For the iPhone users out there, great ebook reading experiences can be had with apps like iBooks and Stanza. But what about for us Android users?

As someone who has recently been getting sucked into reading more and more novels, I’ve been on the prowl for the best ebook readers on Android. So far, nothing has matched the sheer power and elegance of Stanza, but Aldiko has gotten close.

First released in 2009, Aldiko has been working towards offering the best-in-class ebook reading and management experience for Android users. Let’s take a look at what this app can do.

eBook Formats

Aldiko officially supports ebooks in the .epub and .pdf formats. However, if you have ebooks in a different format, you can use a program called Calibre to convert those files into .epub format. From there, Aldiko will be able to read it just fine.

Importing ebooks into Aldiko is extremely easy. All you have to do is connect your Android to your computer and drag the files onto your device. Then, from within Aldiko, you can search your device and tell it which files to import. Simple.

If some of your ebooks are locked by Adobe DRM, you can even sign into your Adobe ID to have those ebooks unlocked.

In-App Bookstore

At the time of writing this article, installing Aldiko on your device will result in a free ebook for you: White Fang by Jack London. For those of you who have never read this book, it is a small and unexpected treat.

However, one of Aldiko’s great features is an in-app bookstore powered by Feedbooks. Without ever having to leave the app, you can purchase books that have been recommended by other readers, books that have been featured in the New York Times Bestseller List, or books that are entirely free of charge.

On top of that, you can use the app to browse through ebook listings on Smashwords. Smashwords is a great place to find ebooks, both free and paid, across all genres and formats.

Library Management

Managing your pile of ebooks is extremely easy with Aldiko. You’ll be able to find the book you want to read almost instantly by sorting by title or by author–whichever you prefer.

Reading

If you want to bookmark a page–in case you have to stop reading for a bit, or if you want to return to a specific spot later–you just tap a button and label the bookmark.

If you want to look for a specific scene but don’t remember where it is, use the full-text search.

As you’re reading, you can bring up a context overlay with a single tap on the page. You’ll instantly see how far into the book you are, and you’ll be presented with a bunch of options for customizing your reading experience.

Settings and Customization

Aldiko allows you to change a lot of settings in order to maximize your comfort. Change the font face, the font size, the margin sizes, and the colors of the text and page. You’ll never be distracted by poor aesthetics again.

And it doesn’t stop there. There are a few other options that really add those finishing touches while you read.

Verdict?

Aldiko still lacks a few features that I would like to see, such as tracking your progress through the current chapter (as opposed to the whole book), more options for sorting your library, the ability to edit book details, etc.

However, compared to other ebook readers on the Android Market, Aldiko is definitely the best one I’ve tried so far. I would highly recommend it for anyone who plans on reading many ebooks on their Android device.

Image Credit: Shutterstock

View full post on MakeUseOf

Adobe Reader software is the global standard for electronic document sharing. It is the only PDF file viewer that can open and interact with all PDF documents. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

View full post on FileHippo.com

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

View full post on FileHippo.com

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

View full post on FileHippo.com

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-16h42_39.png" alt="share from google reader" />Google sure has been busy lately. Gmail has a href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/gmails-finally-news/">brand new look, Google+ href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/chrome-extensions-youtube-google-news/">received some new add-ons and even href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/youtube-movie-page-receives-news/">YouTube is getting a facelift. But did you notice the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/google-reader-receives-update-adds-google-design-news/">changes to Google Reader? If you’re a regular user, you must have noticed how the color scheme changed, how the spacing changed in list mode, and to top it all off, that you can’t share items anymore, unless you use Google+.

As opposed to Gmail, where you can control the spacing between items in the new look, no such option has been added to Google Reader. This means your screen is now less utilized and you can see less items in your feed, just because of added padding. And if you were used to sharing items via Reader’s sharing options, they no longer exists. The only way to share is via Google+. So what are avid Google Reader users to do?

Here are two add-ons that will help you restore some of these features and get your good old Reader back.

