Best Free Offline Map Apps for Android , All Devices
There are a number of reasons why offline maps are a good addition to your smartphone arsenal. For starters, you can't always rely on network access or Wi-Fi. Usually when you want maps, you've found yourself in an area you're not so familiar with which may also have poor reception or none at all.Then, there's cost. Why pay data fees to repeatedly load the same map information every few days? Offline maps let you download once and visit again and again. And half the time they're free.
Don't get lost! Get offline maps!
Poor reception also wreaks havoc on my map searches, as my building creates a bit of a dead spot for my network, meaning I have to go down to the street before I can plan my route. In other poor reception areas of the city, the response time from online maps can be so slow I'd be better off buying a folding map.
The last thing you need when in dire straits is to see your battery disappearing as you try to figure out how to get home from wherever you've managed to find yourself. Offline maps mean this battery drain happens much slower than with online maps sucking up data.
Even if your smartphone or tablet battery can handle having network or Wi-Fi access on all the time, the convenience of offline maps is hard to beat, especially when they can offer almost all the same features as online maps.
So, the only question left is: to pay or not to pay? Of course if you want to drop some cash, you can get some seriously good map apps, but there are also a few really good quality free downloads out there too. Here are my picks.
I've been using this offline map app for ages and I love it. Google Maps hardly gets a look in with me these days since I discovered this little beauty, especially considering I don't always keep my data connection turned on. So having a detailed map on hand without needing to connect, load, search and so on is great.
Maps With Me Lite utilizes data from OpenStreetMap which is of course not as detailed as Google Maps, but for a free service it's plenty good enough for everyday users. The open source maps are also updated quite regularly so the detail is constantly improving.
Maps With Me Lite is a free version of a paid app, but you get almost the same functionality as the paid version for free. The only major things you can't do with the lite version is search for addresses and bookmark specific locations. It's a pared-back basic map, but it works.
It's important to note that the free version of Maps With Me does not support navigation. If navigation is your thing, then you will have to look elsewhere. There's also no distance measurement available, although location coordinates exist for all map locations and the GPS locator is very fast.
It must also be noted that offline maps take up space. Maps With Me Lite, once you've downloaded the app and the basic world map, has already eaten up 50 MB of space, with the specific area maps (getting you right down to street level) taking up even more. With today's smartphone memory capacities though, that's not such a big deal.
Another worthy freebie, RMaps has even more offline features. It does almost everything the previous app does but includes in the free download the features for which you have to pay extra with Maps With Me: distance calculation, auto-follow, auto-rotate, and POI functionality.
This app has quite a different look and feel to it with really nice map detail at certain resolutions. Personally I've had issues with the auto-rotate feature responding strangely and at some key zoom levels, which I used a lot, the detail is a bit crowded and not easily readable on a smartphone screen.
But the sheer magnitude of free features more than makes up for these minor issues and don't take long to get used to either. Not to mention RMaps is both an offline and online map, so when you're online you have even more added functionality.
Against this though: you only have limited cached offline map storage unless you download. Of course this also means that you have the opportunity to make it a tiny app if space is a concern. But if you want the same level detail as Maps With Me, it takes up a huge amount of space.
The features menu is where RMaps really comes into its own though, with a mind-boggling array of options to let you set it up exactly how you like. This includes tracking, search, distance and time interval settings, onscreen coordinates, pre-defined map overlays, and more.
Finally, offline maps with navigation, OsmAnd Maps also has turn-by-turn voice guidance and search functions, and includes GPS-assistance features like lane guidance, ETA and re-routing. As the name implies, it also uses OpenStreetMap data.
Like the other apps, you must first download base maps, up to ten free ones, before you are asked to pay. Keep in mind that downloading voice prompts (recorded or text-to-speech) also come out of your ten free download limit!
Now I really like the look of this app, and it doesn't have the weird compass and auto-rotate issues that I had with RMaps. But it's another pimped-out app with options galore. Check out the screen shots if you don't believe me!
I found that navigation, turn-by-turn and search all worked great while offline, and the voice guidance was spot on. Basic map usage was as you'd expect but voice navigation and route-finding are where this app blows the others away. Pretty amazing for a free download!
If you want offline navigation and turn-by-turn GPS, this is the app for you. If you want a basic offline map for kicking around the city, get Maps With Me Lite, and if you need lots of features and both on and offline functionality, then you want RMaps.
