Sony has a deal with Google that lets users of the Sony Reader get all kinds of public domain e-books for free. But what about the Kindle users? Not to worry. Thanks goes out to Buzz Out Loud listener Dave for sending along a tip for downloading free e-books right to the Kindle, no computer necessary. That's something that the Sony Reader can't do. Here's how to do it.

First, make sure your Kindle's on and the wireless connection is active.

Press menu and select experimental.

Then select basic Web.

Press menu again and select enter URL.

Then enter www.feedbooks.com/mobile.

Now you can browse through books by title or author. It's a little tedious using the navstick to move down and select the titles.

Once you've found the book and clicked, it will ask if you wish to download it. Say OK.

It downloads. And once it is finished--press Home and the book will show up on your list of books. No charge! The full public domain book is there, absolutely legal.

Feedbooks.com also makes a Kindle Guide that you can download and use instead of the browser. When you download the guide, it shows up in your list of books on the home page. And then you can open that guide and browse for books from there.

The thing is, I could not make it work on my Kindle 2, and even when we did get it working on a co-workers Kindle, it kicks you out to the browser to make downloads anyway. The browser-version worked just fine, so you might just want to go with that. And keep in mind any books you get from feedbooks won't sync to other Kindles or to the iPhone application.

Go to Tools and select Manage Add-ons.

Then select Search providers.

You'll see Microsoft Live Search and whichever options you chose during install. If that was Live Search, that's all you'll see.

Now click Find more search providers.

You'll get a list of various options. Press "Add to Internet Explorer" to add the providers you want. Each time you'll get the option to make it a default search provider, and include terms in the suggested search terms. If you don't see your favorite. Scroll to the bottom and click "Create your own search provider."

Now open a new tab, and enter the URL of the search engine you want to include. Search for the word TEST in all capital letters. Copy the URL of the search results page by highlighting it and pressing the "Windows" and "C" keys at the same time.

Now click back to the tab that says "crate your own search provider." Use the "Windows" and "V" keys to paste the URL you copied earlier into the box marked URL. Then give the search engine a name. And press Install Search Provider. If you want to make this your default search provider, check that box. Then press Add one more time.

Now when you type a keyword in the search box, icons for all the search engines you selected will show up. Just click on one with your mouse to search the keywords you typed in that engine.

Like most Web browsers, Internet Explorer 8 has add-ons. But sometimes you may want to get rid of them, even if just temporarily. IE 8 has made it easier to disable and enable your add-ons. Here's how to do it.

Let's say you have the Google Toolbar running in IE 8. You should see an X to the left of the toolbar. It's the familiar X that usually means you can close something. In this case, you'd be right to guess that. Click that X and you'll disable the toolbar.

Now that can be dangerous if other add-ons rely on the one you're disabling. So IE 8 gives you a lovely list of any dependent add-ons and the option to disable them at the same time. Once you've made your selections, press the Disable button and the add-on will disappear.

What if you want it back?

Go to tools and select Manage Add-ons.

Select the type of add-on, in our example from above, it would be a toolbar.

Scroll down until you find your toolbar. And press enable.

IE 8 will suggest re-enabling any related add-ons you disabled earlier. Press enable again, then press close.

In the case of the toolbar, even though I had enabled it, it still didn't show up. I had to go to View, select toolbars and select the Google Toolbar to make it viewable.

If you want to browse through all the add-ons available for IE 8, visit www.ieaddons.com.

Internet Explorer 8 has a new feature that lets you get a lot done just by highlighting words on a Web page. Here's how to take advantage.

Highlight any text on a Web page by holding down the left mouse button and dragging your cursor over the words. You'll see a blue box with an arrow. Click on that and you'll get a list of options.

If, for instance, you're highlighting an address, you can choose to map it on Google Maps, pinpointing the location. It can also do regular Web searches.

Let's say you're reading a column and you want to know more about the author. Highlight the author's name and choose search. You'll get search results for that person. You can also translate a phrase, e-mail certain text, and even blog with Windows live.

These options are called Accelerators by Microsoft. If you want to customize your options, highlight text, click the blue box, then select all accelerators--that gives you a bunch more options, including the capability to manage accelerators. Select that option. From there, you can disable or remove accelerators. Or click Find more accelerators and you'll go to a page where you can add many more.

One great thing about a laptop is putting it to sleep. Close the lid, pack it in your bag, and you're saved the trouble of rebooting it later. But if it doesn't go to sleep properly, it can heat up in your bag, burn your hand, or even damage its hard drive. Here's how to troubleshoot MacBook sleep problems.

