) and… yes, turn off the light. Here’s what the same post looks like after some light tweakage:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image102.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

Okay, so maybe the justification isn’t such a great idea, but I like the dark background. By the way, the app’s resemblance to Kindle doesn’t stop with the display options. Digging into the preferences, I found this:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/image103.png" border="0" alt="image" width="300" height="500" />

While “Volume Rocker Scrolling” is a Pro-only feature, it’s something right out of the Kindle app. I hope Amazon is flattered (it is a very useful feature).

Bottom Line

If you’re already a Read it Later user and have an Android device, the official app is a no-brainer. It is very well built, the interface feels solid, and it’s just fun to use. If you don’t use Read it Later yet, do be sure to use the Android app when you’re evaluating the service. It really rounds off the experience quite well.

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6 Great Contemporary E-Books You Can Read By Email Via DailyLit

Posted on 25 July 2011. Tags: Contemporary, DailyLit, eBooks, Email, Great, Read

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/mail.png?54167"/>I admit it. I check my email inbox way more than I should in any given day. I can’t seem to shake the behavior, yet I can’t find time to sit down and read a good, not-for-school book. That’s why I’m smitten with the concept behind href="http://www.dailylit.com/">DailyLit.

For the uninitiated, DailyLit is a brilliant service that helps you href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-sites-read-books-email/">read books by email or RSS. You basically choose a book, how often you want your emails to be delivered and how large the installments should be. You can change your settings anytime. You can even suspend the delivery if you’re going on vacation, and resume your reading when you’re back.

DailyLit offers lots of titles that are on the public domain, like href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/pride-and-prejudice">Pride and Prejudice, href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/war-and-peace">War and Peace, and other popular classics books. DailyLit also works with sponsors and publishers to make select contemporary works available for free. Here are a few titles that you should totally check out this summer!

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/someone-will-be-with-you-shortly">Someone Will Be With You Shortly by Lisa Kogan

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011-07-08_161451.png?54167" width="576" height="441" />

With the permission of Kogan’s publisher, DailyLit is able to offer selected essays from Lisa Kogan’s book, which is a hilarious account on contemporary living, single motherhood and more. Who is Lisa Kogan exactly? She’s a columnist for O, the Oprah Magazine, with a tremendous wit and lots of unique stories. Her book has gotten 4.5 stars as rated by 34 customers on href="http://www.amazon.com/Someone-Will-You-Shortly-Perfectly/dp/B004NSVFHC/ref=ntt_at_ep_dpt_1">Amazon, while the collection of selected chapters on DaillyLit has gotten 4.5 stars from an average of 16 ratings. This funny, poignant item is the reason that brought this MakeUseOf article to life – I actually look forward to getting the installments from DailyLit in my email inbox. There are 20 installments, which are bound to make you laugh.

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/fetching-raymond">Fetching Raymond by John Grisham

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011-07-08_171736.png?54167" width="570" height="390" />

Fetching Raymond is one of the 7 unrelated short stories that comprises Grisham’s 2009 book, href="http://www.amazon.com/Ford-County-Stories-John-Grisham/dp/0385532458/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310157724&sr=8-1">Ford Conty: Stories. This tale deals with a woman who visits her brother who’s been locked away on death row for more than a decade. DailyLit offers this contemporary short story on 13 free installments.

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/little-big-things-by-tom-peters">The Little Big Things by Tom Peters

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011-07-08_173402.png?54167" width="575" height="411" />

This self-help, management book is currently rated 4.5 stars from 10 reviews on DailyLit and 4.5 stars as well from href="http://www.amazon.com/Little-Big-Things-Pursue-EXCELLENCE/dp/0061894087/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310150200&sr=8-1">28 reviews on Amazon. Unlike the previous two items on this list, which were extended excerpts, this book is offered in full at DailyLit in 164 installments. Even the author of The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People says you will learn lots from this book, in particular if you’re looking to improve your business (either as a boss or employee). Additional self-help/management books include href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/bootstrappers-bible">The Boostrapper’s Bible by Seth Godin and href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/50th-law">The 50th Law by 50 Cent (yes, the rapper) and Robert Greene.

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/emeril-at-the-grill">Emeril at the Grill: A Cookbook for All Seasons by Emeril Lagasse

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011-07-08_180540.png?54167" width="579" height="395" />

DailyLit offers 15 recipes from celebrity chef Emeril’s full book, which is available on href="http://www.amazon.com/Emeril-Grill-Cookbook-All-Seasons/dp/0061742740/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310165376&sr=8-1">Amazon. Though this series doesn’t contain pictures, it is certainly timely for the summer. You can get this delivered to your inbox (or get the RSS feed) in 15 installments. Check out additional books in this genre href="http://www.dailylit.com/tags/cooking">here.

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/mba-mondays?source=lpage">MBA Mondays by Fred Wilson

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011-07-08_183946.png?54167" width="574" height="342" />

Fred Wilson is a venture capitalist who’s known for sharing advice in his href="http://www.avc.com/a_vc/mba-mondays/">blog. He started sharing concepts he learned in business school every week on Monday on his blog, giving birth to this series, which is available on DailyLit in 51 installments. This might be a good read for those of us that want to understand the investment jargon, applying a buy and hold strategy, etc.

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/with-a-little-help">With A Little Help by Cory Doctorow

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/2011-07-08_184849.png?54167" width="566" height="359" />

This sci-fi book consists of 12 short stories, and has earned 4.5 stars both on the DailyLit community and on href="http://www.amazon.com/Little-Help-Cory-Doctorow/dp/1456576348/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1310154024&sr=8-1">Amazon. The Canadian author has released the book under a Creative Commons license so he also offers the book in several different mobile-friendly formats, as well as the href="http://craphound.com/walh/audiobook/download-audiobook">audiobook on his website. If you’re into the futuristic, sci-fi genre, you should definitely check this book out.

There are probably plenty of other contemporary titles that I couldn’t possibly all list in this article, but if you know of one, feel free to share it in the comments!

