I still remember the first time I navigated to accoca’s page on the App Store. When I scrolled down to the App Privacy section and read the words [Data Not Collected], I nearly fell out of my office chair in disbelief. Comparing the same App Privacy to a popular email service provider that starts with gee and rhymes with snail, it’s shocking. According to that service’s App Store page it may collect data on: purchases, contact info, user content, identifiers, diagnostics, location, search history, usage data, other data. By most anyone’s standards, that is a lot of user data needed to manage emails. I think the lack of user data collected in accoca is the perfect way to highlight how seriously Sola Inc. treats user privacy. In a world where companies are seemingly never satisfied obtaining and analyzing user data to push advertisements and drive sales, Sola is different.

Expand the description on accoca’s App Store listing and you’ll notice they discuss the ability to store data locally or with an encrypted Google Drive backup. A choice! Who could imagine companies giving users a choice in 2026?! Under the Security section of the app description of the App Store, Sola mentions it does not push ads or cloud services that might pose a risk of tracking personal information or exposing user information to data leaks. Then finally, they talk about how each password file is encrypted with AES-256, considered by many to be the gold standard of encryption. In this article I wanted to explore what AES-256 level encryption is, why it’s so important with accoca, and how it protects your data. Let’s get into it!

Previous Articles

Below are links to some of Sola’s other articles about accoca. The articles take less than 5 minutes to read and help provide insight into both the purpose of accoca as an app and how to generate difficult to hack passwords.

What is a Password Manager (Vault)

How to Generate Strong Passwords

Testing Password Strength

accoca Google Drive Backup

Where to Download

accoca is available on the Apple App Store—linked below. A couple of key features to note: the app is free to use and Sola of America, Inc. does not collect any personal data from its users. For those wanting to unlock unlimited entries, OCR text detection, and customizable, auto-generated passwords, accoca offers a $9.99 lifetime purchase price. The fully unlocked version can be restored on another device by logging in with the same AppleID.  

Password Manager accoca

What is AES-256

AES stands for Advanced Encryption Standard and is a specification for the encryption of electronic data first established by the US National Institute of Standards (NIST) in 2001. Originally developed by cryptographers Joan Daemen and Vincent Rijmen, AES comes in three different key sizes: 128, 192, 256. In simplified terms, the greater the key size the stronger the encryption. This key size determines how many rounds the original input character is changed before producing an output character:

• 10 rounds for 128-bit keys
• 12 rounds for 192-bit keys
• 14 rounds for 256-bit keys

To elaborate, each plaintext character the user writes for a password will then get transformed for several rounds (see above). After the final transformation round, a resulting ciphertext is produced. When encrypting a password for secure data storage, each character within a password undergoes the round shifts. With the passkey, decryption takes place in the opposite direction to unscramble the puzzle. In a simplified example, the letter ‘t’ might be securely stored in accoca’s password file as ‘#’. It all depends on the key size and accompanying secret key. More on secret keys below.

Key Derivative Function

I promise after this paragraph it’s end of the technical stuff—but it’s a fascinating subject. If the user wanted to encrypt and protect data at an extreme level, one should use a 128-bit secret key combined with a 256-bit key size. But without manipulation, producing a 128-bit secret key would require memorizing a password around 20 characters long. While storing a 20-character password is no problem for accoca, it’s impractical for the memory of most people. For this reason, many methods of encryption take a user’s password, or secret, and then use a key derivative functionto add length and complexity to the original. The result is a 128-bit secret that can then be used to encrypt the data in a 14 round 256-bit key size. The short version: key secret + key size = strength of the data encryption.

Difficulty of Hacking

As referenced in the introduction of this article, accoca stores each password as an individually encrypted file. For users, that means that even if a bad actor were to… break into a user’s device and find accoca’s locally stored password files or hack a user’s Google Drive backup, they would still be faced with first decrypting the encryption on the file storage and THEN running another hack on each individual password file.

Authors Biaoshuai Tao and Hongjun Wu in a 2015 paper about a key recovery attach against AES encrypted data estimated a 128-bit key with solid secret key would require somewhere around 38 trillion terabytes of data to hack. At the time, that was more than all the data stored on all the computers on the planet.

Conclusion

This was a technical article that might not interest all users. The reasons for publishing it, however, are not technical nor complicated. In a world filled with hackers, scammers, and other bad actors, data privacy is something everyone must take seriously. Using simple to guess passwords is an invitation to have your identity or other sensitive information stolen.

With accoca, with the simple tap of a finger, users can instruct the software to increase or decrease the generated password length, include letters, numbers, and symbols, in virtually any powerful and secure combination to keep users safe when accessing their accounts. Why risk it when you don’t have to? Try the free version of accoca and when you’re ready to step up your data privacy practices, the full version is available for a single lifetime unlock of $9.99. Sola cares about your data and so should you.

Thanks again for reading and as always, comment below for any requested content in future articles.

The post How accoca Protects your Data appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

Admittedly, a lot of what I see today on Instagram is mediocre. It’s overflowing repeated jokes and memes that become copies of copies of copies. How original. BUT, every now and again, I find myself getting recommended a series of delicious-looking recipes that inspires me to try something new in the kitchen. In many ways, short-form content platforms like Instagram or TikTok are the perfect platforms to showcase food. With a crisp edit, the viewer can go from seeing the raw ingredients neatly arranged mis en place style to the results in 30 seconds or less.  

As the video ends and your mouth is watering, here’s where it gets tricky. It’s common practice for creators to post the recipe in the video’s description. Fine. Alternatively, many creators will pin their first comment containing the recipe. However, any URL posted in either the description or in a comment does not function as a hyperlink. I see it in virtually every food reel. Other users will beg for functioning link to the recipe, but it’s not possible.

The other night, after I’d saved the second or third recipe, dreading how I’d have to eventually hand write them, the thought occurred to me that accoca has a built-in OCR text reader feature to solve this dilemma. Combine a text-converted recipe screenshot with our monoca 2 for Cooking Recipes setup and we’re ready to start curating a delicious digital cookbook. Let’s get into it!

Previous Articles

In past articles, we’ve looked at how monoca 2 can be used for everyday life, tracking grocery prices, and even organizing minis for tabletop gaming. Each of those examples showed how the app’s customizable categories and fields make it flexible for any kind of collection.

