Sinclair Trails 2024 theme for Time Out

I’ve just added a new Time Out theme for your enjoyment: a fast timelapse of driving our Tiffin Allegro Bus motorhome throughout 2024. This combines all of the motorhome travel timelapses for 2024 into one video, at 20x the speed of the original timelapse videos.

You can download this theme from the Time Out Extras page, and follow the instructions on that page to add it to Time Out.

As you may know, my wife and I travel the US in a 40-foot motorhome. We typically drive about two to six hours between campsites. I record each drive of the RV on a dash cam, and post a much shorter timelapse video of the journey. I sometimes add a view from the truck being towed behind our coach, often at the start and/or end of the journey.

This theme will start playing from a random point in the video each time it is used. A great way to have some ever-changing scenery during your breaks.

You can see the full 52-minute video on the Sinclair Trails YouTube channel — and I’d appreciate it if everyone reading this would subscribe to this channel, as it still has very few subscribers. It’s free!

Dejal plans for 2025

What’s in store for 2025? When not working on my consulting projects, I plan to split my time between the big 3.0 update of Time Out (and subsequent versions), and working on another new app. Of course, I’ll also work on other existing apps if they need an update, but I don’t have anything planned for them at this stage.

Time Out

Work on Time Out version 3.0 is underway. It will include an overhaul and modernization of the data and user interface, though don’t worry, it’ll still look much the same; I know big UI changes are rarely welcome. I’ll actually update it over several releases; version 3.0 will concentrate on the underlying data, to enable supporting syncing between multiple Macs, and version 3.1, 3.2, etc will update different areas of the app, probably with a little more frequent updates than in recent years. Despite the updates in 2024, I feel that Time Out has been a little neglected of late, while I work on other apps, so I want to refocus on it; it remains my most popular app, so deserves more attention.

I’m also keen to add an optional auto-renewing subscription, to make it easier for people to continue to support the app, and boost revenues. But I know that while subscriptions are more accepted nowadays, some people still don’t like them, so I also plan to continue offering the non-renewing supporter options as now. And continue allowing the core features of the app to be used for free, for people who can’t afford to pay for software or don’t need more than the basics.

I also have a bunch of other enhancements planned for version 3.0 and beyond, like an option to manually end a break, extra exclusion options, easier adding themes, and much more. I always have a long list of feature suggestions and ideas, and have a roadmap planned for versions 3.0 to 3.7, and ideas for 4.0 and beyond. But I always welcome more ideas, too.

To set expectations, I should note that you shouldn’t look for version 3.0 to be released for a few months. Between the major changes and splitting my time with other apps and activities, it’ll take a while to be ready to release. But rest assured that it’s underway. Make sure you subscribe to the DejalNews newsletter to get notified when it is available for a TestFlight or general release.

Another New App

I mentioned another new app. I won’t give details of the new app just yet, but I’ll say that it is related to calendars — not a calendar app as such, but a helper. I have a prototype of the new app that I wrote to scratch my own itch (as is often the genesis of an app), but I have a bunch of enhancements before it’ll be ready for release. This will be a simple app, and will probably be free, at least initially; like with Time Out, I have a list of feature ideas that I may add in future versions, so it might become a paid app somewhere down the road, but not initially. Definitely for Mac, and probably other platforms. Again, subscribe to the DejalNews newsletter to be amongst the first to learn of the app.

Consulting

On the Dejal Consulting side of my business, I will continue working on SheetPlanner and NewsBlur. Both have major enhancements in the works, which will be released later in the year. I’m really excited to get those updates out, and continue with other planned improvements.

I am currently fully booked up for the next several months at least, but am always interested in talking with potential new clients. If you have a macOS or iOS project you’d like help with (or a custom Simon enhancement), check out my consulting page for more information.

Sinclair Trails

Finally, on the personal side, my wife and I will continue to explore the US in our motorhome; we should complete visiting all 48 contiguous states by the middle of this year, and visit all National Parks in those states, plus a bunch more baseball stadiums, and other attractions. This is a great time to start reading the Sinclair Trails blog, as I’m now posting daily summaries of our 2024 RV modifications, travels, campgrounds, attractions, and more on the blog, plus will have more travel timelapses on the YouTube channel (please subscribe!). I hope you’ll follow along there.

Thanks for reading! 2025 is going to be an exciting year on all fronts.

Dejal year in review: 2024

As we wind down the year, let’s review what happened with the Dejal apps in 2024:

Time Out

My popular break reminder tool, Time Out, had four bug-fix updates in 2024, to version 2.9.7. Plus work is underway on a big 3.0 update; more on that in the next blog post.

