The mercury is climbing, plants and hairdos are wilting and school-aged children are everywhere – must be summertime.
As we develop our groove for the next few months her are a few items that will hopefully make things a bit calmer, safer, more relaxing or just plain fun.

Portable Emeregency Public Alert Radio from Oregon Scientific
First stop will be with Oregon Scientific and their portable Emeregency Public Alert Radio. Dangerous weather and natural disasters can strike anywhere at anytime so this is a must-have especially while traveling to unfamiliar destinations.
As I like to say, hope for the best… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Weather Underground or wunderground.com is one of the first websites I have ever used for looking up the weather.  Well, now they have a new interface for getting your weather information with fullscreenweather.com.  Fullscreenweather.com is a mashup with Google Maps and takes the full browser window for displaying the weather info layered on top of Google Maps.  I recommend maximizing your browser window to get the full effect.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It’s no secret that I am a big fan of the Poynt application for BlackBerry.  It’s one of the first things I load on a new ‘Berry.  It’s free, and simply put it is the best location based search application for BlackBerry.  Whether you’re looking for movie tickets, restaurants, businesses, or gas prices, Poynt is what you want to use for quick results.   Over 1 million active users can’t be wrong.  One thing I appreciate is the fact that the development team over at Multiplied Media is constantly adding new features to Poynt.

Case in point (pun intended): AccuWeather has now partnered with Multiplied Media to bring their weather data and forecasts directly to the application.  Even better is you won’t have to search around the app to get to it.  It’s right there on the home screen! Your local weather conditions will show up in Poynt even as you scroll through the interface to pull up information relevant to your specific location.  That Accuweather.com data powers the display on the Poynt home screen to show your local temperature and sky conditions.  Then, to make it even more slick, those sky conditions are reflected by the dynamic background that changes according to the type of weather the user is experiencing.   Very cool!

The full press release of the partnership — and handy download links if you wanna download it straight to your ‘Berry — follow.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I was reading on Lifehacker, and I found this awesome site which reports your weather by telling you what Star Wars planet your weather is like. So thanks to the cold and snow, Columbus is like Hoth??  I’m not sure 2 inches of snow count as a frozen tundra.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Once again, I am feeling the lack of love for those of us who live in rural America. There are two new Ambient Devices freshly introduced, but unless you live in one of the 152 US locations that support it, there will be “no Ambient for you!!”

If you do live within 30 miles of a supported location, you’ll get to enjoy Ambient’s new Cirrus 7 Day Forecaster via Accuweather.com and the Centerfield Baseball ScoreCaster via the free InfoCast Wireless Network; neither device requires a PC or Internet connection.

Cirrus ($129.99) and Centerfield ($99.00) are available now at Best Buy, but you should check to make sure that your city is on the list before springing.

As much as I love living in the rural countryside, there are certain products and services which I would like to use – but simply can’t. One of them is the new Ambient Devices Flurry Alarm Clock, which not only tells the time with dual alarms, it also wakes you to an animated weather forecast for that day and the next.

Features include:

• Intuitive “Pop-Up” alarm buttons are visual status indicators, easy to set and use.
• Network connected clock is always accurate and never needs setting.
• Integrated 2-Day weather forecast provided by AccuWeather.com for 150 U.S. locations.
• 25 character text display provides additional weather information and details.
• No PC, WIFI, or Internet connection necessary, automatically receives data from the FREE Ambient wireless network.

If you are curious about whether the Flurry will work where you live, you can check forecast locations here, and check to see if you’ll have signal coverage here. If you’re good to go, then you can get yours at Best Buy now, for a suggested retail price of $129.99.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I have a number of weather apps on my iPhone. Overall, they are OK, but I’ve generally had two complaints: 1) They never seem to be as accurate as the information I find at the Weather Underground, and 2) They always seem to want to display the temperature in Fahrenheit OR Celsius, but never both at the same time! I grew up in Detroit where they often broadcast both (because Detroit is on the Canadian border). Additionally, I have friends all over the world. It’s nice to be able to talk about today’s weather without having to reset all the setting on my weather app!