Using monoca 2 in Everyday Life

Tabletop Gaming with monoca 2

Gift Shopping with monoca 2

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images, is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/.

Capturing a Recipe in accoca

The OCR text detection feature is only available in the paid version of accoca. In several previous articles we’ve detailed why accoca is a great value at the $9.99 lifetime unlock fee. We’ll skip those details today, but considering many password vault services charge users $9.99 every month, accoca’s lifetime unlock price is more than fair.

Our first step in building a digital cookbook from short-form videos is to find some cooking content. If your algorithm isn’t tuned for food, a few internet searches for Instagram or TikTok cooking videos should fix that. After watching a handful, your account’s algorithm should adjust, and you’ll get more cooking content with each engagement.

After finding the recipe you want converted to text, pull up the description and take a screen capture of the ingredients and cooking instructions. In my sample below, this was a recipe for black bean chocolate protein brownies. I did make this recipe (photos below) and admit it was good, but in my opinion, it did not taste like a brownie. In the flavor it was obvious the base of the ‘brownie’ consisted of black beans and banana. If you’re someone watching their sugar intake, however, I’d recommend giving them a try. They can somewhat satisfy a sweetness craving.

Converting to Text

In preparation for text-converting several recipes, I created a new ‘Recipes’ category in accoca. Just like in monoca 2, each category is totally customizable to fit the user’s needs. Category settings are included or excluded with the flick of a toggle switch. I chose to add Tags, URL, Location, and Note. The Title field is a required field. It’s worth mentioning that the OCR text detection is buried under the Note field, so let’s focus there next.

In this category sample I wanted to keep everything bare bones. Tags are useful if needing to perform a broad search in the future. While hyperlinks don’t work in comments or posted in video descriptions, the URL of an individual reel is simple enough to copy/paste. Feel free to track those in the URL field.

After filling in the other details, tap the Note field, Text detection, then select Photo library and search out the screen capture you took earlier with the ingredients and cooking instructions. The scan field can even be modified so only the desired text is captured. When done, your screen should look like the third image below. All that’s left is nice, clean text.

Porting to monoca 2

Once the recipe is in text format, the sky is the limit of where it can be posted, reposted, or permanently housed. I referenced an article waayyy back from December of 2024 about using Sola’s monoca 2 for storing cooking recipes. I STILL use that organization structure to this day. Recipes we cook often at home I generally have a good sense of when to add what ingredient and how long to cook it, but the quantities are tough to remember. It’s important to get the right spices and the correct proportions or the whole dish can be ruined.

If we’re using social media video links within monoca 2, there’s a field already reserved just for that in the previous article. It’s convenient to get a refresh on the cooking difficulty or final look of the dish with just a tap. Using this OCR conversion method, I can only imagine the countless internet recipes waiting to be conquered.

Conclusion

Sometimes an object or an idea’s intended purpose is not it’s only purpose. While accoca’s intention as an application is to securely generate, store, and recall usernames, passwords, and other sensitive information, there are other uses. Sometimes one small feature or detail can be totally transformational—and it’s awesome!

Well… I’m off to doom scroll more food videos on Instagram, and you should be too. With accoca and removing the stress of having to physically write down a recipe from a video description, there’s no excuse!

As always, please drop a comment below for any feedback or suggestions on future article content. We’ll catch you on the next one!

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images, is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

The post COMBO! monoca 2 and accoca appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

In our previous article, Gift Shopping with monoca 2, we talked about how many of us are victims of modern consumerism. Every year companies come up with reasons for new sales periods, start existing sales earlier, or extend existing sales. With social media permeating nearly every facet of our lives, advertisements fly in from every direction. Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, in your Gmail account, and in the margins of websites—all places for ads, all seeking engagement clicks. Woefully, I must admit, I’m a sucker for a deal. The popular outdoor retailer Backcountry has fleeced me for many-a-dollar over the years by flaunting prices at 60, 70, or even 85% off retail. Cha-ching! I made the purchase.

Other than the obvious pains in my wallet, the other fallout of my consumerist victimhood is a closet full of clothes I hardly wear. On several occasions my wife and I discussed how to solve this problem. The consensus was to track our use of clothing items. If an article of clothing remains unworn for a year, the rationale for keeping it must be well-founded. If an article of clothing remains unworn for two years, it’s time to sell it for a bargain to see it gone or donate it. A simple system, right?  How to track each piece’s use became another issue entirely.

After much consideration, monoca 2 became an obvious choice. The app lends itself particularly well to solving the problem of an overfull closet through its ease of customization. The ability to quickly attach photos from your device’s camera roll or snap them from within monoca 2 only adds to the convenience. In this article we’ll cover the system I developed and, with luck, can provide an update in a future article. Keep in mind, this system is customizable for most any kind of object. If you’re not a clothing enthusiast like me, find what you have an excess of and apply it to that category. Let’s get into it!

Previous Articles

In past articles, we’ve looked at how monoca 2 can be used for everyday life, tracking grocery prices, and even organizing minis for tabletop gaming. Each of those examples showed how the app’s customizable categories and fields make it flexible for any kind of collection.

Using monoca 2 in Everyday Life

Tabletop Gaming with monoca 2

Gift Shopping with monoca 2

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images, is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

Making the ‘Wardrobe’ Category

As with most any other monoca 2 focused article, our first step is to create the primary category, then populate the subcategories. At my primary employer’s office, the dress code leans more towards business formal. A tie is not necessary, but I wear collared dress shirts every day. For that reason, I divided several of the categories into formal and casual. Below is the final subcategory list:

• Short Sleeve
• Long Sleeve
• Dress Pants
• Casual Pants
• Collared Shirts
• Formal Outerwear
• Casual Outerwear
• Dress Shoes
• Casual Shoes
• Hiking Shoes
• Hiking Clothes
• Uncategorized

Part of my ongoing strategy will be to add to these categories every day, if possible. In several previous articles covering monoca 2 we mentioned that organizing does not come easily to some. I fully recognize that the time investment required to fill a category is likely an inhibiting factor for prospective monoca 2 users. Adding to the categories little by little can reduce any potential app-fatigue.

