There are no lengthy surveys to fill nor any taglines to complete -- just fill in your details in this simple form. You can participate in the HP printer giveaway as long as your shipping address is somewhere in India.

The HP Photosmart printers that are part of this giveaway include HP Photosmart Premium C309G, HP Photosmart Plus B209A and HP Photosmart C4688 All-in-one. I have had a chance to use one of these wireless printers (Photosmart C309G) for few days and it has left me impressed.

The printer doesn’t come with any boring paper manuals, instead they have a colored touchscreen panel at the front that displays a nice video animation illustrating the various steps required for setting up the printer.

Once the ink cartridges are aligned and the printer is initialized (the process is a bit noisy and takes about 4 minutes to complete), insert your USB flash drive or a memory card into the printer. The LCD panel will display thumbnails of all photos available inside the flash drive -- just browse through this list with your fingers, touch any one of them and you’ll have a printed copy in your hands in the next 15 seconds. It can’t get easier than this.

The printer immediately recognized the Wi-Fi network in the area but you do need to install the HP Printer drivers on your computer(s) before they can communicate with the printer wirelessly. iPhone users may download the free HP iPrint App from the iTunes store and print photos and screenshots from the mobile device wirelessly. Wireless printing works only for devices that are in the local Wi-Fi network so you can’t print documents “over the Internet”.

And since these HP Photosmart printers are “all-in-one” machines, you may use the same device as a colored copier and scanner as well. Other than ease of use, I am quite impressed by the print quality of photographs but I have little clue about the exact cost of printing these files.

Participate in the HP Printer Giveaway

If you are a resident of India, please fill in this web form to participate in the giveaway. Only one entry is allowed per person but you are welcome to invite friends on Twitter and Facebook to participate in this giveaway.

And here’s a quick video promo of the HP Photosmart printer range in case you like to see it in action:

Giving Away 3 HP Wireless Printers

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

The Chrome OS team has a produced a new Common Craft style video that gives an overview of the new Chrome OS is 3 minutes.

Here’s a high-res screenshot of Chrome OS..

..and here are some Chrome OS screenshots captured from the press event:

1. Chrome OS Application Menu

2. Chrome OS Media Browser

Cloud Storage - Everything you save inside Chrome OS is put on the cloud like this notepad application which will sync with Google Docs.

4. Arrington from TechCrunch -- Live-Blogging the Chrome OS event

5. Switching between Chrome instances - It’s much like Alt+Tab of Windows 7 with live preview

What is Google Chrome OS -- Video & Screenshots

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

If you are still using an older version of Windows (like Windows XP or Vista), you don’t have to feel left behind because, with some simple tricks, you can enjoy all or part of what these Windows 7 themes have to offer.

Use Windows 7 Themes with XP and Vista

First, launch the official Windows 7 themes directory and download some of the themes you like to your Windows XP or Vista desktop.

These files have a unique .themepack extension which is just another zip format containing all of the elements of a theme including the background images, Aero glass colors, sounds, cursors, icons, screen savers, etc.

To use these files on an older version of Windows, you first need to extract them as only Windows 7 can natively understand the themepack format. You can either change the file extension of the Windows 7 theme file from .themepack to .cab and then extract the files with a right-click, or install the free 7-Zip utility as 7-Zip can automatically hand the themepack file format.

Once extracted, your theme files will now be in a new folder that has the same name as your original themepack.

Aero Glass Border and Desktop Backgrounds

Now that you have all the required files, its time to activate the Windows 7 theme on your non-Windows 7 computer.

If your computer is running Windows Vista that supports Aero, simply double-click the .theme file that is present in the them folder you just extracted.  This will set your windows border glass to the color of the Windows 7 theme and your wallpaper to the default background of the theme. However, this background picture will disappear when you reboot your computer, so you need to set that as a permanent background.

Windows XP does not support Aero glass, but you can still use the background images from downloaded Windows 7 theme on your XP desktop. You can find the backgrounds inside the themepack folder itself or in a sub-folder named DesktopBackground. Pick any image, right click on it, and select “Set as Desktop Background.”

Windows 7 like Desktop Slideshows for XP and Vista

Most Windows 7 themes consist of multiple background images and Windows 7 will automatically change your desktop background at periodic intervals using one of the images from the themepack. Windows Vista and XP do not support desktop slideshows, but you can easily bring that feature use the excellent and free John’s Background Switcher program.

To create a desktop slideshow, click the add button and choose “A folder on your computer.” Now select the Windows 7 theme folder that contains all the background images. The program allows lot of tweaking but you can skip that because the default settings are very similar to what you need for simulating Windows 7 behavior on your XP or Vista computer.

However, John’s Background Switcher by default shows the name of the image in the top right hand corner of the picture.  To remove this, click the “More…” button that has a gear icon on it.  Uncheck the box beside the 3rd entry which says “Show picture info on the top-right corner of the screen.”  Now click Ok, and then click Ok in the main window, and your desktop slideshow is all ready.

For RSS-enabled Windows 7 Themes

Some Windows 7 themes download images from the internet (via RSS feeds) when switching desktop backgrounds.

To know if the theme you are looking to port on your Vista or XP computer uses RSS or not, open the .theme file in a text editor like Notepad. Then search for the string “RssFeed” without the quotes. If you find that string, copy the link address of the RSS feed and, you can then use the “RSS photo feed” option in John’s Background Switcher program to create an RSS powered desktop slideshow on your XP or Vista machines.

Windows 7 Sounds, Cursor, Screensavers, etc.

Most Windows 7 themes only contain a glass color and desktop backgrounds.  However, some may contain screensavers, sounds, cursors, and icons as well. The good part is that you can use the elements on your Vista / XP theme as well.

Sounds - You can copy the sound files (.wav) to the default media folder (C:\Windows\Media), and if you have set the Windows 7 theme in Windows Vista as described above, it will automatically these sounds.  Else, you will have to manually change your sounds from the Control Panel.