Now, there's absolutely tons of free offline maps, of varying quality and size, and of course, Google Maps both online and offline. Plus all the paid apps and dedicated devices you can handle. These are just three of the numerous free offline maps that have stood out to me for various reasons. Let me know what your favorites are!
Useful Android tips and tricks that may improve your experience while using your Android device.
Whether you are new to Android and eager to try out every available option you see on the screen, or familiar with the system, including the annoyances that plague you on a daily basis, tips and tricks to get around a system is always helpful. We are here to help you with that.
In this post, we are featuring 10 useful Android tips and tricks that may improve your experience while using your Android device. Do note that the steps may vary a little from one Android phone to another due to the differences in the build and the OS version, but if you play around with it, the next step isn’t too far off.
Bugged by annoying app notifications that just keep coming? If you don’t know already, these app notifications also drain your phone’s battery. If you want to turn them off, and you are on Jelly Bean 4.1 and above, here’s how:
On any of your unwanted notifications in your notification bar, long press on the notification for a message box to appear.
Tap on App Info > Untick Show Notifications > OK.
2. Disable Mobile Data
Whenever you don’t need to stay connected, disabling the Mobile Data can help keep your smartphone battery from draining too quickly. Turning off mobile data is as easy as:
Going to Settings > Data Usage.
Disable Mobile data by toggling the setting from ON to OFF.
Want to keep track of how far your usage is from your monthly mobile data limit? If you have ICS and above, there is a feature which lets you keep track of how much of the quota you have left.
Head over to Settings > Data Usage.
Set your data limit by dragging the orange line to reflect your monthly quota.
Set your data usage cycle based on when your "month" starts and ends, and you’re done.
You will be alerted once you hit the limit you have set. Note that the tracked data usage of your phone may vary slightly than your carrier’s tracking.
4. Add Multiple Google Accounts
You need a Google account to use an Android phone but did you know you can choose to run more than one Google account on your Android device. This is convenient if you use more than one account for several of your Google services. To add multiple Google accounts:
Go to Settings > Add account.
Select Google and setup your New or Existing Google account.
Once added, choose what you want to sync with the account.
Repeat all the steps above if you want to add more accounts.
5. Disable Automatic App Updates
Prefer to read through app permissions and manually pick which app updates to adopt? You can, but first you need to disable your automatic app updates. Here are the steps:
Open Play Store and head over to Settings.
Tap on Auto-update apps.
Choose Do not auto-update apps.
If you want to enable the auto updates, follow the same path and choose Auto-update apps at any time or via Wi-Fi (available for certain Android devices only).
To update your apps manually, just open Play Store, and on the main page swipe in from the left and tap on My apps. You can tap on apps with pending updates and update them manually, or if you like to update them all at once, just tap on Update All.
6. How To Check For Android System Updates
For Android users that are using stock ROM, you may want to look for new updates to your system. To check for updates:
Go to Settings > About phone/tablet.
Tap on Systemupdates.
Tap Check now to look for system updates.
7. Changing Default Apps
If you have already set some default apps for particular tasks (e.g. using Chrome for opening web links) but wish to change this:
Go to Settings > Apps.
Swipe right and look for the All tab.
Select the app you want to remove as default.
Tap on Clear defaults.
8. Organize Homescreen Shortcuts With Folders
Once you have a lot of apps installed, your homescreen might be filled with app shortcuts. Unlike the app drawer, the apps on your home screen are not arranged alphabetically. So, you might want to create some folders for your homescreen shortcuts.
Assuming you have more than a handful of shortcuts already on your homescreen, long press on any of the shortcuts and drag it onto another shortcut.
A circle should now appear around the apps, indicating that a folder has been created.
By tapping on the newly created folder, a mini window will pop up with your apps in it.
You can drag and drop additional apps into the folder if you like. You can also rename the folder by tapping on the text area at the bottom of the mini window.
9. Disable Animations
Here’s a tip on how to make your Android device run a bit smoother: disable its animations. You will need to have access to Developer Options which can be found under Settings orAbout device.
Note: For some phones, you may need to go to Build number and tap on it repeatedly until you see "You are now a developer!". Developer options are now enabled.