Image Credit: rel="nofollow" href="http://findicons.com/icon/220044/mail">Aha-Soft Team

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-great-contemporary-ebooks-read-email-dailylit/">6 Great Contemporary E-Books You Can Read By Email Via DailyLit is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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Read Like A Hipster With These 3 Libraries For Your Browser

Posted on 19 July 2011. Tags: Browser, Hipster, Libraries, Like, Read, these

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/B7ax35.png?54167"/>So what if you have an extensive library on your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/amazon/">Amazon href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/kindle/">Kindle? Who cares if you have a bunch of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ibooks/">iBooks downloaded to your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad? Some of the best novels can be found using just your Internet browser, and the best part is that you’ve probably never heard of them before.

So don your sans-prescription dark-rimmed glasses, and put on your impractical-yet-fashionable summer scarf. MakeUseOf is about to get hipster with a whole bunch of indie novels that you can read online.

href="http://www.onlinenovels.net">Online Novels

As a basic link list, href="http://www.onlinenovels.net">Online Novels does not provide a sexy, decked-out, graphically-oriented website. However, it does exhibit quite a few novels with very detailed and articulate descriptions of each one.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/OnlineNovels.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="384" />

Despite Online Novels’ vintage HTML that is so ironic, it offers some quality material for you to scroll through. Most authors have their own home-pages, so you can even check out their other material.

Most of the books that you will find here are free, and they can typically be read using just your browser. There are even a few short stories and poems if you just want a quick read.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/OnlineNovels2.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="318" />

In addition to the in-browser novels, there are actually some titles available directly from authors for your Amazon Kindle. Granted, if you can’t pay out for these, you could always just use your parents’ credit card in true hipster fashion.

href="http://www.booksie.com/">Booksie

href="http://www.booksie.com">Booksie is a community for aspiring writers to publish their work one chapter at a time. This site is a little more user-friendly than its Online Novels counterpart, and it also offers free audiobooks, PDFs, and eBooks.

(Please note, if you want to use your desktop to read the cleaner eBook versions, you should try out href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/koobits-desktop-ebook-reader/">Koobits.)

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Booksie1.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="272" />

Writers use Booksie with the intent of getting their work read by the world. You can do your part and join the fun as a reader of novels while they are released piece by piece. The site really focuses on the in-progress work of a book, so you actually see it develop in episodic chapters (a la Great Expectations by Charles Dickens).

class="size-full wp-image-80738 aligncenter" title="Booksie7" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Booksie7.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="541" />

This site is great for having something new to read, but if your imagination palate craves something light, Booksie also has a wide variety of poems and short stories to choose from.

However, if you aren’t big on fan-fiction, you should be warned that there are a few of them here, but generally speaking, the site has its share of good literature.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/Booksie3.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="340" />

The work found on Booksie might not be of the best quality, seeing that it is written by authors who put fingers on the keyboard in their spare time, but the nice part of this is that each piece comes directly from the original creator and is completely untouched by the hands of a market-minded agent or publisher. Read with an open mind, and you just might be able to appreciate some of it.

href="http://www.webook.com">WeBook

As previously mentioned in href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/webook-online-book-publishing-wannabe-authors/">MakeUseOf directory, href="http://www.webook.com">WeBook is like the Texas cage-fighting match of online literature. The premise of the entire site is that authors submit their work, let you read it, and as it gains popularity (by your votes), it will eventually reach an agent who can get it published… and make it mainstream.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/WeBook1.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="355" />

While this site was initially developed for authors just trying to catch a break, it provides totally free content for those who want to sit back with a cup of Earl Grey and enter someone else’s mind for a little while. However, if you are an author, you have to pay a one-time submission fee.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/WeBook2.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="406" />

Each book is run through a gauntlet of three rounds that are all part of a process called “PagetoFame”. Authors start out with a single page submission for the first round, get voted up to a five pages round, and after that, they go on to the final fifty pages round.

If the book-in-the-making gets past these three rounds, it goes on to the Literary Showcase where agents can take a gander at it.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/WeBook3.png?54167" alt="" width="580" height="425" />

You’ll primarily only be reading parts of unfinished books via WeBook, but when one finally makes it as a New York Times bestseller, you can tell everyone you know, “I read that chapter before it was even published.”

Conclusion

So maybe these sites aren’t going to make you a hipster, but they are going to give you a look at some fresh reading material by a few unheard-of authors. This just goes to show you that you don’t always have to depend on the publishing houses to tell you what to read.

What are some good pieces of work that you have found using these sites? Would you recommend them? Also, what other sites have you found that host independent novels?

Image Credit: rel="nofollow" href="http://morguefile.com/archive/display/627777">momigo />
/>Need Assistance? Ask questions to MakeUseOf staff and thousands of other readers on href="http://www.makeuseof.dev/answers/" target="_blank" >MakeUseOf Answers!

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4 More Amazing Graphical Ways To Browse & Read News

Posted on 15 July 2011. Tags: amazing, Browse, Graphical, More, News, Read, WAYS

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/data.jpg?54167" alt="graphical news"/>Strangely, while watching news has stayed on the normal course, reading news has taken varied (and interesting) routes. There has been no better medium than the web to explore news in all its different avatars. RSS feeds and news tickers have become old-hat when you have more interactive apps coming in. Thanks to information overload, visualizing data has come into the picture…literally.

Data visualization starts with the idea of giving you a graphical tool to wrap all that information around your head. In the case of news, it ends with a really cool and interesting way to see news a bit differently.

Some of the data visualization based apps that focus on news may be experimental. It’s difficult to say whether graphical news apps will take off or not; but for now they remain as offbeat ways to browse and read news.

href="http://doodlebuzz.com/">DoodleBuzz

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/data01.jpg?54167" alt="graphical news" width="580" height="406" />

It’s called a typographic news explorer. The interesting graphical news app is meant to break you out of the usual way you browse for news – from the top down. This one fosters creativity. It all starts with a doodle. You get a blank canvas and a search box. Search for a news item and then just doodle around to get all interlinked stories. As you doodle on, the news items branch out and you can go on a wild, chaotic journey through all the information that’s out there. Doodling also gets you the original source of the news. It’s difficult to explain this app in words – try it out.

href="http://tenbyten.org/">tenbyten

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/data02.jpg?54167" alt="graphical newspaper" width="580" height="400" />

To describe the site in their own words – Every hour, 10×10 collects the 100 words and pictures that matter most on a global scale, and presents them as a single image, taken to encapsulate that moment in time.