Icons - If the Windows 7 theme that you plan to use with XP or Vista contains a different set of desktop and system icons (.ico files), you may follow the directions below to apply them on your version of Windows:

• For Windows Vista – Right-click on the desktop, select Personalize and choose “Change Desktop Icons.”  Select the items you which to change, click “Change Icons,” and browse to the location of new icons that are part of the Windows 7 theme.
• For Windows XP – Right-click on the desktop, select Properties and choose "Customize Desktop" under the Desktop tab. Select the items you wish to change, click “Change Icon,” and browse to the location of the icons from your theme.

To change icons of individual programs, simply right-click on the program shortcut on your desktop, select Properties, and click the button that says "Change Icon" in the Shortcut tab. Browse to the location of the icon extract from the Windows 7 theme and select the one you want to apply.

Screensavers – For using a Windows 7 screensaver inside XP or Vista, just copy the relevant screensaver files (.scr) into your Windows system folder usually located at C:\Windows\System32.  Now, change your system screensaver using the usual method. Please remember that not all Windows 7 screensavers will work correctly on previous versions of Windows.

Cursors – You can copy the Windows 7 cursor files (.cur or .ani) to C:\Windows\Cursors on XP or Vista, and then apply the new set using the mouse settings under Control Panel. Use the [Control Panel\Cursors] of the .theme file (see example) to understand the default cursor mappings.

How to Use Windows 7 Themes on XP and Vista Computers

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

That was simple. I did a simple search for "obama" on Google Images and then copied the search URL into shapecollage.com. Within seconds, the tool pulled all the photographs of Obama found on Google Images and turned them into a nice photo collage.

This collage is interactive because if you click any of the thumbnails in this pile of photographs, it will open the full resolution picture on original website so you don’t miss the context. Internally, Shape Collage uses an HTML image map to maintain this image-to-source mapping.

And here’s another photo collage created using book covers of New York Times Bestsellers as found on Amazon.com. Click on any cover to view the corresponding product page.

You can also create collages by merging photos from multiple sites into one – like a single collage for your Flickr and Picasa albums.

The Shape Collage Online web application is a complement to the Shape Collage desktop software, which includes additional features including the ability to generate high resolution collages.

Pull Images from any Web Page and Turn Them Into a Nice Photo Collage Online

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

The first public beta of Microsoft Office 2010 is now available as a free download on microsoft.com/office. And other then Office, you can also download Visio 2010 beta and Project 2010 beta for your Windows computer.

This is the Microsoft Office Professional Plus 2010 edition so you get to experience Publisher and Infopath 2010 as well in addition to the regular Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote and Outlook applications.

The Office installer weighs around 700 MB in size but you need around 3 GB of free space on your hard drive for the installation.

You can either upgrade your current version of Microsoft Office to Office 2010 Beta or select the Customize option during installation and set your current version of Microsoft Office to coexist with Office 2010 Beta.

All products require online activation after installation. In case of Office 2010, you can enter the serial number inside Word 2010 and it will automatically activate all other Office applications. Project and Visio will require separate activation since they use a different set of keys.

The beta version of Office 2010 will expire in October 2010. And other than English, Office 2010 is available for download in Chinese, French, German, Japanese, Russian and Spanish.

Microsoft Office 2010 Beta Now Available for Download

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

If you are not a subscriber, don’t hit the torrents yet because Microsoft may announce the general availability of Office 2010 beta sometime today itself. Update: You can download Office 2010 now.

Microsoft Office 2010 – What’s New

Here’s a quick visual guide to some of the new features of Microsoft Office 2010 that you’re likely to find useful once you get access to the software.

#1. Save Office Documents to the Cloud

With Microsoft Office 2010, you can directly upload documents to your Windows Live SkyDrive account and access them from any other computer.

SkyDrive provides 25 GB of free online storage and, since the service is integrated with Office Web Apps, you can view and edit these documents anywhere in the web browser without requiring Microsoft Office (even on a Mac).

#2. Embed Web Videos in your Presentations

With Office 2010, you can easily embed video clips from the Internet into your PowerPoint presentations just the way you embed Flash videos in regular web pages. Just copy the embed code from YouTube (or any other video sharing site) and paste it anywhere on the slide.

#3. Quick Steps in Outlook

Gmail includes a useful feature called Send and Archive that performs multiple tasks. When you click this button, it will first send the reply and then archives the thread with one click.

With the new Quick Steps feature in Outlook, you can create a sequence of commands (Send & Archive is just one example) and apply them to any Outlook item with a click. For instance, here’s a quick step for "Send and Delete" which would delete the email from your inbox after you’ve replied.

#4. Built-in PDF Writer

All Office 2010 programs include a built-in PDF writer to help you save documents into the PDF format with a click. Earlier, you had to download an add-on separately but now PDF support is native.

#5. Document printing made simple!

With Office 2010, Microsoft has completely revamped the print dialog and it’s a tremendous improvement. For instance, you can tweak printer settings (like page margins, etc.) and preview the changes side-by-side.

#6. Broadcast Slideshows within PowerPoint

This is probably my favorite new feature of PowerPoint 2010. You can deliver live presentations over the web from within PowerPoint and anyone in the world can view your presentation using a web browser. It just works.

#7. Video Editing meets PowerPoint

Do you want to trim some parts of a video clip before using it in your presentation? Or do you want to apply professional styles to a video (like reflection coupled with 3D rotation) so that your audience stay glued longer? Well, that’s easy because PowerPoint 2010 now includes some very powerful video editing features.

#8. Distribute your slides as video

PowerPoint 2010 can convert your presentation into a video file that you may upload on to YouTube or distribute on a portable media player like the iPod. The video conversion happens in the background so you can continue using PowerPoint while the video is being created.

#9. Built-in Screen Capture

All Office 2010 programs now include a screen clipping utility to help you quickly capture any area of the desktop screen. The tool will automatically take screenshots of all open applications on your desktop (that are not in minimized state) and you can insert them directly into your document or presentation.

