How To Open PDF files In iBooks (Free e-book included)

What's not to love about the new iPhone 4? It can call & text (no-brainer), connect to the net via 3G or WiFi, Video Call via Face Time & Yahoo Messenger, play music & videos, and run a multitude of applications, among other features. Oh wait, there's one more thing, the iPhone 4 also has an e-book reader, aptly named "iBooks" (iBooks is also available on iPhone 3G/3GS, iPod touch 2G/3G/4G, and iPad).

I love iBooks, not because I can store tons of e-books on my iPhone, but because I can download PDF files or e-books in PDF format from the net, and open them in iBooks. Let me show you how. In this demo, I am going to do the following steps:

1. Open Safari from iPhone
2. Input the following link in Safari's address bar: http://bit.ly/aFZ3GJ
3. This will download Brother Bo Sanchez' free e-book entitled "My Maid Invests in the Stock Market... And Why You Should, Too!"
4. Click Open in iBooks (see screenshot 1)
5. iBooks will launch and should display e-books 
6. Select My Maid Invests in the Stock Market... And Why You Should, Too!

Click Open in iBooks

E-book is now displayed in the iBooks library

Read pdf from iBooks

Congratulations, you have successfully added a PDF file to your iBooks library. If you already know how to this, well, at least you got a free e-book, right? Get e-books by Bo Sanchez and lots more here. Enjoy this free e-book and let me know your thoughts about it. I'll be sharing mine in my next article.

That's all for now. If you liked this post and want to learn more techie and financial stuff, please subscribe to Richardson Consulting. Thanks!

3G Internet Connection Sharing Over WiFi On Windows XP

I am going to share with you today a step by step procedure on how to share your 3G internet connection over WiFi using the Internet Connection Sharing feature on Windows XP SP2.

Hardware Requirements:

• Laptop or Desktop with WiFi card. Most laptops and netbooks already have WiFi built-in. This PC will act as the host PC that will share its 3G internet connection.
• 3G modem connected on your PC's USB port. For this article, I used Huawei E220 on Sun Broadband Wireless.
• Another laptop, WiFi-enabled desktop, or any other wifi-enabled device such as the iPhone, PSP, or iPod touch. In my previous experiments, my MacBook was able to successfully connect to my honey's ad hoc network.

Now that you have the hardware ready, it's time to get your hands dirty (well, not really. It is as easy as 1-2-3):

1. Enable Internet Connection Sharing. To do that, go to Network Connections and locate your 3G internet connection's dialer. Right click and select properties. From the properties window, select the Advanced tab. Tick the check box for to enable Internet Connection Sharing. Select Wireless Network Connection to enable sharing via WiFi.
2. Create a wireless computer-to-computer network (also known as ad-hoc network). At the taskbar, right click on your the Wireless Network Connection icon. A window opens to let you choose a wireless network. On the left side of the window, click on the "Change advanced settings" link. You will be directed to the Wireless Network Connection Properties window. On this window, click the Wireless Network tab. Click the Add button to create a new wireless network. Make sure you tick the check box at the lower left side of the window to make your new wireless network an ad hoc (computer-to-computer) network. Adding network security protocols are optional but recommended.
3. And that's it! Now go get another PC, Mac, PSP, iPhone, iPod touch, or whatever, and connect to the new ad hoc network you just created. On Windows XP, you'll know you have successfully connected when you see something like this: [screenshot to follow]

There you have it. Everytime you connect to your Smart Bro, Globe Broadband Tattoo (formerly Globe Visibility), or Sun Broadband Wireless, any device that accesses your ad hoc network will have access to the internet as well. Happy Internet Sharing! :)

Sun Broadband Wireless Internet Sharing

It has been two months since I subscribed to Sun Cellular's wireless internet service that is weirdly named "Sun Broadband Wireless". I think it's weird because broadband was mentioned before wireless. And weirder because it is barely able to provide "broadband" service. But that's not the point. Now let's assume that you have Sun Broadband Wireless, and you want to share your internet connection, how do you do that? Well, you came to the right place. Because that's exactly what I'm going to write about. In fact, I am writing this post via a computer to computer wifi connection. I'm using a MacBook while the host (the computer connected to SBW) runs on Windows XP SP2. As promised, here's a list of internet sharing options for your Sun Broadband Wireless: [cbmage]Affiliate Marketing[/cbmage]

1. On a Mac, use AirPort Internet Sharing. Tested to be working with wifi enabled gadgets such as PSP, iPhone 3G, iPod touch, HTC touch. COST: zero. CONS: shortened battery life for Mac. Windows-based laptop cannot connect.
2. On Windows XP, enable Internet Connection Sharing on your SBW connection. Create an ad-hoc (computer-to-computer) wifi network. This is the current setup at home right now since the PCs can't connect to my Mac. Tested with 5 concurrent users. 1 Vista, 3 XP, 1 MacBook. I have yet to test if the wifi enabled gadgets are able to leech from the host's internet connection. COST: zero. CONS: shortened battery life for host PC
3. Use a 3G Mobile Router. Here's a sample. However, this router is very costly. At Villman, it costs Php8,988.

There you have it. Let me know what works for you or if I left out other internet sharing options. Thanks! :)