Reader Sharer [Chrome]

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-15h55_42.png" alt="share from google reader" width="437" height="220" />

href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/eomlpgpbhpkklpleojomeiglmgikmkle">Reader Sharer is a simple Chrome add-on that restores the sharing functionality to Google Reader. If you want to continue sharing through Google Reader with its own sharing configuration, or if you simply don’t have Google+ and don’t feel like opening an account just so you can share, you should definitely try out Reader Sharer.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-15h56_22.png" alt="google reader sharing" width="492" height="171" />

Once you install the add-on, head over to Reader and check if your sharing buttons have been restored. You might need to refresh the page to get them back. But sure enough, here they are!

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-16h11_44.png" alt="google reader sharing" width="546" height="225" />

Reader Sharer restores the entire Reader sharing interface. You can set up who you want to share with, and then share items or share with note, exactly like it used to be. The sharing settings are now back on your sidebar where they used to be, between “All items” and “Explore”.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-16h12_53.png" alt="google reader sharing" width="246" height="361" />

Reader Sharer comes in two versions. One that simply adds the sharing options (linked above), and href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gmgmcmhmodidojodfoekpbjnejlhcbpb">another one which also takes care of the new spacing problem in list mode. Using the second version, you can kill two birds with one rock – get your sharing options back and fix the spacing.

Reader Sharer [Firefox]

href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/117034">Reader Sharer Monkey for Firefox comes in just one version, the one that also takes care of the spacing problem. This is not a Firefox add-on, but a Greasemonkey userscript. In order to get it, you have to first install href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/greasemonkey/">Greasemonkey, and then head over to the href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/117034">userscript page and install the script.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-16h30_45.png" alt="sharing from google reader" width="580" height="169" />

Now, when you open Google Reader, all your sharing options will be back, and the extra spacing in list mode will be reduced.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-16h33_18.png" alt="sharing from google reader" width="391" height="215" />

FixStyleSheet [Chrome]

If you’re OK with Google+ sharing, and don’t want to mess with sharing options, try href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/gialkacknhjboidnkgappheioemdcona">FixStyleSheet for GoogleReader. This is a simple Chrome extension that does just one thing: it changes the new spacing in Google Reader and lets you use your screen efficiently again. Here is what Google Reader looks like in list mode with the new look:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-15h38_14.png" alt="sharing from google reader" width="580" height="445" />

It’s not that this looks especially bad, but many people have lots of different feeds, and the more items you have on your screen, the easier it is to scan through them and find what you really want to read. The extra spacing also makes the post excerpt smaller, which makes it just a bit harder to understand what the post is about without clicking.

If you’re ready to fix this, download FixStyleSheet, and take another look at Google Reader. The change is automatic, you don’t even have to refresh.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-15h40_42.png" alt="" width="580" height="360" />

See how much more compact it is? On my 15’’ screen, it increased the number of posts I can see without scrolling from 13 to 23! That’s a lot of wasted space recovered.

Another small thing FixStyleSheet does is make the post view a bit wider and a bit more compact. This is what it normally looks like:

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-15h44_43.png" alt="" width="562" height="326" />

And this is what it looks like after installing the add-on. The title is now smaller, and the whole post stretches over a somewhat wider area, so it takes up less room on your screen.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/2011-11-06-15h44_26.png" alt="share from google reader" width="523" height="297" />

The change is not huge here, but if you’re minimalistic and don’t care much for formatting, it’s a nice change.

Bottom Line

Changes to the user interface of a product you use regularly is always a tough ride. We all have our way of doing things, and when a company comes in and changes everything on us, we’re bound to be looking for ways to soften the blow. This doesn’t mean the change is necessarily bad.

Making users share only through Google+ is quite a different move, and is not necessarily meant to improve our experience as users, but to improve Google+’s standing. So don’t be shy, if you’ve been using the share option in Google Reader, get the add-on and resume your normal sharing routine.

What do you think of all these changes from Google? Do you like the changes to Reader, or are there other elements to the change you don’t like? Share in the comments!

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kindle-cloud-e1320776717922.jpg" alt="" />Recently, Amazon launched their href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/amazon-cloud-reader-web-app-kindle-books/">Kindle Cloud Reader, which allows Kindle users to read their books in many of their favorite browsers. However, one browser that was missing from the list was Mozilla Firefox. From day one, the HTML 5 based service supported Google Chrome, and the mobile and desktop version of Safari. Seeing as Firefox is one of the more popular browsers available, leaving it off the list of supported browsers seemed like an odd choice. Another thing that is extremely odd about this is that Firefox is one of the browsers at the forefront of HTML 5 support.