If that went over your head, just launch the app and play around with the little thumbnails. At the backend, the app has scanned the RSS feeds of several leading international news sources (ABC, BBC, Reuters etc.) and culled the most important keywords using a special algorithm. The top 100 words are chosen along with their images. This human history goes into the 10×10 grid. You can check it by the hour and also go back into history with the cool timeline.

href="http://oursignal.com/">Oursignal

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/data03.jpg?54167" alt="graphical newspaper" width="580" height="297" />

We have featured this cool graphical news app href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/oursignalcom/">before in our directory of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/news/">news apps. It’s like a news aggregator with a difference – a visual one. Just like any other news aggregator, it plucks the most popular news stories from Digg, Reddit, Delicious, Yahoo! Buzz and Hacker News and displays them in one place. The more popular the story the bigger it appears on the homepage. Clicking on the square takes you to the source. You can also preview it in the bottom frame. With a registration and log-in, you can set about customizing the ways news squares will be displayed like choosing a theme and entering your own choice of feeds. The results are not always perfect but you can try it out. It’s also quite similar to href="http://newsmap.jp/">NewsMap which is a Google News aggregator.

href="http://www.newser.com/">Newser

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/data04.jpg?54167" alt="graphical news" width="580" height="372" />

Newser makes news reading more fun by taking news stories from around the world and showing them as thumbnails on a grid. Clicking on them takes you to the news stories. This is not really offbeat, but nonetheless a visual departure from the normal way of scanning headlines. We had taken a previous look at Newser when we mentioned href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/3-great-multi-source-news-websites/">5 Great Multi-Source News Websites.

These five web apps are interesting visualizations. They may not allow you to read ‘between the lines’ but they serve to break you away from the commonplace. If you are looking at more interesting ways to digest news, check out the articles below:

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/news/page/2/">3 Fun & Useful Google News Mashups
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-free-online-news-games-based-world-affairs-news-events/">7 Free Online News Games That Are Based On World Affairs & News Events
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/catch-news-world-map-7-map-based-news-aggregators/">Catch The News On A World Map With These 7 Map-Based News Aggregators
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-chrome-extensions-catching-latest-news-headlines/">10 News Photo Galleries To Catch All The Latest World News In Pictures
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-chrome-extensions-catching-latest-news-headlines/">6 Chrome Extensions For Catching The Latest News Headlines
href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-alternatives-york-times-free/">5 Alternatives To The New York Times That Are Still Free

Do you know about any other interesting visual ways to browse href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/news/">news?

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How To Read Great Long-Form Articles On Your Kindle With Delivereads

Posted on 05 July 2011. Tags: Articles, Delivereads, Great, Kindle, LongForm, Read

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image53.png?54167" alt="read articles kindle" />I love my class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/kindle/">Kindle. For a tech writer, I don’t actually have many gadgets – but the Kindle is one I would never trade. Being able to read an endless variety of books on one slim device with a paper-like display makes me feel like I’m actually living in the future. But sometimes, a book isn’t what I need. Sometimes I just want to read a lengthy, well-written magazine article that would make me feel smarter or better informed.

Another good reason to read long-form articles is that you can finish them in one sitting; that always gives me that satisfying “Saturday morning with the paper” feel, if you know what I mean. class="vt-p" href="http://delivereads.com/">Delivereads is one lovely way to get your long-form fix on the Kindle.

First, here’s what the site itself looks like:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image54.png?54167" border="0" alt="read articles kindle" width="580" height="484" />

It says that the first step is to “let your Kindle know” they’re coming. Your Kindle has an email address, but only those addresses you enter into Amazon’s “white list” can use it. So go to Amazon’s class="vt-p" href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/digital/fiona/manage#pdocSettings">Manage My Kindle page and add Deliverads to the list of allowed addresses.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image55.png?54167" border="0" alt="articles kindle reader" width="580" height="350" />

The address, as you can see, is dave@delivereads.com. “Dave” is Dave Pell, the guy behind Delivereads, who curates the articles sent out using Delivereads. Now that you’ve added Dave to your white list, you need to find your own Kindle’s email address, to tell Delivereads where to send content to. That address is on the same page, under Your Kindle Devices:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image56.png?54167" border="0" alt="articles kindle reader" width="580" height="350" />

Now let’s take this address and paste it into the Delivereads page (yes, that’s my Kindle’s email. To each his own!).

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image57.png?54167" border="0" alt="articles kindle reader" width="580" height="350" />

Note that you don’t paste the whole address in, but just the beginning, and then use the drop-down to select the correct suffix. Then just click Subscribe, and get the following message:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/image58.png?54167" border="0" alt="read articles kindle" width="580" height="113" />

That’s it! As simple as could be, really. A welcome message should appear on your Kindle within an hour, and then you’ll get long-form articles every now and then for your reading pleasure.

The Content

You may be curious to know what you’re subscribing to, what sort of articles you’d be getting every week. Here is the current crop, as of this writing:

class="vt-p" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/07/the-brain-on-trial/8520/">Atlantic: The Brain on Trial
class="vt-p" href="http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/print/2011/07/how-to-land-your-kid-in-therapy/8555/">Atlantic: How to Land Your Kid in Therapy
class="vt-p" href="http://thefastertimes.com/news/2011/06/16/aol-hell-an-aol-content-slave-speaks-out/">Faster Times: An AOL Content Slave Speaks Out
class="vt-p" href="http://www.nytimes.com/2006/08/20/sports/playmagazine/20federer.html?pagewanted=print">NYT: Roger Federer as Religious Experience
class="vt-p" href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/jonathan-schienberg/facebooking-frank_b_876647.html">HuffPo: Facebooking Frank

I read the piece about AOL, and it was very good. I used to write for Download Squad (an AOL property), and working there wasn’t like that at all. It was still interesting to see what other parts of AOL looked like. It took me about 5-10 minutes to read the article – just enough time for a relaxed cup of coffee.

Alternatives

While Delivereads is very well executed, the idea of delivering long-form articles for the Kindle is not groundbreaking. class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/sendmestory-recent-interesting-newspaper-articles/">Send Me A Story were there first, but I haven’t received anything from them for months now. Here’s hoping Delivereads proves more consistent and persistent.

Do you know of similar services, maybe ones not curated by a single person?