Under enabled Developer options, look for Window animation scale, Transition animation scale, and Animator duration scale. Then, turn them off (disable) them one at a time.
10. How To Turn Off Auto-Correction
Hate the fact that your phone is going English teacher mode on you? Turn off auto-correction for peace of mind when texting.
Go to Settings > Language & input.
Tap on the settings icon next to the keyboard that you are using, e.g. Google Keyboard.
10 Tips To Tighten Security On Your Android Device
Smartphones have come to define us by being the portal to our online identity and as such should be treated with care and secured against any wrongdoing online (hacking) or offline (stolen). If you are not careful, losing your smartphone may mean more than just a loss in contacts and phone numbers. We’re talking about your social media accounts, your synced files, important documents, your emails, photos and messages. Your entire information is traceable and downloadable and may be shared all over the World Wide Web if you are not careful enough.
While we’d love it if people don’t mess around with other people’s personal information, putting morale aside, this is the virtual world where thieves and hackers hide behind anonymity and are hard to trace. There is no one better to protect your own data, than you. We hope these tips and tricks will be of help in that endeavor.
1. Do Not Save All Of Your Passwords
Many users tend to save their passwords to online services and sites on their device, never once thinking about what it would mean to a person who got their hands on the phone. Avoid having all important passwords saved in your device particularly when it comes to banking or payment apps.
2. Use Android In-Built Security
If you are running on Jelly Bean, you can have a screen lock and encryption enabled to further enhance your security. There are many types of screen locks available for you to choose from such as password, pin, pattern and face unlock, available in your Android settings. Even when setting pins or pattern locks, try not to make it easy for hackers to guess your password.
3. Lock Your Apps
It is necessary to lock your apps, especially the ones holding private information that you wish nobody but you could see. This is a second layer of security to prevent anyone from using your lost device particularly if they have managed to bypass your locked Android.
You can use a free app like App Lock for this exact purpose. The idea here is not to lock every single app in your device, just really data-laden ones like your email apps or file managers.
While you at it, avoid using a combination of a pin or pattern lock that can be traceable from the smudges of your screen (Yes, it is traceable).
4. The Importance Of App Permissions
Before you begin installing an app from Google Play, a list of requested permissions will pop up to show you what permission the app requires. Apps require permissions to do things but not all of them are necessary.
Always read through the permissions to make sure they make sense and correspond to what the app actually does eg. an alarm app does not require a permission to access your text messages. This is a real important step because not all apps in the Play Store are safe.
While you’re at it, make it a habit to read the comments as well as the rating of the app that you are going to download. This helps you understand more about what the app really does without trying it out firsthand.
5. Securing Your Network
One of the most important thing in protecting your Android is to secure your network. Try to avoid using public WiFi whenever you want to do something important like doing your banking online. As long you are sharing the same network with the public, they can easily sniff out your packets and translate it into actual data of your private information i.e. your passwords.
You can protect your information by using apps like Hideninja VPN so that your outgoing connection is always encrypted, making it harder for anyone to sabotage your data. If you suspect that your device is being attacked, WiFi Protector can help fend off these attackers. To further enhance your network security you can apply settings from SecDroid but note that this app is only for rooted phones.
6. Use Mobile Security App
It will make your job easier to have an app that handles most of your security issue. Find a mobile security app that you are comfortable using, for example: Lookout Security & Antivirusand avast! Mobile Security. Even with a security app, you shouldn’t let your guard down as Android malware is getting stronger and more rampant, which brings us to the next tip.
7. Create Multiple User Account To Protect Privacy
If you own an Android tablet and have to share it with a sibling, a spouse, or your kids, having multiple user accounts will help each of you protect your privacy. In Jelly Bean for tablet, there is an option for you to create multiple user accounts. You can create another general account for anyone who wants to use your device. The option is under the Settings > Users section.
8. Prepare A Backup Of Your Data
A backup of your precious data is a must-have in the day and age of smartphones. Picture the worst case scenario where your Android device has been stolen or hacked. The last thing you can do is perform a remote wipe (see #10). Without a backup, you will lose all your information in your device.
Even if you could retrieve your stolen phone, chances are that hackers that have managed to access your device will render it useless. If you have a backup however, you can still restore your Android device back to its original state. You can choose to backup important information to the Cloud, your desktop or even to a flash drive, for insurance.