Simon

My pro app to monitor websites and servers for changes and failures, Simon, didn’t need any updates in 2024.

Weather Events

I introduced a major new app in 2024 called Weather Events, available for Mac, Vision, iPad, and iPhone, as a subscription. It saves a record of the weather conditions to your calendar, so you’ll be able to look back at previous weeks, months, and years, and see what the weather was like back then, with support for different locations for each day if desired. Great for someone who travels a lot, like me, or if you just want to keep a long-term record of the weather. Read the introduction in DejalNews #87, and the 1.1 update post for more information.

Preminder

I also introduced another new app in 2024, called Preminder, available for iPhone, as a free app. A much smaller app, but still useful. It helps with a common issue, where you want to be reminded some number of days, weeks, months, or years before a certain date. It does the date calculation for you. My wife and I use it to get reminders of when a booking window opens up for a campground (e.g. 90 days before our desired arrival), but you could use it to remind you to buy concert or game tickets, buy birthday presents, prepare for some event, or so much more. Read the introductory blog post for more information.

Pack

Pack, a simple iPhone app to make it easy to pack for trips, didn’t have any updates in 2024. Now that I take my home with me when I travel, I rarely need to pack suitcases anymore, so I’m unlikely to update it again. It remains a product in my lineup.

Date Stamp

Date Stamp, an iMessage app to provide customizable date stamp stickers, also didn’t have any changes. Since few people seem to use iMessage stickers anymore, I’m unlikely to update this either, but will continue to offer it for as long as it keeps working.

Another New App

Yes, I introduced two new apps, but I also have another new app in the works. More about this in the next blog post.

Consulting

Dejal also develops macOS and iOS apps for other companies, under the banner of Dejal Consulting.

SheetPlanner

SheetPlanner is a pro-level outliner, planner, todo, calendar, and more. I spent 2024 working on an iPad edition of the app, plus enhancements to the existing Mac app. Version 5.0 is nearing completion, and I’m really proud of the iPad app; I can’t wait for it to be released.

NewsBlur

I have also continued to work on the iOS client for NewsBlur, a popular RSS reader; in 2024 it added a native Mac app, which was a huge addition, plus lots of other enhancements and fixes.

So how’d 2024 go?

It was a relatively quiet year for updates of existing Dejal apps, but saw the addition of two brand-new apps, and work on a major Time Out update. Plus lots of work on my consulting projects.

Thank you

Thank you and welcome to my new customers, and many thanks to the long-term customers who are still enjoying my apps, and of course my consulting clients. I really appreciate your support.

DejalNews #88: introducing Preminder, Weather Events 1.1, Time Out tip

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This is DejalNews, an occasional newsletter from Dejal.

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Introducing Preminder, a new free Dejal app

My wife had a need of an app. As you may know, we travel around the country in a motorhome, which means booking RV parks. We like to plan a year or so out, and book popular places as soon as they become available, so we get the best spot (or any spot if really popular). But each campground has a different booking window; sometimes six months, sometimes 180 days (which is not the same thing!), sometimes 90 days, etc.

To make the reservation on the right day, we used to ask a digital assistant like Alexa or Siri to calculate 180 days (or whatever) before the date we want to stay, then add a reminder on that date. But what if that could be one step? I wrote Preminder to make that easier: simply enter the date of the stay (and optionally a time), and choose from a preset list of intervals, or a custom one for unusual cases, and add the reminder on the appropriate date. Easy!

Preminder is useful for more than just campsites, though; you could use it to remind you of concert or game tickets, birthdays, holidays, or any other situation where you want a reminder some time before an event.

What’s more, Preminder is completely free, available for iPhone, so there’s no risk to download and try it.

Learn more on the Preminder site, or get it now.

Weather Events 1.1 released

Another recent app had an update too. Weather Events is another app I wrote to scratch my own itch, and useful with our traveling lifestyle.

As we travel around the country in our motorhome, I like to keep a record of the weather conditions of where we are, as all-day events on my calendar. I live my life by my calendar, so find it useful to be able to see the weather there. (And also in the menubar on my Mac.)

A key feature of Weather Events is that each day can have a different location; great for people who travel a lot like me, but useful for other when they go on vacation too.

Version 1.1 of Weather Events has a big enhancement that makes the app much easier to use: it will (optionally) automatically change the location based on calendar events. If you have calendar events that include a location, Weather Events can see that and change the location; if there are multiple, it will choose the latest all-day event or longest timed event (and you can tell it whether to only look at all-day or timed events, or both).

This update also includes a bunch of other improvements and fixes, too. Learn more about this update.

Weather Events is available on the App Store for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS. It has a monthly or yearly subscription, and a free two week trial.

