Weather apps
It’s happened to all of us... you wake up, look outside and it’s a beautiful clear morning. So you leave the brolly and winter waterproofs at home, only for things to take a turn for the worst when you leave work. If only you’d checked before you left home!
It’s hardly surprising to discover that there are loads of useful weather apps to help you stay prepared for an unexpected downpour. Here are a few of our favourites:
Accuweather (iOS and Android) – It looks great and packed with loads of helpful features. Get alerts for rain, snow or ice and get minute-by-minute weather updates.
Weather Channel (iOS and Android) – You’ll see weather forecasts up to 15 days in advance, get storm alerts and safety tips, and see it all on a map of your area.
BBC Weather (iOS and Android) – It’s one of the best looking and easiest to use weather apps available. Get hourly forecasts up to 14 days in advance and see the day at a glance without having to open the app with its clever widget.
JBL on-ear headphones
Protect your ears from the cold while enjoying some hot chart-toppers with these JBL on-ear headphones.
With Bluetooth connectivity, you can listen to your music without getting tangled in all those annoying wires, and a full battery will let you enjoy your tunes for up to 11 hours.
Get the JBL T450BT Wireless Bluetooth Headphones
Smart thermostats
It’s the end of the day and you’re looking forward to getting home, putting the heating on and relaxing with a cuppa. But what if you could warm the house up for when you arrive?
Great news, you can! The Nest Learning Thermostat lets you set the perfect temperature wherever you are. The Nest app is simple to use and the thermostat even learns your routine so you don’t need to manually adjust it.
Don’t worry about forgetting to turn it off either, it can tell when you’ve left the house using the GPS in your phone and switch off automatically, helping to cut down your energy bills.
Extra accessories
Here are a few other ways you can use great tech to stay warm this winter:
Touchscreen gloves – A twenty-first century invention to fix a twenty-first century problem – you just got a text but it’s freezing, do you leave it and check when you get home, or whip off your gloves and let your hands freeze?
Touchscreen gloves let you use your phone while your hands stay nice and warm. They’re made with a special conductive material sewn into the fingers so they’ll work with your phone’s screen – clever stuff!
Smart plugs – Smart plugs are a great way to get started with your smart home. They essentially make any appliance ‘smart’, use them on standard lights and set them to come on before you get home, or even plug a heater in so it starts warming the house when you leave work.
Holiday apps – There’s only one way to truly beat the cold, and that’s to avoid it altogether. There are loads of great travel apps to choose from if you want to escape the winter blues. Here are a few to try:
On The Beach (on iOS or Android)
Teletext Holidays (on iOS or Android)
TravelDeals24 (on iOS or Android)
Have you found any clever ways to beat the cold using tech? Let us know in the comments below.