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/read-great-longform-articles-kindle-delivereads/">How To Read Great Long-Form Articles On Your Kindle With Delivereads is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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3 Places Online To Find Long, Fulfilling Articles To Read

Posted on 16 June 2011. Tags: Articles, Find, Fulfilling, long, Online, Places, Read

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/longreads-icon.jpg" alt="" />Do you feel like your online life is lacking substance? Find longer, substantial things to read from around the web. You just need to know where to look.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/reading/">Reading, at its best, should be fulfilling. The age of Twitter, cable news and paragraph-long blog posts can leave you feeling intellectually unsatisfied. There are only so many sound-bite driven tidbits you can read or watch in a day. Sometimes you need to immerse yourself completely into a particular story; longer articles allow you to do this. Some people work around this by finding particular journalistic sources and sticking to them, such as the New York Times (or, in the class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-ways-york-times-paywall">age of the paywall, some class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-alternatives-york-times-free/">alternatives to the New York Times).

If you’d prefer to pull such stories from a variety of sources however, you’re also in luck. There are services out there dedicated to providing you with just that, and they index articles from a variety of sources on a variety of subjects.

href="http://longreads.com">Long Reads

The name is appropriate enough, right? Longreads is a database of longer articles from the around the web. You can search for articles on any subject:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/longreads-search2.png" alt="" />

This is perfect if there’s a topic you’re specifically interested in, or if you’re looking for context regarding a recent story in the news. With articles from a variety of reputable sources you can look past the soundbites and into the details for a particular story.

Don’t have anything specific in mind? You can simply browse the top articles of the day. The topics vary a great deal, but I’ve always been able to find something fascinating to read using this tool.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/longreads-article2.png" alt="" />

Once you find something you like you can read it now or click the “Read it Later” button. This button will send your content to class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/create-and-manage-your-bookmarks-better-with-instapaper/">Instapaper so you can read it later.

class="vt-p" href="http://www.instapaper.com/browse">Instapaper’s Browse Page

Speaking of Instapaper, you can also find longer articles worth reading on their browse page. Here you’ll see selections picked by the Instapaper team, as well as some of the most-read items on the service.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/instapaper-browse.png" alt="" width="580" height="152" />

I’ve found a lot of great things here, so take your time and browse. Articles range in terms of interest a great deal, which is perfect if you want to learn something new.

As with Long Reads you’ll find a “Read Later” button. It shouldn’t surprise you to learn that this will send your article to Instapaper!

href="https://twitter.com/#!/search/longreads">Twitter

Surprised to find class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/twitter/">Twitter in this list? That makes sense: the social network built its reputation on limiting its users to 140 characters or less. That doesn’t mean people don’t link to longer content there, however.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/06/longreads-twitter.png" alt="" width="579" height="205" />

Particularly helpful is the class="vt-p" href="https://twitter.com/#!/search?q=%23longreads">#longreads hashtag. People around the web use this to point out articles of substance, and Longreads (described above) even uses this hashtag to find content for its database.

Conclusion

I like to read longer articles, and between these three tools, I am never found wanting for material. I’m sure there are other places to find longer articles, though. Do you guys have any suggestions? Leave them in the comments below. />
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7+ Sites To Help You Decide Which Book To Read Next

Posted on 02 May 2011. Tags: book, decide, Help, Next, Read, Sites

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/reading.jpg"/>Whether you’re trying to find a good book to read during your commute or planning out your summer reading early, there is nothing more daunting than going to a bookstore without a prepared list with at least a few titles or authors to look up. If you want to be sure that you’re next read is going to be a good one, there’s a variety of sites you can use to look up books based on your personal taste, your favorite authors, favorite titles, or even based on a specific plot summary or character.

Whether user generated, based on recommendations or based on customer purchases, there’s a variety of ways that these sites are able to provide some pretty accurate results, while others are still working out a few kinks and growing pains.

YourNextRead

With href="http://www.yournextread.com/">YourNextRead, you can look up specific titles to get recommendations on similar books. In some cases, the list consists only of titles by the very same author, which completely defeats the purpose, but in other cases it actually does generate an interesting list. Recommendations are also accompanied by Amazon blurbs, reviews and price information, making it easy to purchase a recommended book online. /> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/YNR2.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="381" />

BookYap

With href="http://bookyap.com/">BookYap, the more you use the site, the more in tune it will become with your taste. Sign up for a free account and start out by filling in a list of your favourite authors and titles:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/BY1.png" alt="" width="580" height="320" />

Filling in some basic information about your reading habits:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/BY2.png" alt="" width="580" height="410" />

And then filling in some information about your personality:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/BY3.png" alt="" width="580" height="377" />

BookYap will then make recommendations on the information you provided.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/BY4.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="293" />

In some cases the recommendations were a bit absurd, where one favorite author, simply led to another favorite author already on my list and so forth. Where BookYap really sets itself apart from other similar sites is how it combines the answers to your reading habits with the answers to your personality to come up with reading suggestions. Although these results weren’t free from quirks either, with the Official Nintendo Super Paper Mario Player’s Guide making it onto the list of Quick Reads for ‘Smarty Pants.’ BookYap is a site to keep an eye on, and with time, the search results may become more accurate and relevant.

Gnooks

href="www.gnooks.com">Gnooks is probably the simplest of any of the sites of this kind, with absolutely no bells and whistles. Search for an author’s name and you will be presented with a visual map of similar authors. The closer the suggestions are to the search word, the more similar they are. Clicking on a name in the map will lead you to another visualization of similar authors.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/gnooks.png" alt="" width="580" height="338" />

Goodreads

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/track-book-goodreads/">Goodreads needs no introduction. The popular bookshelf social network also provides user-generated recommendations of sorts. Users can create lists of books, so for example, searching for The Alexandria Quartet is featured on a variety of lists such as best post World War II fiction, alongside other greats such as Catch 22. But then it also does wind up on a list of best books ever alongside Twilight. If you’re going to benefit from Goodreads’ lists, you’ll obviously have to rely on a bit of common sense as well. The Goodreads community itself can also serve as a great way to discover new books, simply by interacting with other users.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/GoodReads.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="527" />

AllReaders

href="http://www.allreaders.com">AllReaders is another no-frills, awful UI website, but not only does it provide a small list of titles that are similar to any given book, you can also search for books based on plot, setting or even details about the protagonists. Titles are also accompanied by a plot summary, as well as setting and character information.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/allreads.jpg" alt="" width="580" height="565" />