9. Track Your Lost Device
So you have a backup already but you really want to get your lost device back. Well, as the smartphone industry would have it, your phone is built to be trackable, via GPS. The catch is, you have to enable GPS on your phone for it to be tracked. Fret not because, there are plenty of device-tracking apps for Android that can help you locate your lost or stolen device, some can even turn on the GPS on your phone remotely.
10. Enable Remote Wipe
So you are at the point where you have everything installed and ready to go. But, you still need one last feature – the ability for you to wipe your device remotely. This is necessary, especially when you are sure that your Android is lost (forever). There’s no crying over spilt milk now – we can only prevent them from turning it into cheese.
I recommend 3CX Mobile Device Manager because it is free and easy to use. You can sign up for the account here and let just hope that the day you need to use their remote wipe feature will never come.
TODAY I AM WRITING A VERY INTERESTING POST FOR YOU FRIENDS..
WHAT IS THE COST TO HIRE A SPY WHO CAN ABLE TO SPY YOUR GIRLFRIEND 24X7 DAYS..????
ITS AROUND HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS OR MAY BE THOUSANDS OF DOLLARS BUT YOU ARE ON"Hacker Returns Blog", SO EVERYTHING HERE MENTIONED ARE FREE..
WOULD YOU BE HAPPY IF I WILL SHOW YOU A TRICK BY WHICH YOU CAN TRACK YOUR GIRLFRIEND, SPOUSE OR ANYONE'S MOBILE PHONE 24 X 7 WHICH IS ABSOLUTELY FREE..
THE ONLY THING YOU HAVE TO DO IS SEND A SMS LIKE SEND CALL LOG TO GET THE CALL HISTORY OF YOUR GIRLFRIEND'S PHONE.
SO lets Start The trick...
1) First of all go to android market with your Girlfriend,spouse,friends or anyone's phone which you want to spy.
2) Search for a android application named "Touch My life.."
3) download and install that application on that phone.
4) Trick is Over :)
Now you can able to spy that phone anytime by just sending sms to that phone.
Now give back that phone to your girlfriend.. and whenever you want to spy your girlfriend just send sms from your phone to your Girlfriend phone Which are mentioned in Touch My Life manage book.
i am mentioning some handy rules below...
1) Write "CALLMEBACK" without Quotes and Send it to your girlfriend's mobile number for a Automatic call back from your girlfriend's phone to your phone.
2) Write "VIBRATENSEC 30" without Quotes and send it to your girlfriend's mobile number to Vibrate your Girlfriend's Phone for 30 seconds..You can also change Values from 30 to anything for the desired Vibrate time.
3) Write "DEFRINGTONE" without Quotes and Send it to your girlfriend's mobile number..this will play the default ringtone on your girlfriend's phone.
4) Write "SENDPHOTO youremail@gmail.com" without Quotes and Send it to your girlfriend's mobile number.it will take the photo of current location of your girlfriend and send it to the email address specified in the SMS as a attachment.it will also send a confirmation message to your number.
5) Write "SENDCALLLOG youremail@gmail.com" without Quotes and Send it to your girlfriend's mobile number ..it will send all the call details like incoming calls,outgoing calls,missed calls to the email address specified in the SMS.
6) Write "SENDCONTACTLIST youremail@gmail.com" without Quotes and Send it to your girlfriend's mobile number ..it will send all the Contact list to the email address specified in the SMS.
So Guys Above all are only some Handy features of touch my life...You can also view more by going to touch my life application and then its manage rules.. :)
Android introduces a cool new feature to ensure protection of private data to it's users by Pattern Locktechnique. It is a unique thinking , other than remembering or setting difficult combination of password characters whether in numeric or alphabetic form. Pattern lock provides a huge set of patterns to choose from. User may set any unique and different pattern according to their wish anytime.
With advantage of locking screen using this unique way , there is also a problem that sometimes many of android users have to face i.e. what if they forget the pattern they had used to lock their device or try to unlock it with wrong pattern number of times that turned device to get locked permanently ? If you stuck in such problem so dont worry there are three methods to unlock your device.
Method 1. Unlock Lock Pattern Using Your Email
First method includes a simple way of logging in to your Google account and then getting RID of that lock pattern.This is easiest and most recommended way of unlocking your device.So if you have entered wrong pattern for 5 times and then if it is showing you the Forgot Lock Pattern option, then you can login through your Google account and bypass the lock pattern system on your device.
