The Top 3 Free Offline GPS Apps For Android

Google Navigation for Android is one of the best map solutions you can get in the palm of your hand, but what if you don’t have a data connection? Whether you’re traveling abroad, using a Wi-Fi-only Android tablet, or just looking to use less data on your phone, you can use one of these map applications to see where you are and get navigation directions.

If you start digging through Google Play for offline GPS apps, you’ll find a lot of poor-quality free apps and high-quality apps that cost money. We’ve done the digging for you and found the best free options

Google Maps

Google Maps has built-in support for offline maps. This feature lets you download a map area to your Android, so you can view it without a data connection. This was previously a labs feature with a variety of bugs, but it’s now solid and stable.

However, there’s one significant limitation: Only map tiles are downloaded. You can’t search for points of interest or get navigation directions offline.

To download a map area for offline use, launch Google Maps, tap the menu button, and select Make available offline.

Zoom and pan around the map with your fingers until the map area you want to use offline is within the square. When it is, tap Done.

Google Maps will download the map area for offline use. You can view your offline maps by opening the My Places screen and swiping to the Offline category.

While offline, you can open Google Maps and use your GPS to see where you are, including a detailed map of nearby streets and some landmarks. While you can’t get directions while offline, you can ask for directions while you’re online and then go offline, using the directions to get where you’re going without a data connection.

OsmAnd

OsmAnd is a full GPS application that offers turn-by-turn directions and an offline point-of-interest database. It also has other features that you might be accustomed to from GPS devices, including spoken directions.

OsmAnd uses OpenStreetMap data. You’ll need to download map files to your device when you first use the app. The free version allows you to download ten map files for free, which should be more than enough for most people.

OsmAnd allows you to navigate to locations by address or by searching a point-of-interest database. It will also speak turn-by-turn directions to you so you can follow them while driving, just as you could with a dedicated GPS unit. OsmAnd isn’t just for driving, but also offers walking, biking, and some public transit directions.

Navfree

Navfree is another free offline GPS app that depends on OpenStreetMap data. Like OsmAnd, it offers turn-by-turn directions, offline point-of-interest search, and spoken directions.

Its main screen looks very similar to a dedicated GPS unit. Some of the features, like the Google Search feature, require a data connection, but the basic map-viewing, navigation and point-of-interest features don’t.

Both OsmAnd and Navfree are solid, well-put-together, and full-featured apps. They use the same map data, so which app you prefer will depend on which interface you like best.

More Options

The above options aren’t the only offline map apps for Android. If you’re looking for a simple offline map app that isn’t Google Maps, try MapDroyd. MapDroyd uses the same OpenStreetMap data as Navfree, but it doesn’t provide point-of-interest or turn-by-turn navigation features. It’s a small, simple application — it’ll show you a map and display your location on it.

MapDroyd’s strength is its small map data. It also lets you download smaller areas of map data instead of entire countries, saving space on your device’s storage. While point-of-interest search isn’t available, you will see some locations and landmarks if you zoom in far enough.

If you’re travelling — or you happen to live in a big city that’s supported — TripAdvisor’s travel guides are also excellent, free apps. They can be used entirely offline and include maps with GPS and the ability to display nearby useful landmarks, from subway stations and ATMs to restaurants and attractions. These apps even include reviews so you can read up on a restaurant before dining there, and full maps of subway lines in the area so you can easily find your away around — all offline.

We’ve also covered some other offline map apps for Android. PC users can try GMapCatcher to download and view maps on their PC without an Internet connection.

If you’re looking for more great Android apps, check out our list of the best Android apps. We also have a full guide to Android — free!

Have you tried any of these apps, or do you know a better one? Leave a comment and let us know what you think.

Image Credit: Smart Phone Navigation via Shutterstock

zz How to Use Your Tablet as a Second Monitor

Dual monitors are increasingly becoming the norm for today's hyper-connected workstations. Whether you're trying to keep track of different browser tabs at work or you need more on-the-go workspace for your business trip, a tablet can act as a handy second monitor and a boon to productivity.

