Wired article on apps that don't need constant data

These Commute-Friendly Apps Don’t Require a Data Connection

Canon MP620 pixima setup

Wasn't super easy to get this printer on the wifi. The rough steps were:

1. get it working via usb
2. get IJ network tool from canon via the Thailand site - why isn't this avaiable on the MP620 drivers page in Canon Canada? who knows
3. Run the IJ network tool to setup your access point
4. turn off printer
5. turn on printer
6. add printer in osx.. wait for it to just show up magically (don't enter it via IP address)
7. May take a reset to show up..
8. Then it worked - and I'm using OSX 10.11.6

Update for mac osx 11.1 big sur - we bought a new MacBook and Cannon's drivers are not supported

Based on the great guide by John VanDyk. 

From the older machine that has drivers copy /Library/Printers/ 

Backup that Printers folder contents on the new machine

sudo launchctl stop org.cups.cupsd

Copy over the older files from that older machine and set permissions - 

sudo chown -R root:admin /Library/Printers/




Create this link as described by John - 

sudo ln -s /Library/Printers/Canon/BJPrinter/Plugins/BJNP/canonijnetwork.bundle/Contents/MacOS/canonijnetwork /usr/libexec/cups/backend/canonijnetwork




sudo launchctl start org.cups.cupsd

Then try to add the printer. 

As John wrote, try connecting it via USB cable before trying wifi. You may have to wait a bit for it to show up. I got it to work without doing USB first, so it might not be needed.

Google trips

Looks like google made a good trip planner app that works offline:

Google Trips

I haven't tried it out yet but from the video, it looks pretty smooth.

Google maps update

Big news from google maps - they added offline driving directions, store hours, search ability and contact information from the maps. This is pretty impressive and may few apps unnecessary (depending on the size of the area one can download).

I haven't got the google maps update yet but hopefully I will soon!

Shave data in chrome browser

I just noticed that Chrome for Mobile has a setting to reduce mobile bandwidth. It looks to be off by default. It looks like some type of proxy through google servers but I haven't read the details or tried it out. I figure'd I would mention it all the same.

Instructions:
“Settings” > “Bandwidth management” > “Reduce data usage.” Then simply turn the toggle to “On.” (source)

Maps with out a data plan on android

I found out about another app that allows offline maps: HERE by Nokia

Looks like it is pretty smart about caching but you can also download whole countries. These seem to be pretty big - Canada was 2gb. I guess the size is because it does offline directions which is great. I was even able to do directions without downloading Canada - it was able to use it's cache (I think).

One annoying thing is that it needed me to sign up, but it was pretty fast.

So it's a good option in comparison to MAPS.ME - the key thing is that Here is completely free. And google maps still doesn't have offline directions/routing (MAPS.ME has it for the paid version)

Education without a data plan

Quick note - Coursera lets you download course videos to your phone. Great for taking a class while offline. Or just saving data costs.

Wiki encyclopedia offline

I posted about offline wikipedia before but I forgot to post about the app I'm using currently:
wiki encyclopedia offline.

I don't think it's been updated in awhile and it won't give you a copy of everything on wikipedia but it's still pretty good.

Word Lens

Google bought Word Lens recently and made it free on the play store.

It's amazing, just in time for my visit to Germany.

It has a good deal of languages and works fast and perfectly without internet.

Offline maps in new google maps

Looks like there is a way to get offline maps in the newest versions of google maps.

Zoom to an area, then type or say “ok maps” directly into the search box. It seems it can handle a city reasonably well.

Maps with me

I couldn't use the normal google maps download offline for Japan so I installed mapswithme.

It seems to do the job pretty well but I haven't fully tested it out yet.

Update: it can do route mapping now.

Trip advisor without a data plan

I just found out that Tripadvisor provides city guides that work offline. I haven't tried it out in a new city but it sounds pretty solid. They can be found on the app store by searching for "city guides trip advisor" plus the city you are looking for.

It's also nice that it installs to the SD card by default, saving space (although it is still 6mb).

Make sure you run the app first, because on first run it goes and downloads a bunch of data (may take awhile). One bunch is photos which is probably pretty useful - being able to view user contributed photos of the entries without a data plan.

Going on a trip

Every now and then you hear stories about people going overseas and ending up with a $25,000 phone bill from using a data plan. It's realy handy to have data while on a trip and theirs ways to do it with some planning.

Heres what I do before a trip:

• create a label for important trip documents like reservations etc.
• Set this label to sync offline in the Gmail application (settings -> your account/email -> "Sync inboxes and labels" -> then find your label)
• create a shortcut to the label on your home screen
• download map areas to google maps (or MAPS.ME or HERE)
• star specific locations in map app (hotel etc.), either with a star or via My places for google maps
• download wikisherpa versions of wikitravel
• download trip advisor city guide if available
• install apps or pictures for subway maps
• install apps for translation (some of these have huge offline lexicons that are downloaded to your phone)
• download TED talks for watching on the plane (or other movies/tv shows)
• don't forget to pack the charger!

