Author: Nacho Requena Molina

Earlier we told you all about IFTTT, so now it’s time for the second part of our guide: how IFTTT works. Have your paper and pencil at the ready – or save this post in your favorites, another nice option – and take a few minutes. Here comes the good stuff.

All about IFTTT

Read Part 1

How to create applets

As we mentioned in the first part of this guide, what’s important about IFTTT is its functions and applets, i.e., the linking mechanisms created between different services. Is it hard to do? Not at all: in fact, you can do it in a matter of seconds.

First of all, open an account with IFTTT. There are three ways to do this: with an exclusive username, logging in with your Google account or getting access through Facebook. You call the shots, of course. Once this is done, a welcome screen will pop up where you can choose three platforms you regularly use. We’ve opted for Twitter, Facebook and Instagram, the three most popular social networks in the world at the moment.

IFTTT Try IFTTT

Once you’ve chosen the networks, IFTTT will bring you back to a screen where you can choose the most recommended applets for these apps. For example, the first one that appears in our recommendations is great: “Tweet your Instagrams as native photos on Twitter.” With this applet, every image on the first social network will be published on the second as a full image and not a link (which is common). Click on it and simply toggle the Off button to On. No tricks here.

If you click on the top where it says search, you can look for all the applets that are already created by the community. This way, you can streamline your processes and also discover new applets that are very original. However, can you create a function from scratch? The answer is yes.

To do this, we have to go to creation mode, which is nothing more than adding /create to the end of the main URL (here you’ve got direct access). From here, the following screen will show up:

As you can see, everything is pretty intuitive. In the first section, we put the service where this will occur and the second where that will. So, if we wanted to recreate the previous example, we would only have to select Instagram for the first and Twitter for the second.

We should mention that every time you click on a specific social network, it will show you applets already associated with it. Returning to our example, when we first chose Instagram, it will take us directly to this function on a long list. This also happens with the second platform involved, though with more personalization options (you can add how the tweet looks, the link placement, etc.)

Once this is done, click create and don’t forget to switch the button to ON so it works perfectly. In fact, we encourage you to publish a test image on Instagram to see it post directly to Twitter as a native photo.

“You agree to the terms of use and…” Accept. As a general rule, when the “terms of use and conditions” show up, we click yes or accept. Very few of us stop to read every one of the terms, and the problem is that some of them may hold surprises.

In the specific case of apps, every time we give one of them access to our phone, we’re exposed, a lot. Camera, calendar, messages, photo gallery. The number of features that we allow apps to access is insane. And what if they’re spying on us for those so-called cookies?

In this guide, we’ll show you how to manage Android permissions to prevent apps from spying on you. Pay attention; it’s easier than it seems.

Step by step

Since Google updated the Android operating system to the Marshmallow version – this was a few years ago – the general trend has been the same: the user can see permissions granted within the apps. It was one of the most demanded requests from the community and Google didn’t hesitate to provide it (and didn’t take it out of later versions).

To see app permissions, just go to the gear icon of your smartphone, i.e., Settings and click Applications. Here, a list of all the programs you’ve installed on your cell phone will open, so it’s a simple matter of seeing those you want. Is Facebook accessing more data than you thought? Well, manually adjust the permissions.

Go to the app, and you’ll see Uninstall, Force stop, Storage, Data usage, and a long list of other options. However, the one we want is called “Permissions. If you click there, the system will reveal what features are intruding on your privacy.

As a general rule, it’s typical to make use of popular features such as camera, contacts, calendar, location, storage, etc. The button that appears on the right-hand side is what you need to enable or disable them. If it’s green, that means it has access; if it’s grey, it doesn’t. Easy peasy.

Remember that although many apps can spy on you this way (to give you similar searches or know your preferences when recommending sites), some need specific features to work. For example, if Google Maps doesn’t have access to your location, there’s little the software can do to take you to the place you’ve specified.

Use common sense when you go to disable permissions.

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Have you kept all your New Year’s resolutions so far? We hope that reading more books, whether physical or digital, is one of them. After all, there’s nothing better than immersing yourself in the pages of fascinating stories (fictional or real). If your library continues growing, you need a book manager.

In today’s Softonic post, we’ll show you how to organize your digital and physical books in quick-and-easy ways. With this, you’ll know which books you already have and avoid those famous repeats.

Calibre

This is by far the most popular app devoted to the literary world and everything in it. Calibre is a program available for Windows and Linux, as well as iOS for cell phones. The mechanism it uses is very basic: it lets you add all the books you want to buy or access from the library.

What’s so special about it? Well, it has all features related to adding: evaluating books once finished; adding notes if the book is loaned (or borrowed); tagging them by categories; or even using the most valuable feature of all: changing the format if you can’t read the ebook (our savior).

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Anobii

The next tool is designed for cell phones and is perhaps the best medium for keeping your books organized. It’s called Anobii.

Behind this name is an app with millions of readers connected to it. How is this possible? Well, there’s excellent interaction among profiles, and you can recommend books. For example, if you have a friend registered, you can see what he/she is reading at that very moment (or what he/she has recently finished).

Anobii also has a particularly fascinating feature: scanning barcodes. We’re not kidding; you can do this, and the book is automatically registered in the virtual catalog without needing to enter the info.

Anobii Get Anobii now

Goodreads

If Calibre is the most popular program and Anobii is one of the most recognized cell phone apps, now it’s time for the top literary website: Goodreads.

This platform is best known for its cataloging of books, whether digital or physical. Its database is huge, so you’re guaranteed to find everything from magazines to fanzines made by amateurs. It also has comics, manga, academic projects and a long list of other options.

It has excellent interaction among users, to the extent that it could be considered a literary social network rather than a book manager: you can make friends, send messages, comment on your friends’ book lists, leave reviews and many other features.

The only downside is that the platform is only in English. But it’s so intuitive that non-English readers won’t have any trouble getting the hang of it.

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