Snow Alert

By Bennett Owen

When it’s dumpin’ this APP starts thumpin’. Looks like we may be able to get some use out of this nifty little device after all.  It homes in on your GPS position and lists conditions at every ski resort within 500 miles.  You can customize it of course and even set an alarm to let you know when conditions are just right.

Credit: itunes.apple.com Hmmm, we’re not far from Alta, that alarm function may well get a workout in the weeks ahead.  Here’s some of the information available at the push of a button:

• Top Snowfall Levels
• Lifts Open
• Runs Open
• Base Depth
• Summit Depth
• Forecast Details

And if the App sends you up Little Cottonwood Canyon above Salt Lake City, you might just get a glimpse of this gal

Credit: Kavu.typepad.com… Caroline Gleich … professional skier, model, and lots of other stuff …

50 Western Movies

by Jim Poulton

Joshua the Black Rider … A Taste of Evil … Three Bad Men … The Good, the Bad and the Ugly … Yuma (with Clint Walker) … Bonanza – The Spitfire … Known and obscure, famous and infamous, this little app gives you easy and immediate access to 50 movies about the American West. It works by streaming each full-length movie through your YouTube video player. As the advertisement for the app says: ‘If your phone can play YouTube videos you are set!’

Each movie is legal to watch, in case you were wondering. They are all in the public domain, meaning the copyright has expired. The app gives you a brief (sometimes very brief) description of the movie, plus they’ve made a comment section available where you can talk with other bleary-eyed Western movie addicts.

Plus, you get a bonus section of old Bonanza episodes. Now you can watch Hoss, Adam, Little Joe, and Ben until the cows come home.

All in all, the app works well. I was surprised at how quickly the movie launches once you select it – about the time it takes to fall off a horse. Just what the doctor ordered when you need a Tom Mix fix, right? The app is disappointing for one reason: it doesn’t give you a way to search for movies – from what I can tell you’re stuck with scrolling through whatever movies it throws up on the screen. This might be a deal-killer for some fans. But if you’re looking for just any old Western, this is your app.

50 Western Movies is available only for Droid phones (you can find it at Android Market, or just search using your phone's in-house Market program). A related app for the iPhone is Vintage Video: Classic Western Movies. And for those who can’t get enough of the opening notes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly’s score (Wah-uh, Wah-uh Wah, Waah Waah Waah), your best bet is to avoid any current app that says they’ll give you access to them (the reviews of the one I could find said it was, to put it delicately, what you’d find in a bull pen). Instead, go to Zedge and search for whatever movie theme you want.

Country Living Treemail

By Bennett Owen

Now here’s an app whose bark is better than its byte. What a clever idea and just in time for Valentines Day. 

With a make believe knife you can doodle around on the tree trunk of your choice and if your artistic IQ measures at stick figure level like mine, there are some handy pre-made carvings…hearts and horseshoes and arrows and @ signs.  So if you pine for someone there’s no reason to leave him/her in the larch.  Maybe the next update will include a chisel and a chunk of marble.

When I decided to see how it worked, the first initials that came to mind were C.H.

I fell in love with her in the 4^th grade and froze anytime she came near me. Then I moved away. 10 years later I met C. H. again at college, purely by accident…all grown up and still we recognized each other immediately. She was beautiful and gracious and funny and very, very married. Damn.

cleartune - chromatic tuner

Keep your guitar in perfect tune…recommended by Rosanne Cash…and also by musicians… ;-). Cleartune includes a chromatic instrument tuner and a pitchpipe so you can tune just about any instrument to pinpoint accuracy, using the mic in your iPhone or smartphone. Available for iPhone or Android.

Screenshot of Cleartune.



Grandma's tips and tricks

Clean your favorite black dress and cure the hangover you got wearing it.  Cut onions without crying, grow monster tomatoes and keep wasps away from your picnic naturally.  The original App is in French so the English isn’t perfect but still there are hundreds of great tips for home, health and garden.  We used to say about Grandpa, “The boss ain’t always right but he’s always the boss.”  And we used to say about Grandma, “She’s always right.”   Even when we didn’t want her to be. Available for iPhone.

Screenshot from Grandma's Tips and Tricks.