The Category Fields

A best practice in building category subfields involves listing the most critical information first. For me, in this sample wardrobe category, that information was the last time (date) I wore a particular article of clothing. Other key pieces of information included the size and material. Material is important because it indicates the difficulty in laundering a particular piece. Also, I’ve recently found myself moving away from synthetic materials like polyester, nylon, and rayon, for natural fibers like cotton or wool.

• Last Worn (Date)
• Size (Text)
• Material (Text)
• Stored at (Location)
• Purchased price (Number)
• Purchased at (Location)
• Purchased on (Date)
• Photo (Image)
• Note (Text – Multiline)
• Ease of Styling (Score 1-5)

A photo of the clothing is arguably the second most important piece of information—and one I want to see quickly. I did not list it at the top in order to make the spacing of the item entry flow better. Notes can be used for general information, laundering instructions such as dry clean only, or hand wash only, or other useful tips. I renamed the Score 1-5 field to Ease of Styling. In clothes, it happens all too often. I’ve purchased many pieces appreciating the color in the moment only to realize later how difficult the it is to match with anything. I’ll likely add low scoring ‘Ease of Styling’ pieces to my ‘sell’ or ‘donation’ lists in addition to infrequently worn pieces.

Ask any enthusiast and they’ll tell you, invest in a handful of timeless, high-quality pieces you always reach for rather than a closet full of junk and you’ll be much happier.

As they say, “buy once cry once”.

Conclusion

I’m excited about this ‘Wardrobe’ Category and the insights it will bring. And it was awesome sharing with all of you readers. While I don’t think I’ll become a minimalist anytime soon and try to reduce my owned objects down to 100 or less, decluttering brings peace of mind. I encourage you to find something you’ve overpurchased or over collected and try to reduce it down to the fewest, most frequently used objects.

Having already added a few sweaters to the donation pile, I’m already feeling less burdened. As always, please leave a comment below with any requests for any future article topics. Catch you next time!

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images, is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

The post Closet Cleanup w/ monoca 2 appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

The Holiday Season is upon us! And for many people that means shopping, shopping, and more shopping. It seems like every year companies look for more excuses to host a sale. Whether that always translates to a bargain for the consumer remains to be seen. I remember visiting an Under Armour store one weekend and saw a pair of running shorts for $30. Since Black Friday was the following week, I held off on purchasing the shorts that same day. Returning the next week, I noticed new price sticker on the shorts showed $50 with a 40% discount—which meant the shorts were still $30. I suppose the lesson here is, not all sales mean deals. Be careful out there.

You may be asking yourself, what does that story have to do with monoca 2? Shopping, of course. Whether gift shopping for Christmas, Chinese New Year, a friend’s birthday, or another special occasion, coordinating gift shopping can be tedious. I can recall so many drawn-out text conversations with my wife sending each other link after link. “What do you think of this for your dad?” or “How about this for your sister?”

Sure, texting is one way to coordinate, but with monoca 2 we can use a simple template to share ideas, websites, and even mark whether a certain gift is ‘greenlit’ for purchase. In less than 5 minutes from start to finish, the template can be built and then shared with anyone. Let’s get into it!

Previous Articles

In past articles, we’ve looked at how monoca 2 can be used for everyday life, tracking grocery prices, and even organizing minis for tabletop gaming. Each of those examples showed how the app’s customizable categories and fields make it flexible for any kind of collection.

Using monoca 2 in Everyday Life

Tabletop Gaming with monoca 2

Modern Books at archive.org

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images, is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

Building the ‘Gift Shopping’ Category

For this demonstration of monoca 2’s capabilities, we’re keeping things beyond simple. The ‘Gift Shopping’ category has only four fields—color tag, multi-line note, barcode, and photos. It’s a minimalist setup, but the goal is to streamline sharing ideas compared to text conversations. Add subfields depending on the occasion. In the screen captures shown below I used:

• Office Secret Santa
• Dad’s Birthday
• Kyle’s Birthday
• Christmas

Within a given subcategory, start with the multi-line note field. Instead of juggling a dozen browser tabs, losing track of links, or scrolling endlessly through text threads, you can treat the note section like a personal shopping database. Each line can hold a potential item name, the price, and a hyperlink to the store page. For example, under the ‘Dad’s Birthday’ subcategory:

• UA Run Shorts; https://store.example.com/item
• Hydro Flask 32oz, Alpine; https://anotherstore.com/hydro

All in one place, all neatly visible, and all instantly accessible. No more searching through a chat because you “swear you sent that link already.” If you’re collaborating with someone—your partner, sibling, or friend—you can both add and update links in real time, making the whole process feel like you’re co-editing a shared bulletin board.

Color Tags

Next, consider the color tags. You can assign colors to represent stages in your gift pipeline: green for “already bought for,” yellow for “considering,” red for “too expensive” or “bad idea”. Alternatively, if shopping for a larger occasion like Christmas, color-code by price range for things like major gifts or stocking stuffers. The point is that the colors instantly turn your category into a visual dashboard where you don’t need to decode anything. The structure is also flexible in that a category can be used to label the gift receiver where items are added as the gifts themselves. Categories can also represent the occasion where the items are the recipients and there’s a strong case for using the multi-line note function.

Barcode Scanner

Now, the barcode field is most useful for last-mine or in-store shopping. Let’s say you’re walking through Target and see a coffee grinder is the home goods section. You can scan the barcode right from the app and, in seconds, look the item up on eBay or Google. This means comparing prices on the spot instead of wondering whether the store’s “limited-time sale” is actually a deal… or if it’s just another $30-shorts-that-were-always-$30 situation.

Photo Field

And let’s not forget the photo field. This one is useful when you need to show something to someone else quickly, or when you want to remember what something looked like. For example, did the hoodie look cooler in red, or black? If you and your partner are coordinating gifts, you can snap a picture of something you saw in a store, add it to the category, and they’ll see it right away. No more sending a photo through text where it gets buried under a dozen memes. Photos in monoca 2 stay exactly where they belong—paired with your notes and tags, ready for anyone you’ve shared the category with.

Conclusion

What really ties all this together is convenience of the system. With only four fields, this sample template shows how simple is often. It’s able to be set up in under 5 minutes and then instantly shared with any other monoca 2 user. Then, you and your co-shoppers can browse ideas on your own time, update notes without disrupting each other, and come together later to quickly finalize plans. That means fewer back-and-forth messages and far less frustration.

