Every Traveler Needs a Good Weather App, or 2!

When traveling by RV, you need to know the weather to decide:

• When to stop driving for the day – if rainstorms are coming
• Whether to cook out, or go out!
• Whether to plan a week, or just overnight at a given location
• When to start looking for a storm shelter!

This is a great use for a smartphone. It knows where you are, and it communicates with weather services. There are lots of Apps for reporting the weather, and I've tried several. I like the apps that have a moving radar video. It shows how bad the weather is and how fast it’s moving. All the Apps I've tried have this feature.
Yahoo weather is attractive since it uses photos from its photo hosting site Flickr to show you scenes from your current location.
Accuweather was good until recently when they removed!?? the feature that tracked your location and gave weather alerts for current locale.
Dark Sky is an eerily accurate, to the minute, weather forecaster for iOS, and Arcus is the closest competitor on Android.
They all have a radar screen and weather reports from your hometown.  But the most important feature in my book is an alert you can hear when there are weather warnings in your area.
Tornado Alerts: If you’re traveling thru tornado areas, you might also have a backup app like the Red Cross “Tornado.” It is supposed to scream out a siren sound that you can't miss.

The Weather Channel App

So far, my favorite is The Weather Channel app from Weather.com. If you tap on the 3-line menu and choose settings, this is where you tell it that you want it to "Follow Me" - and give you severe weather alerts for your current location. Other apps really irritated me by blaring severe weather alerts for places I've been rather than where I was. This app didn't do that!

Settings for The Weather Channel App

In addition to that one, most important feature, The Weather Channel app has all the other information and goodies you'd expect.

• An attractive home screen with large temperature display, sunrise/sunset times, and weather forecast
• More detailed screen with Wind, Humidity, Dew Point, Pressure, UV Index
• Hourly weather forecast
• Daily forecast for a week
• News videos from Weather Channel on TV
• Radar map: if you tap on it, then tap the play button at the bottom, the radar will show weather movement for the past hour, OR the projected movement for the next hour!
• Road Conditions map. This is nice - it colors areas where the road conditions are Windy, Wet, Foggy, Ponding, Ice, and Snow.
• Social - you can report the weather in your area, or share a photo
• Health - a pollen report for allergies, and a Cold and Flu report

One thing that may not be obvious is that, to get to all these other screens, you just scroll down. And, keep scrolling down. If you look for buttons, tools or options, you won't find the features. Just swipe up on the screen.

This is a free app, so be prepared for a lot of ads.

• The Weather Channel by The Weather Channel 
• Available on both Apple iOS and Android
• Cost - Free

How about you? What weather app do you use and how do you like it?

Navigate with GPS by Taking a Picture!

That’s right! Take a picture of a place you need to return to. Take that picture with a smartphone that has the GPS tagging feature turned on. Now, when you need to return, you can view the picture, see the GPS location and navigate back. Pretty slick.  Here’s the details:

1. I used a Samsung Galaxy S5. This should work with any type of Android device as long as you have Google Maps version 9.21 or higher. It does not seem to work on an iPhone … yet.
2. I used Google Photos to view the photo
3. Before taking the picture, be sure you have the Location Tags (aka Geotags) turned ON in your camera’s settings. I leave mine on all the time.
4. Now, when you take a picture, view it using Google Photos and tap the i (for Information) you should see a map with a marker.
5. Tap the map marker and it will open Google Maps, then tap the Blue car button and it will navigate to the place where the photo was taken.

If you are an RVer – this is SO useful! For a long time now, we’ve been teaching people about the ability to save a location with a star in Google Maps, then you can navigate back to the star at any time. I still use this technique, but my Google Maps is getting to be covered with stars! This method of using a picture and navigating to it is great for situations like yesterday. We were staying at a large RV park for only one night, we really didn’t have a feel for the directions within the park at all. So, I took a picture of our motorhome on our site. Then, after going out to dinner, I opened the picture (using Google Photos) tapped the i, then tapped the map and we were getting directions back to our exact site. It would be really useful if you’re trying to return to a boondocking site in the middle of nowhere!

• App: Google Maps and Google Photos
• Author: Google
• Cost: $0
• Platform: This feature only works on Android right now

This article is by Chris Guld, of GeeksOnTour.com. To learn more about this and many other programs of use to travelers, visit her website and consider becoming a member in order to view all the tutorial videos. Some tutorial videos related to this topic:

1. 403. Google Maps – Saving a Location with a Star
2. 419.Google Navigation – Add a Stop

Also our What Does This Button Do? Episode 15: GeoLocating Photos, Waze app

What’s that Tree?

Are you a tree worshipper? Do you love walking the desert after a rain and enjoying the flowers? Do you always wonder what kind of tree/flower it is you’re looking at?

Wonder no more! Check out this app called Like that Garden. All you do is open the app and take a picture of the plant you’re wondering about. It’s best if you can get a closeup of the leaves or the individual flower. I took a picture of this flower in our back yard, and the App comes up with photos of its own for potential matches. I can tap the i for more information about their matches and, if I’m convinced, I’ll check the confirm box. I Love It! I have been known to refer to this flower as a ‘Crown of Thorns’ – now I can say it with confidence. I learn that it is also known as a Christplant, and the latin name is euphorbia milii. I’ll just stick with Crown of Thorns!


It wasn’t obvious at first how to use a picture from my gallery rather than taking a new one, but it’s there. Once I tap Search, it comes up with a camera to take a new pictures, but there is a thumbnail of the latest photo in the lower left corner. When I tap the thumbnail, I’m taken to my gallery where I can select any existing photo and it takes me back to the Garden App. The photo I choose is of a complete tree however, and I’m not confident that their matches are correct. It’s just too hard to match. I’ll have to go back and get close up to the branches and leaves to be sure.

• App: Like that Garden
• Author: Just Visual, Inc.
• Cost: $0
• Platform: Android; iOS

This article is by Chris Guld, of GeeksOnTour.com. To learn more about this and many other programs of use to travelers, visit her website and consider becoming a member in order to view all the tutorial videos.

Let Alfred Watch Your House

While not exactly a “travel” app, if you have a house that will be empty when you’re traveling, you’ll like Alfred!
Alfred is a free app and the only hardware it needs is an old smartphone or tablet that you’re not using anymore. Your house will also need a good, always on, Internet connection with WiFi. It started as an Android only App but recently released an iOS version. The Android version has a few more features, but both work.

1. Using an old phone or tablet, connect to WiFi and download the Alfred App from the play store. Install Alfred and log in using your Google account.
2. Set that phone in a location where it has a good view of what you want to watch, plug it into power and turn on the Alfred app. This is your Camera – just leave it on, using Alfred, all the time.
3. With your current Android phone, install Alfred and log in to your google account so you can view what the Webcam is seeing – this phone is your Viewer.

That’s it! And it’s Free! Alfred also handles sound, it could be a baby monitor where you hear the baby crying, or you could shout at burglars! Note: the iPhone camera does not support 2-way talk. It also has motion detection and can send a notification to your phone when something is happening.

• App: Alfred Home Security IP Cam
• Author: Alfred Labs Inc
• Cost: $0
• Platform: Android; iOS (missing 2-way talk)

This article is by Chris Guld, of GeeksOnTour.com. To learn more about this and many other programs of use to travelers, visit her website and consider becoming a member in order to view all the tutorial videos.

##RVT750, WP