Now, only two months after the first launch of the service, Firefox is officially supported. This is great news for Kindle users who are loyal to Firefox, because sometimes a computer with a web browser is the only way to get access to your book library. I can’t imagine what caused the delay, but none the less, the wait is over, so all Kindle users who support Firefox can join the rest of us in reading our favorite books.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kindle_cloud_reader.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="373" />

At this point, Internet Explorer still isn’t supported, and neither are many other mobile devices such as the BlackBerry PlayBook. However, because of the adaptability of HTML 5, it shouldn’t be long before Amazon adds support for these as well.

Source: href="http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/11/08/it-only-took-two-months-amazons-kindle-cloud-reader-gets-firefox-support/" rel="nofollow">The Next Web

View full post on MakeUseOf

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kindle-cloud-e1320776717922.jpg" alt="" />Recently, Amazon launched their href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/amazon-cloud-reader-web-app-kindle-books/">Kindle Cloud Reader, which allows Kindle users to read their books in many of their favorite browsers. However, one browser that was missing from the list was Mozilla Firefox. From day one, the HTML 5 based service supported Google Chrome, and the mobile and desktop version of Safari. Seeing as Firefox is one of the more popular browsers available, leaving it off the list of supported browsers seemed like an odd choice. Another thing that is extremely odd about this is that Firefox is one of the browsers at the forefront of HTML 5 support.

Now, only two months after the first launch of the service, Firefox is officially supported. This is great news for Kindle users who are loyal to Firefox, because sometimes a computer with a web browser is the only way to get access to your book library. I can’t imagine what caused the delay, but none the less, the wait is over, so all Kindle users who support Firefox can join the rest of us in reading our favorite books.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" style="border: 1px solid black;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/kindle_cloud_reader.jpg" alt="" width="560" height="373" />

At this point, Internet Explorer still isn’t supported, and neither are many other mobile devices such as the BlackBerry PlayBook. However, because of the adaptability of HTML 5, it shouldn’t be long before Amazon adds support for these as well.

Source: href="http://thenextweb.com/media/2011/11/08/it-only-took-two-months-amazons-kindle-cloud-reader-gets-firefox-support/" rel="nofollow">The Next Web

View full post on MakeUseOf

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

View full post on FileHippo.com

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.

View full post on MakeUseOf

Adobe Reader software is the global standard for electronic document sharing. It is the only PDF file viewer that can open and interact with all PDF documents. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

View full post on FileHippo.com

Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

View full post on FileHippo.com

class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/00_newssquares1.jpg?54167" alt="" />Are you the kind of person that keeps up with the latest news? If you are, then you will be familiar with class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/rss/">RSS feeds. One of the most well-known names in the realm of online RSS clients is class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/tag/google-reader/">Google Reader. Even though the service has gradually improved its interface, it’s still just lists of texts.

If you are a Google Reader user who wishes to try a different interface, you might want to try class="vt-p" href="https://chrome.google.com/webstore/detail/mkmehbmdeabanfnddlekelahkaclfdhl#">NewsSquares, a class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/6-chrome-web-apps-check/">Chrome extension which will add style and interactivity to Google Reader.

News In Squares

Start by visiting the NewsSquares extension page and installing it in your class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/chrome/">Chrome browser.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/00b_install_addon.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="00b install addon" width="570" height="270" />

You can customize the extension by going to the class="vt-p" href="chrome://extensions">Chrome Extensions page, locating NewsSquares from the list, and clicking on the “Options” link.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/00c_extensions.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="00c extensions" width="580" height="190" />

There are many elements you can customize on the Options page, but the most important for first users is the NewsSquares URL under the “Use NewsSquares as Homepage” option. Copy and paste the URL into Chrome’s address bar and hit “Enter“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/09b_settings2.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="09b settings2" width="580" height="320" />

You’ll see NewsSquares’ starting page. Click “Start” to begin. After clicking the button, NewsSquares will start building your “news wall“. Please note that you have to log into your Google account before you start NewsSquares because it needs your Google Reader data.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/01_start.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="01 start" width="580" height="439" />