Holiday shopping will never be entirely stress-free. But with monoca 2, it can at least feel a little more organized and a little less chaotic. Happy shopping and mind your wallets!

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images, is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

The post Gift Shopping with monoca 2 appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

It is fascinating how traditions change with time. At one point in the United States most of the population celebrated the same Holidays. With all of society’s changes and the rise of a melting pot of different cultures, that is no longer true. In many instances, especially in a professional setting, it is no longer acceptable to wish someone a Merry Christmas. After all, the individual receiving the wishes may be of a differing religion or simply not celebrate Christmas.

Thanksgiving, on the other hand, is a different story. Originally linked to a famous feast held in 1621 between Pilgrims and the Wampanoag tribe in Plymouth, Massachusetts, a long list of countries now celebrate some version of the Holiday. Being thankful for the things in your life is one of the roots to lasting happiness. In Japanese, the term for this feeling is 幸せ（しあわせ）, pronounced: she-ah-wah-say in English.

At Sola K.K. and Sola of America, Inc. we have a lot to be thankful for, and wanted to share a bit of our humble beginnings with you, our audience. We want to express our gratitude for nearly 20 years (17 to be specific) as a company. Considering many companies do not survive even their first year in business, we think it’s a big deal.

A Brief Recap of Sola’s Apps

accoca

accoca is Sola’s password vault (password manager). It provides users with the option to store their encrypted password data as local only, or upload an encrypted password backup to their Google Drive.

accoca is available on the Apple App Store—linked below. A couple of key features to note: the app is free to use and Sola of America, Inc. does not collect any personal data from its users. For those wanting to unlock unlimited entries, OCR text detection, and customizable, auto-generated passwords, accoca offers a $9.99 lifetime purchase price. The fully unlocked version can be restored on another device by logging in with the same AppleID.  

Password Manager accoca

Bouquet

Bouquet is Sola’s photo mosaic app that uses photos from your device’s camera roll, Google Photos account, or clips them from a video to make stunning photo mosaics—instantly. Mosaics can be customized in myriad ways, including:

• Number of squares used to form mosaic (parent) image
• Type and quantity of ‘piece’ images
• Filter, Alpha, Color, and Blender sliders

The app is free to download and use. Click the link below to get started.

Bouquet: Craft Mosaic Art

monoca 2

Monoca 2 is Sola’s item organization app. Its applications are nearly endless, with uses ranging from saving food recipes, to cataloguing minis figurines for tabletop gaming. Items can be classified into broader collections, then refined into individual categories depending on the user’s needs. The free-form category subfields allow for complete customization, and categories can even be shared with other users by inputting that category’s share code.

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images. It is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: monoca 2 for iPhone

Google Play: monoca 2 for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

About Sola

Humble Beginnings

Sola K.K. was founded in November of 2008 in Chiyoda City, Tokyo, with less than $6,500 in capital. In January of 2010, the company moved it’s headquarters to Kayabacho, Chuo City, Tokyo. By April of 2011, Sola K.K. increased its capital to a little less than $30,000, and by October of 2015, had put together a little over $70,000 in capital.

Finally finding its legs, Sola’s capital increased dramatically from 2016 – 2020, with a significant milestone coming in September 2017 when Sola K.K.’s capital jumped to nearly 200,000.00 USD. This kind of slow, yet consistent growth as a company was only possible with many hours of hard work and dedication from Sola’s founders and its staff.   

Sola’s Services

Sola has since grown to incorporate several lines of business:

• Development of IT infrastructure and software development
• Systems engineering
• Research and development using various technology platforms such as smart phones and VR (virtual reality)
• IT consulting services
• Sales of products related to IT infrastructure and systems

For business inquiries, please contact ‘contact@sola-air.com’.

The Big Picture

On Sola’s website, as of August, 2025, the company employs 260 people. This is where thankfulness comes in. This is the impact. Over the course of time, many companies tend to get caught up in their business operations and forget that they are a conduit for employees living their lives. Each of those 260 employees has family, friends, and other loved ones they care about. While life isn’t about money and money won’t provide you with a fulfilling life, it is necessary to survive in modern society. While Sola grows a little bigger every year, so does its family of employees that makes Sola so special.

Just seventeen short years ago, the company consisted of only four members and now there are 260. Two-hundred and sixty opportunities to improve a little bit every day, to hug a loved one, and count all the positive things in life. Yes, life is full of unique challenges and life isn’t fair, but if you stop and consider the bigger picture—you might find there’s a lot to be thankful for.

From everyone at Sola, thank you for 17 years. Here’s to seeing what 20, 30, or even 50 years brings us. Take care, and we’ll catch you next time.

The post Sola: A Lot to be Thankful For appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

Recently, I was having a conversation with my father about movies—as we frequently do. Specifically, we were discussing the new Frankenstein movie produced by Netflix and directed by Guillermo Del Toro. Del Toro’s filmmaking abilities are unique. There is typically some sort of fantasy or supernatural element and a compelling narrative that drives the story along. Some of his better-known works are Pan’s Labyrinth, The Shape of Water, and a personal favorite of mine—Pinocchio. At the time of writing this article there are 2 Frankenstein trailers out for viewing. The first trailer shows the story from Viktor Frankenstein’s perspective, and the second trailer shows the story from the monster’s perspective. A nice, if not wholly unique, twist.

While speaking about Pinocchio with my father, I remembered going to see the stop motion sets for the movie at the Portland Art Museum. For around 8 weeks back in Fall of 2023, the art museum displayed the painted sets from Del Toro’s version of Pinocchio, and the work was incredible! Towards the end of the exhibition there was a color palette display showing the different tones and moods used in the film. For example: the village used a relatively neutral palette. The carnival incorporated more reds, oranges, and yellows—bright colors! The Underworld used hues of blues, purples, and blacks, and in Fascist Italy, blacks, whites, greens, browns, and reds were used.

This got me thinking about other creative ways to use Bouquet. As someone who does not typically feel inspired to snap photo after photo, I was curious to see if simple color blocks could create mosaics within Bouquet. This was interesting to me because exactly like the Pinocchio sets and the colors used based on the location, sets of tonal colors could be an easy way to adjust the mood of a favorite photo mosaic. Look below to see the results for yourself!