The first step is to make sure you don't have an application running that's accessing the hard drive. If you're downloading a file over Wi-Fi, that can interrupt sleep. Playing music from iTunes or playing a DVD also can cause sleep-interruption. Close programs to eliminate them as a possible culprit.

Bluetooth devices shouldn't wake a sleeping computer, but some Bluetooth mice do. So make sure you don't have any on. Then go to system preferences, click Bluetooth, click settings, and deselect "Allow Bluetooth devices to wake this computer."

Another issue could be the spotlight function. It's a handy way to search the hard drive, but if it's indexing your hard drive, the Mac won't go to sleep.

If you're sharing an Internet connection, a file, or even an iTunes library, that can stop sleep from working. Disconnect any users or turn off sharing to see if this is the problem.

Another issue is external devices. If you have any USB or FireWire peripherals connected, such as an external hard drive, it may cause problems. Disconnect them, properly, one at a time to make sure they're not the problem.

And finally, PCI cards. This was my problem. Expansion cards, like my EVDO card, may have drivers that prevent the computer from removing power from them, thus stopping sleep. You'll need to look for updated drivers, or just remove the cards in question.

If none of this works, you may need to reset the system's power management. Look for our Insider Secret on MacBook Power problems for more on that.

Go to addons.mozilla.org and search for SimpleSearch. While it's still in the experimental stage, you'll have to log in to use it.

After you've installed the add-on, go to a page on the Web and highlight a word. Right click and highlight the search option.

Choose the search engine you want.

And you'll be taken to that search.

The back button. The backspace key or Delete button on a Mac, sends you back one page.

Need to type in a URL? F6 highlights the address bar. No more fumbling around with the mouse.

Need to search for a word on a page? Control-F in Windows or Command-F in a Mac opens the Find function.

Maybe you want to copy all the text on a page. CTRL-A in Windows or Command-A in Mac highlights everything for your cutting and pasting pleasure.

Want to quickly close a Tab? Control-W in Windows and yes Command-W in Mac closes it quick.

Of course, opening a new tab is as easy as Ctrl-T in Windows or Command-T in Mac.

And a new Window? You can almost guess it? Control-N in Windows Command-N in Mac.

Flip through all the tabs easily With CTRL-Tab. Or CTRL-Shift-Tab to go the other direction.

Can't remember that page you visited earlier today? Control Shift-H in Windows or Command-Shift-H in Mac pops-up your history.

And if for some reason you need to get to the bottom of a page fast, press End. To get back to the top, press Home.

There's certainly more shortcuts out there, so if you like these, keep your eyes sharp for other Firefox keyboard shortcuts.

Recently, I accidentally grabbed my wife's iPhone and plugged it into my MacBook Pro. No big deal, right? Nothing bad happened. But after that: iTunes refused to sync my calendar, contacts, e-mail, or bookmarks.

I found a fix on the Apple discussion boards suggested by StephenDunn2. Be warned, Apple specifically states you should NOT mess with the SyncServices folder. As if it were a swarm of bees, they say you should avoid it.

OK, I get the picture, but at a certain point, if you're frustration surpasses your bee fear, you may want to try this. It worked for me. Here's what I did.

1. Quit iTunes and, if necessary, Mail, iCal, and Address book.

2. In your home directory, find Library, then Application Support, then SyncServices.

3. I moved the SyncServices to my desktop as a safety.

4. Then restart iTunes.

5. Go to the info tab and reset your sync preferences.

6. Then sync.

If this works, you should no longer get the sync warnings, and you can delete the old folder off your desktop.

Remember, this worked for me and plenty of people on the boards, but not every single one. And Apple certainly doesn't like it, so there's no guarantee.

Ever needed to text message, oh I don't know, grandma, but she doesn't have a cell phone? Watch our video on how this works, then refer back to this article for the steps.

This is actually just to help you discover a feature you probably didn't know you had. Sprint and Verizon allow this on their networks in the U.S.; check with your local carrier to see if they also permit it. If they do, it's simple.

1. Write your text message and include the landline phone number in the to: line. The text message will be sent to a special service which converts it into a voice mail, using text-to-speech technology.
2. You'll get a confirmation message telling you how much the message will cost to send, and asking you to text message a one-time confirmation for that number.
3. From then on, any text to that number will be automatically sent.
4. On the other end, the person picks up the phone and hears your message read out to them. (This is the part you have to watch the video to really get.)
5. They can even choose to record a reply back.
6. Then you'll get a text message confirming they got the message and letting you know how to access their reply. Thanks to Stephanie for sending us an e-mail, tipping us off to this.