Tablet use is certainly on the rise. Apple unveiled the iPad Mini on Oct. 23. CEO Tim Cook also announced that the company sold its 100 millionth iPad earlier in October. Google's Nexus 7 and Nexus 10 will be available in November; pre-orders for the Microsoft Surface are sold out; Asus unveiled its Vivo Tab RT last week; and the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2 remains a popular model.

SEE ALSO: Surface Is a Tablet Windows Users Will Love [REVIEW]

Mobility is one of the main reasons people choose tablets. But owners don't have to use tablets in the traditional sense to get the most out of their devices — add a tablet to your overall desktop setup to streamline productivity. Here are some instructions to help get you started.

Download a Second Display App

While it takes a bit more work than simply connecting a standard display, there's no hacking required to use your tablet as a second monitor. Several iOS and Android apps essentially fool your desktop into thinking that you're connecting another external monitor to the system. Here's a short list of the more popular apps available, which can help you configure your setup within minutes.

• Air Display ($9.99): Air Display lets you connect your iPad or Android device to your Mac or Windows computer, but also lets you connect your laptop as a wireless second monitor for your desktop.
• iDisplay ($4.99): This app, created by Shape.ag, quickly sets up your portable monitor.
• REDFLY ScreenSlider ($1.99; currently 50% off): ScreenSlider is only for Android devices used with Windows computers. The website says that it will be available for other devices soon.
• MaxiVista ($9.99): Only for use with iPads and Windows operating systems.
• Splashtop XDisplay (Free for 10 minutes at a time; $4.99 in-app purchase for extended use): Splashtop is known more for its app, which gives you remote access to your desktop. But by downloading XDisplay and the Splashtop Streamer, you can set up your iPad as a second monitor.

These apps all have similar and straightforward setup instructions. To use iDisplay as an example, here's what you should expect as far as configuration goes.

1. Make sure your computer and tablet are both connected to the same Wi-Fi network.
2. Download the iDisplay app to your tablet.
3. Download the desktop client to your computer and run it.
4. Set up permissions/allow firewall exceptions (if applicable).
5. Open the app on your device and select your computer's name.
6. The screen should flash, and your tablet should be connected.
7. If the size of screen on your tablet seems small, you may need to pinch-and-zoom to correct it, or you may need to disconnect and reconnect.

Note that these directions may change slightly, depending on the app or operating system (rebooting may be required). Follow the prompts for your chosen app and desktop client, and consult the app's website if you run into any issues.

Once setup is complete, you'll have a new, touchscreen display that will help you complete any project in a shorter amount of time.

Alternative: Use Tablet as a Standalone Monitor

If you feel like your tablet was expensive enough and you don't want to spend even more money on these apps, there's always the no-hassle but often overlooked option of using your tablet next to your primary monitor.

Invest in a sturdy stand or transformable cover for your tablet and set it on your desk. While you're sending emails, writing an article or drafting a spreadsheet on your computer, you can use your tablet to display TweetDeck or HootSuite, Netflix or CNN, Pinterest or Spotify, etc.

How do you plan on using your tablet as an additional monitor? Describe your ideal setup in the comments below.

zz Intel Introduces Silvermont to Battle ARM in Mobile

As the mobile market continues to grow, Intel is going after ARM. For real this time.
Today, Intel introduced Silvermont, its new 22nm system-on-chip microarchitecture that will underpin its next generation of Intel Atom processors. According to Intel, Silvermont will give you three times the performance and five times less power consumption than current Atom core chips. With those specs, Intel hopes your next smartphone and tablet have Intel Inside — as opposed to a chip based on the ARM architecture, which dominates today’s mobile landscape.
Silvermont’s improved features include the new Out of Order execution pipeline. By cramming native instructions together, Intel has been able to extract better efficiency from its pipeline. It’s like having one guy being able to carry three buckets, instead of three guys each carrying one through a hallway. This is helped by Intel’s 3D tri-gate transistor technology. By building up instead of out, Intel has been able to cram more transistors onto a chip.
If you’re concerned about your mobile battery — and no one likes to charge their battery more than once a day — Intel hopes its Silvermont dynamic stand-by mode will help. Atom chips with Silvermont can be dynamically adjusted for burst operating points from stand-by mode. Plus, the new microarchitecture can determine the thermal, electrical, and power delivery of hardware to for better efficiency.
As for when these super-charged mobile chips will land in our phones, Intel didn’t share much information other than that products will be disclosed very soon. That probably means we’ll hear more from Computex on June 3.

