Category Archives: Internet

Buy Books In The UK

Internet, Shopping

If you are looking to buy books in the UK, and at a good price then you have a few options.  There are still a few high street shops selling books like Waterstones and Borders but overall book sellers are moving onto the internet where you can search for the best prices on books that you want.

The advantage of book stores is that you can browse through shelves of books until you find one that takes your fancy by reading the back cover etc. Book stores may also have special offers on 3 for 2 books etc that you can’t get online. Also if you need a book straight away then you can just pick one up and take it home.

However, if you are looking for a particular book and you know what you want, then you don’t necessarily need to go to a bookshop. The most popular place to buy books for years has been Amazon, and many people go there by default when looking for books as they know that they are a trusted retailer.

But, there are many more booksellers on the internet and quite often you can find one that will sell the book you are looking for, for less than you have to pay on Amazon. One of these cheaper book stores is Abe Books which source there books from many areas, including abroad. Just enter the ISBN of the book you are looking for and it will give you a selection of sellers to choose from.


AbeBooks.co.uk Book Sale

AbeBooks sells new, second-hand and collectible books. I recently looked for a technical book that was £19.79 on Amazon and I managed to get it for around £3 less on AbeBooks – it was a new book too so I was surprised that I could get it at such a low cost compared to the Amazon price.

iPhone Tips for Beginners

Computers & Electronics, Internet, Lifestyles, Recreation, Social Networks & Online Communities, Technology

So You have a New iPhone!

iphone-tipsSo I am assuming that you have just got yourself an iPhone and with it a plan that comes with 3G coverage so that you can access the web wherever you are. These days the plans are very reasonable but if you don’t have web access then you can use the wireless features of the phone when you are in an area that has wireless coverage.

In that lovely new box there are a few goodies but one thing that there is not is an instruction booklet – I guess that Apple think that you can get all the information online in their help manuals but sometimes that just doesn’t cut it and even some basic things need a small about of explaining when you first start using it.

Firstly, I have to say I now love my iPhone and wouldn’t want to be without it, which is what I guess Apple want you to think! It has loads of great features and by downloading apps you can use it for more and more things. Anyway, here are a few basics to start you off.

How To Change The Sim Card

It sounds obvious but from experience I looked and looked for where the iPhone SIM card went and couldn’t find it! So in order to change the iPhone SIM card you will need the SIM card pin that came with your phone (it looks a bit like a paper clip). Use the pin end on this to poke into the hole at the top of the phone and the SIM card holder will pop out of the top of the phone. Whenever you need to open the SIM card holder you will need to use the pin.

Synching Your iPhone

Firstly, in order to synchronise your data with your computer you will need to have iTunes installed and also have an iTunes account. These are pretty simple to set up if you do not already have one.

You will need to link your iPhone to iTunes via a usb port on computer with the usb cable that was supplied with your iPhone and within the iTunes interface you can synchronise your contacts, music, calendar and pretty much everything else on your iPhone (except downloading photos).

Once you plug your phone in iTunes should start up automatically and it will start synching all the data on your phone. Don’t unplug your phone until it has finished.

Copying Photos from your iPhone

You can choose photo albums to synch up to your phone within the iTunes interface but it seems you can’t synch your photos down 🙁

If you want to copy your photos down from your iPhone to your computer then you basically need to do this in Window Explorer. Open the phone in explorer and copy them to your chosen directory.

However, this does not always work so one other way of doing it is to use Google’s Picasa tool to import the photos.

How To Change the Number of Times The iPhone Rings Before Voicemail Cuts In

When I first got my iPhone it would ring only 4 times and then go straight to voicemail which I thought was very annoying as more often than not I did not reach the phone before it stopped ringing. After much investigation, I found that they way to change the number of rings on your iPhone before going to voicemail was as follows:

Call *#61#

Take a note of the number that comnes through as ‘Forwards to’

Dial *61*/Forwards To/*11*n#

where n= no. of seconds that you want it to ring for before going to voicemail. After a bit of trial and error I set it to around 30 seconds to give me a chance to find the phone!

Battery Power

From my experience the battery on the iPhone lasts between 10 hours and two days but obviously it depends on how much you use it. You can recharge the battery with the USB cable either through your computer or with the power adapter for the USB cable that plugs into the mains. You can also buy many music systems to play your iPhone music through and these will charge your iPhone while they play.

How Do You Take a Screenshot with Your iPhone?

Well this is actually a really easy thing to do once you know how. All you have to do is to navigate to the page that you want a screenshot of, then you press down the power button at the top of the phone and at the same time you hit the round ‘home’ button on the bottom of the front screen.

This saves a shot of the screen to your camera roll where you can do whatever you like with it!

What is Pinterest?

Internet, Social Networks & Online Communities

Pinterest is one of the newest of what can be classed as a social media site but with a bit of a difference. It could actually be grouped with sites like reddit and stumbleupon (and quite a few others too numerous to mention) but it seems to have captured people’s imagination a little better.

The key point of pinterest is that it is a kind of virtual pinboard for people to post things. But the way that it has been set up might be the key. In effect you ‘pin’ a picture to the pinterest board in a category that is relevant to the picture or web page that it came from. Others can see whatever you have pinned and if they like it they can ‘repin’ it.

If you are someone with a website then this can drive traffic to your site if people repin your page or picture in large numbers. If you can get something eye catching and useful that is pinned then it will get read and repinned quite a bit.

You can pin something by linking in with your twitter or facebook account or you can apply for a pinterest account where you will be put on the waiting list!

Is pinterest the new facebook or twitter though? If it continues to take off as it has then who knows?

YouTube Ad Program

Internet, Money, , ,

The YouTube Ad Program enables users of YouTube who upload their videos, to earn money from ads that show when people view their videos. It can be a good stream of income if you have original videos that are likely to get a lot of views.

There are two ways of getting into the YouTube Ad Program – the first is to get invited by YouTube and the second is to apply for your account to be included. However, don;t hold your breath for too long if you apply as it can and probably will take months for your application to be processed.

The most obvious criteria that YouTube set for becoming part of the program is to have a video that is completely your own content and that attracts a large number of views in a shortish period of time. However, we have heard of people who got invited with just one video of a few thousand views and others who got turned down with a number of videos of tens of thousands of views – so acceptance to the YouTube Ad Program is not in any way guaranteed.

Once accepted to the program, you can select which of your videos you monetise – so if you only have some that are individual to you then you can just select those. As YouTube is part of Google you will need to have a valid Adsense account as that is how the money is earned.

Discounted Web Hosting

Internet, ,

If you are looking for discounted web hosting then there are a fair few option available.  However, you should not only look for good value in the price that you pay for your web hosting but also other features such as up-time, reliability, service and limits on what you can host.

For example you can get discounted web hosting from the company that is known as the best in the industry – Hostgator – and it is top quality hosting. You can get packages that offer you unlimited domain name and web site hosting for a fixed fee each month – all you need to pay for is the domain name fees.

Hostgator is the best in the industry and if you sign up with them then you can get a 25% discount off their hosting fees using the coupon code AZURE25OFF. Make sure to put that code in at the checkout to get the discount.

You can host as many websites as you like for less than $10 a month which is great if you are running a few websites. And if you are trying to earn money by running websites then the more sites you have, the more you are saving money.