The Princess Geek

Would you like to listen to free audio books on your iPhone or iPod Touch?  Although there are more elegant solutions, one of the easiest and fastest way to add good classic audio books for free is to add  books as a podcast. I’ll explain how to do that in the following steps.

Step 1 – First, go to http://www.librivox.org. This site has many free audiobooks. They won’t be recent books, but are older books that are in the public domain

. When you get to that site, you will see a green box with the words LibriVox Catalog. Click in that box.

Step 2 – You will be take to a search screen that allows you to search by Author and Title. They also have links to browse the catalog, view the most recent titles added, or to go to a more advanced search for more search criteria. Find a title that you would like to hear and click it.

Step 3 – You will now see the detail screen for that audiobook. After the audiobook description, you will see some bullet points of information. In the last one, you should see the words “Subscribe in iTunes”. Click on those words.

Step 4 – Now open iTunes. Select Podcast on the left side of iTunes. You should see a list of podcasts to which you have subscribed. Find the one titled LibriVox, followed by your audiobook name. Click the arrow next to it and you should see a list of chapters (if the book has multiple chapters).

iTunes should automatically download the first chapter. If you would like it to download multiple chapters, press the “Get” button next to the chapter name. You can also tell it to download all of the chapters by clicking the “Get all” button next to the book name.

Step 5 – Connect your iPhone to your computer. Select your iPhone under devices on the left side of iTunes. Click on the Podcast tab in iTunes. Make sure that the box is checked next to Sync and select the number of episodes that you would like to have moved to your iPhone.

You should select either “All” or choose a certain number of episodes. If you select “Unplayed”, it might remove from your iPhone any chapters that you have started listening to, but not finished.

If the button marked “Selected Podcasts” is selected, make sure that your LibriVox book is checked in the list of podcasts below that selection.

Step 6 – Sync your iPhone and then go to your iPod application. Select the podcast button and the chapters of your audiobook will be there for you to enjoy! You might have to select More in the bottom right of the iPod app if you don’t see the Podcast option.
Tips: LibriVox.org often has multiple versions of audiobooks by different readers. When viewing the lists of books, you can select one and then choose one of the chapters to hear a sample of the reading.

If you’d like to see a picture associated with your podcast while listening, you can go to the Podcast list in iTunes. Right click on the audiobook title and select “Get Info”. Select the Artwork tab and paste in an appropriate picture for that book. I like to use images.google.com to find pictures.

The iPhone is a terrific device, made even more amazing by the huge number of applications available in the iTunes App Store. It can, however, be very difficult to find a particular type of application for which you might need or want. Even more difficult is finding the BEST applications of a specific type.

The iPhone App Store in iTunes will allow you to search for certain type of applications. For example, you can search for Card Games, but the results can appear quite random and often offer no way to sort your results. With some searches in popular categories, like games, you can end up with more than a hundred pages of applications with limited ways to sort.

There are so many thousands of applications in the App Store that we all need a way to find really great applications! Here are some steps that can help you find the best application to suit your need!

Step 1: Point your browser to www.yappler.com. There will be a search box titled “Search for Apps:”. Enter your search criteria and press the search button. For example, you could enter “card games” in the search field. Press the search button.

Step 2: The screen that you see will include all of the iTunes applications that meet your search criteria. They will be sorted by “Best Match”. Go to the “Sort by” fiend and choose “Rating” in the drop down box. This will sort the applications on a scale of 1 to 5 in how actual owners of the applications rate the app. Click the search button again to find the best apps within your search criteria.

Step 3: Click on the names of the top applications returned by your search where you can get more information about the app, read more reviews and sometimes see video of the app not available anywhere else. This will all help you to make a better buying decision!

Step 4: When you are ready to purchase, you can click on the “Download in iTunes” button. iTunes will open, showing the app that you selected, ready for your purchase.