zz The Tech Industry’s Darkest Secret: It’s All About Age

They don’t prepare you for this in college or admit it in job interviews. The harsh reality is that if you are middle-aged, write computer code for a living, and earn a six-figure salary, you’re headed for the unemployment lines. Your market value declines as you age and it becomes harder and harder to get a job.
I know this post will provoke anger, outrage, and denial. But, sadly, this is the way things are in the tech world. It’s an “up or out” profession — like the military. And it’s as competitive as professional sports. Engineers need to be prepared.
This is not openly discussed, because employers could be accused of age discrimination. But research, such as that completed by University of California, Berkeley, professors Clair Brown and Greg Linden shows that even those with masters degrees and Ph.Ds have reason to worry.
Brown and Linden’s analysis of Bureau of Labor Statistics and Census data for the semiconductor industry revealed that although salaries increased dramatically for engineers in their 30s, these increases slowed after the age of 40. After 50, the mean salary fell by 17% for those with bachelors degrees and by 14% for those with masters degrees and Ph.Ds. And salary increases for holders of postgraduate degrees were always lower than for those with bachelor’s degrees (in other words, even Ph.D degrees didn’t provide long-term job protection).
It’s the same in the software industry. Prominent Silicon Valley investors often talk about youth being an advantage in entrepreneurship. If you look at their investment portfolios, all you see are engineers who are hardly old enough to shave. They rarely invest in people who are old.
It may be wrong, but look at this from the point of view of the employer. Why would any company pay a computer programmer with out-of-date skills a salary of say $150,000, when it can hire a fresh graduate — who has no skills — for around $60,000? Even if it spends a month training the younger worker, the company is still far ahead. The young understand new technologies better than the old do, and are like a clean slate: They will rapidly learn the latest coding methods and techniques, and they don’t carry any “technology baggage.” The older worker likely has a family and needs to leave the office by 6 p.m. The young can easily pull all-nighters.
What the tech industry often forgets is that with age comes wisdom. Older workers are usually better at following direction, mentoring, and leading. They tend to be more pragmatic and loyal, and to know the importance of being team players. And ego and arrogance usually fade with age.
During my tech days, I hired several programmers who were over 50. They were the steadiest performers and stayed with me through the most difficult times.
It can be difficult for some companies to justify paying the age premium. For tech startups in particular, it always boils down to cost: Most can’t even afford to pay $60,000 salaries, so they look for motivated, young software developers who will accept minimum wage in return for equity ownership and the opportunity to build their careers.
We can blame the employer, but in a free economy you can’t really force any company to hire workers who have the wrong skills or to pay higher salaries. Larger companies develop products for global markets and have global workforces. They will hire where they can get the best skill for the best price.
So, whether we like it or not, it’s a tough industry, and the onus is on employees to keep themselves marketable. I know that many people will take offense at what I have to say, but here is my advice to those whose hair is beginning to grey.

• Move up the ladder into management, architecture, or design, and diversify your experience. Work with business executives in your company, in areas such as sales, finance, marketing/product management, legal, and operations. Develop a broader set of skills that make you more valuable to your employer and that differentiate you from others with just coding skills.

• Become an entrepreneur. Despite what some investors say, older age is an advantage in the startup world. You know more about industries and markets, and have ideas for products that the world actually needs and a better ability to motivate and manage than a kid out of school does.

• Keep your skills current. This means keeping up to date with the latest trends in computing, programming techniques, and languages, and adapting to change. To be writing code for a living when you’re 50, you will need to be a rock-star developer and be able to out-code the new kids on the block. Top developers are always in demand and companies will readily pay top dollars for them.

• If you’re going to stay in programming, realize that the deck is stacked against you. Even though you may be highly experienced and wise, employers aren’t willing or able to pay an experienced worker twice or thrice what an entry-level worker earns. Save as much as you can when you’re in your 30s and 40s, and be prepared to earn less as you gain experience.

