I have created a Database of Weather Applications for iOS, this is hosted on Google Apps and is available for anyone to edit, ultimatley i would like this to become the ultimate resource for Weather Apps.

View The Database

Find the best Weather App is something that took some doing, that was until i came across Dark Sky, at the time Dark Sky was not available in the UK so i signed up to the newsletter to be keep in the loop of and developments.

While i was waiting the Dark Sky team developed something magical Forecast.io was born, this is not your normal App, it dosen’t require updates it is essentially a website that you can save to your home screen (iOS) but it dosen’t stop there this App is available on almost EVERY platform, Windows, Mac, iOS, Android.

The Web Version

The web version is the fully featured version of Forecast.io it has all the features you would expect, when you visit the page you are presented with a screen which looks like this;

At the top is a search box, this is where you enter your current location, of course you can let your browser automatically select your location if you like, if not type it on in there and Forecast will update with weather about your area.

As you can see here we have a globe which contains the magic sauce that makes forecast so special, this data is gathered from sources all over the world and the Dark Sky team use software to manipulate it to what you see on your screen.

To the right of the globe you will see the Right Now section, this is what the weather is doing right this very moment, it will give you an icon with the temperature to the side of it under that is a brief description of the current conditions, you should also see a small + next the words Right Now clicking this will give you detailed information on the current conditions including, Air Pressure, Wind, Temp Direction, Visibility etc.

Below that you have information for the next 24 hours and the next 7 days this isn’t as detailed as the 24 hour data and will give you a brief description of the weather in text form.

Further down the page you will find the 7 day weather forecast, this includes conditions, description high/low temp clicking the + icon on this location will give you a detailed breakdown of the prediction for the weather during that day, this is presented in a timeline format with details of that weather above the timeline.

In the top right of your screen you will see a selection this allows you to change from Fahrenheit & Celsius

Depending on your location Forecast will also give you weather warnings, in this case there is a weather warning in place for Rain in the East Midlands, East Of England, Humber, London, North West London, North West England and more this weather warning is also linked to the Met Office as that is where the warning was obtained from.

Another feature that sets Forecast apart is Time Machine, Dark Sky have collected data from lots of different sources and compiled this into a web app they like to call Time Machine, here you are able to put in a date of your choice and Forecast will give you back the weather conditions from that date, this is still experimental but it works really well from what i have seen.

Another little treat that is packed into Forecast is Raw, Raw allows you to see the Raw data collected from the weather stations around the world and how the various elements compare, this is good for seeing if there is anomaly on the front end of Forecast or if the carious models match up to the forecasted weather. The Dark Sky team explain this in more detail here

The App Version

Available for your phone is the exact same application, this isn’t an app that you download from the App store however, in your browser of choice for your mobile device navigate to Forecast.io and you will be presented with instructions on how to install Forecast to your device, this will (in iOS) add an icon to the homescreen which gives you quick access to Forecast.

When you first visit Forecast you will be presented with this overview screen, it looks very simillar to the desktop version but has no map on the screen although this is available by clicking the Map button in the top right corner of the screen.

Here you have the Current Conditions which displays the temp, and a brief description of what the weather is like right now, next to that you have the + where you can expand the weather information to get more information on things like Air Pressure, Temperature direction.

The next hour and next 24 hours are also shown here, these are displayed using the brief description output, no further information is displayed.

At the bottom is a small timeline, this is the rainfall time line, here will display how much rainfall is going to fall and for how long, you can see here that Forecast is predicting rainfall for the next 10 minutes but it is only going to be light rain.

Finally at the very bottom of the screen you can see the words “Next 7 Days” if you swipe up on this you will display the forecast for the next 7 days

This is what the screen looks like for the Next 7 Days, you are given the weather conditions in icon format, there is no brief description here, the high/low temp is displayed here along with a + to get more information on the selected day.

Pressing the + will open a pane under the selected day which will reveal a timeline much like the desktop version, you will be able to see what the weather is going to be doing at a certain time of the day, you are also given sun rise and sun set information here along with the brief description that is displayed on the desktop version.

The weather radar is also available in Forecast, at the top are three tabs, Local, Regional & Global if you would like to see the radar for your local area you would obviously just click local, if you would like to see if radar for your regional area you would just click regional and so on. In the above regional is selected along the bottom you can see another time line with a red line this red line moves along the time line to different time frames when this moves the radar image changes.

You can move your finger along this time line to change the image manually if you wish or let Forecast automate the process for you.

Overview

To me Forecast is the best weather app available, there are so many alternatives out there the App Store must be full of them but nothing really comes close the beauty and accury that Forecast provides, if you are looking for a App to give you up-to-date weather information i would suggest looking no further than Forecast.

