Best weather app / Airport delay tracker / Mars photos
Recomendo - issue #509
Best weather app
Dark Sky used to be the best weather app on the iPhone. Apple bought it years ago, incorporated its best features into their Weather App, but then never improved it. The folks who made Dark Sky are back with version 2.0, which they call Acme Weather. It produces extremely hyper-local forecasts with probabilistic scenarios, alerting you to how certain the forecast is. They also display crowdsource data, like rainbow sightings. I found it superior enough to pay for it ($25/yr), once the free trial ran out. — KK
Real-time airport delays
Flighty’s airport dashboard shows live departure and arrival delays for hundreds of airports around the world. A quick glance before you leave for the airport could save you a lot of stress — or at least help you decide whether to grab that extra coffee first. Free to use in a browser. — MF
Show about a dysfunctional family of gods
KAOS on Netflix is a dark, modern remix of the Greek gods that is both chaotic and entertaining to watch. The plot revolves around Zeus trying to prevent a prophecy of his downfall, the three humans handed the greater destiny of being the ones to topple the gods, and the betrayals of his dysfunctional immortal family. Dionysus, god of wine, pleasure, and wild frenzy, was my favorite character—a sad party boy god aching for real love and meaning. Because we’re dealing with gods and myth, there is of course sex and violence and a lot of death—nothing is sacred, not even babies. It’s definitely not for everyone, but if you love mythology I highly recommend it. It will make you squeamish and it will make you laugh. I binged the first season in two weeks and was genuinely bummed to learn it was canceled. — CD
USB charger with a useful display
The Anker Smart Display Charger is a 45W USB-C block with a built-in color screen that’s genuinely useful. It shows real-time wattage, how close your battery is to full, which device is connected, and if your phone is fast-charging or just trickling. It is smaller than most 10W chargers, with 180-degree folding prongs that flatten for travel. — MF
Tiny rechargeable flashlight
The best flashlight is the one that you are carrying, which means the tiny one on your phone is what most of us use. However I like a lot of extra light inspecting work in my workshop, hunting for things in the house, and walking at night, so I carry a small dedicated light on my keyring and in my daypack. The Olight Imini 2 is only 2 inches (42mm) long, easy to turn on with one hand, and most agreeably, can be recharged with USB. No batteries ever needed! It’s 10 times brighter than a phone and easier to handle. I use mine far more than I thought I would. — KK
Visually traverse another planet
This website lets you follow the path of the Curiosity rover through every step and photo since it landed on Mars in 2012. You scroll along the rover’s path on a topographical map, and the actual raw NASA photos from that day fill the screen alongside it. It’s awe—and a super cool project. — CD
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Not sure about Acme yet. It seems okay so far if you want a quick look at the weather forecast at a high level, but if you like the details this is not the app. I currently use the Weather Channel app, which is surprisingly good. As for the hyperlocal aspect, I found Acme has been frequently telling me things that are incorrect, e.g. that it will stop snowing soon when it’s not actually snowing.
Based on other comments I’m going to check out Foreca and Weather Strip.
Came back to say that Foreca looks fantastic! Weather Strip uses Foreca forecast data to create an interesting timeline view that I’ll need to sit with for a while to see if I really like it.
I also went ahead and paid for Acme, because I see the potential there, especially with the probabilistic aspect. But my go to apps are Foreca, and Weather Strip, which does a fantastic job of displaying temperature, cloudiness, precipitation, and wind, all on a horizontal scrolling graph that’s a week long. Shout out too to another newer one, Weather&Radar, which is now my favorite radar app, showing both precipitation and clouds in a good way, with predictive views, and a decent weather forecast layer as well. (sidenote: Foreca is often quite hilarious in the way it gets way over excited about the amount of precipitation and when it’s looking a week or so ahead…. It’s quite accurate once we get close enough to really know, but it routinely throws up gargantuan snow totals on long range forecasts!)