Get the best weather app back ☔️

January 05, 2023

Right now it's raining buckets in San Francisco, and I could really do with an app like Dark Sky, which provided timely precipitation alerts.

Alas, Apple bought the app a while ago and killed it! Its last day was December 31.

While Apple incorporated a lot of Dark Sky tech into its own Weather app, you have to make sure that alerts for imminent downpours are turned on.

Doing this is actually trickier than it sounds, as I discovered when I went digging around in Settings.

Luckily, we have a guide ...

-- Leander Kahney, EIC.

After Apple killed Dark Sky on January 1, many fans found themselves lamenting the loss of the groundbreaking weather app that offered hyperlocal forecasts. Luckily, you can re-create Dark Sky’s main features using a competing app called Carrot Weather. Alternatively, you can quickly tweak Apple’s built-in Weather app so it acts more like Dark Sky. Let me show you how to enjoy Dark Sky’s beautiful user interface, and its uncannily accurate weather alerts, using other weather apps.

Apple’s latest catalog of books uses artificial intelligence as a narrator instead of a human voice. This is the first time the Cupertino giant has used AI for audiobook narration. The move could have a wide-reaching effect in the audiobook space and mark the beginning of the end of human narrators.

Drop, known for mechanical keyboards as well as headphones and other audiophile gear, unveiled its first set of desktop speakers Wednesday at CES 2023. The small Drop BMR1 Nearfield Monitors promise big, clear sound in a small footprint for just $149. If you noticed that’s not an audiophile price tag, you’re right.

Are you sick of your terrible reputation as a plant assassin? Are you tired of pining over that one co-worker’s amazingly lush Zoom background? If you want to get back in touch with nature this year or improve your gardening skills, here’s a great deal on NatureID, an iPhone app that serves up crucial information about plant care.

Calling it the “first hands-free connected home urine lab,” Withings raised the lid Wednesday on U-Scan. You stick the device — which, frankly, looks a bit like a urinal cake — in the toilet. Then you get urine-scan results for many health factors via Withings’ app on your iPhone.

There are plenty of stands that can handle an iPhone and Apple Watch, but the Zens 4-in-1 Charging Station tops that by adding a stand for an iPad, too. There’s even an AirPods charger and an Apple Pencil holder. Zens also used CES 2023 to unveil other power products for Apple devices.

For those still a little hungover from New Year’s Eve, Apple Fitness+ is rolling out new offerings to perk you up -- or help you sleep, if need be. The fresh items include kickboxing workouts, a sleep theme for meditations, a Beyoncé Artist Spotlight, new Time to Walk guests and three new trainers.

The OWC Thunderbolt Go Dock offers 11 ports in a range of useful types, and is designed for portability. That sets it apart from typical Thunderbolt docks that are too bulky for travel.

On January 5, 1999, Apple introduced its revised Power Mac G3 minitower, often nicknamed the "Blue and White G3."

Tweet o' the day

One more thing ...

"I think the things you most regret in life are things you didn't do. What you really regret was never asking that girl to dance. In business, if I knew earlier what I know now, I'd have probably done some things a lot better than I did, but I also would've probably done some other things a lot worse. But so what? It's more important to be engaged in the present." — Steve Jobs, 1998.

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