Amazon

href="http://www.amazon.com/">Amazon is an obvious but often overlooked option for getting reading recommendations. When looking up any given book, you can find similar titles since the search result is accompanied by a ‘Customers who bought this also bought’ list.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Amazon11.png" alt="" width="580" height="189" />

In addition, you can also find similar authors using their ‘Customers also bought items by’ list.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/Amazon2.png" alt="" width="580" height="193" />

TasteKid

href="http://www.tastekid.com/">TasteKid is a great site for both book and author recommendations. Just enter the title of your favorite book, or your favorite author, and TasteKid will generate some of the most relevant and accurate results out of all the sites listed here. TasteKid also provides more than just book recommendations and can also be used for music, movies and TV shows.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/TasteKid.png" alt="" width="580" height="216" />

Other great ways to get recommendations on what to read are with other sites similar to Good Reads, where you can catalog your book collection and also benefit from the community’s wisdom on what to read next. Shelfari and Library Thing are two such examples that have been reviewed alongside Good Reads in the post, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-ways-to-keep-track-of-your-expanding-book-collection/">4 Great Ways To Keep Track Of Your Expanding Book Collection. Other great sites worth checking out that have already been reviewed at MakeUseOf, include href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/book-recommendation-engines-quick-book-searches/">What Should I Read Next, WhichBook.net and The Book Seer.

You might also be interested in the following articles:

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/4-great-sites-to-do-a-book-search-by-plot-or-subject/">4 Great Sites to do a Book Search by Plot or Subject /> href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/recommendations-on-movies-music-books-from-glue-firefox/">Recommendations on Movies, Music, Books from Glue

What sites do you use to decide what your next read is going to be? Let us know in the comments.

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[READ THIS] Your iPhone Is Tracking You – How To View That Data & Turn It OFF

Posted on 22 April 2011. Tags: Data', iPhone, Read, This, Tracking, turn, View

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/iphonetrackpreview.jpg" alt="" />It has come to light in the past few days that all 3G based href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/iphone/">iPhone and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/ipad/">iPad devices are recording a complete history of your location data ever since you bought the device (or upgraded to iOS v4). On a Mac, it’s incredibly easy to view this data and fascinating to watch your own movements over the course of a year or two. You can still get at the iPhone tracking data on a PC, but it’s a little harder. If you’re worried about the availability of this data, I’ll show you how to turn off the tracking too.

How To View The Data

Mac:

The duo who widely publicised (originally href="http://www.forensicfocus.com/index.php?name=Forums&file=viewtopic&t=7012">discovered here) this shocking data embedded within iPhone backups have also released a very user friendly app called href="http://petewarden.github.com/iPhoneTracker/">iPhoneTracker (Mac only) which visualises all of the data points. Download, and upon launching the app, you’ll instantly see all your data points plotted on a map. If you don’t move around a lot like me, you may have to zoom in to see the full extent!

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/iphonetracker.png" alt="iphone tracking" />

You can also view a video playback of your movements over time with the play button, or skip around through various dates with the slider. Here’s a fascinating video of my movements since September.

width="580" height="430"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/eS3TVp-2XE0?hl=en&fs=1"> name="allowFullScreen" value="true"> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always"> src="http://www.youtube.com/v/eS3TVp-2XE0?hl=en&fs=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" allowscriptaccess="always" allowfullscreen="true" width="580" height="430">

PC:

There is no simple app I’m afraid, and you’ll need to have a jailbroken device to get at the file containing the data.

First enable SSH access to your iPhone by installing the OpenSSH app from Cydia. Be sure to update Cydia first if you haven’t touched it in a while.
Log into your device using an SFTP compatible app href="http://winscp.net/eng/index.php">such as WinSCP. You’ll need to know the IP address of your device, which you can find under advanced wifi settings. Enter that IP address as the host to connect to, then use the username “root” and password “Alpine“. After a while you should connect and be able to browse your iPhone’s filesystem.
Navigate to Library -> Caches -> locationd, and download the file consolidated.db
Next, go to href="http://www.courbis.com/Location-iPhone-your-phone-is.html">this website, where you can upload the file and have your datapoints plotted onto a Google Map. The link is to an English version of the page but the upload and plotting options are in French I’m afraid. The defaults work fine though.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/trackersite.jpg" alt="iphone tracking file" />

Possible Uses For This Data & A Reality Check

I’m sure some of you are fuming right now, screaming all manner of civil liberties abuses and what have you. While your feelings are quite valid, here’s a few reasons why you should calm down:

Mobile phone providers have been tracking you for years. Of course, it takes a court order to get at it, but your data is still out there somewhere.
The data doesn’t leave your computer – at least not in any way that is known of currently.
There is no conspiracy against your freedoms.

The question still remains though of how Apple is using the data, if at all. One guess is that because the data appears to track location through tower triangulation rather than GPS, that it may be used to show areas where reception needs to be improved.

Here’s a discussion/ interview from the guys who discovered it.

width="580" height="430"> name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/GynEFV4hsA0?fs=1&hl=en_US" /> name="allowFullScreen" value="true" /> name="allowscriptaccess" value="always" /> type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="580" height="430" src="http://www.youtube.com/v/GynEFV4hsA0?fs=1&hl=en_US" allowfullscreen="true" allowscriptaccess="always">

How To Turn It Off

On a standard untouched iPhone or iPad there is currently no way to turn this location tracking off. Simply disabling location tagging or location services in settings does NOT work, because the tracking is performed at a much deeper level. You can however prevent simple local access to the data (and stop the iPhoneTracker app from working) by simply encrypting iPhone backups from iTunes.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/encyrpt-backup.png" alt="iphone tracking file" />

The good news is that if you’re running a jailbroken device, the free app untrackerd available from cydia will run in the background and prevent tracking. According to the makers:

“A package installs a daemon (process that can run in the background) to clean consolidated.db file) No new icons are added to your homescreen. There are no options to configure.”

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/untrackerd.png" alt="iphone tracking" />

Scary stuff, or nothing to be afraid of? Let us know what you think in the comments. Do you have any wacky ideas of how Apple could be using this information, or do you think the whole thing is being blown out of all proportion? />
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[READ THIS] Your iPhone Is Tracking You – How To View That Data & Turn It OFF

Posted on 22 April 2011. Tags: Data', iPhone, Read, This, Tracking, turn, View

How To View The Data

Mac:

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/iphonetracker.png" alt="iphone tracking" />

PC:

There is no simple app I’m afraid, and you’ll need to have a jailbroken device to get at the file containing the data.