To see what changes will happen to your Google Reader before and after using NewsSquares, here’s the screenshot of the original Google Reader. You can see the list of news on the main pane, while the sources are listed on the sidebar.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/00b_google_reader.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="00b google reader" width="580" height="292" />

Here’s what it looks like under NewsSquares. News sources are arranged into colorful squares with the latest articles featured upfront. More news from one source will be available after clicking on the square.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/01b_news_wall.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="01b news wall" width="580" height="299" />

Adding News

As a first step, NewsSquares will offer to add more news subscriptions to your news wall.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/02a_add_news.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="02a add news" width="580" height="300" />

There are two panes you can use to add news subscriptions.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/02b_pick_news.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="02b pick news" width="580" height="386" />

The left pane allows you to pick sources based on topics. Choose one of the topics from the left sidebar, then add the sources to your Google Reader by clicking the “Add” button.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/02c_topics.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="02c topics" width="480" height="440" />

Alternatively, you could also search for the topic on the right pane, and add sources from the search results.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/02d_find_favs.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="02d find favs" width="390" height="380" />

There’s one other way you can use to add sources to NewsSquares. When you are on a webpage, right click that page, and choose “Add to NewsSquares“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/05f_add_to_ns.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="05f add to ns" width="580" height="270" />

Filtering & Reading

To read news, you can browse around the squares and pick one of the sources. But you can also filter them to get a clearer view. There are filtering options at the bottom of the screen. You can search the sources, show the unread ones only, or show by categories.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/03b_bottom_menu.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="03b bottom menu" width="570" height="120" />

For example, I put “makeuseof” into the search field and the one square that appears shows MakeUseOf articles.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/03f_search.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="03f search" width="580" height="461" />

Clicking on a square will open up the reading pane. The selected article is displayed in the middle while other articles are floating about at the bottom of the screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/04a_reading_news.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="04a reading news" width="580" height="346" />

The reading menu on the left allows you to close the reading window, mark all articles as read, shrink or enlarge the source square, and unsubscribe from the source.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/04b_side_menu.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="04b side menu" width="200" height="220" />

If you scroll down to the bottom of an open article, you’ll find options to share the article, view it on its original webpage, give stars, like, keep it unread, and add tags. This is also the place where you can find options to play audio content (for podcasts).

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/04c_bottom_article.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="04c bottom article" width="580" height="89" />

Keep NewsSquares Open

To keep yourself always updated on all the news you follow, you can use class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/informative-pinned-tabs-upgrading-chrome">Chrome’s “Pin” feature. Right click on NewsSquares’ tab and choose “Pin Tab” from the pop-up menu.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/05a_pin_tab.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="05a pin tab" width="440" height="210" />

This action will put the pinned tab on the far left of the tabs, and it will always be opened every time you (re)start Chrome.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/07/05b_pinned_tab.jpg?54167" border="0" alt="05b pinned tab" width="380" height="120" />

News junkies who use both class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-reader/">Google Reader and class="vt-p" href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/chrome/">Chrome will find NewsSquares as a fresh alternative to read RSS feeds on Google Reader.

Have you tried NewsSquares? What do you think about it? Do you know other alternative methods to hack Google Reader? Please share ideas using the comments below.

href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/add-style-interactivity-to-your-google-reader-with-newssquares-chrome/">Add Style & Interactivity To Your Google Reader With NewsSquares [Chrome] is a post from: href="http://www.makeuseof.com">MakeUseOf

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Adobe Reader software is the global standard for electronic document sharing. It is the only PDF file viewer that can open and interact with all PDF documents. Use Adobe Reader to view, search, digitally sign, verify, print, and collaborate on Adobe PDF files.

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Foxit Reader is a free PDF document viewer, with incredible small size, breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Its core function is compatible with PDF Standard 1.7.

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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/rss-300x300.png" alt="google reader full feed"/>I’m a big fan of href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/rss/">RSS, let it be known. While some people are spouting rubbish about the days of feeds being over, devices that use and display these feeds in convenient ways are definitely giving RSS feeds a healthy comeback. For me, the idea of actually visiting the same website over and over in order to read the content is rather tedious – the idea that I have to bookmark each site and then click the bookmark to go and see what’s changed! If you ask me, bookmarks are dead, not RSS feeds.