#10. Outlook gets social

When you open an email message inside Outlook 2010, it will show you related information such as email attachments, pictures, meeting requests and all previous email messages that you may have exchanged with that person (something like Xobni).

There’s a green add button that lets you "add that person to your online social networks from Outlook" but the service isn’t live yet. Until then, you can use these add-ons to make your Outlook more social.

Important: Before installing Office 2010

1. If you are installing Office 2010 beta for the first time, the default settings will upgrade your existing copy of Microsoft Office. You can however customize this setting and install Office 2010 alongside an older version of Office.

2. If you already have Office 2010 Technical Preview on your computer, make sure you completely uninstall this edition before attempting to installing Office 14 beta. In case you still have trouble installing Office, use the cleanup utility to remove all traces of the previous version of Office from your system.

Related: Try Office 2010 Starter Edition

What’s New Inside Microsoft Office 2010

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Connect Two Computers Directly

There are two options – you can either buy a router or, if you are looking for something more simple and don’t want to spend money on new networking hardware, you can connect the two computers using a commonly-available cable. The latter method doesn’t involve any complicated network settings and you will still be able to share files, internet connection, and even printers between computers.

Things you need:

To set up this basic wired home network, all you need is an inexpensive Ethernet crossover cable and the other requirement is that network cards* (also known as LAN or Ethernet cards) should be installed on each of you computers.

[*] This should not be an issue because network cards are available on most newer machines by default but if you are working with a very old computer, you can either attach an internal LAN card to your computer’s motherboard or go for a USB Network adapter that will turn a USB port into an Ethernet (RJ45) port.

Also see: How to Identify Computer Cables and Connectors

An Ethernet crossover cable looks like a standard Ethernet cable but the internal wiring is a little different. You can purchase crossover cables at Amazon.com or from your local computer store. If you have trouble finding them, you can purchase an inexpensive crossover adaptor and that will let you use any standard Ethernet cable as a crossover cable.

Connect Computers with an Ethernet Crossover Cable

Before connecting the two computers with a physical cable, make sure that both machine are using the same workgroup*. Here is step-by-step guide that explains how you can change the workgroup of your computers.

Changing workgroup in Windows XP – From the Start menu, right-click “My Computer.” Select Properties in the drop-down menu, and then select the second tab that says “Computer Name” from the System Properties window. Now click the “Change…” button, enter a unique Workgroup name and reboot your computer.

Changing workgroup in Windows 7 or Vista – Open the Control Panel, type “Workgroup” in the search box, and select the entry that says “Change Workgroup Name.” Click the “Change…” button, enter a Workgroup name and restart the computer. Windows 7 users can skip one step; simply type “Workgroup” in the search box in the start menu, and select the first entry, then proceed as above.

Now that the workgroups are same for both computers, connect the two computers together using the Ethernet crossover cable. Simply plug-in one end of the crossover cable into the network adapter of Computer A and connect the other end of the cable to the network adapter of Computer B.

Windows will automatically recognize the new network, and you can now easily view files and folder that the other computer has shared. Simply open Networks from the Start Menu (or the Control Panel), and you should see the other computer by its name. You can then browse any shared files on the other computer, and can even utilize shared printers.

Troubleshooting – If you do not see the other computer under Networks, you probably have a prompt at the top of your Network window saying that Network discovery is turned off (screenshots below). Select “Turn on Network Discovery and File Sharing.”  In the next prompt, select “No, make the network I am connected to a private network.”  Now you should see the other computer on the home network.

[*] While it is possible to share files between two computers connected with a crossover cable without making them part of the same workgroup, the method will only work if both computers have this network set as a private network, and may still cause problems. It is therefore advisable to have both computers on the same workgroup before sharing files and printers.

Share an Internet Connection Between Two Computers

There are scenarios where you may want to share the same internet connection between two computers. For instance:

Situation A - You have setup a Wi-Fi network at home but your old desktop computer doesn’t have a wireless network card. In that case, you can use the laptop to connect to the internet wirelessly and then share that same connection with the desktop over a crossover Ethernet cable.

Situation B – You have a netbook with a built-in cellular data connection. You can share that connection with any another computer at home through the crossover Ethernet cable.

Situation C – You use a (slow) Wireless USB modem with your laptop computer while your desktop is connected to an ADSL Broadband line and there’s no router at home. For any bandwidth intensive tasks, like when you want to backup photos from your laptop to an online service, you can connect the laptop to the desktop and things will happen much faster.

OK, let’s look at the steps required for sharing an Internet connection.

First, if you only wish to share internet connection and not files, both computers need not belong to the same workgroup. All you need to do is to connect the two computers with the Ethernet crossover cable, and then turn on Internet connection sharing in the computer that already has an Internet connection. The instructions vary for different versions of Windows:

For Windows XP – Select “Network and Internet Connections” from the Control Panel and click “Network Connections.”

Right-click on the network connection you wish to share (the one connected to the internet), select Properties, click on the “Advanced” tab, and then check the box that says “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.”  Click OK, and the second computer that you have connected to this computer with the Crossover Cable should have internet access now.

For Windows 7 and Vista – Open Control Panel, enter “network connections” in the search box on the top right and select “View Network Connections.”

Right-click on the network connection you wish to share (this must be the one connected to the internet) and select Properties. Select the "Sharing" tab and then check the option that says “Allow other network users to connect through this computer’s Internet connection.” Click OK, and the other computer you have connected to this Windows 7 or Vista computer should have internet access now.

Related guide: Connect your Laptop to the TV Screen

How to Connect Two Computers Without a Router

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Shruti Rajkumar of CNBC-TV18 has done a nice video recap of the TED India conference that happened in Mysore earlier this month. Do hit the HQ button inside the YouTube player for better quality video.

The (official) video recordings of TED India sessions aren’t available yet (except that of Pranav Mistry) but you can subscribe to this page and get notified as soon as new TED videos are posted online.

