Netflix has offered the ability to download shows for a couple of years now. However, the onus was on the user to manually add episodes into the offline mode. Thankfully, a new software update takes care of the downloading for you. Here's how it works.

The Disconnect, a new magazine featuring short stories, articles and poetry, is online-only. But you can't actually read it while you're online. The webzine hides behind a warning notice until you disconnect your phone or computer from the internet. (The whole zine loads as soon as you visit one page.) "This is not a Luddite rallying cry against modernity," says editor Chris Bolin. It's "an experiment-in-progress".

When people ask where I live I'm more likely to say "Twitter" than my city of residence. And just like my actual city, sometimes I need to get out of town and hole up somewhere else -- somewhere with actual trees with actual birds tweeting.

Great news if you're the sort of person who just wants to kick back and watch movies on your laptop when you're flying. The Netflix app for Windows 10 now supports offline playback, meaning you can download shows and movies and save them for when you don't have Wi-Fi.

Android: When your phone loses service, Google search becomes useless. The company wants to fix that. Now, if you make a search while you're away from an internet connection, your phone will save the search and try again when you regain service.

Rejoice, you can download Netflix movies and TV shows to watch offline. Unfortunately, it only downloads to your built-in storage by default, which can lead to some slow, cluttered phones. If you'd rather use the extra space on your SD card for all those Stranger Things episodes, here's how.

Android: Facebook for Android just made it a lot easier to watch your favourite videos whenever and wherever you like. You can now save any video from your Facebook feed and download it for offline viewing later.

Your browser saves a cache of most pages you visit. Wouldn't it be handy if you could access that cache when you lose your internet connection? By enabling the Offline Auto-Reload Mode flag, you can do just that.

Windows/Mac/Linux: Khan Academy is very useful for learning about computer science, maths, and many other subjects. If you'd rather learn without being tied to an internet connection, KA Lite allows you to manage and view downloaded Khan Academy videos.

After travelling to 16 countries in three months, Sarah Chang has picked up a few cool travel tips. The most important tip: make sure you have all your information on your phone, ready for offline access.

Google has rolled out a new version of its Sheets spreadsheet that adds offline mode, improves performance with larger spreadsheets and enables filtered views. The improvements are welcome, but some missing features might cause you to hold back on switching.

Any.DO just created a Chrome App -- a packaged experience that runs through the Chrome browser but feels more native -- that allows offline work and voice dictation.

Using cloud-based services without an internet connection is challenging; developing them doubly so. But it's not impossible, as Amazon's newly-released DynamoDB Local tool demonstrates.

Android/Windows/Mac/Linux: Wikipedia, for all its flaws, is an unparalleled wealth of information. It's also entirely unavailable without an internet connection -- unless you use Kiwix.

Google Drive lets you work offline so you can view and edit files without an internet connection -- but you have to be using the right browser or mobile app, and it still only works with some features. Here's where you can do it.

iOS: Google Drive, Google's Dropbox-like competitor, acquired native clients for iOS today, which allow you to view documents in full screen on your iPhone or iPad, and edit Google Docs offline while you work.

Google just released an update to its Maps app for Android, providing offline access to whatever maps you may want on hand.

As part of today's announcement that a new Chromebook and Chromebox are on the way, Ars Technica is also reporting that offline editing is finally coming to Google Docs in June.

English-language editions of Wikipedia will be offline for 24 hours from 4pm Wednesday January 18 (Australian Eastern daylight saving time) to protest the proposed Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) in the US. If you urgently need Wikipedia content during that period, what can you do? Here are a few emergency alternatives.