Finally, I don’t know of any university, including the ones I teach at, that tells its engineering students what to expect in the long term or how to manage their technical careers. Perhaps it is time to let students know what lies ahead and prepare them for their difficult careers.

Goodbye fluorescent bulb? Philips says yes.

Goodbye fluorescent bulb? Philips says yes.

By TOBY STERLING, Associated Press–12 hours ago

AMSTERDAM (AP) — If you've worked in an office, you're probably familiar with the soft glow of fluorescent tubes drifting from the ceiling. If Europe's Philips brand is right, those lamps could soon be history.
Royal Philips NV, the Dutch consumer appliances giant, said Thursday that it has developed an LED light that will soon be far more efficient than the best fluorescents on the market. That should make it cheaper and greener, as well.
It's a combination that will inevitably help the LED dominate the market for illuminating the world's workplaces, according to the global leader in lighting sales.
In an interview with The Associated Press ahead of the unveiling of the new light, a top executive said the prototype LED is headed to mass production and will hit the market in 2015. He claimed that in 10 years, LEDs will replace at least half of the world's fluorescent bulbs, which have been the main source of workplace lighting since shortly after World War II.
"This is a major step forward for the lighting world," said Rene van Schooten, CEO of Philips' light sources division. "It will bring an enormous savings in energy."
Experts outside the Dutch company say they have long expected LEDs to eclipse fluorescents. If Philips' predictions are correct, however, the arrival of the LED in office spaces will come faster than expected.
The potential impact in energy and cost savings, as well as pollution reduction, is significant — though toxic materials are used in manufacturing both fluorescents and LEDs.
Lights suck up more than 15 percent of all energy produced globally, and fluorescent lights currently make up more than half of the total lighting market.
In the United States alone, fluorescents consume about 200 terawatts annually, according to Philips' estimates. Cutting that in half would save $12 billion in electricity costs and lessen carbon dioxide emissions by 60 million metric tons per year, the company said.
Dr. Eugenia Ellis, a professor of engineering and architecture at Drexel University, who works with LED installations, said an efficiency improvement at the level Philips forecasts would be impressive. Cost savings from using LEDs can already be significant: Ellis gave the example of a hospital recently saving $75,000 a year on energy bills by switching.
In recent years, energy-efficient lights made by Philips, Siemens AG, General Electric Co., Cree Inc. and others using LEDs, or light-emitting diodes, have made significant inroads in the home market, replacing many incandescent and halogen bulbs.
But because fluorescent bulbs are themselves highly efficient, LED lights have so far achieved only a small foothold in business and industry. LEDs are competitive in heavy use settings where their longer lifespans and a minor energy edge pay off.
Philips says its new lamp will change all of that. The technical milestone the company claims to have achieved is the ability to produce 200 lumens of light per watt. A lumen is the standard measure of the amount of light a lamp casts in a given area.
According to Mark Hand, a technology expert at Philips competitor Acuity Brands Inc., that's about twice the output per watt of the best fluorescent tubes currently on the market; he estimated the best LED lamps may get up to 120 lumens per watt.
Cree already advertises an LED lamp it says reaches 200 lumens per watt under some circumstances. Van Schooten said the Philips lamp is different. It will be the first on the market that reaches that level of efficiency and functions across a normal range of temperatures and is capable of consistently producing the same amount of warm white colored light as comparable fluorescent tubes.
Essentially, Van Schooten said, "if you walk into the room, you don't say, 'what a funny lamp.'"
U.S. Department of Energy projections published in April 2012 showed the government had expected the industry would only achieve efficiencies of 160 lumens per watt for LED lamps by 2015.
Philips' Van Schooten said that initially, prices of its LED tubes will still be higher than fluorescent lights. But taking into account electricity costs, the increased efficiency in 2015 will make them cheaper to own within a year, as opposed to three years at present.
And further manufacturing savings and efficiency improvements to LED lights will come with each generation of technology.
"The case is rather compelling, but of course it takes some time to replace existing infrastructure," Van Schooten said.
Philips lighting sales in 2012 amounted to 8.4 billion euros ($11 billion) in a total global market that consulting firm McKinsey puts at 70 billion euros.
Acuity Brands' Hand said that Philips' 10-year view may even be pessimistic. Although LEDs currently make up only a small percentage of his company's $1.9 billion in annual sales, he expects that to change quickly.
"LEDs will take over, definitely within 10 years," he said. He predicted that LEDs would make up more than 50 percent of new sales "certainly within 5 years, maybe within three."
Ironically, Philips will both lose and gain from the change: It is not only the largest maker of LEDs, but also of fluorescent tubes.
"Clearly we'll have to phase that out," Van Schooten said. But "we knew this moment was coming for some time."

