Hasta La Gadget!

There’s no shortage of iPhone navigation apps out there, but we can’t say we’ve seen too many that come with 1.6GB of offline map data — especially for free. That’s the hook for NavFree USA, which just went live in the App Store — sure, it also has some interesting social features like crowdsourced map updates and navigating to friends, and you can buy add-ons like traffic and speed camera info, but we think most people will use the free turn-by-turn and call it a day. That is, until Apple builds navigation directly into the OS. PR after the break.

Update: Commenter marklarson just pointed out the hilariously misguided compass icon in the upper left there, and now we are downloading this app just to look at it whenever we need to be cheered up.

Continue reading NavFree launches free US iPhone navigation app with offline map data

NavFree launches free US iPhone navigation app with offline map data originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 18:41:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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This article was written on September 29, 2009 by CyberNet.

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Looking for a way to back up your old DVDs onto your hard drive? Want to watch your purchased DVD movies on your iPod? You’re certainly not the only one. For some reason however, developers are not very keen on developing tools that do this. Luckily, HandBrake has stepped up to the plate with a free tool that lets you take control of your media.

When starting HandBrake for the first time, you might get a little overwhelmed by all the knobs and buttons, especially if you’re not familiar with the audio/video codec lingo. Don’t worry, HandBrake has got your back. It comes with a truckload of presets, each of which with its own purpose. By using these, you don’t have to mess with video settings as long as you know what you want to do with your video. For example, you can convert your DVD to video formats that work with gaming consoles (Xbox 360, PS3 and PSP), the Apple TV and the iPod/iPhone. There’s also a “Classic” preset in case you have no idea which preset you should pick. Keep an eye on your hard drive though, because some of these presets can quickly make your videos take up a lot of space. In my test, the Classic preset used about 40MB for a five-minute video.

HandBrake also gives you the option to rip the DVD subtitles (if available) and embed them into your video. If you’re in the market for this feature, check the Audio/Subtitles tab.

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There’s one more thing you want to pay close attention to: the aspect ratio. Unless you know for sure that the DVD you want to rip is entirely in widescreen (16:9), you have to intervene before you let HandBrake have a go at your DVD. Otherwise, it will cut off the top and bottom border of the screen when encountering 4:3 video. Depending on your OS, you have to take a different approach to tackle this issue.

• Windows users – On the Picture Settings tab, look for the section called Crop and set the Top and Bottom to 0.
• Linux users – Click on the preview image at the bottom of the window. In the window that opens, look for the cropping options and set Top and Bottom to 0.
• Mac users – Same as with Linux, but instead of clicking a preview image you have to look for a ‘Picture settings’ button.

Once you get that out of the way, you can hit the Start button and go grab a cup of coffee. The ripping process may take a while depending on the speed of your DVD player and the horsepower in your PC/Mac.

Also, remember that you should only use HandBrake for backup purposes or to exercise your personal use rights. Keep it legal, kids.

HandBrake Homepage (Windows, Mac, Linux; Freeware)

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Well, I guess this was inevitable.

Last week, we reported that spam-tracking outfit Spamhaus had put out a bulletin warning visitors to beware of wikileaks.info, a WikiLeaks mirror site not officially affiliated with Julian Assange’s WikiLeaks organization.

Somehow, the dot-info site is where visitors are automatically sent to if they type in WikiLeak’s original domain: www.wikileaks.org (the exact way that switch happened remains somewhat murky–WikiLeaks.info claims they had no part in it).

Wikileaks.info is hosted by an organization that Spamhaus categorizes a Russian cybercriminal outfit that is breeding ground for spam, malware, and other assorted digital underbelliness.

WikiLeaks.info has denied any malware exists on their site. The site had even put out a “press release” on their site claiming the allegation against their site’s host are “false” and “none of our business” and went on to call for people to contact Spamhaus and “voice your opinion.”

This past weekend, Spamhaus site was the victim of a DDoS attack from AnonOps, the cyber vigilantes who fight on the side of all things leaked and wiki. In response, Steve Linford of Spamhaus sent out the following plea on behalf of his organization to say, in part (full text here):

Because they are using a Wikileaks logo, many people thought that the
“press release” was issued “by Wikileaks”. In fact there has been no
press release about this by Wikileaks and none of the official Wikileaks
mirrors sites even recognise the wikileaks.info mirror. We wonder how
long it will be before Wikileaks supporters wake up and start to
question why wikileaks.info is not on the list of real Wikileaks mirrors
at wikileaks.ch.

Currently wikileaks.info is serving highly sensitive leaked documents
to the world, from a server fully controlled by Russian malware
cybercriminals, to an audience that faithfully believes anything with a
‘Wikileaks’ logo on it.

Spamhaus continues to warn Wikileaks readers to make sure they are
viewing and downloading documents only from an official Wikileaks mirror
site. We’re not saying “don’t go to Wikileaks” we’re saying “Use the
wikileaks.ch server instead”.

Hey, guess what? We’re going to get another tablet at CES in January. No huge surprise there–we’re anticipating an utter deluge of the devices at the show. Motorola is seemingly attempting to undercut some of those last minute iPad/Samsung Galaxy Christmas purchase with a little teaser of its own announcement.

The company used its @MotoMobile Twitter page to kick off speculation, tweeting, “Might want to hold off on that tablet purchase until 2011.” The page linked to a tongue-in-cheek CGI tour of the “evolution of tablets,” including such detours as the Rosetta Stone (“Good graphics, but weight makes for difficult portability”) and the Ten Commandments (“Excellent durability, but zero flexibility”).

The company also used the occasion to take potshots at the competition, the iPad (“It’s like a giant iPhone, but…it’s like a giant iPhone”) and the Samsung Galaxy Tab (“Android OS, but Android OS…for a phone”). The video finishes on a shot of what we’re led to assume is the shrouded unannounced Motorola tablet.

Not a lot of info here, but between the Samsung comment and the fact that Motorola has had some recent success with Android, as of late, we can probably assume that the thing will run Google’s mobile–the tablet version. The goofy little animated bee also hints at the use of the Android “Honeycomb” build. As for a name? The Motorola Evolution, perhaps?

Check out the video, after the jump.

How many dedicated LTE-capable USB modems does Verizon need? At least three, apparently, because we’ve just been sent shots of Novatel’s upcoming USB551L that looks perhaps a tad glossier and sleeker than the Pantech and LG models that have preceded it. Hard to say from the spec sheet here, but it looks like there’s at least a chance this is LTE-only without CDMA / EV-DO fallback since there’s no explicit mention of it; unlikely considering how small Verizon’s LTE footprint is for the time being, but you never know. More importantly, there is explicit mention of Mac support, something the carrier’s current options lack. No word on a release date or pricing, but we imagine it won’t be long now that these dummy units — which you can see in the gallery below — are floating around.

Novatel’s USB551L LTE modem for Verizon in the wild, does Mac support out of the box originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 20 Dec 2010 17:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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