First enable SSH access to your iPhone by installing the OpenSSH app from Cydia. Be sure to update Cydia first if you haven’t touched it in a while.
Log into your device using an SFTP compatible app href="http://winscp.net/eng/index.php">such as WinSCP. You’ll need to know the IP address of your device, which you can find under advanced wifi settings. Enter that IP address as the host to connect to, then use the username “root” and password “Alpine“. After a while you should connect and be able to browse your iPhone’s filesystem.
Navigate to Library -> Caches -> locationd, and download the file consolidated.db
Next, go to href="http://www.courbis.com/Location-iPhone-your-phone-is.html">this website, where you can upload the file and have your datapoints plotted onto a Google Map. The link is to an English version of the page but the upload and plotting options are in French I’m afraid. The defaults work fine though.

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/trackersite.jpg" alt="iphone tracking file" />

Possible Uses For This Data & A Reality Check

I’m sure some of you are fuming right now, screaming all manner of civil liberties abuses and what have you. While your feelings are quite valid, here’s a few reasons why you should calm down:

Mobile phone providers have been tracking you for years. Of course, it takes a court order to get at it, but your data is still out there somewhere.
The data doesn’t leave your computer – at least not in any way that is known of currently.
There is no conspiracy against your freedoms.

Here’s a discussion/ interview from the guys who discovered it.

How To Turn It Off

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/encyrpt-backup.png" alt="iphone tracking file" />

The good news is that if you’re running a jailbroken device, the free app untrackerd available from cydia will run in the background and prevent tracking. According to the makers:

“A package installs a daemon (process that can run in the background) to clean consolidated.db file) No new icons are added to your homescreen. There are no options to configure.”

class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/untrackerd.png" alt="iphone tracking" />

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8 Bestseller Lists To Find Books To Read That Are On Top of The Pile

Posted on 28 March 2011. Tags: Bestseller, Books, Find, Lists, Pile, Read

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Shutterstock-bestseller.jpg" alt="bestseller book lists"/>Making it to a list of any kind gets attention. The item on it is guaranteed at least its 15 minutes of fame. The list that every book aspires to be on is of course, “The Bestseller List”.

Sounds catchy, but as history will testify, finding a place on it is easier written than done. The reason a bestseller book list is an enviable list is to be on is because it marks out an author and puts him on the who’s who of the writing world.

A bestseller list is purely about the number of books sold and it does not have a direct bearing on the actual merit of the book. Even then, a book title on such a list is indicative of the fact that you can buy and give it a read.

So as a reader, which are the lists you should follow. We start with the most definitive and then move on to the next bests.

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href="http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/overview.html">The New York Times Bestsellers

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller01.jpg" alt="new york times bestseller lists" width="580" height="428" />

A place on The New York Times’ weekly list is sure to get you worldwide book signing tours. Not only is this list the most widely recognized, it is also probably one of the oldest ones out there. The exact nature of compiling this leading list is not known, but the rankings do focus on the number of retail sales as against wholesale. Thus, this represents what an individual buyer may be actually buying off the shelf. In tune with the times, The New York Times Bestseller list also has a category for e-books. On the site, you can also check out rankers in previous lists.

href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/">Amazon.com Bestsellers

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller02.jpg" alt="bestseller lists" width="580" height="368" />

These days a lot many books are finding their place into our hands from online stores. Amazon is the preeminent one among them. The lists are updated hourly, and though this list is absolutely about books that are sold by Amazon, you can get some pretty fair tips on what’s moving up in the book ecosystem. Amazon’s features like customer discussions, book previews, the Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought section are pretty good sources for buying tips. You can also see which books made it in any particular category, and the ones which made it by date ranges.

href="http://content.usatoday.com/life/books/booksdatabase/">USA Today

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller03.jpg" alt="bestseller lists" width="580" height="532" />

Unlike Amazon, USA Today’s bestseller book list doesn’t distinguish between formats. It combines sales figures across all formats and across all selling sources (online and offline) into the week’s 150 top-selling titles. The list has to be respected because USA Today is also the widest circulated print newspaper in the United States. The bestselling books list is very sortable by rank, title, and author. You can also reach into the previous lists by clicking on the little calendar icon. The list also put all types of books: hardcover, fiction, non-fiction, e-books, etc on one single list. If you want to use it as a shopping reference, just print out the list.

href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bestsellers/top100.asp">Barnes & Noble

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller04.jpg" alt="bestseller lists" width="580" height="366" />

Barnes & Noble is one of the largest online retailers of books in the U.S. So, their Barnes & Noble Top 100 is a good read. The list is all about the top selling books from the Barnes & Noble chains across the country. The bestselling books can be viewed in many ways – Bestsellers by Subject, Paperback Bestsellers, The Year’s Top 100, This Hour’s Top 100 etc. just to name a few.

href="http://bestsellers.about.com/">About.com

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller05.jpg" width="580" height="267" />

About.com has guides on many subjects; one of them is on bestsellers. Compiled by a lady, Erin Collazo Miller, the bestseller list is a subjective evaluation of what’s a good read currently. The guide also has recommendation lists by genre and topic, and reviews of the latest books. The books may be individual picks (i.e. by sales figures) but you can definitely run your eyes over the titles that get mentioned.

href="http://www.oprah.com/book_club.html">Oprah’s Book Club

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller06.jpg" width="580" height="537" />

This book discussion club started by iconic American TV host Oprah Winfrey probably gave rise to the term – The Oprah Effect. It is not an “official” bestselling list of any kind, but a mere mention of a book can make a book be a member of any bestselling list. The book club is highly influential, so a visit to catch the href="http://www.oprah.com/book_club.html">Oprah Book Club is definitely in order.

href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/bestsellers/index.html">Publishers Weekly

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller07.jpg" width="580" height="305" />

Last but in no way the least, let’s take a look at what this international book news website of book publishing and the bookselling business says about top-selling books. The American book trade magazine is nearly 138 years old. The site is known for its book reviews, so you can expect lot of it finds an echo in the top picks that the magazine publishes online on its site. Also, always watch out for the Best of the Year lists that come out. Here’s the one for href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/by-topic/book-news/awards-and-prizes/article/45070-best-books-of-2010.html">2010. You can also register for free access to their Best Seller Archive.

href="http://www.booklistonline.com/">Booklist Online

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/03/Bestseller08.jpg" alt="bestseller book lists" width="580" height="390" />

Booklist started as a book review magazine by the American Library Association. So, you can not only read book reviews catering to a broad section of the pie but also go over lists of current and past winners of awards such as the Pulitzer, Booker, Newberry and Printz. The left sidebar has a long lineup of literary recognitions and is thus a treasure trove of books that should prove page turners.