You should also check the lively TED India photoset on Flickr that has captured nearly every amazing moment of TED.

Watch 4 Days of TED India in 4 Minutes [Video]

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

You can now call your friends and family members anywhere in the world at extremely low rates (sometimes even free) and some of these VoIP services don’t even require you to have an Internet connection at home.

VoIP Services for Making Phone Calls

Most people have heard of Skype, and it still is one of the best VoIP services around, but there are quite a few other good options as well that let you make phone calls over the Internet using your regular landline, mobile phone or your computer.

There are three kinds of Voice over IP (VoIP) solutions that let you enjoy crystal-clear* phone calls at a fraction of the price that your phone company charges:

1. Hardware based – You get a dedicated hardware router that sits between your Internet modem and your corded /cordless phone so you can make and receive phone calls just like before. The only difference is that calls are now routed through the Internet and not your phone company so you usually end up saving money.

2. Software based – You install a VoIP software on your computer or your web-enabled mobile phone and make phone calls via the Internet connection bypassing your phone company. It doesn’t matter if you mobile phone is connected to the Internet over Wi-Fi, GPRS, EDGE, 3G or WiMAX.

3. Web based – Web based VoIP services neither require any hardware nor software. You open the VoIP service provider’s site, type the phone numbers and you’re instantly connected. Some services also offer special hotlines (or direct access numbers) that let you make Internet phone calls using your traditional phone even if you don’t have an internet connection.

Let’s look at popular VoIP services that fall in each of these categories:

1. Dedicated VoIP Hardware

This is usually the best option for people who want to make regular phone calls over the internet but while they are relaxing on the couch and not having to sit in front of the computer screen.

To use dedicated hardware-based VoIP solutions, you need a router, sign up for the appropriate service (listed below), and connect the box to your internet and the standard telephone. Here are some of the best hardware based VoIP products that also provide you a traditional phone number so you can both place and receive calls through VoIP. And none except magicJack would require a computer.

2. VoIP Software for Desktop and Mobile Phones

Your first introduction to internet based telephone services was probably through services like Skype that allowed you to make voice and video calls through your computer. In order to make VoIP phone calls through your computer, all you need is a headset cum microphone and one of the following programs.

3. Make VoIP Calls with (or without) Internet

Yes, you can make cheap international phone calls over VoIP without even having an internet connection as long as you a landline or mobile phone.

There are VoIP services that offer a local phone number which you can call using your normal phone, then dial the number of the person you wish to call, and your call will be routed over the internet by the VoIP service. Then there are services that let you enter your phone number and the number you are calling on a website; your phone will ring, and when you answer it, it will automatically dial the number you wish to call.

[*] VoIP calls are generally cheaper than regular phone calls but make sure you have a decent broadband connection for better voice quality. Also, they are no replacements for your traditional phone as none of them offers access to emergency services like 911 in US.

Related: How to Secure your Wireless Network

Make Phone Calls over the Internet (VoIP) and Lower your Phone Bills

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

It works something like this. Google Reader looks at all the feeds that are you currently subscribed to and then, like any other music recommendation service, it generates a list of new feeds that may be worth adding to your reading list (see example).

It does this by comparing your interests with the feeds of other Google Reader users similar to you. If you are someone like me who prefers reading feeds inside FeedDemon (for various reasons), the good news is that you can now get these "recommendations" directly inside FeedDemon without having to visit your Google Reader page.

Nick has released a new build of FeedDemon that includes this useful feature (among other performance enhancements I guess). You can select Reports -> Recommendations under the "View" menu of FeedDemon to see the full list of feeds that have recommended by Google Reader for you.

You can subscribe to any of these feeds directly inside FeedDemon or dismiss a recommendation by clicking the "not interested" link and it will be subsequently removed from FeedDemon and Google Reader queue as well.

Next item on my request list – the ability to read translated feeds in FeedDemon.

Feeds Recommended by Google Reader now available inside FeedDemon

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

The theme of this year’s Google Doodle contest was "My India".

Dennis Hwang, who is the creative genius behind every holiday logo that you see on the Google homepage across countries, was also in Delhi for the award function.

Puru, who is just nine years old, gets a laptop computer for winning the Doodle 4 Google Competition and his school (Amity) will receive a technology grant of around $2000 from Google India.

Some 4,000 logos were submitted by school students from across India for the contest and, though you won’t see any of them on the Google homepage, some of them very extremely creative. Here are my favorite picks:

And here’s a time-lapse video that shows how Dennis Hwang draws a Google Doodle from start to finish.

Google Homepage Sports a New Logo, Drawn by a 9-Year Old Kid

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Read Kindle Books without the Kindle Reader

If you don’t have the Kindle device, you can still enjoy any of these Kindle books on your Windows computer using the free Kindle for PC application. Amazon is also working on a Mac version of Kindle Desktop but until that happens, you can download the free Kindle app from iTunes store and read books on the move using your iPhone or iPod Touch.

Find and Download Free Books for Kindle

While most eBooks available on the Amazon Kindle store are paid, here are some simple ways by which you can find and download free books for reading on your Kindle Reader or your Kindle Desktop application.

#1. Google Books on your Kindle

Project Gutenberg, Google Books and FeedBooks are some popular sites that offer a large collection of public domain books in the standard ePUB format.

The Kindle for PC application cannot read ePUB files directly but you can use the excellent Stanza program (from Amazon itself) to convert these public domain books from .epub into .mobi format that you can then import into Kindle Desktop for reading*. That means you now have millions of out-of-copyright books for your Kindle for free.

[*] You can also use Stanza to convert PDFs, HTML web pages and other Office documents into .mobi format for reading inside the Kindle App but I see little reason why would anyone want to do so since the reading experience is not all that great.