Previous Articles

Posted below are the articles related to Bouquet. Those titled Bouquet: Photo Mosaic Tutorial and Advanced Features of Bouquet are written in a tutorial style format. All the articles take less than 5 minutes to read. If you’re new to Bouquet as a platform and want to learn more about its features and how to use it, I highly recommend checking out those articles.

Introducing Bouquet: Creating Stunning Photo Mosaics

Bouquet: Photo Mosaic Tutorial

Advanced Features of Bouquet

Bouquet in a Corporate Environment (Part 1)

Where to Download

The app is free to download. Use the links below.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1494245634

Official Website: https://bouquet.sola.inc/

Test Images

When I decided to experiment with using color blocks instead of images with Bouquet, I had no idea what the result would be. Below I’ve posted the picture I snapped at the Pinocchio exhibit at the museum. The other two images of my wife and I’s golden retriever, Lia, I felt would make decent test images. One photo of Lia had a large amount of white background space that Bouquet would need to figure out how to fill in. The second image was more color diverse. I assumed the second image would be easier for Bouquet to process, and I was right.

Generating the Color Blocks

Generating the blocks of color for Bouquet to construct the mosaic was painstaking. I was probably not going about it in an efficient way, but Canva is the only readily accessible image editor on my desktop PC. It is great software, and I’ve used it extensively in the past to build presentations, create social media posts, you name it, but… the software is not always intuitive. T

After clipping two 1×8 color palettes from the Pinocchio set design, it was time to start building the blocks. I set the two blocks in an open project in Canva, then created a new 300 pixel x 300 pixel blank canvas. I copied this canvas an additional 15 times to create adequate colors to test. In total there were:

• 8 color blocks with lighter shading
• 8 color blocks with darker shading
• 16 colors blocks made by combining the two palettes

The Results

Once the color blocks were formed and downloaded onto my phone, it was time to start testing. As suspected, the image of our dog with a lot of white space in the background yielded poor results. In fact, I did not believe they were worth sharing or posting, so they’re omitted in this article. The second image where Lia has a set of bookshelves behind her, I think, produced a cool set of results.

Unsurprisingly, the mosaic made with the 8 lighter shaded color blocks was a bit boring. The analogy of writing a song using any of the major scales (as opposed to minor scales) comes to mind. The results were fine, but nothing out of the ordinary. Afterwards, I used the 8 darker shaded color blocks and felt like I was looking at a piece of art. The results with all 16 colors was good, too, but I found myself drawn to the results with the 8 dark shades. I think some of that preference comes from the fact that the shading (as in shadows) filled in with the darker palette created a better outline.

From further away, you can more clearly see Lia’s eyes, nose, snout, and ears. At one point I went a little crazy and made a custom column set where Bouquet used built a mosaic with 14,00 blocks. At certain points I was concerned my phone (it’s not the latest and greatest model) might heat up and start spitting smoke. I’m kidding, but filling in that many squares took a while and I didn’t feel the results were worth the processing power.

Conclusion

Color can play a big part in mood and tone for an image. Just like in the set designs for Guillermo Del Toro’s Pinocchio, colors play a big part in our lives too. While some reading this article might feel it was a waste of time because the results weren’t perfect, I don’t feel that way. Sometimes it’s necessary to experiment and try new things. Rather than scrambling each time to add a bunch of individual piece images when creating a photo mosaic, I was curious if keeping some colored blocks in my phone’s camera reel would allow me to quickly and easily make new mosaics with only a single image.

The results, in my opinion, warrant additional experimentation to see what is possible. In the future, I think I’ll try and sample colors directly from the parent image and use color blocks specific to that image’s palette to create the mosaic. It should be interesting. We’ll catch you on the next one!

Where to Download

The app is free to download. Use the links below.

App Store: https://apps.apple.com/app/id1494245634

Official Website: https://bouquet.sola.inc/

The post Mood and Tone with Color (Bouquet) appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

Does the following message look familiar?

“Never share your password with anyone. We will never ask you for your password.”

It’s a warning almost every internet user has seen, and for good reason. Password theft remains one of the most common ways personal and financial information is stolen online. Hackers use phishing scams, impersonation attempts, and data breaches to access a user’s stored credentials.

That’s why, where, and how your passwords are stored matters. Sola of America, Inc.’s locally stored password manager, accoca, takes a different approach from most cloud-based password managers. Instead of storing your sensitive information online, accoca keeps everything 256 AEP encrypted and securely stored directly on your device. For those who want an extra layer of redundancy, accoca also offers an optional encrypted Google Drive backup accessible only through the accoca app itself.

This article explores how accoca’s local-first design enhances security, the flexibility of its encrypted backup system, and how its customizable FaceID and PIN access settings make logging in both secure and convenient.

Previous Articles

Below are links to some of Sola’s other articles about accoca. The articles take less than 5 minutes to read and help provide insight into both the purpose of accoca as an app and how to generate difficult to hack passwords.

What is a Password Manager (Vault)

How to Generate Strong Passwords

Testing Password Strengthaccoca Google Drive Backup

accoca Google Drive Backup

Where to Download

accoca is available on the Apple App Store—linked below. A couple of key features to note: the app is free to use and Sola of America, Inc. does not collect any personal data from its users. For those wanting to unlock unlimited entries, OCR text detection, and customizable, auto-generated passwords, accoca offers a $9.99 lifetime purchase price. The fully unlocked version can be restored on another device by logging in with the same AppleID.  

Password Manager accoca

Local Storage: Security that Stays on your Device

Most password managers store your vaults on remote servers—sometimes even outside your home country. While convenient, these systems come with a catch: they increase your exposure to potential online breaches.

accoca was built around a different philosophy. Your password vault lives locally, inside your device’s secure environment. This means your data never leaves your phone unless you specifically choose to create a backup. Local storage reduces risk by eliminating online access points that hackers commonly exploit.

Summarized in 3 simple bullet points:

• No remote servers.
• No third-party data collection.
• No external points of failure.

Everything that makes up your digital security remains under your control. It’s the digital equivalent of keeping your valuables in a personal safe, rather than in a location accessible to the public like a gym locker room or train terminal.

For users who are cautious about data breaches or privacy, this local-first approach is one of the most secure methods available. If your phone is locked and encrypted (as most modern smartphones are), it stands to reason so are your passwords.