Method 2. Unlock Lock Pattern Using Command Prompt
If you have forgotten your email too and unable to log in to your google account then the second method could be handy that includes executing few lines of script in command prompt which will allow you to write any pattern and to get into your OS . As this method includes use of command lines , so it is not that user friendly but it is the most effective way for sure. It involves a few steps :
Step 1: Connect your Android Phone to Your Computer.
Step 2 : Open command prompt as administrator.
Step 3 : Now in command prompt window type the following code carefully exactly as it is and then press enter.
adb shell cd /data/data/com.android.providers.settings/databases sqlite3 settings.db update system set value=0 where name='lock_pattern_autolock'; update system set value=0 where name='lockscreen.lockedoutpermanently'; .quit
Step 4 : Now you will some screen as shown below and then you can reboot your phone and now when your will start again then try unlocking your phone using any random lock pattern and it will work pretty fine.
Step 5 : If you face any problem repeat same steps but instead of the above code try usingadb shell rm /data/system/gesture.key and then press enter and now try rebooting your device to see if it works.
Method 3. Unlock Using Hard Reset Option
Hard Reset is an inbuilt feature of android phones and tablets and every device has it. This method will unlock your device but will remove all user's data and settings as well. You should use this method when none of the above methods work for you and you need to unlock your device urgently. This will remove only the data from phone memory and not from the SD card available in phone.
It involves a few steps to unlock device :
Step 1 : Switch off your phone.
Step 2 : Now while turning your phone on , you need to press some specific combination of keys. Generally it is volume up + power button in many of the android devices so try them first and if they dont work for you so here are list of some popular device combination keys or else better way is to google it.
Nexus 7 - Volume Up + Volume Down + Power
Samsung Galaxy S3 - Volume Up + Home + Power
Motorola Droid X - Home + Power
Step 3 : Now when your phone starts up and you see the logo of your phone , leave the power but but continue holding the volume up button until you see android recovery screen.
you will see some screen like shown above. Just navigate to wipe data/factory reset using volume keys and then press Power button to select it.
Step 4 : You will see a screen as shown below :
Step 5 : After you reach to Yes option , select it by using power switch and then it will erase all data on your phone and will unlock it and so ready to be used once again .
So these were possibly all methods for unlocking Android device and to Bypass the pattern lock of android device but if you know any other methods so please do comment below and I will add your method too .
After our previous tips and trick about how to change MAC address on Windows, now we will learn about the same topic How to Change MAC Address on Kali Linux.
Changing MAC address or we also can call it MAC address spoofing will be useful in some cases, but we will talk about it later in conclusion at the end of this article.
Requirement:
1. Linux terminal
Step by step How to Change MAC Address on Kali Linux:
1. Open your terminal, and type
ifconfig | grep HWaddr
you will see your original MAC address, mine was 08:00:27:b2:4d:4b
2. To temporary change our MAC address, we need to turn off the network interface first by running this command
ifconfig eth0 down
3. After that we can configure the new MAC address
ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:00:00:00:00:02
you can change the MAC address using this hexadecimal format XX:XX:XX:XX:XX:XX
4. Now we can turn on the network interface again.
ifconfig eth0 up
5. And the last we can check again our MAC whether it's change or not.
if we follow until this step, MAC address will back to default after we restart our machine. Go to next page to view how to change MAC address permanently.
6. Kali Linux was built based on Debian. In Debian all the network interface was located on/etc/network/interfaces.
7. We will configure the /etc/network/interfaces. In this tutorial I will use pico text editor, but you can choose any of your favourite text editor.
pico /etc/network/interfaces
8. Now we will add one line of script to change our MAC address permanently
pre-up ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:00:00:00:00:02
This script will be called on system startup.
9. If we want to restore the default MAC address, just add the # sign in front of script in step 8.
#pre-up ifconfig eth0 hw ether 00:00:00:00:00:02
Conclusion:
1. Changing MAC address usually needed for privacy and prevent tracking in the local networkabout our hardware information(e.g: in public wi-fi network).
2. Some network administrator they make blocking rule in proxy or router by adding the MAC address. To ensure interoperability and preventing being blocked by the proxy or router blacklist rule, we can change our MAC address.