This eight member list may not be all about books that are selling like hot cakes, but if any book from these lists sufficiently arouses your reading interest, then it definitely will make the list which matters most – yours.

Let us know if you follow href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/7-book-review-podcasts-shows-discover-books/">book reviews or href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/books/">book websites to broaden your book reading choices.

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6 Inspiring & Funny Blogs You Should Read If You Are A Parent

Posted on 04 March 2011. Tags: Blogs, Funny, Inspiring, Parent, Read, Should

class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Dooce-Kid-Pigtails.png" alt="blogs for parents" />If you’re a stay-at-home or a work-at-home mum or dad you’ll know that it’s always pleasant to read well-written blogs by others in similar situations. There’s something in the solidarity – knowing it’s not just you dealing with an eclectic mix of clients and walls covered in spaghetti. Somehow this knowledge can help ease the stress of parenthood and relax you with the knowledge that you’re not the only one.

Parenting can be quite isolating at times, since you’re often stuck at home while kids sleep. So the Internet is the ideal way to quickly reach the rest of the world and regain some much-needed laughs and perspective.

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Dooce

href="http://dooce.com/">Dooce is, well, Dooce. There’s an extreme personality lurking behind this blog and if it’s not for you you’ll know within seconds of arriving on the site. But those who love Dooce find themselves strangely addicted. There’s a reason this blog is still massively popular 10 years down the track and I’m certain that’s more to do with the personality than the poop. And really, there’s a lot of poop.

As far as the blog itself goes, Heather is a professional blogger and mum living in a regular household of chaos and making sure the gory details are laughed at by more than just the people within her home.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Dooce.jpg" alt="blogs for parents" />

Note I managed to find a screenshot which didn’t involve any mention of poop. I hope you’re proud.

Theta Mom

Not the alpha mum, or the beta mum. href="http://www.thetamom.com/">Theta Mom is a blog for those who come a little further down the super-mum ranks and can honestly think of more than a few recent screw-ups to prove their position. In other words, it’s for most of us. This blog is all about balancing work and parenting roles, offering plenty of sound advice and a few funny anecdotes. It’s built a community to support working parents and allows members to write the occasional guest post for the blog.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Theta-Mom.png" alt="blogs for parenting" />

Baby Rabies

href="http://www.babyrabies.com/">Baby Rabies is purely a stay-at-home-mum blog at the moment, but that’s not to say it’s not as valuable as the working parent perspectives. The writer is a 30-year-old mother of two who writes in a candid, often hilarious style about her new life as a mother. She’s the sort of person who used to be a career woman who loved her heels and Starbucks, but got an incurable bout of Baby Rabies and wound up mothering.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Baby-Rabies.jpg" alt="blogs for parenting" width="374" height="522" />

Mushbrain

href="http://www.mushbrain.net/">Mushbrain describes itself and the mental state of the writer and readers perfectly in one completely invented word. It’s all about the craziness of life, motherhood and the strange things you find yourself doing. Occasionally mentioning the horrible bits of parenting you wish you’d never experienced, this blog mainly laughs at how different parenting looks from the parent’s side of the picture.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Mushbrain.png" alt="blogs for parenting" />

Dagmar’s Momsense

href="http://dagmarbleasdale.com/">Dagmar’s Momsense is all about parenting from a frugal, green and generally sensible perspective. Dagmar rants about everyday parenting issues, such as balancing work and family. She’s a little opinionated at times, but if you’re open minded it can serve to enlighten you of new perspectives.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Dagmars-Momsense.jpg" alt="parent blogs" />

GeekDad

href="http://www.wired.com/geekdad/">Wired’s GeekDad is much loved by geeks and dads worldwide. It blends a classy mix of geekiness with cool things you can do with your kids. There’s lots of DIY projects, games and sci-fi fanaticism.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Geekdad2.png" alt="blogs for parents" />

If you’re looking after kids and trying to juggle freelance work or a home business alongside, these posts are for you:

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/5-legitimate-online-self-employment-opportunities/">5 Legitimate Online Self-Employment Opportunities
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href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/post-jobs-website-referral-payments-jobcoin/">Earn Referral Payments By Posting Relevant Job Listings On Your Website

Obviously there’s many more blogs for parents out there. Let us know of your favourite parenting blogs in the comments! />
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4 Tools To Make Web Pages Easier To Read For People With Poor Eyesight (Firefox)

Posted on 13 February 2011. Tags: Easier, Eyesight, Firefox, Pages, People, Poor, Read, Tools

class="align-left" style="border: 0px none; margin-left: 20px; margin-top: 5px; float: right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-08.jpg" alt="make web pages easier to read" width="240" height="244" />The Internet has long become a mainstream tool. You no longer need to be a programmer to sit for hours in front of the computer every day. People of all ages and professions work and spend days online.

This means that people with various href="http://www.w3.org/WAI/EO/Drafts/PWD-Use-Web/#visual">visual disabilities (be it poor eyesight, color blindness, etc) as well as older people (who may have bad sight) use the Web on a daily basis – and not many website owners care about making the lives of those people easier.

This post aims to help those with bad eyesight to become independent of each individual website interface. Here are 4 tools that will help you make web pages that are easier to read for low-vision people.

id="more-64942">

1. LowBrowse

href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/lowbrowse/">LowBrowse creates a new frame in the top part of the browser that, on hover over, presents the text in a single line with configurable text size, font, color contrast and letter spacing without having to zoom in and out.

The tool will let users:

See the white text on a black background (by default);
Read the text in a huge font hovering over the text on a web page.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-01.jpg" alt="make web pages easier to read" width="550" height="144" />

2. Readable

href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/readable/">Readable (as well as href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/reader/">this one that looks very similar) transforms text on any website using fonts, colors, and layouts that you choose.