Qualcomm Wants to Be Famous

Qualcomm is already worth more than Intel. Now the chip maker wants everyone to know it.

Qualcomm sells chips that go inside TVs, BMW dashboards, game consoles, and, most important, one-third of smartphones sold. It did $19 billion in business last year, and its stock market value has surpassed that of rival Intel.
But for all Qualcomm’s success, it’s like the Rodney Dangerfield of chip companies: it gets no respect. Intel’s name is still synonymous with microprocessors. Even in San Diego, Qualcomm’s hometown, the average person knows the company because its name is on the football stadium, not because its products run the all-important computers in their pockets.

Qualcomm’s chief marketing officer, Anand Chandrasekher, is frank about the company’s name recognition: “It’s not great.”
While it may not seem to matter whose chips are in your device, Qualcomm is trying hard to become a household name. With TV ads, noisy promotions, prizes, and YouTube videos, the company has been stepping up efforts to promote its Snapdragon line of chips for smartphones directly to consumers.
Chandrasekher, who worked at Intel for 18 years and took the Qualcomm job last August, wants to make sure phone shoppers recognize the Qualcomm name. “That’s why I’m here,” he says. “We’re a $100-billion-plus company, in terms of market cap, that nobody knows.”

Qualcomm executives began expanding the consumer marketing program in 2011, when the company realized that gadget fans were comparing specifications for smartphones as if they were PCs or even cars. If Qualcomm can get consumers to prefer phones with its chips, it could charge smartphone manufacturers higher prices or more easily fight its way into other markets, like desktop computers.
Qualcomm’s efforts echo the famous “Intel Inside” campaign launched during the 1990s, which saw the rival chip maker slap its logo onto nearly every PC. Intel ended up with a brand as well recognized as Disney or Coca-Cola.

Although Intel’s campaign was an inspiration, Chandrasekher says the mobile phone market is different from the market for PCs—it moves faster and requires more players working together to make a single device, and the phones don’t have room for physical stickers.
Instead, Qualcomm has tried to get its name in front of consumers in other ways, starting in San Diego. Two years ago, it convinced the city to change all the signs at Qualcomm Stadium to “Snapdragon by Qualcomm” during 10 days in December 2011, when several nationally broadcast football games were played. The move was an advertising coup, even though the city’s attorney later called the name change illegal.
Qualcomm won’t say how much it spends on marketing. But it has been working with four branding, PR, and advertising firms to developing movie theater and TV ads that will feature its new dragon mascot. In its ads, Qualcomm has tried to entertain, but it also has to make technical arguments about why its chips are better. Last year, Qualcomm engineers sat down to help brainstorm what Chandrasekher calls “viral videos” of quirky experiments involving melting butter and praying mantises—the idea being to illustrate the thermal and power efficiency of Snapdragon chips. Those videos have gotten two million views on YouTube, and some smartphone makers have begun featuring Qualcomm’s chips in their own advertisements.
There have been missteps. To say that Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs’s keynote at the annual Consumer Electronics Show this January came across as trying too hard would be putting it lightly. There were appearances by Big Bird, Nobel Peace Prize winner Desmond Tutu, rock bands, and awkwardly scripted actors playing stereotyped young people. Technology bloggers present at the Las Vegas show offered reviews that ranged from “insane” to “all over the place.”
Chandrasekher admits the CES show was “not as well received” as he had hoped. “We’ve been learning. You learn and move on,” he says. “People are starting to care about what’s inside their phones. We’ve invented a lot of these technologies and we feel, maybe rightly, that we should get some credit for it.”

He Has Millions and a New Job at Yahoo. Soon, He’ll Be 18.

One of Yahoo’s newest employees is a 17-year-old high school student in Britain. As of Monday, he is one of its richest, too.