However, one problem I do constantly run into is sites that display an excerpt in the feed instead of the full content – even more frustrating if it’s a site that ONLY posts pictures – requiring you to click through to the slow-loading full site in order to view the picture. (Just so you know, MakeUseOf and the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tech-fun/"> Geeky Fun section all produce full feeds for you to browse at your href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tags/google-reader/">Google Reader leisure)

Well, no problem. Today I’m going to show you 3 ways in which you grab the full feed from the partial feed – one website that could be used with any feed reader service or browser – one browser extension for Chrome and one for Firefox. If you’re using Internet Explorer, then stop it. It’s not a good browser by any standards, it’s the most insecure and the bane of every web developer with incompatible standards. Download href="http://www.google.com/chrome/">Chrome or href="http://getfirefox.com">Firefox now.

href="http://fulltextrssfeed.com/">FullTextRssFeed.com

We have introduced this in the href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/fulltextrssfeed-convert-partial-rss-feeds-to-full-text/">directory before (as well as href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/fivefilter-full-text-feeds/">FiveFilter and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/wizardrss-full-rss-feeds/">WizardRSS), but this particularly site wins awards from me for the simplest and most beautiful interface. Open the site, paste in the feed URL of the crippled RSS and click submit. You can try with this fascinating UK news feed from the BBC if you like: http://feeds.bbci.co.uk/news/uk/rss.xml

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/fullfeed1.png.png" alt="google reader full feed" width="580" height="120" />

When the site comes back with the full feed – it’s quite speedy too – you can see a quick preview to make sure all is working well. then simply copy the URL it gives you above, and subscribe to that instead. If only everything on the internet was this simple, and worked so well.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/fullfeed2.png" alt="google reader feeds full" width="580" height="365" />

Chrome: Super Google Reader:

href="https://chrome.google.com/extensions/detail/khbjahpecnkenngkidhioicnfpakihgo">Grab the extension from here and install.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/supereaderchromeinstall.png" alt="google reader feeds full" width="580" height="438" />

Now, if you open Google Reader as normal, you should see a new Readable, Link and Feed tabs above each post. Feed is the default view which might only show you partial content for certain feeds. In this case, click on Link to be shown the actual page in context, including any banner ads or sidebar from the site in question – or click Readable to let the plugin have a shot at grabbing content intelligently.

class="aligncenter" style="border: 0pt none;" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/superreaderchrome.png" alt="google reader full feed" width="580" height="153" />

During tests, I found that not all pictures were pulled in if it was a mixed text/media based article, but in general worked just fine – especially for sites that previously only allowed pictures to be shown when clicking through.

Firefox: (not v.4)

Firefox requires a little more work I’m afraid, but it is possible. Unfortunately, this method will only allow to use the iFrame tactic of loading the article from the actual site inside of Reader, rather than extracting the content – and it doesn’t work in Firefox 4 according to my tests.

First up, you need to install href="https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/748/">GreaseMonkey extension that allows you to run user-submitted scripts, then install both href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/76963">this and href="http://userscripts.org/scripts/show/76964">this script. Now when you open Google Reader in Firefox, you’ll be able to enable full entry content on a folder or feed basis.

Conclusion:

If you love feeds as much as I do and regularly read through the news on your iPad or similar device, your best bet is to go through your feeds and replace them all with a href="http://fulltextrssfeed.com">fulltextrssfeed.com equivalent. The Chrome extension is nice, but given that most of my feed reading is done away from the PC it would be more effective to just change the URLs.

If you know of a similar or better solution for Firefox – or even Opera as I know a few readers hate it when I forget that browser – do post your suggestions in the comments. Thanks! />
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class="align-right" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/00-Taptu-News.jpg" alt="mobile news feed reader" />News reading is becoming a trend again, thanks to the iPad and its list of available beautiful news readers: href="http://www.makeuseof.com/dir/flipboard-social-magazine/">Flipboard, href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/zite-ipad-rss-feed-contender/">Zite, and href="http://www.makeuseof.com/tag/pulse-free-visual-display-rss-news-reader-ipad/">Pulse, to name a few. They give new life to the old news feeding technology and shows us that tablets and mobile devices are natural born news readers. If you look at the available alternatives, it seems that most of the good readers are made only for iOS devices. But there are exceptions, and one of them is href="http://www.taptu.com/">Taptu: a multi-platform mobile news feed reader and curator available for iOS and Android.