To make it work, just select the part of the page you want to read and click the Readable icon in the status bar. The simplified, easier to read version of the selected text will load in a new pane in the foreground of the current page:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-02.jpg" alt="easy to read web pages" width="550" height="304" />

Right-clicking on the same icon lets the user customize the box and font size, color and contrast:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-03.jpg" alt="make web pages easier read" width="550" height="297" />

3. Nosquint

href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/nosquint/">Nosquint (this addon has also been mentioned in a MUO article listing href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-addons-enhance-firefox-page-zoom-feature/">add-ons that improve Firefox’s page zoom feature) lets you adjust the font size and color as well as customize and “traditionalize” the overall page look and feel.

The addon allows you to:

Set your own foreground and background colors (to adjust the contrast and make the page text easier to read);
Hide all background images (to remove the clutter);
Enjoy your zoom levels and color settings from site to site;
Set the look of links (to stick to more standard and traditional patterns: for example, you can always underline links to easier recognize them).

The tool settings can be accessed by right-clicking on its icon in the status bar and clicking “Site Settings”:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-04.jpg" alt="Nosquint" width="492" height="291" />

The above dialog screen also lets you set the “Global Settings” for all the websites you visit (as well as add the exceptions):

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-05.jpg" alt="make web pages easier read" width="540" height="408" />

The current settings for each site can be seen on hover-over on the status bar icon:

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-06.jpg" alt="make web pages easier read" width="340" height="161" />

4. Theme Font & Size Changer

If you spend much time using Firefox and its menus, you’ll find href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/theme-font-size-changer/">this addon invaluable. It changes the global font size and font family in all windows, menus, toolbars, etc within Firefox itself.

The tool settings can be accessed from the toolbar or status bar options.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/low-vision-ff-07.jpg" alt="make web pages easier to read" width="377" height="389" />

There ia a “Normal” value so that you can reset to the default Firefox values.

There are also compatibility issues with some FireFox themes, but if you are using the default theme, there’s nothing to worry about.

Are you aware of any other Firefox addons that would allow easier browsing and reading for people with poor eyesight? Please let us know in the comments!

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Would You Read Your Partner’s Email? [MakeUseOf Poll]

Posted on 07 February 2011. Tags: Email, MakeUseOf, Partner’s, Poll, Read, Would

style="border: 0px none;margin-left:20px;float:right;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/05/poll2.png" />Last week, we held a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/books-ebooks-read-makeuseof-poll/">showdown between books and eBooks to see what had the most readership in the past six months. And guess what? MakeUseOf readers favour eBooks by a pretty big margin.

From the 328 votes collected, the split was: 38% predominantly read eBooks; 20% only read hard-copy books; 21% predominantly read hard-copy books; 20% only read eBooks; while another 2% hadn’t read any books at all.

Full results and this week’s poll after the jump.

id="more-63018"> /> Overall, nearly 60% prefer to read eBooks over hard-copy, while 40% prefer to read hard-copy over eBooks.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/02/Books-versus-ebooks.png" />

This week’s href="http://www.makeuseof.com/service/polls/">poll question is: Would You Read Your Partner’s Email?

You may have href="http://www.pcworld.com/article/215030/Husbands_E_mail_Snooping_May_Lead_to_Five_Years_in_Prison.html">read this story in the news recently. In brief, a guy was worried his wife was having an affair and she had left the password to her Gmail account in a booklet beside the computer. So, he used the password to log in to her Gmail account and confirmed she had been having an affair. There’s more to it than that, but we’ll leave it there. The question is, would you do it if you thought you had a good reason?

align="center"> />

/> href="http://polldaddy.com/poll/4495269/">Would You Read Your Partner’s Email? style="font-size:9px;"> href="http://polldaddy.com/features-surveys/">customer surveys />

What are your thoughts on this case? Would you have thought it was a crime to read your partner’s email? If you would normally not read your partner’s email, is there anything which you would consider a good enough reason to read it? Let us know in the comments! />
/>Hey Facebookers, make sure to check out href="http://www.facebook.com/makeuseof">MakeUseOf page on Facebook. Over 24,000 fans already! />
/>

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Tag Archive | "Read"

Installing eLinks

Launching Google Reader

Other Potential Sites

Bottom Line

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/someone-will-be-with-you-shortly">Someone Will Be With You Shortly by Lisa Kogan

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/fetching-raymond">Fetching Raymond by John Grisham

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/little-big-things-by-tom-peters">The Little Big Things by Tom Peters

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/emeril-at-the-grill">Emeril at the Grill: A Cookbook for All Seasons by Emeril Lagasse

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/mba-mondays?source=lpage">MBA Mondays by Fred Wilson

href="http://www.dailylit.com/books/with-a-little-help">With A Little Help by Cory Doctorow

Similar articles:

href="http://www.onlinenovels.net">Online Novels

href="http://www.booksie.com/">Booksie

href="http://www.webook.com">WeBook

Conclusion

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href="http://doodlebuzz.com/">DoodleBuzz

href="http://tenbyten.org/">tenbyten

href="http://oursignal.com/">Oursignal

href="http://www.newser.com/">Newser

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The Content

Alternatives

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href="http://longreads.com">Long Reads

class="vt-p" href="http://www.instapaper.com/browse">Instapaper’s Browse Page

href="https://twitter.com/#!/search/longreads">Twitter

Conclusion

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YourNextRead

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Gnooks

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AllReaders

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TasteKid

How To View The Data

Mac:

PC:

Possible Uses For This Data & A Reality Check

How To Turn It Off

How To View The Data

Mac:

PC:

Possible Uses For This Data & A Reality Check

How To Turn It Off

href="http://www.nytimes.com/best-sellers-books/overview.html">The New York Times Bestsellers

href="http://www.amazon.com/gp/bestsellers/books/">Amazon.com Bestsellers

href="http://content.usatoday.com/life/books/booksdatabase/">USA Today

href="http://www.barnesandnoble.com/bestsellers/top100.asp">Barnes & Noble

href="http://bestsellers.about.com/">About.com

href="http://www.oprah.com/book_club.html">Oprah’s Book Club

href="http://www.publishersweekly.com/pw/bestsellers/index.html">Publishers Weekly

href="http://www.booklistonline.com/">Booklist Online

Dooce

Theta Mom

Baby Rabies

Mushbrain

Dagmar’s Momsense

GeekDad

1. LowBrowse

2. Readable

3. Nosquint

4. Theme Font & Size Changer

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