Enter All Weather. This application, from Steve Parker, is actually endorsed by the people at Weather Underground. Better than that – it displays the current temperature (as well as wind chills/heat indexes) in both Fahrenheit and Celsius. Let’s take a look at how it does in general.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

It’s inevitable…you’re sitting on your couch, relaxing with your tivo and your xbox…when you realize you need to <gasp> go outside! But what is the weather like? How will you know whether to wear your crocs or your docs? You could get up and go outside, but that takes effort. Luckily for you, Epocware has the excellent utility Handy Weather so you can check the weather from your Symbian phone before you have to leave the couch.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Yes, I’m showing you the backside, but that’s the part that sets the Oregon Scientific +ECO Clima Control apart from the droves of other personal weather stations. You can use the solar powered +ECO Clima Control to “monitor the current temperature and humidity in up to four locations within the home and outdoors, using remote wireless temperature and humidity sensors.”

The +ECO Clima Control’s rechargeable battery will operate for up to three months on an 8-hour charge, and other features include:
* Future weather forecast with graphical icons: Sunny, Partly Cloudy, Cloudy, Rainy and Snowy
* Radio-controlled clock and calendar (that’s the fancy way of saying it’s an atomic clock)
* LED backlight and mold alert alarm

Mold alert alarm? Really?! How exactly does that work?… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Description from the developer:

Leave it to The Weather Channel, the most trusted brand in weather, to deliver the perfect  weather application for your active lifestyle! This highly customizable application has everything you need to stay warm, safe and dry whether you’re heading across the country, across town or across campus.

Features:
• Location-based conditions and forecasts
• Fully customizable weather maps
• Local, National and International video forecasts
• Local and national severe weather alerts
• Share Alerts and Forecasts via email
• Store and nickname your favorite locations… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

When outside or planning to go outside, checking the current weather conditions is usually the first thing I do.  With WeatherBug for  Android , it’s a simple swipe and a tap to find out what is going on outside.

The WeatherBug app is a lot like the desktop counterpart.  It has the current temperature in the notification area and it will optionally use the integrated GPS to change it’s location automatically.  That is a fantastic idea and one I use a lot when traveling through the greater Columbus area.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

If you’re a Mac user, Bare Bones software, the makers of the popular Blackberry application BBEdit, have a slick utility just for you.  WeatherCal places the weather forecast for the next five days as all day events into iCal.  Each location you specify gets its own line with the day’s forecast.

The application gets installed as a system preference and allows you to enter your favorite cities.  You can also search for locations via name or zip code.

By clicking on the day’s forecast, you see a link to Weather Underground, which provides more detailed information for the day.

As an added bonus, if you’re an iPhone user, you can configure iTunes… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

I’m a big fan of the Weather Underground web site. Each morning and several times during the day I receive their emailed weather forecasts. It’s one of the few online sites that I gladly renew my paid membership with each year. When I’m traveling I’ll also use the site to setup temporary email alerts for pending storms that might arrive in the area where I’m going to be staying. Each time the National Weather Service issues a storm warning, watch or public information statement I am sent an email that alerts me to the news. There’s also a handy mobile site that can be viewed on your phone at http://m.wund.com/ . Here’s a deal that you may want to get in on… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...

Spb Software has released the 2.0 version of their popular Spb Weather application for Windows Mobile devices.

The new version is using a lot of updated, finger-friendly controls.  It features forecasts by Foreca (the people who do the MSN forecasts).  They make use of animations in the forecasts, and they even include a 3D globe view (including satellite imagery).

Spb Weather 2.0 is available for $19.95.  If you’re looking for a weather program for your Windows Mobile device, you’ll definitely want to check it out at the Spb Software website.

If you spend any amount of time outside you’ve probably used at least one weather site to view the current temperature and possibly a weather radar image. Even if you haven’t purchased any of the add-on programs that perform this function, the iPhone has a built in basic weather tool that shows the predicted high and low temperatures for the day. What the built-in application lacks is weather radar. By looking at a live weather map you can often predict whether the showers that have been forecast for your area are imminent or still a few hours away. While contemplating purchasing an iPhone weather radar app in iTunes for $9.99, I stumbled across iWeather – which is free and runs via your iPhone web browser linking you to the NOAA weather station radar maps and condition reports.… Continue reading on Gear Diary ...