Tips:  In the “Minimum Rating” field, you can eliminate the lower rated applications by choosing 3 or 4.  You can also limit your search results based on the price.  Yappler also allows you to view videos of some applications to allow you to make a more educated decision before purchasing an application.  Yappler also lets you save favorite apps to return to make your buying decision later.  Very useful…lots of times I’ve seen an app go by, but didn’t remember the name when I wanted to find it later.

I have no affiliation to Yappler.  I just find it an incredibly useful site for finding new apps.

With the H1N1 flu continuing to make headlines all over the world, it is useful to track the outbreaks.  There are several good maps available to help people visualize the spread of this disease.  Many areas have scaled back routine testing for the H1N1 virus, making the recent confirmed case numbers lower than actual, but the fatalities should continue to be reported.

One map available is the Rhiza FluTracker (pictured above).  It uses data compiled by Dr. Henry Niman, a biomedical researcher in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, using technology provided by Rhiza Labs and Google.  The map is interactive and allows the user to drill down to local levels.  The legend helps locate suspected and confirmed cases and identifies fatal cases.

The New England Journal of Medicine’s HealthMap also provides an interactive map which allows the user to check boxes to bring up desired types of cases on the map, including suspected, confirmed, ruled out, and fatal cases.

Please visit http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu/ for current CDC statements on the H1N1 virus.  The site has several easy-to-use maps that allow the reader to see the current situation in particular areas.  The World Health Organization (WHO) at http://www.who.int/csr/don/en/ provides a status of the progress of the disease from a gloabal perspective.

One of the lesser mentioned features of the new MMS functionality recently activated by AT&T on the iPhone is the ability to send Voice Memos.  As the attached image shows, when you click on the “Share” button, you are given the option to choose to send memo via MMS.

This may not seem like a big deal, but it adds a bit of personality and emotion to a message that wouldn’t be possible with a simple text message.  It might be a much faster way to send message, rather than typing one out.  Nice feature!

It was a very pleasant surprise to receive the message yesterday that AT&T had implemented Media Share which allows users to stream Pictures and Music from your computer to TV.  I had never used Windows Media Player on Vista and couldn’t immediately see the settings to enable media sharing within it.  The U-verse Media Sharing window pointed me to  http://helpme.att.com/mediashare which links to a Media Share Wizard.

The Media Share Wizard was very easy to use and made the Windows Media Player and  network setting changes necessary for U-verse Media Share to see my picture and music folders.  I also attempted this on my XP computer and had no luck.  I still have not been able to get it working.

Back on TV, the Media Share function is quite responsive and easy to use.  Of course, since Windows Media Player does not play well with iTunes I could not see all of my music.  However, there was enough to give me some great choices of music to play while watching a slideshow my family vacation pictures.  Easier than ever to bore company!  LOL  When a song changes, the song information is displayed on the screen for a few seconds.  The DVR remote can be used to pause the slideshow, back up to previous pictures, increase or slow down the show, etc

The new update also allows you to bring up a News, Sports, or Kids Multiview which allows you to see 4 screens at a time.  I think there would be times that it would be useful, but would like to see more choices, like movies or documentaries.  That might be tough because the channels shown would have to be dynamic.

The TV & News Shows (not a good name) helps you find new programming by seeing lists of Nominated Shows New Fall Shows, Primetime Emmy Shows, Teen Choice and TCA (critic association) Awards.  You can also view Bios and Vote for Your Favorite Shows.

All in all, this is a great U-verse update.   As a few recommendations, I’d like to be able to randomly show all pictures in all of the folders instead of having to select a folder.  Same with the music…I want to be able to choose to shuffle all of the available music.   It would also be nice to save a slideshow/music combination to be able to bring it up quickly when a new victim shows up at the door!  This update really shows how great fully IP TV can be.  I just hope they quickly release the  iPhone app to allow us to use the iPhone as a U-verse remote and to allow us to watch recorded shows on the phone!