Try it now!

Time Out tip: Can I have Time Out remind me when to go home at the end of day?

I recently published a Time Out tip, based on a customer query. They wanted to have a countdown in the menubar for remaining time in the work day. Time Out is very flexible, so I was able to accommodate that request.

Check out this blog post for the details.

I’m hard at work on Time Out version 3, which will be a big update, so won’t be out for a few months, but will have some nice enhancements. I always welcome more suggestions, though, so feel free to get in touch if you have any requests.

Follow Dejal on Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Micro.blog, Facebook, Reddit, and more

Do you use one of the popular social media platforms? Dejal is probably there!

See this blog post for links to Dejal’s account on those platforms and more.

– David

Follow Dejal on Mastodon, Bluesky, Threads, Micro.blog, Facebook, Reddit, and more

Dejal is now on the Mastodon and Bluesky social networks, joining Micro.blog, Threads, Facebook, Reddit, and of course the blog and its RSS feed.

On Mastodon, follow @dejal@mastodon.social.

On Bluesky, follow @dejal.com.

On Micro.blog, follow @dejal.

On Threads, follow @dejal.

On Facebook, follow @dejalcom.

On Reddit, follow /r/dejal.

The Dejal blog is on the Dejal website.

In a RSS reader (like the excellent NewsBlur, that Dejal works on), follow dejal.com/blog/feed.

Technically Dejal is also on X (formerly Twitter), but that is not used anymore.

New posts appear first on the Dejal blog and RSS feed, then on Micro.blog, which cross-posts them to Mastodon, Bluesky, and Threads.

Introducing Preminder, a simple and free iOS app to add a reminder some interval before a date

Sometimes an app idea comes from a need to scratch one’s own itch. My latest app is such a case: Preminder is a simple and free iOS app to add a reminder to Apple Reminders some number of days, weeks, months, or years before another date.

But why is that useful? I’m glad you asked. A common situation my wife and I have as we travel around the country in our motorhome is that RV parks only allow reserving sites a certain time period ahead. We like to plan our route a year or more in advance, and try to book popular places as early as possible, before they fill up. So given the date we want to arrive, we need to add a reminder six months or 90 days (or whatever their booking window is) before that.

The app is useful for more than campgrounds, though. Some exciting gadget going on sale in 30 days? Add a reminder. Hard-to-get concert tickets becoming available? Need to buy birthday gifts? Add a reminder, easily.

Sure, you could calculate the number of days, or ask a digital assistant to calculate it for you, but it’s much more convenient to be able to just enter when the event is and the desired offset, and have the app do the calculation and add the reminder.

6 months before Date picker Remind before

Want to try it?

Get Preminder 1.0 now — it’s free!

Weather Events 1.1 released: automatic location update option, and other improvements

I’m pleased to announce the first update of Weather Events, my app to record weather conditions on your calendar, available for macOS, iOS, and visionOS!

The biggest change in version 1.1 is a new option in Settings to choose what location to use when adding new days. By default, it is Previous Day, which uses the same location as the last day in the weather list; this is the behavior from the first release. But you can now choose to use the location from a calendar event: from All-Day Events (i.e. without a time assigned), Timed Events (i.e. with a time assigned), or Any Events (all day or timed).

So if you have a calendar event with a location, the app can use that location automatically when adding a new day. Of course, if there is no matching calendar event, it inherits the location from the previous day. And if there are multiple matching events, it picks the one with the latest start date for all-day events, or the longest duration for timed events.

This new option is great for people who travel a lot, like me: my wife and I travel around the US in a motorhome, heading south in winter and north in summer to chase ideal weather conditions, so pretty much every week we’re in a new location. Which is one of the reasons for writing Weather Events, so I can keep a record of the weather as we travel. I have all-day events in my calendar for where we’ll be, so now Weather Events can see those and automatically update the location, and I no longer need to manually edit the days. Nice.

Settings window Settings all day

But wait, there’s more! Version 1.1 includes a bunch of other nice improvements and fixes:

When there are multiple accounts with calendars, they are grouped by account in the initial setup and Settings.
If full calendar access has not been granted, now displays an Authorize Calendar Access button next to the menu at the top of the weather list.
When 24 hours of weather conditions aren’t available for a day, now determines the best summary of the weather that it can with the available hours.
Improved fetching weather for events that had a changed location.
Improved searching for new locations, to provide better results and be more reliable.
Fixed obscure crash on iOS when adding a new location by editing an event via a widget.
Fixed the accent color not being respected on the latest OS versions.
Now uses ° instead of F or C after the temperature in the status item on Mac.
The Today’s Weather widget now uses a bold rounded font:

Want to try it?