Customizable Access: FaceID, PIN Code, and Auto-Lock Options

Every user can decide how they want to access their vault. Whether you prefer quick biometric login or a manual PIN entry, accoca lets you tailor the app’s access method to fit your preferences.

Auto-Start FaceID for Fast Access

By default, accoca supports auto-start FaceID upon opening the app. This means you can unlock your password vault almost instantly—without typing a single number or tapping an extra button. The process feels seamless, especially for iPhone users accustomed to FaceID authentication.

Disable Auto-Start or Require a PIN Every Time

Of course, not everyone wants FaceID to launch automatically. accoca makes it easy to disable auto-start FaceID from within its settings. FaceID can also be turned off completely in your iPhone’s settings, requiring a user-defined PIN code for every login attempt.

If auto-start FaceID is disabled, but FaceID is still enabled, the user will see a fingerprint to the bottom-left of the PIN screen. If FaceID is fully disabled, only the digits 0-9 will be shown.

IMPORTANT: All these settings are listed under the ‘Screen Lock’ settings after tapping the gear icon in the upper-right corner of accoca’s home screen. The gear is visible upon initial setup or after regaining entry to the vault.

Adjustable Screen Lock Timer

In addition to access customization, accoca includes a configurable screen lock timer. Users can adjust how long the app remains unlocked after inactivity with intervals of: immediate, 15 seconds, 30 seconds, or 45 seconds.

This ensures that your vault automatically locks itself after a chosen period in case the user inadvertently leaves it unattended for a brief period.

One simple best practice is:

• Use short timers for users handling highly sensitive information.
• Use longer timers for users who need to reference multiple credentials in one session.

Convenience Meets Security

Some password managers require constant internet connectivity or periodic logins to online accounts. accoca keeps things simple. Because it’s stored locally, you can access your vault anytime—even offline.

Whether you’re traveling, in airplane mode, or in an area with poor reception, your password vault remains available. And when you do create a backup, accoca handles the encryption automatically, ensuring that your data remains unreadable without your authorization. This combination of local reliability, offline accessibility, and optional encrypted backups provides the perfect balance between security and usability.

Conclusion

Sola of America’s accoca is built on the simple principal that your passwords should belong to you—and only you.

By storing data locally, offering optional encrypted Google Drive backups, and allowing complete control over how the app is accessed, accoca provides a uniquely secure yet convenient experience. Whether you enable FaceID for speed, prefer manual PIN entry for peace of mind, or balance both with a customized lock timer, accoca adapts to your needs—not the other way around.

If you’re ready to take full control of your digital security with a locally stored, privacy-first password vault, download accoca from the App Store today. Your passwords deserve a safer home—and with accoca, they have one.

Where to Download

accoca is available on the Apple App Store—linked below. A couple of key features to note: the app is free to use and Sola of America, Inc. does not collect any personal data from its users. For those wanting to unlock unlimited entries, OCR text detection, and customizable, auto-generated passwords, accoca offers a $9.99 lifetime purchase price. The fully unlocked version can be restored on another device by logging in with the same AppleID.  

Password Manager accoca

The post Secure Access with accoca appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

Have you ever tried logging into an important account only to realize you didn’t have your phone handy for two-factor authentication (2FA)? Maybe you switched numbers, lost your phone, or the authentication app just wasn’t working. That’s where backup codes come in. They’re one-time-use security keys provided by services like Gmail that let you access your account in emergencies.

But here’s the problem: where should you store these codes? A sticky note on your desk is hardly secure and saving them in plain text on your computer makes them vulnerable. This is where accoca, the locally stored password manager by Sola of America, Inc., steps in. By design, accoca never uploads your credentials to the cloud—everything stays encrypted on your device. That makes it a perfect home for sensitive backup codes you may need once in a blue moon, but that still must be safeguarded.

In this article, we’ll cover the general process for generating and using backup codes, then explore how accoca can provide the enhanced local security you need for storing them safely.

Previous Articles

Below are links to some of Sola’s other articles about accoca. The articles take less than 5 minutes to read and help provide insight into both the purpose of accoca as an app and how to generate difficult to hack passwords.

What is a Password Manager (Vault)

How to Generate Strong Passwords

Testing Password Strength

accoca Google Drive Backup

Where to Download

accoca is available on the Apple App Store—linked below. A couple of key features to note: the app is free to use and Sola of America, Inc. does not collect any personal data from its users. For those wanting to unlock unlimited entries, OCR text detection, and customizable, auto-generated passwords, accoca offers a $9.99 lifetime purchase price. The fully unlocked version can be restored on another device by logging in with the same AppleID.   Password Manager accoca

What are Backup Codes?

Most major platforms with 2-Step Verification offer backup codes as an alternative login option. Gmail’s approach is straightforward:

• Each backup code can be used once. After entering it successfully, it becomes inactive.
• You get 10 codes at a time. When you generate a new set, the old ones automatically expire.
• They must be stored securely. Google recommends printing or downloading them, but not all users want to risk leaving them in a desk drawer or buried on a hard drive.

Backup codes are particularly useful if you:

• Lose your phone.
• Change your phone number.
• Temporarily can’t access text, call, or an authenticator app.

The catch is that backup codes are like skeleton keys. If someone gets hold of them, they can bypass your second layer of account security. So, while generating them is easy, storing them responsibly is critical.

Gmail’s Steps for Creating Backup Codes

Let’s quickly walk through Google’s official process so you know where these codes come from:

1. Sign in to your Google Account.
2. Go to Security from the left-hand menu.
3. Under “How you sign in to Google,” click 2-Step Verification.
4. Scroll to Backup codes and click Continue.
5. From here, you can:
   • Get backup codes.
   • Refresh (generate a new set).
   • Download or print them.
   • Delete existing ones.

When it comes time to use a code:

1. Start signing into Gmail as usual.
2. At the 2-Step Verification prompt, click Try another way.
3. Select Enter one of your 8-digit backup codes.
4. Input a code you haven’t used yet.

That’s it. One successful login and that code is instantly invalidated.

The Storage Dilemma

Some resources suggest printing the codes or saving them in a file like Backup-codes-username.txt. While convenient, these options are not particularly secure:

• Printed copies can be misplaced, stolen, or accidentally thrown away.
• Unencrypted text files are vulnerable to malware, ransomware, or even someone browsing through your computer.
• Cloud backups (like storing them in Google Drive or iCloud) create an additional attack surface.

