I’ve just been given an Amazon Kindle for my birthday. I’m a student with a pretty tight budget. Is there anywhere I can get free books from?

Many Kindle and Nook owners will agree: having an e-reader makes you read more. The problem is that e-books aren’t cheap–in fact, they don’t cost much less than their hard-copy counterparts.

Luckily, the Internet is pretty good at making otherwise expensive things free. We scoured the Web and found a few different options for finding free e-books for your Kindle or Nook.

1. Search for “0.00.” This is the oldest trick in the book (pun intended). Simply go to the Barnes and Noble bookstore or the Kindle bookstoreand search for “0.00.” Your results will yield dozens of free books available for direct download to your device.

2. Swap books with strangers. Some books are equipped with a “lending” feature. Amazon and B&N probably intended that lending would be used among friends, but clever Web sites like BookLending.com and eBookFling.comlet users list their e-books and swap inventory with anyone else. You’ll find anything from books on beetles to ones on riding helmets.

3. Check out e-books from the library. Ancient as they may seem, libraries are on trend and offer e-books using a service called Overdrive. Here’s how to use the service (although the tutorial is intended for Nook owners, the same process applies to Kindle).

4. Find free books online. Many books, especially classics like “Frankenstein,” are available under public domain licensing and have been converted into e-books for your reading pleasure. Other license-free titles available include those published under a Creative Commons license.

There are over 1,000,000 titles available for free, and you can find them in these places:

• Many Books
• Open Library
• Project Gutenberg
• Google Books

Once you’ve found a book from any of the above sources, download them in MOBI format for Kindle or EPUB for Nook, and manually transfer them from your desktop to your device (connected via USB).

I have USB cable that has a cylinder at the end. I’m wondering what it’s for and if my other USB cables should have one too?

That cylinder is a ferrite core (sometimes called a choke) and is designed to reduce electromagnetic interference. You can find some that are moulded right into the cable and others that can clip on. If you really want to get more, you can buy some from Maplin and add to your cables.

Personally I wouldn’t bother getting extra ones unless you actually notice that you are getting interference or cross talk across your cables. If you see interference patterns on your screen, or notice a drop in performance; these may be one way to address the problem, but if everything is working fine you probably don’t need them. They’re as cheap as discount dental supplies, but the reality is that in most cases they won’t make much of a difference.

I just got my hands on a cheap HP Touchpad, but I can’t find the Kindle app for it in the application catalog. Any ideas?

Hi there, I had exactly the same problem, as it seems the UK app catalog is a subset of what our cousins in the U.S. have on offer. I don’t know if there’s any way to address it directly but I’ve found a workaround that will let you install the Kindle app directly.

Here’s what you need to do:

1. First grab the kindle app
2. Next you need to grab a copy of WebOS Quick install from here
3. Enable dev mode on your touchpad by going to the ‘Just Type’ Search bar and typing in this: upupdowndownleftrightleftrightbastart 
4.  Launch WebOS Quick Install and make sure you install the ‘novacom’ drivers (this lets quickinstall talk to your TouchPad
5. Click the + button and navigate to where you downloaded the kindle app, select and click ok
6. Click install!

There you have it, Kindle on your Touchpad. There are a few steps there, but it’s easier than designing a Tubing Bender from scratch. Now, go ahead and get reading!

I have a USB memory key and it doesn’t say how big it is. Is there any way of finding out how much storage it has?

If you look at the USB drive in Windows Explorer you can tell the capacity of the disk by right-clicking on it and choosing Properties.

I bet that was simpler than you expected It’s always good to know how big a memory key is as the last thing you need is expect to have some space and not find any. A USB key can only take so many adverts for Technical Recruiting Jobs, if you don’t delete any the old ones, you’re not going to find space for the new ones!

My 5-year old son has been playing with my Blackberry and has messed around with some of my settings. I’d like to set it back to how it was when I got it; is there like a factory reset or something similar on the Blackberry?

I can sympathise with you, five year old do like to fiddle with things; I know that my boy will try any button/setting he can find, just to see what it does. Not the first time I’ve come back to find my home page reset to something random, like Easter gifts from Personal Creations or this Bluetooth keyboard for iPad. Anyway, I digress, here’s the information you’re after.

To reset Blackberry Curve (probably other BB models as well), you have to follow these steps:

• Go to Options > Security Options > General Settings.
• Then click the Menu Key, it will show a list of options.
• Select Wipe Handheld and follow the instructions.

This should take the phone back it’s default settings. Just keep in mind that you should back up anything valuable you may want to restore after the Wipe is done. Otherwise it’s lost forever!