#2. Find Free Kindle Books on Amazon.com

Before your proceed, please log-in to your Amazon account, choose “Manage your Kindle” and change the country associated with your Kindle account to “United States”. This is important because most “free” content on the Kindle Bookstore is currently restricted to North America.

OK, now let’s explore ways to find free Kindle books:

#2.1 Big Deals – This is more of an official listing of Kindle books that are currently available as a free download on Amazon.com to Kindle users. You should also check the Bestsellers category on Kindle Store as it again lists quite a good number of free titles.

#2.2 Sort by Price – When you search for a Kindle book (or any other item) on Amazon.com, it displays search results by relevance.

If you change this default sort order from “Relevance” to “Price: Low to High”, you’ll get a list of all Kindle books that match your search keywords and are available as a free download. For instance, here’s a list of Kindle books that are related to “India” but cost exactly $0.00.

#2.3 Listmania - This is another resource where you can discover Kindle books that are available for free.

Listmania Lists are basically a list of products compiled by Amazon users. You can use search phrases like “free kindle books”, “kindle freebie”, “penny kindle book”, etc. to discover lists that may free books you are looking for. For instance, here’s one Listmania List of 27 classic books for Kindle that are absolutely free and here’s another one that also includes copyrighted books.

#2.4 Use Google – Here’s an unofficial method to help you find Kindle books that are available for free on Amazon.com.

You can use the following search query in Google to search the Amazon store for free Kindle books – just replace the search-phrase in green with the name of the book, author, book category, etc.

intitle:kindle site:amazon.com "you save * (100%)" search-phrase

For instance, here’s a list of free Kindle books related to Abraham Lincoln while here’s a list of Kindle books on Shakespeare that are again free.

Note: Kindle Pricing for International users

If the cost of a Kindle book is mentioned as $0.00 on the Amazon Store, it will still show up as $2.00 for you if the country associated with your Kindle is something other than United States. This is because Amazon charges a $2 roaming fee for “international downloads”.

You can either temporarily change your Kindle country to US or use the “Transfer via Computer” option when buying a book and you won’t be charged that extra $2 fees. Thanks Dhamini Ratnam.

Download Free Books for your Kindle Reader

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

If you are using FeedBurner to syndicate the RSS feeds of your blog, you can now easily track all the incoming traffic from feed clicks through Google Analytics.

Just open your FeedBurner dashboard, click the title of your RSS feed and choose "Configure Stats" under the Analyze Tab. Tick the options that say "Item views", "Item click" and "Track clicks as a traffic source in Google Analytics" and save.

In addition to click counts, you’ll also know the exact source from where that click may originated.

This is useful data because, for instance, it will help you understand if people who subscribe to your feed inside Google Reader are more engaged than your "My Yahoo!" subscribers (or vice-versa).

Traffic from clicks inside your RSS feed will be included under "All Traffic Sources" and "Campaigns." in your Google Analytics reports. Select "Ad Content" from the segment drop down in the traffic source data table and it will show you the incoming traffic from your RSS feed segmented by specific feed readers or email clients.

Track Your RSS Feed Clicks with Google Analytics

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

For instance, you can use a virtualization tool like Apple Boot Camp or Parallels to run Windows on your Mac computer or you may use the free Virtual PC program from Microsoft to run Linux, DOS or even multiple Windows environments inside your Windows PC.

Virtualization tools aren’t just for geeks.

You may use these programs to try out other operating systems on your computer without disturbing the existing setup. Or, if you have upgraded to a newer OS, you can create a virtual machine of your previous OS and use it to run older programs that aren’t supported in your new OS. Or if you want to run multiple versions of the same software (like Photoshop CS4 and Photoshop CS5), you can install one of them on your main OS and the other inside a virtual machine.

Virtualization Software for Windows

Although desktop virtualization programs have been around for many years, they are more mainstream now than ever before.

In order to run virtualization programs like Windows Virtual PC or VMware Player, your computer needs to have a processor that supports hardware virtualization. Most newer processors already support this but you may also use the free SecurAble utility to determine if your computer processor supports hardware virtualization or not.

If the CPU inside your Windows PC supports virtualization but you are unable to use a Virtualization program, chances are that you need to enable that feature via your BIOS. Microsoft offers an easy guide on how you can turn on virtualization through the BIOS dashboard.

If your computer has an older processor that does not support hardware virtualization, you can still run virtual machines using Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 or Virtual Box, as they don’t require it.

Windows Virtual PC and Virtual PC 2007

Windows Virtual PC, that is designed to run previous versions of Windows seamlessly inside Windows 7, has made desktop virtualization even more ubiquitous. Programs installed in the virtual operating system will show up in the host computer’s Start menu, and you can even set them as the default program for handling a particular file type.

Windows Virtual PC can run on all editions of Windows 7, but users of the Home edition will have to create their own virtual machines from an original Windows installation disk or from old Windows installation. In addition to running Windows XP, you can also use a Virtual PC to run Windows Vista, XP, Windows 2000 and even some versions of Linux including Ubuntu, OpenSuse and Red Hat Linux.

Virtual PC offers some unique features like you can store changes on a separate virtual hard drive than the operating system, and there’s support for undo disks so you can roll back changes made to a virtual machine. Windows Virtual PC requires hardware virtualization and won’t run on computers that don’t support this.

The older version of Virtual PC, Microsoft Virtual PC 2007, is still available as a free download. Virtual PC 2007 can run on any computer running Windows XP or newer and does not require a processor that supports hardware virtualization. This makes it useful for Windows 7 user who want to use the XP mode but do not have a processor with hardware virtualization.

VMware Player

First released in 2005 as a free solution to run pre-built virtual machines, VMware Player 3.0 is now a complete basic desktop virtualization solution that allows you to create, manage, and run virtual machines.

VMware Player supports 64-bit guest operating systems and you can send print commands to the printer attached to the host OS. VMware offers a Unity mode that lets you run programs from a virtual machine alongside programs running on your main operating system.  You can also launch programs in the virtual machine via a program menu that appears above your standard Windows start menu.