The first two points are the best I'd say. Having all your documentation one press away is pretty handy. Also, having internet around is always handy.. I have a shortcut on my homescreen to the wifi menu which is handy when you need to make a quick skype call.

Google maps upgrade

Looks like the download map area has left the labs and is in the main google maps app.

The download area is much bigger. I was able to download a map area of 72mb. I'm guessing it's a lot less buggy than the lab version. Hopefully soon directions will be offline too.

Google docs offline

The google docs app just improved offline access. I haven't checked it out yet but it sounds good.

Okawix

I upgraded my SD card and tried to get Okawix working so I can compare it to wikidroyd. I wasn't able to get anywhere. One of the problems is that it doesn't deal well with complete wikipedia. One feature is that it use images which is great, but apparently for wikipedia that's over 32gb so it won't fit on a phone. The main problem is that you can't clearly download the database files with another computer and put them to the phone (unless they are under 4gb).

Also, it claims to be open source but the sourceforge site is empty.

Japanese without a data plan

I was just on vacation in Japan and I found the JED app to be pretty solid for helping communicate. It has a dictionary of over 300,000 terms and it's pretty easy to search, most of the time I beat my girlfriend who was armed with a phrasebook.

Ted talks without a data plan

I recommend TED air for ted talks because it can download the talks to the SD card for later viewing. I was waiting for a TED app with this feature and I'm glad its here.

Tide charts without a data plan

Just like sunset and moonrise it's easy to predict the tides. All you need is location it seems. There is xtide that seems to that and a few websites and apps use it.

For android the best I found seems to be Tide Prediction. The only problem I have with it is that it uses over 7mb of internal memory space. It moves some data to the SD card but not the majority unfortunately. But yea, it's still pretty good, shows current time correctly and can find location based on GPS.

Android without a data plan

I have a nexus one that I bought straight from google. I didn't bother getting a data plan. I have wi-fi at home and at work, plus my girlfriend has a data plan on her phone. So I don't really need it much.

I consider it to be a full computer so I use it a lot without data to do many things. What follows is a list of free apps I find useful without a data connection. If you have a data plan you may still find these handy while travelling or if you just want data faster.

For maps I used to use OruxMaps a lot. You use Mobile atlas creator to download a map from the internet and then put it on the phone. I still use it for hiking and camping for tracking routes and satellite maps. It basically turns your phone into those car GPS units that have the maps internally. It's a bit annoying to download the maps but it's reasonably fast. Now that the newest google maps caches the map tiles it's not so important.

iTravelFree is anther great data free app that just recently added maps. It's main purpose is for storing and browsing wikitravel documents. It's a great idea and I'm glad Jon Evans made it. You just search for a city and it goes and downloads it to your phone.

A similar app is WikiDroyd, it's pretty cool - imagine having all of wikipedia on your phone! Well, not all of it will fit unless you remove images and sound and such, but the text is enough. I have a 8gb so I couldn't really fit in the whole english wikipedia so I just have the 10% most popular articles (~350,000). Just like the other apps above you just load in the data on a computer or via wifi on your device.

One neat app I like is the j2me compass app by Dana Peters. I'm guessing your android device has a compass already but if it doesn't it can provide that. It's pretty neat, it just uses your location and time to know where the sun/moon is. From there it knows North. To get it working you have to use the netmite and shut off screen animations in the netmite settings.

Google reader and the android news reader are ok for news but not great. I haven't looked around for better apps that can cache news. The android one has a habit of trying to connect to the internet and wiping out the news cache it had previously.

Google listen is pretty good for downloading podcasts while you have wifi and listening to them later.

I'm also tempted to write an app that loads in transit data. Here in Vancouver I can download 4 months of bus schedules. In that 50mb file it has all you need to know when the next bus is or nearest stop.

Update:
Seems Orux maps has a restricted set of map sources now. Legal trouble..
Also another wiki app is available - okawix, I haven't tried it out yet though.

How to bookmark a google maps transit route

So a common task I have is getting the bus times from one place to another. Local bus websites are usually not so good compared to google maps. It has autocomplete and such helps with that but still it's annoying to pick the start, end, time and transit choice on google maps.

The first thought that comes to mind is to bookmark it. Problem is, it's not so easy. If you just bookmark what you put into google then you would have www.maps.google.com. Following that bookmark would give you blank options.

I managed to work out how to do this the other day so I figured I would share it online.

It's pretty easy -

1. Set all your options, destination point, start point and transit as mode.
2. Set time box to "Leave now"
3. Click on the little "link" link at the top right, it's beside "send" and "print"
4. Copy the URL in the first textbox that appears
5. Paste that URL into your address bar
6. Check the result and if it's good add a bookmark, if not adjust the options and goto step 3
   
7. bookmark or favorite it like any other link

I hope this helps, I wasn't sure if this was worth putting online but I guess I can track how many people get here.

TIP: set the first bus/transit stop as your first location if it's bad at calculating your walking time. (I use something like UBC Bus loop 6)