My friend has an Android phone and one of the apps he uses is a Navigation one by Google. Can I use my laptop for something similar?

Oh, this question takes me back. Before Sat Navs became so popular, I had experimented with a USB GPS device and Microsoft Autoroute. Anyway, that gives you an indication of the kit you need. USB GBS devices are relatively inexpensive, I had picked mine up from eBay. There are a number of navigation applications out there, but I suspect Microsoft Autoroute will do the job for you just fine.

Just keep in mind that your laptop has a finite battery life and unless you have a car charger, the navigation system won’t get you very far. Sometimes I’ve best to take the colon cleanser approach and just go for a dedicated GPS unit. It will make your life much much easier!

I sometimes take photos with my phone and would like to edit them before I send them to someone. Is there a good tool to do this?

There are a couple of good packages out there; some are specific to a type of phone and some are available on most phones. If you have an iPhone, iPad or Android phone, the one I would recommend is called Adobe Photoshop Express. And you don’t even need to wait for Cyber Monday to get a good deal on it, it’s actually free!

Using the editing tools which the application has to offer, you can perform quite a number of editing tasks. For instance if your hand shook while shooting a photograph, you can quickly straighten it up using the editing tools of the Photoshop application. Other editing features include cropping, rotating, and flipping photographs. Borders and photo frames can also be added.

You also apply a number of special effects you can apply to the pictures you open with the application. For example, with the feature named Soft Focus, you can give our pictures an extra glow. You can use the Sketch effect to give our images a more artistic touch. You can aeven change the colours of your pictures.

Check it out if you get the chance.

I love my iPod, it goes everywhere I go, but the one thing I hate is the tangled headphone wires I have to keep sorting out. I have a Bluetooth headset, but I haven’t figured out how to activate Bluetooth on the iPod. Any ideas?

The reason you can’t activate Bluetooth on your iPod is that it just doesn’t have Bluetooth capability. I know that most devices nowadays have this sort of functionality build in, but iPod’s just don’t. Having said that, just because it doesn’t have it built in doesn’t mean you can’t add it on.

This is where the Motorola D650 Bluetooth adapter for Ipod comes in. It’s a small device that connects to your iPod via the bottom connector and gives it the capability to talk to Bluetooth devices just like your headphones.It’s easy to use and doesn’t require any batteries or a power connection. It just grabs its juice from your iPod so literally all you have to do is plug it in and you can listen to your music collection anywhere you like. It’s on sale from Buy.com for under $18.00, so it’s not particularly expensive.

Once you have the Bluetooth connection you can connect to a variety of devices, your Bluetooth headset, even a Bluetooth connection in your car so you can listen to your songs while you drive. I think this just fits the bill for you!

I’ve got a new Smartphone with all the bells and whistles you can get. One of the things I should be able to do is to transfer photos by Bluetooth, but although I can activate this on my phone, I can’t seem to find the option on my computer. How do I turn my Bluetooth on?

I’m afraid this question is a bit hard to answer without having more specific information on your computer. First of all you need to make sure that your Bluetooth is activated. Soe laptops have an option in their BIOS settings to turn this off and on and if it’s not activated then Windows won’t know that the laptop has this capability. If this is activated, check your Device Manager in Windows to make sure Windows has the right drivers for the device as without these your Bluetooth won’t work.

Some laptops just don’t have the capability, so the first thing you need to do is make sure you have a Bluetooth device that you can use. You can buy these quite cheaply; one such device is the Kensington Bluetooth USB Micro Adapter which is currently on sale from Buy.com at around $12.00 The great thing about it is that it’s really tiny and an fit into a USB port without taking up too much space (see image on the right). Once it’s in, Windows should recognise it and automatically install the correct drivers for you. Enjoy!

I give a lot of PowerPoint presentation, but find that I always have to hand around my laptop so I can move from one slide to the next. I’ve recently started running around with a wireless mouse in my hand, but it just doesn’t feel right. Is there a better way to control my presentation?

I have been known to use the wireless mouse trick from time to time, but always get confused which button to press to advance the slide. What I can suggest is a purpose-built device, the Kensington K33374 Device Remote Control.

It consists of a small device that sits in the palm of your hand and gives you the ability to control your presentation from anywhere in the room. It’s a radio device as opposed to an infrared one, so doesn’t require line-of-sight between the device and the receiver. The receiver is a tiny device that plugs into your notebook’s USB port, but it stores away in the pointer itself when not in use. The Remote Control also has a built in laser pointer for pointing at things on the screen, again from across the room. It really is all you need to deliver an effective presentation. The device is on sale from Buy.com and you can get it for under $20 if you use the rebate. Shipping is free!