VMware requires Windows XP and newer, including 64 bit versions, and you can run Windows 95 and newer, Linux, DOS, BSD, etc. as virtual machines. If you are running VMware Player on Windows 7 Professional or Ultimate, you can import your virtual copy of XP from Windows XP mode and run it directly in VMware Player.  Finally, VMware offers a wide range of preconfigured virtual appliances that allow you to test and run programs and operating systems quickly and easily.

Sun VirtualBox

VirtualBox is equally at home on Windows, Mac OS X, and Linux, and supports a wide range of guest operating systems (except Mac OS, which is not licensed for virtualization).

VirtualBox can run a wide variety of virtual machines from other desktop virtualization programs. It will even run the XP mode from Windows 7, allowing you to run XP mode on computers that lack hardware virtualization support. It can capture snapshots of a virtual machine and these are handy if you want to roll back changes later.

Finally, VirtualBox allows you to run a guest OS seamlessly with your host OS through Seamless Mode.  This places the guest’s taskbar in your host OS’ desktop, which lets you fully control the guest OS right inside your standard host desktop.

Comparison of Virtualization Software for Windows

Free Virtualization Software for your Windows PC

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

This will however change as Microsoft has discontinued further development of Works and they’ll instead include a basic version of Microsoft Office 2010 with new PCs that will again be free but may have ads. The new version, known as Office 2010 Starter Edition, will include Word and Excel applications but with limited functionality.

To learn more about Office 2010 Starter, watch the following video where Office program managers Brian Albrecht and Scott Kahler also explain things that you can do with the Starter Edition.

If you are part of the Office Live Workspaces newsletter, you may have already received an email invite from Microsoft to join the Office Starter 2010 Beta program but in case you haven’t, here what you need to do.

Just fill in this quick survey (this is to assess that you computer can run the Office Starter edition) and you might be invited for the pre-release test. The email says:

All you need to do is use Office Starter 2010 Beta at home over the next few months, and let us know what you think. Office Starter 2010 includes Microsoft Word Starter 2010 and Microsoft Excel Starter 2010, which are great for basic tasks like writing letters, editing your resume, or creating a family budget.

[*] The public beta of Office 2010 will start later this year though you can try Office Web Apps now itself.

Would You Like to Try Office 2010 Starter Edition?

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

You’ve following this routine for quite some time and, as a result, a few hundred thousand photographs reside on your computer now neatly tagged and arranged in folders. But wait, do you have a backup plan for these "priceless" digital photos?

How to Backup your Digital Photos

There are basically four ways by which you can backup your photos at home:

1. Backup your photos on CDs and DVDs – This is a cheap and easy option but please remember that disks have a finite shelf life so pictures that you burn today on to a DVD disk may not be accessible after few years.

2. Use an external hard drive – You can get a portable 500 GB drive for less than $100, they connect to your computer via USB (or Firewire) ports but again, you can’t expect an external hard drive to last forever.

3. Use Network Storage – If you have pictures across multiple computers, you can use a network attached storage (NAS) device like HP’s MediaSmart Home Server* or Apple’s Time Capsule to automatically backup all your digital content in one place.

[*] The HP device can transfer files to Amazon S3 so you have an added layer of protection.

4. Use an online backup services – You can use photo-sharing websites (like Flickr) or an online backup service (like Mozy) to put your photos on to the "cloud" and access them from any other computer.

For most users, the best option for preserving digital photographs is often "online backup" because it doesn’t require you to burn DVDs (which are unreliable anyway), you don’t have to invest in any new hardware and your photos are likely to last forever as long as you pay the yearly bills.

Online Backup for your Digital Photos

There are again four different routes for online backup:

#1. Online backup services like Mozy that offer unlimited storage and allow not just photographs but files of all types.

#2. Photo-sharing services like Flickr or Picasa Web Albums that allow you to store both photographs and video clips online.

#3. File-synchronization services like Dropbox, SugarSync or Windows Live Mesh.

#4. Online storage services like Amazon S3 or Windows Live SkyDrive.

Also see this comparison of Windows Live Mesh with SkyDrive.

What should you use?

Well, photo-sharing sites allow you to visually browse pictures in the web browser itself while a backup service like Mozy will first require you to download the photos on to the computer before you can show them to your visiting grand-parents.

File-synchronization services like Live Mesh not only provide online backup but they also save a copy of your digital files (pictures in this case) on to your other computers so even if your main hard-drive suffers a crash, you can quickly retrieve files from the other computers.

The Cost of Online Storage for Digital Photos

If you only have a few hundred photos on your computer that occupy anywhere between 1-2 GB of storage space, you can enjoy any of above backup services for free but if your storage requirements are slightly more, you probably need to for a paid version.

Now here’s a visual graph that compares the storage cost of various online backup services where you can safely store your priceless photos.

Flickr Pro costs around $25 an year and you can store unlimited number of pictures here though the maximum size of individual pictures should not exceed 20 MB (bad for professional photographs who shoot in RAW – see comments).

Picasa Web Albums on the other hand lets you purchase storage on-demand so you only pay $5 per year for 20 GB of online storage but end-up paying $100 for 400 GB of storage. Like Flickr, images uploaded to Picasa Web Albums can be no larger than 20MB and are restricted to 50 megapixels or less.

Live Skydrive is the best online storage service – it offers 25 GB of free space (50 MB limit for individual files) and that should be enough for most home users. You can upload picture libraries from your desktop to Windows Live SkyDrive using the free Windows Live Photo Gallery client though it’s only available for Windows.

Online backup services like Mozy cost around $60 per year respectively but here you get unlimited storage, your files are automatically backed up  (in the background) and there are no restrictions on file-size.

SmugMug, another popular photo-sharing site, offers a service called SmugVault that uses Amazon S3 to backup your photos, videos and all other file-types that you can imagine. They have a relaxed 600 MB per file limit and you pay the normal Amazon S3 rent for files that are not photos.

