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As you know, we rely on Shareit as on our primary e-commerce partner. It's the most secure and reliable e-commerce platform that provides a variety of payment and delivery options and guarantees a high quality of service. But it has very strict anti fraud policy, and that's why sometimes our buyers have problems when ordering on Shareit. So, we decided to add a less strict payment option and partnered with Plimus. It offers a safe, secure and flexible buying experience, delivering comfortable access to the best products and services on the Web.

Plimus works with the world's major credit card companies and is checked daily by McAfee Corporation to ensure that they are 100% Hacker Safe. Besides it supports additional online paying methods like PayPal, Google Checkout, Bank Transfer, Wire Order, E-Check, or using your credit card to order via phone or fax.

So, if you have any problem with ordering our ebook database software on Shareit, please use this link to place a secure order on our Plimus online store.

As Windows software developers we are looking forward to the Windows 7 release on October 22. And we have already prepared for this event. Today we have finished our tests for our e-book manager compatibility with the new operation system. The tested version was current Alfa Ebooks Manager 0.7.5. As it works on top of .Net Framework (3.5 or higher), we almost had no problem with its adoption to Windows 7. Besides, Windows 7 by default contains .Net Framework 3.5, so our ebook software will work on most computers without the need to update the platform (the problem that we had with Win XP).

So, all book collectors, that use Alfa Ebooks Manager, shouldn't worry about the OS upgrade. Even, we were happy to find out that Alfa Ebooks Manager works faster on Windows 7 and can manage the larger ebook databases. Besides, Windows 7 gives us new opportunities to implement new features in the ebook software, like interface skins, more powerful ebook scan and more...

Today we have released a new version of Alfa Ebooks Manager 0.7.5. Here are the most interesting updates in the software:

Favorites

Of course any book lover has favorite books that should be stored separately. Until now you were able to create book ratings and access the best books by sorting the whole e-library using the Rating option. But, it's not suitable in some cases. Now we added the Favorites section, that allows to display these ebooks that you can manually select. Unlike the Selection feature, Favorites tool doesn't provide group operations, because you probably don't have a hundred of favorite books. To add a book to Favorites just make a right click on it and select "Add to Favorites" in the context menu. To remove book from the Favorites - click on "Remove from Favorites" in the right-click menu.

GhostScript integration for viewing PDF ebooks in 3D

As you know, Alfa Ebooks Manager always used Adobe Acrobat Pro to render PDF ebooks, so that you could view them in 3D space. But as this software is quite expensive and some users can't afford it, we decided to provide another option - GhostScript. It's a free interpreter for PDF files. To install GhostScript, open Tools->Options menu, PDF programs tab. There you will find a link to the setup file and instructions of how to complete the installation. Of course, you need to select the GhostScript radio-button there.

Google Books Integration

Google Books is the most popular book e-library on the Web. And you probably know that it allows to add books to a personal library. No you can import and export books between your Google Library and Alfa Ebooks Manager. To import the book list from Google Books save it as XML file on your computer. Then open File -> Import -> Google Library and select this XML file. Then load book list and add selected books to the database. To export books to Google Library open File -> Export -> Text File and leave only ISBN field in the template, so you'll get a list of ISBNs that is needed to import in Google Library.

3D Wall

As you probably noticed, that we pay much attention to the appearance of your e-Library, so that you could be proud of it when showing it to your friends or co-workers. Today we are happy to introduce you the Virtual 3D-Wall View. The best way to understand what is it - is to give it a try. You can turn it on by clicking on the Wall View icon in the View toolbar. To make this view default - open Tools->Options->General and select "Wall" in the "Default view" drop-down list.

Online ISBN validation

When scanning ebook files on your computer, Alfa Ebooks Manager tries to retrieve ebook ISBN from the file body. Of course, there is no standard, that defines exact ISBN position in the ebook file. That is why sometimes ISBN can be corrupted. Now you have an option to check if the given ISBN is valid using isbndb.com

Amazon - is the most popular online book store among Alfa Ebooks Manager users. With the help of Amazon search plugin we are able to retrieve book data (title, ISBN, description, covers, etc.) and save it to the ebook database software. That is why most of us should pay attention to the upcoming changes in Amazon API.

