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When I saw that we had started to carry the Fody Tempus Pro Bluetooth weather station, I was immediately interested. At my apartment, I had a really old, pretty cheap, wireless thermometer I was using to help me figure out how to dress myself for the conditions outside. You know, t-shirt, sweater, jacket, full Antarctica-grade parka…it is Vermont after all. The problem I always had with it was that the remote sensor couldn’t get wet, and there just weren’t many places I could put it. Last year I got a slightly better thermometer base station that used a wired thermocouple that could easily be passed out a closed window. The thermocouple is sealed and can get as wet as you want. That worked a lot better, but the base station features weren’t as good. I didn’t like the way it recorded min/max temperature.

So when I saw the Tempus Pro, I thought it might be able to solve all of my problems. In addition to indoor/outdoor temperature and indoor humidity, it also records outdoor humidity, rainfall, barometric pressure, windspeed and wind direction. Instead of all that data going to a limited base station, it goes to my iPad, where I can quickly see trends, share it with friends on Twitter or Facebook or just email myself the raw data.

I had a few concerns such as whether or not the radiation shield on the outdoor temperature sensor would work. You have to install the Tempus Pro in an open location so that wind and rain can be recorded, but this most likely means it’ll be in the sun too, which would completely mess up the temperature reading. The radiation shield actually does an amazing job at preventing that. I haven’t seen any excessively high temperatures recorded even when the station was baking in the sun.

Setup was very easy for a device that’s actually doing a lot of complicated things. The outdoor station transmits its data to the indoor base station that is plugged into the wall for power. This transmission is probably very basic radio since the range is quite a bit more than is possible with Bluetooth and the outdoor station only uses three included AA batteries. The indoor station uses low-energy Bluetooth to relay indoor and outdoor sensor data with your iOS or Android device.

Once everything is paired and running (which is easy to do if you follow the order indicated by the instructions), you will see real-time data being displayed on your iOS or Android device via the Fody app. It also builds graphs of historical data so you can watch trends. One of the things I liked most about the app was the alerts feature. I can set high/low alert thresholds for any of the sensors. I set up an alert for when the outdoor temperature falls below freezing. A few times this past week, I was sitting on my couch and heard my iPad chime. It was an alert letting me know it had fallen below freezing outside. Very cool! You could also set other useful alerts for things like excessive rain, or high winds.

Overall I think the Tempus Pro is a pretty neat device and the simple use and setup belies the actual complexity of having your own personal weather station. If you’ve ever been curious about setting up a personal weather station at home, or just want something a bit more than temperature readings like I did, you won’t be disappointed with the Fody Tempus Pro.

With three months to go until the presidential election, the two major candidates are doing everything they can to get the message out….

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Siri is great for resolving trivia disputes, setting reminders and even texting or sending email but Siri is also a talented assistant. Here’s a few of the more non-intuitive tasks Siri can accomplish:

1) Split up that restaurant bill and add a tip

Ask Siri “What’s a 20% tip on a $105 bill split among 3 people and Siri will not only tell you what the total tip would be but also how much each of the 3 owes.

2) Flip a coin

Siri will bail you out if you do not have a coin to flip if you ask her to flip a coin. Or if you are killing time and want to play dice, ask Siri to “throw the dice”.

3) Counting Calories

Siri can help! Ask Siri how many calories are in that Big Mac and Siri will tell you that you are consuming 520 calories.

4) Take a Selfie

Ready to take that selfie and find yourself looking for the camera app? Just tell Siri to take a selfie and boom!, the camera app will open. Siri isn’t smart enough, yet, to ensure you have the front facing camera active so you might have to click that first.

5) Name that Tune

Siri integrates with Shazam to listen to the music. Ask Siri “What is this song?” and with some help from Shazam, Siri will let you know and if you click on the result it will play that song if you are a subscriber to Apple Music.

6) Find your Friends

If you use the Find My Friends app you can ask Siri to find them by asking “Where’s my wife?” and assuming that your wife has agreed to share her location in the Find My Friends app, Siri will let you know where she is.

7) Convert Currency

If you are traveling out of the country you can use Siri to make those currency conversions. Asking Siri “What is 100 euros worth?” today reveals it is worth $112.49.

We have a guest post from the “*developers at Green Mountain Software!*”:mailto:john@greenmountainsoftware.com

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Certainly you’ve heard the expression: “There’s an app for that!” but if there __isn’t__ currently an app for that, Green Mountain Software can write one for you.

Now located in the Innovation Center in Burlington, Vermont, Green Mountain Software (GMSW) was founded in 1993 by Lou Krieg and his wife, Ann Pettyjohn after attending the ’93 MacWorld trade show where the Apple “Newton” was first introduced. Lou and Ann realized that mobile technology was going to be a huge part of the future, so Green Mountain Software was formed to fill that need. They were right. Mobile technology is changing the world and how business is done. The number of mobile users is predicted to surpass the number of desktop users by 2014.^1^

It is apparent that simple email access is no longer enough. Mobile technology allows companies to have an unprecedented level of connectivity between employees, vendors, and customers.^2^ In 2012, Gartner Research predicted that sales of mobile tablet devices would top $120 million – double that of 2011. In addition, the number of active smartphones is currently over 1 billion worldwide.^3^

During the past eighteen years, companies such as EcoLab, Electric Power Research Institute (EPRI), Coffee Lab International, Pro-Cut International, United Technologies, Bio Tek Instruments, Leica, the Indy Racing League, and many others have trusted GMSW with their app development. In fact, even other software development companies such as Palm have relied on the expertise of Green Mountain Software to develop their mobile device apps.

Today’s technology includes iPhones, iPads, Androids, Blackberry, Windows Mobile and others. These devices have thousands of times more advanced computing power that the computers NASA used to get to the moon! In the hands of good software engineers, there isn’t much these devices can’t do, and combining these capabilities to achieve the results you need is what GMSW does best.

Do you have an idea for an app for your company? Are you wondering how can mobile technology can increase your productivity and profitability? Mobile technology can measure, compute, exchange data with machines, utilize GPS location services, interact with servers, be Web-based or native within the device, communicate through the Internet or cell systems, take photos, be used for medical diagnoses, and so much more.

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If you’re interested in more information, or just want to discuss your idea, Green Mountain software is on the Web at “www.GreenMountainSoftware.com”:www.GreenMountainSoftware.com. We can be reached at 802-865-2728, or email “john@greenmountainsoftware.com”:mailto:john@greenmountainsoftware.com.

^1^ Morgan Stanley Research
^2^ “http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/growth/increase-productivity–profitability.html”:http://www.strategicgrowthconcepts.com/growth/increase-productivity–profitability.html
^3^ “http://mashable.com/2013/01/04/mobile-2013/”:http://mashable.com/2013/01/04/mobile-2013/