Amazon S3, where you pay only for what you use, is very reliable (their SLA promises 99.9% uptime) turns out to be very expensive if your yearly storage requirement exceeds 10 GB.

Here’s another representation of the same graph – Yearly costs (in $) vs. storage offered (in GB).

Windows Live SkyDrive offers 25 GB of online storage space for your pictures for free though there’s no option to purchase extra storage. In paid services, Google’s Picasa offers the best value for money if your photo collection can fit in 20 GB else a Flickr Pro account probably makes more sense.

Picasa desktop software makes it easy for you to upload and download photos from Picasa Web Albums. Flickr provides an uploading utility but you need to rely on a third-party hacks to download the original (full-resolution) albums from Flickr.

Related: Never use your Web Host for File Backup

Backup Your Photos Online & Preserve Memories Forever

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

This time-lapse video from photographer Peter Belanger captures every step that’s involved in designing a cover page for the Macworld computer magazine from photographing the actual object (iPhone in this case), re-touching inside Photoshop until publication.

The cover is just one among the few hundred pages that form a print magazine so you can easily imagine the kind of effort (and costs) that are involved in designing the complete magazine.

What It Takes to Design a Magazine Cover

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Luckily, both Windows Vista and Windows 7 include a build-in feature called Shadow Copy that can solve this exact problem without you having to do anything. As you work with the files, Shadow Copy will automatically save incremental backups of your files in the background so if you accidently delete or change a file, you can easily revert to the previous version with a simple right-click.

"Restore Previous Versions" for Vista Home

The Shadow Copy feature is available in all Windows 7 editions but only in the Business and Ultimate editions of Vista. However, if your computer is running Vista Home Basic or Home Premium editions, you can still enjoy the Shadow Copy feature without upgrading your OS.

In that case, all you need is Shadow Explorer – a free (and tiny) utility that makes it easy for users of Vista Home Basic and Home Premium edition to view the Shadow Copies of files that Windows is already saving on to their systems.

When you run the Shadow Explorer utility, you are presented with a Windows Explorer like dual-pane view as shown in the screenshot.

From the drop-down menu, you can select how far back in time you wish to restore files (or folders) from. The right pane has a list of all files and folders that were on your computer at that date and time.

You can browse through the folders just like you do on Windows Explorer and if you need to restore the previous version of any file or folder, simply right-click on the file or folder and click “Export.”  This will allow you to save the file in the location of your choice so you don’t have to replace the most-recent version.

The feature may also come handy if document get damaged (say due to improper shutdown) or you want to bring back the files that were deleted by some virus.

Shadow Explorer for Windows 7 and Vista

ShadowExplorer will run just fine on all editions of Windows Vista and Windows 7; however, only Windows Vista Starter, Home Basic, and Home Premium users will need this tool as they don’t have any other mechanism to access shadow copies of files that have changed with time.

The Shadow Copy functionality was first added to Windows 2003 so the ShadowExplorer utility will work on that OS as well provided the shadow copy service is enabled.  However, ShadowExplorer will not work on any version of Windows XP, 2000, or any earlier version of Windows, as they do not have the shadow copy service that ShadowExplorer relies on.

Undelete Files & Folders in Windows Vista Home

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

1. Online Bookstores That Offer Books for Less

Amazon.com – The largest bookstore on the Internet has been around for 15 years but they still excel at their original mission. Amazon.com often has the best prices to offer on most books, and they carry a wider range of books than most other online bookstores as well. Amazon.com offers free shipping for most items inside the US on orders over $25, but the best part is that they ship books worldwide (including India).

Half.com – If you’re looking to buy used books, eBay owned Half.com usually has the best prices. Books can be shipped anywhere inside the United States, though expedited shipping is not available on all books.  Unlike Amazon, Half.com won’t ship books to international locations. Anyone can resell their used or new books on Half.com, and these are listed in order of their condition.

eBay Books – An auction may not seem like the most typical way to purchase books online but it may sometimes be the cheapest. Also, if you are looking for an out of print or rare book, eBay may be the only place where you can find it.

eBay has a special page set up for finding books, and you can always search for a book by title, author, or ISBN. However, since all listings are entirely written by the sellers, it is often hard to find the exact title you are looking for. Some eBay sellers ship internationally, while others won’t; if you need a book shipped outside the US, you may directly ask the seller to know if they would be willing to do so.

Barnes And Noble – One of the oldest, largest, and best known bookstores in America, Barnes and Noble also has a sizable online bookstore. Although their prices are often higher than Amazon.com, they do offer a $25/year membership that will take between 10% and 40% off of the price of most items. Barnes and Noble offers free shipping on orders of $25 or more, and will also ship internationally.

Biblio.com – Biblio specializes in used books as well as rare and out-of-print books.  It can also be a great resource buy older editions of books (as they cost less) as well as international editions of textbooks that are produced for overseas markets and are therefore sold at a much lesser price. From their site:

Most international editions may bear a label that says something to the effect of “Not for sale in the U.S. or Canada”. This is because the publisher has printed the books to be sold overseas. There is nothing illegal, however, in purchasing international edition books from sellers overseas.

AbeBooks – Another online bookstore that carries many older and out-of-print collectible books is AbeBooks. They offer new and used books in most categories. Like Biblio, AbeBooks also sells international and review editions of textbooks, which are often much cheaper than the standard textbooks.

Book Depository – The reason why you may want to buy books from The Book Depository is because they offer “free worldwide delivery” (though their definition of “world” doesn’t include all countries).

2. Comparison Shopping for Books

To find the best deal on a book, or any item for that matter, it is often a good idea to compare prices across multiple stores. Fortunately, you don’t have to do this manually as there are some good comparison shopping engines that can fetch prices of books from multiple stores in a go.

Bing Shopping – Microsoft’s newly revamped Bing search engine is great for comparison shopping.  You can simply search for the ISBN or title of a book, and it will search across numerous online stores for the cheapest price. Bing will show you if the shipping if free or not, and even offers Cashback discounts on purchases from select retailers.