That student, Nick D’Aloisio, a programming whiz who wasn’t even born when Yahoo was founded in 1994, sold his news-reading app, Summly, to Yahoo on Monday for a sum said to be in the tens of millions of dollars. Yahoo said it would incorporate his algorithmic invention, which takes long-form stories and shortens them for readers using smartphones, in its own mobile apps, with Mr. D’Aloisio’s help.

“I’ve still got a year and a half left at my high school,” he said in a telephone interview on Monday, but, partly to abide by the company’s new and much-debated policy that prohibits working from home, he will make arrangements to test out of his classes and work from the Yahoo office in London.

Mr. D’Aloisio declined to comment on the price paid by Yahoo (the technology-oriented Web site All Things D pegged the purchase price at about $30 million), and he described himself not as the majority owner of Summly but as its largest shareholder.

Summly’s other investors, improbably enough, included Wendi Murdoch, Ashton Kutcher and Yoko Ono. The most important one was Li Ka-shing, the Hong Kong billionaire, whose investment fund supported Mr. D’Aloisio’s idea early on, before it was even called Summly.

“They took a gamble on me when I was a 15-year-old,” Mr. D’Aloisio said, by providing seed financing that let him hire employees and lease office space.

The fund read about Mr. D’Aloisio’s early-stage app on the Silicon Valley news site TechCrunch, found his e-mail address and startled him with a message expressing interest.

The others signed up later. “Because it was my first time around, people just wanted to help,” he said.

For teenagers who fancy themselves entrepreneurs — and their parents, too — the news of the sale conjured up some feelings of inadequacy, but also awe. For Brian Wong, the 21-year-old founder of Kiip, a mobile rewards company, the reaction was downright laughable: “I feel old!”

A few years ago, Mr. Wong was described in the news media as the youngest person ever to receive venture capital funding. But a couple of younger founders came along — “and then Nick broke all of our records,” Mr. Wong said on Monday.

Among the attributes that helped Mr. D’Aloisio, he said, was a preternatural ability to articulate exactly what he wanted Summly to be. “There were no umms, no uhhs, no hesitations, no insecurities,” Mr. Wong said.

Mr. D’Aloisio, for his part, sounded somewhat uninterested in answering questions about his age on Monday. He acknowledged that it was an advantage in some pitch meetings, and certainly in the news media, “but so was the strength of the idea.” He was more eager to talk about his new employer, Yahoo, which is trying to reinvent itself as a technology company (having dropped the digital media tagline it used before Marissa Mayer became chief executive last year).

“People are kind of underestimating how powerful it’s going to become and how much opportunity is there,” he said.

For a company that badly wants to be labeled innovative, those words are worth a lot.

Mr. D’Aloisio’s father, a commodities trader, and his mother, a lawyer, had no special knowledge of technology. But they nurtured their son’s fascination with it and he started coding at age 12. Eventually he decided to develop an app with what he calls an “automatic summarization algorithm,” one that “can take pre-existing long-form content and summarize it.” In other words, it tries to solve a problem that is often summed up with the abbreviation T.L., D.R.: “too long, didn’t read.”

Summly officially came online last November. By December, Mr. D’Aloisio was talking to Yahoo and other suitors.

Yahoo said in a statement that while the Summly app would be shut down, “we will acquire the technology and you’ll see it come to life throughout Yahoo’s mobile experiences soon.”

Other news-reading and news-skimming apps made for mobile devices have attracted news media and technology company attention as of late. The social network LinkedIn was said to be pursuing an app called Pulse earlier this month. Still, the eight-figure payday for a teenage entrepreneur on Monday struck some as outlandish and set off speculation that Yahoo was willing to pay almost any price for “cool.”

Mr. D’Aloisio, though, will have a long time to prove his and his algorithm’s worth. As for the sizable paycheck from Yahoo, he said he did not have any specific plans for the sudden windfall. “It’s going to be put into a trust fund and my parents will help manage it,” he said.

He did say, however, that “angel investing could be really fun.” When not working at Yahoo, he will keep up with his hobbies — cricket in particular — and set his sights on attending college at Oxford. His intended major is philosophy.