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.

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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

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!

DejalNews #87: Introducing Weather Events

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Welcome

This is DejalNews, an occasional newsletter from Dejal.

Want to get this newsletter in your inbox? Sign up on the Dejal site.

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