What you really need is a vault that’s offline, encrypted, and easy to access only when you need it. Enter accoca.

Why accoca is Perfect for Backup Codes

Unlike other password managers that sync through the cloud, accoca keeps your vault stored locally on your device. This makes it uniquely suited for highly sensitive entries like account backup codes.

Here’s why accoca excels:

• Local Storage Only – Your backup codes never leave your device. No third-party servers, no accidental uploads.
• Customizable Fields – You can create a “Backup Codes” entry and paste all 10 codes in. As you use each one, mark it “used” directly inside the entry.
• No Data Harvesting – Sola of America, Inc. makes accoca privacy-first. The app doesn’t collect analytics, personal data, or logs.
• Emergency Reliability – Because the data is local, your backup codes are available even if you’re offline. Perfect for travel or remote areas without cell access.

H2 Best Practices for Storing Gmail Backup Codes in accoca

1. Create a new entry in accoca titled something like “Gmail Backup Codes.”
2. Paste all 10 codes into the notes field or create custom entries for each code.
3. Mark used codes as inactive by striking them out or deleting them from the entry.
4. Refresh periodically. When you generate a new set from Google, replace the old ones in accoca.

Keep a minimal backup. If you’d like, store a second copy in accoca’s optional Google Drive backup—but make sure your drive login is also secured by 2FA.

Formatting Benefits

Depending on the app/platform, backup codes may not be strictly numerical values. Some platforms, like cryptocurrency wallets, may use unique combinations of words formatted into a string or listed in columns. Sometimes, words can simply be entered sequentially and the code is accepted. Other times the codes must be typed in using the column-specific (or other) formatting.

One nice feature about accoca’s Notes field is that it will save the formatting depending on how you set it up. It’s not like a standard word processor in that you can format the notes field into columns specifically. However, as demonstrated in the sample images, a copied and pasted string of characters will paste into another app, like the iPhone’s Notes app, as it was formatted in accoca’s notes section. This makes it easier to use in that it’s straightforward in seeing if the backup code is sequential or must be entered some other way.

Conclusion

Backup codes are the unsung heroes of account recovery. They’re your lifeline when 2-Step Verification isn’t available, but only if you can find them when you need them—and only if they haven’t fallen into the wrong hands.

accoca solves the storage dilemma by offering local, encrypted, and reliable security for your backup codes. Instead of leaving them printed in a drawer or saved in a text file, you can manage them with the same ease and protection you already use for passwords.

The next time you generate account backup codes, don’t just set them aside. Store them smartly with accoca and rest easy knowing that emergency access is always within reach—securely.

As always, feel free to leave a comment below with questions or topic requests. Sola’s team monitors messages and responds whenever possible. Thanks for reading, and we’ll see you in the next article!

Where to Download

accoca is available on the Apple App Store—linked below. A couple of key features to note: the app is free to use and Sola of America, Inc. does not collect any personal data from its users. For those wanting to unlock unlimited entries, OCR text detection, and customizable, auto-generated passwords, accoca offers a $9.99 lifetime purchase price. The fully unlocked version can be restored on another device by logging in with the same AppleID.   Password Manager accoca

The post Securely Storing Account Backup Codes appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

Michael Hart founded Project Gutenberg in 1971 when he published the first eBook. Of course, the digital media looked much different in 1971 than it does now. To this day Hart’s memory continues, inspiring the creation of thousands of new eBooks with the help of thousands of volunteers, each working to digitize and proofread the world’s literature. As per the organization’s website, Project Gutenberg’s eBooks are “completely free and always will be.” Pieces of classic literature written hundreds or even thousands of years ago are not restricted by copyrights from reproduction. If any copyright existed, it often expired decades or centuries ago. In this space, Project Gutenberg works to provide readers with digitized copies of these classics to both educate and preserve human history.

With the rise of digital libraries and catalogues like Project Gutenberg, it has never been easier to access thousands of titles for free. The project now boasts over 75,000 titles, making timeless classics accessible to anyone with an internet connection and a device to read them on. Many file formats are available for the most commercially popular platforms like Amazon’s Kindle, or Barnes and Noble’s Nook, and more.

Anymore, the challenge isn’t finding books—it’s keeping track of the ones you want to read, the ones you’ve started, and the ones you’ve finished. That’s where monoca 2 comes into play. By creating unique categories and custom fields, you can turn any smartphone into a personalized catalog for all your Project Gutenberg downloads.

Previous Articles

In past articles, we’ve looked at how monoca 2 can enhance the user’s daily life, track grocery prices, and even organize minis for tabletop gaming. Each of those examples showed how the app’s customizable categories and fields make it flexible for any kind of collection.

Using monoca 2 in Everyday Life

Grocery Shopping with monoca 2

Tabletop Gaming with monoca 2

This time, we’re using monoca 2 to track Project Gutenberg books we already have, or want to download. In the next article, we’ll be covering archive.org and their extensive library of content.

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images. It is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

The Vision of Michael Hart

Project Gutenberg was more than just an experiment; it was a vision. In 1971, Michael Hart typed the U.S. Declaration of Independence into a university computer system, believing digital access to books could change the world. His mission was simple: make literature that had surpassed copyright limits freely available to all.

Today, the collection spans novels, short stories, poetry, reference works, and historical documents. You’ll find Shakespeare, Jane Austen, Mary Shelley, and more. Works that once cost money in bookstores are now public domain treasures, free to read on any compatible device.

Customizing a Category for Project Gutenberg Books

Here’s how I set mine up in monoca 2. I created a “Project Gutenberg Library” category with the following fields:

• Title
• Author
• Year Published
• Name of Orig. Publisher
• Reading Status (To Read, In Progress, Completed)
• Format (ePub, Kindle, PDF, HTML)
• ISBN
• Direct Link (URL)
• Enjoyed? (1-5)
• Barcode

With these fields, I can instantly filter unread books, search by author, or track my personal progress. It has been years since I read Bram Stoker’s Dracula and I never got around to reading Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein. A quick visit to the Gutenberg Project’s website and a few taps later, my monoca 2 entry for Frankenstein was marked ‘To Read’, complete with the direct download URL.