Since I don’t have access to an Android device, all of the screenshots below were taken on an iOS device. There will be slight interface differences on an Android phone.

Reading & Sharing

The first thing I noticed about Taptu is the cool comic tutorial that appeared on the first use. This tutorial will tell you the basic usage of the app using beautiful illustrations. Unfortunately, I couldn’t find a way to summon this tutorial again after I started using the app.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/02j-Tutorial.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile news feed reader" width="580" height="257" />

If you’ve used other mobile news readers before, you might find similarities in the interface between Taptu and Pulse. The news items are arranged in lines of sources, and each line contains chronologically ordered articles. The unread articles are displayed clearer than the read articles.

If you’ve read all the articles and/or you want to get the latest ones, tap and pull down the main page to refresh all the sources. To refresh individual sources, slide its line to the right and release. The fetching process will depend on your Internet connection speed and the number of news providers that you’ve subscribed to.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/02a-Main-and-Refresh.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile phone news" width="580" height="416" />

Tapping on an article will open it in optimized reading view, eliminating all the page elements except for the first image and the article text. On accelerometer-enabled devices, the layout will adjust itself to the position of your device – landscape or portrait.

As with every other app in this social era, Taptu allows users to easily share articles. Tap the share button at the top right of the page and you are ready to email, tweet, or post the article to Facebook. You can also open the full article in Safari.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/02b-Article-and-share.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile phone news" width="580" height="416" />

Tapping the small Star button next to share will save the article for you to read later (the icon is different on the iPad). Taptu takes a different approach than other mobile news reader in saving articles to be read later. While others rely on “read later” services like Instapaper, Taptu saves the article within the application. When you save an article, a new “Saved” category will appear at the top of the page.

Taptu optimizes the layout of its app based on the device where the app is installed. This is what the reading view looks like on an iPad screen.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/02g-iPad-Read.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile phone news" width="450" height="600" />

You can delete or rearrange the order of categories by tapping the “Edit” button at the top left of the front page. Tap the red button to delete, tap and drag the three small bars on the right to rearrange, and tap the small gear button at the top right page to access the “Settings“.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/02c-Edit-Arrange.jpg" border="0" alt="02c Edit Arrange" width="320" height="460" />

Adding More Sources

Even though Taptu has included several sources with its app, it doesn’t mean that you can’t add more. Tap the “+Add” button at the top right of the main page to explore available sources or to search and add your preferred feeds.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/02f-iPad-Interface.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile news" width="450" height="600" />

You can even link your Facebook and Twitter accounts to Taptu so you can keep up with all the tweets and friends’ updates while reading other news. If you are an iPad user, you can add Facebook and Twitter directly from Taptu’s main page.

There are lots of sources on the “Featured” tab that you can choose. Adding sources is as easy as tapping the “+” button.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/03a-Add-Featured.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile news" width="320" height="460" />

If the source that you want is not featured, you can find it by doing a search.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/03b-Add-MUO.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile news" width="580" height="350" />

Another way to find sources is to browse the categories under “Topics“. Some of the general topics – like Architecture or Technology, are curated by Taptu. They are collected from many relevant sources so you don’t have to go through individual sources.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/03f-Add-Topics.jpg" border="0" alt="03f Add Topics" width="580" height="419" />

Or if you have curated your own collection over the years and read them using Google Reader, you can easily add your collection by linking your Google Reader account to Taptu.

style="text-align: center;"> class="aligncenter" src="http://main.makeuseoflimited.netdna-cdn.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/04/03c-Google-Reader.jpg" border="0" alt="mobile news feed reader" width="580" height="434" />

If you are a news junkie like me, you might want to try Taptu. Some might say that it is not as beautiful as Flipboard, but design is personal taste. Feature-wise, Taptu is on par with other available alternatives out there.

Have you tried Taptu? What do you think about it? Or do you prefer to use your own favorite mobile news feed reader? Share your opinions using the comments below. />
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