Since August 15, 2009 all calls to Amazon API will require authentication. But the Amazon plugin that was distributed in our free Alfa Ebooks Manager (0.1-0.6) and paid version Alfa Ebooks Manager 0.7 is sending requests with our AWS Access Key ID without being signed. These calls to Amazon API will not be processed after August 15, 2009.

That's why we have released a new version of Amazon plugin, that is available for free in the Plugins section of our website. Please, download it and copy Amazon.dll file to Search_dll folder (that is located in the software directory) and Microsoft.Web.Services3.dll file to the software root folder.

Our latest version, Alfa Ebooks Manager 0.7.5 that will be available in few days, will already contain the new plugin.

As you know, our ebook collection software can retrieve book data from the Internet. This feature is implemented in form of integration plugins. As of today, Alfa Ebooks Manager contains 8 plugins for most popular online book libraries in the world (Amazon, Google Books, etc). We constantly receive a lot of requests to integrate the ebook software with other book information sources and develop new plugins that are requested more often. But we understand that this is not enough to keep all our customers happy.

So, we decided to offer a new service of custom plugin development. If you have a favorite site and want to retrieve book information from there, please contact support@alfaebooks.com and provide us the book site url. If your book site meets our requirements, we'll send you a payment link and the preliminary estimate of how soon we can deliver you the custom plugin.

We don't add this custom plugin development service to our online store and neither set a standard price for a custom plugin, because first we need to check each site individually and evaluate the possibility and complexity of the data retrieval. But we promise that the pricing will be affordable for all our users.

Today we are happy to announce that the brand new version of Alfa Ebooks Manager 0.7 has arrived. Yes, its not free anymore, but you will forget about this when you give it a try. We totally redesigned the software interface. Now you will be really able to impress your friends when showing them your e-Library. You can select the e-Library layout and color scheme that better fits your style.

The most outstanding new feature is 3D book view. Just imagine tha you have a real book on your computer screen. It has realistic size, back and front covers. You can rotate it in 3D space, open it and to turn over the pages. The content for these pages is either downloaded from Google Books and Amazon (these two sites provide the rendered book previews) or rendered from the book PDF file with the help of Adobe Acrobat Professional. If you have a blog or a website, you can easily take the 3D book snapshot and post it online, so that your friends had a better image of the book that you recommend.

A little tip: in the 3D View section to display the controls, you need to point your mouse below the 3D book.

The following video shows how to play with 3D book.

Please pay attention, that the new version requires .Net Framework 3.5 or higher, unlike the previous version that used .Net Framework 2.0.

Dear friends!

For almost three years we provided our ebook catalog software for free. The software has become very popular among book-lovers, schools, clubs and business libraries all over the world and every day we receive a dozen of new feature and support requests. So, now we need to invest additional resources in its support and futher development. That's why the next software version Alfa Ebooks Manager 0.7.1 (that is scheduled for June 10, 2009) will become commercial and will cost $19.95 for the life-time license.

Nevertheless, the current software version Alfa Ebooks Manager 0.6.4 will remain free for all with limited support. It will be available for download on our website and will support all the plugins that enable retrieving book data from the Web.

We hope, that thanks to this move we will be able to provide you with the new level of customer service and will develop the best ebook catalog software on the market. We highly appreciate your support and understanding.

Hello, and let me introduce you the new Alfa Ebooks Manager website and Blog.

As you noticed, we have changed the old site design, and this is our first step towards great changes in our project. First, the new design will better fit the style of the newest version of Alfa Ebooks Manager, that is scheduled for the middle of June. Besides, in few days, we will announce some important news, regarding Alfa Ebooks Manager future.

We started this Blog to announce all the changes that take place in our project and our ebook library software. But it will be not just boring corporate blog. We'll try to cover here all the news that could be interesting for ebook collectors. You can subscribe to our RSS channel to kept abreast of the latest developments in ebook creation, management, distribution.