If you already have the app, you can update via the App Store.

Otherwise, get Weather Events 1.1 now!

Can I have Time Out remind me when to go home at the end of day?

I received a customer query asking if it was possible to have a countdown in the menubar for remaining time in the work day.

They wanted a “Go Home” reminder, that was used daily except weekends, and started work at 7 AM and finished at 3 PM.

Time Out is very flexible, so I was able to configure this for them. Here’s a screenshot of the Break Schedule page:

Time Out schedule page

An explanation of the options:

Break for 1 minute, just as a token reminder of the end of day; it could be any length, or even zero to use a Break Action like a notification instead of dimming the screen.
Every 1 day, to have a daily repetition.
From Fixed Time 0 minutes past the hour, to align the due time to the hour (not essential, since it is ignoring idle time, but tidier).
Available Between 15:00 and 07:00 on MTWTF, these are the most important options, to have the break start at 15:00 (3 PM) and end at 07:00 (7 AM) — yes, it’s totally fine to have the end time earlier than the start time. And to only use this on weekdays.
As you can see, the next due time is at 15:00 (3 PM).
When taking a natural break… Continue Countdown, to ignore idle time.
The reset and skip options are off, to avoid adjusting the due time.
When this break is due Start Immediately, this could be any option; asking to start might be useful if you need a few minutes to finish off what you’re doing.

And of course to have the countdown in the menubar, you’d include that option on the General page, possibly including the Only include long breaks option to not show any micro-breaks during the day:

General options

I hope this helps others who want something similar!

DejalNews #87: Introducing Weather Events

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Welcome

This is DejalNews, an occasional newsletter from Dejal.

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Introducing Weather Events, a new Dejal app

Ever tried to remember what the weather was like a month ago? A year ago? During your last vacation?

Dejal Weather Events saves a record of the weather conditions to your calendar, so you’ll be able to look back at previous weeks, months, and years, and see what the weather was like back then.

On macOS, the app lives in your menubar, where it displays the current weather with an emoji, and the current temperature. Click it to display a list of days and the weather for each, using emojis and high/low temperature display, and a textual description, which is saved in the event note.

Weather list and editor

The events are added to the Calendar as all-day events, with the location if included:

On iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS, the app updates the weather in the background, and is available to view or edit in the app.

Weather Events respects your privacy. It doesn’t request access to track your location, but just asks you to choose a location for the forecast. And it doesn’t use any third-party trackers or send any data to anyone, other than Apple’s weather service.

Another key feature is that each day can have a different location; great if you travel a lot. By default it uses a single location, but you can choose a different location for each day, and they are displayed in the event if desired.

Click on a day in the app to choose whether to use the forecast or custom values, whether or not to show the location in the event, and choose a new or previous location.

The weather conditions can use multiple emojis to show how the weather changes throughout the day, e.g. sunny in the morning and rainy in the evening. If there’s rain, the probability percentage and quantity is included. And if it’s breezy, the maximum wind gust is also included. The precipitation and wind can be disabled in the settings if you prefer.

If the forecast doesn’t exactly match what you experience, or you want to make a note of anything special, you can easily edit the event in the app.

The weather events and settings are synced between multiple devices via iCloud.

Weather Events is available on the App Store for macOS, iOS, iPadOS, and visionOS. It has a monthly or yearly subscription, and a free two week trial.

Try it now!

– David

DejalNews #86: TestFlight for a new Dejal app!

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Welcome

This is DejalNews, an occasional newsletter from Dejal.

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Get on the TestFlight for a new Dejal app

Today is my birthday; my present to you is a new app!

I’ve previously mentioned that I’ve been working on a new app for the last several months, around other work. It is now ready for a private TestFlight beta release.

I’m not going to announce the app name or features publicly just yet, but I’ll strongly hint that it is related to weather and calendars. If you live by your calendar, and are interested in weather, and perhaps if you travel a lot, you’ll want to check out this app.

The app will be available for macOS, iPadOS, iOS, and visionOS. It will require the current major versions of these OSes (i.e. Sonoma for macOS, iOS 17, etc).

Starting today, I’m seeking volunteers to help me test the app, to knock off any remaining rough edges. I would like to do a public release soon, depending on what issues come up during testing, but you can be one of the first people to try this new app.

To request to join the TestFlight, please contact me via the email you use with the App Store. Please indicate that you’re willing to provide feedback, you will keep the app confidential until I’ve publicly released it, and what platform(s) you’re interested in testing.

Time Out 2.9.7 released

In other news, I recently released Time Out versions 2.9.4 to 2.9.7.

These updates fixed a bunch of issues with the app. And helped reinforce the merits of beta testing!

– David