Google Books – If a book you wish to purchase is listed on Google Books, you can easily compare the price of the print version of that book  across multiple stores using Google Books. If the service is unable to fetch the price a title, it will at least display a list of online stores (and libraries) from where you can buy that book.

WeCompareBooks – Although it is primarily a textbook price comparison engine designed for college students, it can still help you find the cheapest price for most books in any category.  “We Compare Books” will show prices for used and new books, and also the shipping costs from multiple book stores.

PriceGrabber Books – PriceGrabber, a popular comparison shopping site, has a dedicated section for comparing the price of books as well as print magazines. You can enter your zip code to calculate the tax and exact shipping charges right in the comparison search results.

Book Butler – With Book Butler, you can compare the price (and availability) of a book across 101 online bookstores but the best part is that you can limit your searches to stores that only ship to your country and also see the price in your local currency. Book Butler currently supports US, Canada, South Africa and most European nations.

3. Coupon Sites for Online Bookstores

Now that you decided the store from where you want to purchase that book, how about using a discount coupon code at the checkout stage to further reduce the price? Here are some of the best coupon sites that can help in your quest for cheaper books:

RetailMeNot – Simply enter the name of the store or website where you are shopping from, and try out the coupons listed. The ones listed the top of the page are most likely to work, so try them first.

FatWallet – Fatwallet.com, a great site for discovering online deals, not only provides coupons codes for most online stores but has its own cashback system as well.

Coupon Cabin – The majority of the coupons listed on Coupon Cabin are verified and guaranteed to work, but they do list user-submitted coupons and promo code that may or may not work.

Coupon Mountain – You can use Coupon Mountain to find coupons for specific stores or even for specific products. In addition to user-submitted promo-codes, Coupon Mountain also has list of special coupons that offer free shipping.

4. Read Books Online with Digital Libraries

Millions of books are now available for free or subscription-based reading online through many different services. These can often save you much off the standard purchase price of the book if you simply want to read the title once.

4.1 Sites with free books

Google Books – This can be useful even if you already own a book, as you can use the power of Google search to find specific text in the book provided the book is listed in Google Books.

Project Gutenberg – Over 30,000 out-of-copyright books are available here that you may read online for free or download them in EPUB and read them across devices. If you are looking for a book that was originally printed over 75 years ago, you may well find that title here.

Your local library – If you have a membership at your local public library, be sure to check their website as some of them do offer digital books for online reading.

4.2 Subscription based eBook Libraries

Questia – Questia can be a very useful online resource for readers and researchers.  Over 70,000 books and millions of journals are available online for reading, and you can also print pages for free. All books /articles on Questia have been assigned categories and you can pay a $10 monthly subscription fee to read books in any one category, or go for a $19.95/month subscription for access to all books on the Questia site.

Safari Books – If you are looking for books related to computer and technology, Safari Books may be an ideal service for you.  You can read thousands of books online from Microsoft Press, O’Reilly Media, Wiley, Peachpit, Adobe Press and most other publishers in the tech space.  You also get 5 download tokens with your monthly subscription that will let you download individual chapters or whole books as PDFs for offline reading.

5. Rent Textbooks for College

College textbooks are expensive, and it can be difficult to resell them for a decent price as new editions often come out every year or two.

Renting textbooks for the length of the semester therefore enables you to spend less on the book without having to search multiple bookstores (for the best price) and you don’t have to worry about reselling your textbooks when the semester ends. Here are some great places from where you can rent textbooks:

Chegg.com – With Chegg, you can easily rent textbooks for a period of 60 days, a quarter, or a full semester. This saves you money as you only need to rent a book for for the length you need it. Shipping (both sides) is included in the rent though you will have to pay the original price of the book in case it gets lost or is damaged.

Chegg will ship textbooks only inside the United States. The good thing is that they’ll also plant a tree for every book you rent to showcase the environmental benefits of renting books, since less books are printed if more students use the same copy.

BookRenter.com – You can rent textbooks on BookRenter for periods ranging from 30 days to 125 days and the price also includes return shipping. If the book is majorly damaged or lost, you must pay the original purchase price for the book; if there is moderate damage, you must pay 35% of the list price of the book.  Like Chegg, BookRenter will only ship inside the United States.

5.1 Tips for buying college textbooks

1. College textbooks are often updated annually, so older editions are usually available much cheaper than the current edition.  Check with your university professor if an older edition of the book will work for your course.

2. Though you should always try online bookstores, some course materials including books and software may be cheaper at your college bookstore if your school has a special arrangement setup with the publisher.

3. When you are finished with a textbook, try selling it to recoup some of your costs. Other students in your college that will be taking the class may be interested in it, so advertise it around your school.  Otherwise try to sell it online at Half.com or Amazon.com.

4. You should consider purchasing an international edition of a textbook as they can be much cheaper than the standard US price even after international shipping. You can find international editions of textbooks on sites like Biblio, AbeBooks and eBay but just make sure that you search for the title and author of the book instead of the ISBN number, as ISBN is often different for international editions.

Related: Money saving tips for buying software online

How to Purchase Books Online for Less

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.

Speak your queries instead of typing them

Google Voice Search app is location aware so you don’t have to mention the name of your city or locality when using location specific queries like “nearest pizza restaurant or “medicine shops”.

The Google voice search app is integrated with Google Suggest but in addition to regular search queries, the voice app can also auto-suggest websites so you reach your favorites sites more quickly as you no longer have to type the full address of a domain.

In addition to Nokia S60 phones, Google Mobile App with Voice Search is available for BlackBerry, iPhone and Android based mobile devices.

The Google Voice Search application for Nokia is available for English as well as the Chinese Language. More details on the Google India blog and Google China blog.

Google Voice Search for your Nokia Phone

Originally published at Digital Inspiration by Amit Agarwal.