Sharing Your Library with Friends

Another great feature is the ability to share categories. Maybe your friend is working on a research paper about Victorian literature, while you’re more interested in Greek classics. By sharing your monoca 2 categories, you can help each other discover new texts and share notes or opinions on various works.

In my own case, as a birthday gift one year I received an e-reader from an obscure Russian company called Boox. As recently as only a few years ago, Boox brand devices were only available from a single specialty import store in NYC. Their paperwhite screens are excellent for reading but the slow loading paper-like screen makes internet browsing a pain. By sharing the Gutenberg category from my primary Gmail account with the secondary Gmail I use on the e-reader, navigating directly to the download site is exceedingly simple. It’s a small detail, but the category share feature is a huge timesaver for me.

Conclusion

Michael Hart dreamed of a world where knowledge could be shared freely, and Project Gutenberg continues that mission today. Pairing it with monoca 2 ensures that your personal library—no matter how large—stays organized and easy to enjoy.

With so many e-readers available on the open market, including e-readers with paperwhite screens that closely imitate the experience of reading a physical book, why wait? There are so many countless works available on Project Gutenberg, for free, waiting to be read, explored, and enjoyed. The combination of Gutenberg and monoca 2 means storing and organizing digital literature is at its most accessible and most convenient ever in recorded history. If you find storage is getting short, delete the file and with monoca 2, you’re a click away from another download from Gutenberg’s servers.

We at Sola, Inc. would love to hear from you. Leave a comment below and share how you organize your digital reading life!

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images. It is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

The post Organizing Project Gutenberg Books (Free) appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..

Michael Hart created the first eBook in 1971 when he typed out a copy of the United States Constitution and stored it on a computer system. Archive.org later took up that same spiritual torch when they began archiving the internet itself in 1996. In their own words, at that time, the internet was… “a medium just beginning to grow in use.” It’s hard to image life without the internet now, but back then, it was a slowly waking giant. While both Project Gutemberg and Archive.org provide access to an incredible range of materials, their approaches are different.

Gutenberg focuses on public domain works, while the Internet Archive, or Archive.org, for short, functions more like a digital library, operating in what some consider a legal grey zone. Media companies are quick to copyright strike any reproduction of their content for commercial use, and rightfully so, but then how does cataloging and archiving fit into that mix? And what if something were to happen to mankind… wouldn’t we want some preservation of our collective creative history?

Here we’ll explore using monoca 2 to further expand upon the collection-building we did with Project Gutenberg. While Project Gutenberg boasts over 75,000 available texts, Archive.org took that number into the millions. Note: please continue reading for a note on copyrighted content and how Sola of America, Inc. does not condone copyright infringement of any kind.

Previous Articles

In past articles, we’ve looked at how monoca 2 can be used in everyday life, to track grocery prices, and even organize minis for tabletop gaming. Each of those examples showed how the app’s customizable categories and fields make it flexible for any kind of collection.

Using monoca 2 in Everyday Life

Grocery Shopping with monoca 2

Tabletop Gaming with monoca 2

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images. It is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

The Difference Between Gutenberg and Internet Archive

At first glance, Project Gutenberg and the Internet Archive look similar—they both provide digital books (and other media at Archive.org). But here’s the key distinction:

• Project Gutenberg: provides public domain books that are free to download as their copyright has expired or the text is so old there was never a copyright in the first place.
• Internet Archive: Books, journals, and multimedia that are often still under copyright. You can borrow them like you would from a library by creating a free account.

This difference matters. Gutenberg is about free literature beyond copyright, while the Internet Archive provides access without ownership.

Why Organization matters for Researchers

If you’re using the Internet Archive for school or research, you know how quickly things can get messy. You check out a few books for a paper, scan through multiple editions, and then struggle to remember which one had the quote you needed.

That’s where monoca 2 comes in. By creating a category for your Internet Archive loaners, you can track every title with fields like:

• Title
• Author
• Format (ePub, Kindle, PDF, HTML)
• Loan Start Date
• Loan Expiration Date
• Research Notes
• Tags (History, Science, Literature, etc.)
• Direct URL
• Quotes

This way, you’ll never scramble to relocate sources or miss a loan expiration date again.

A Note on Piracy

It’s important to clarify: Sola of America, Inc. does not condone piracy. The Internet Archive is a legitimate library resource and using monoca 2 to organize your borrowed or legally owned content is about convenience—not avoiding payment to creators. If you love a book enough to keep it, buy a copy. Monoca 2 simply helps you manage what you’ve accessed so you can stay on top of your learning. You’ll see in the screenshot above it says Borrow Unavailable. This means that the book I wanted to check out from Archive, just like a traditional library, was not available. Some works allow users to be notified when a particular media is returned, so they can, in turn, borrow it.

Unlocking Modern Works

The true strength of Archive.org lies in its breadth and diversity. Want to explore vintage cookbooks? Rare science fiction magazines? University-level history texts? Archive.org likely has them. The borrowing system functions much like a digital public library—users can check out books for a limited period and read them in-browser or through compatible e-readers. In monoca 2, setting up a separate Archive.org Reading List category allows readers to track books borrowed and downloaded. User may choose to add a Waitlisted (Y/N) subfield for more popular works, then review the content URL as time permits to confirm if another user has returned the desired book. Convenient!

Conclusion

The beauty of pairing monoca 2 with free digital libraries is that it makes categorizing and storing digital print media a more sustainable effort. Project Gutenberg offers a foundation in timeless classics, while Archive.org opens the doors to both modern and historical works.

Whether it’s a passion for literature, research for personal projects, or just the joy of saving money while enjoying free resources, monoca 2 can help keep your reading organized.

We’d love to hear how you, the reader, are using monoca 2 to track and enhance your own reading journey. Share your creative setups in the comments and thank you for joining us once again.

Where to Download

The fully unlocked version of monoca 2 comes with unlimited item creation, 10 shared groups, no ads, and higher resolution icons and images. It is available for a single, lifetime unlock payment of $9.99. Share your device’s trial code with a friend to give them a 25% discount. Share each other’s codes and you can both receive a discount.

App Store: Download for iPhone/iPad

Google Play: Download for Android

Web(Beta): https://monoca2.web.app/

The post Modern Books at archive.org appeared first on Sola of America, Inc..