Shaving is one of them things i don’t really enjoy doing, it is a hassle, it isn’t fun and generally i get my face cut a number of times during the process, i generally have a shave once or twice a week, the wife dosen’t like a stubbly face so i need to make sure it is smooth it i want to get a kiss in the mornings, recently i read an article on The Magazine which has inspired me to try and make The Wet Shave part of my daily start-up routine.

My Current Tools

At the moment i am using a disposable razor, one of them ones you get from the chemist and has around 10 razors in for £2 they have two blades and for the most part are “ok” however one problem i tend to find with these particular razors is that they clog up with hair, you can get around 1 or 2 strokes out of it before you are using the protective cover to try and scrape the hair from in between the blades.
I also use a cheap shaving cream which seems to work but after reading the above article kinda makes me think if that is half the reason my face cuts and shaving kinda hurts.

The New Tools

Starting out along this path isn’t cheap but it isn’t expensive either, there is an initial outlay that you will need to pluck up for but investing in a good quality safety razor handle in the beginning will provide better shave in the long term.

Here is what i have decided to go for in terms of my “tool kit”

• Edwin Jager DE Razor Black

• Soap
• men-u Pure Bristle Shaving Brush

• After Care Cream

Patience

Once you have your tools getting started and into a routine is key as your face, skin and hairs will need to adjust to this new way of shaving. There are many articles on the Internet that explain the best methods for shaving your facial hair using The Wet Shave.

• Only make a maximum of 3 passes over the same area
• Make sure you get plenty of soap onto your face before shaving, this will help soften the hair and make cutting it easier
• Make sure you use nice warm water
• Treat your face well, after shaving your face will be exposed, moisturising the skin will make shaving in the future much easier and pleasurable.

All of this can take a few weeks so make sure you stick at it, you might cut yourself a few times to begin with and getting the hang of the stroke required might be tricky but perseverance is the key.

This is going to be one of them live posts, i will update it with links to articles i find useful, pictures and my own personal experiance over the next few weeks.

Last night i went to use my Apple Bluetooth Keyboard that i bought back when i had my iMac, since then it has been in my stroage box there were no batteries in the keyboard.

I put a new set of batteries into the keyboard that i knew were working but the device wouldn’t turn on, so i tried a few more batteries to see if the ones i was using were faulty still nothing.

So i searched the web and found the perfect soloution thanks to @MacFindHer you can see the post here

What you need to do is this:

1. Take the old batteries out of the keyboard

2. Get some standard kitchen tin foil

3. Tear off a small bit of foil and roll it into a ball

4. Drop the ball into the battery compartment on the keyboard

You may need to push the batteries down to get them to fit back in

5. Put the batteries into the compartment, this would now be ontop of the foil

6. Close the battery compartment

Now try and turn your keyboard on and it should work….it did for me.

I have been using Alfred for a long time now, it is a great way to do lots of different tasks using the keyboard to execute “commands” for example if i wanted to open my calendar i could simply invoke the alfred trigger key and type ical, this will launch my calendar.

There are so many reviews out there already of Alfred so instead i am just going to share the Workflows (requires alfred 2) that i use on my setup.

Add To Fantastical

Fantastical is a top layer to iCal, it allows you to manage your calendar from your menu bar and it also has the ability to sync all your changes across multiple devices, oh and did i mention it is beautiful?

This work flow allows you to add a reminder to Fantastical using Alfred.

Caffeinate

I have been using Caffeinate for a long time, it is a great little application that prevents you screen from going to sleep, particularly useful for when you are reading long blog posts, watching a youtube video.

Clear Downloads

Pretty self explanatory, this work flow allows you to clear the downloads folder to the trash.

Disk Usage

Check the disk usage of the disks that are in your machine

Flush DNS Cache

Allows you to flush the DNS cache of your laptop/desktop

Network Info

Get the network information for your Wireless or Ethernet adapter.

Pinboard

As a user of pinboard this was really handy, it allows you to search your pinboard bookmarks, amongst other things and then launch that bookmark without ever leaving the desktop.

Things

If you use things as your task management application of choice this is a great work flow, it allows you to do lots of different things from within Alfred

Transmit

Transmit is my FTP application of choice and has been since the day i started using Apple Mac this workflow allows you to load all of your Transmit bookmarks into alfred then connect to that bookmark.

Uninstall With CleanMyMac 2

If you use Clean My Mac, this workflow allows you to remove an application from your system with Alfred.

These are just a handful of the workflows available you can get loads more over on the Alfred Forums or create some of your own.