Track Hurricanes on Your iPhone or iPad, Part 2

Last year I mentioned a great app called Hurricane for the iPhone and Hurricane HD for the iPad in my post entitled Track Hurricanes on Your iPhone or iPad.  With Tropical Storm Isaac (soon to be Hurricane Isaac) bearing down on the Southeastern United States, I thought it best to expand on my previous post.  I barely touched on the features that can help you understand what is coming with a tropical system like Isaac.

The heart of these apps is the tracking map, which is the obvious, go-to feature for determining where the storm is projected to come onshore. However, a lot of focus is put on exactly where the middle of the storm will hit. However, the destructive forces of a hurricane can easily reach a couple of hundred miles away from center, especially in the right-front quadrant of the storm.

Fortunately, with Hurricane and Hurricane HD, the tracking map isn't the only feature. The satellite view, for example, will give you a good idea of the size of a tropical system. These apps also can show you forecast models with expected wind probabilities and long-range tracks.  See the pictures at the bottom to see examples of what is available in the iPhone app.

Use Your iPhone to Protect Your Email Account

The Internet is a dangerous place. Every service you sign up for requires an email address. If someone is able to hijack your email account, that person can cause a lot of damage. This happened to Mat Honan, Senior Writer at Wired.com, a technology news site.  The hacker in this case seemed more concerned with vandalism, but having your email account hacked can lead to even worse, including identity theft.

New Features in Pandora for the iPhone and iPad

Pandora is one of those essential apps that I've written about in my Tips for Listening to Pandora on the iPhone post. The latest update has a couple of really big improvements that make for a better user experience.

Hitting the thumbs up or thumbs down on a song teaches Pandora what you like and what you don't, in essence, training your station to play more songs you will enjoy and less songs that you won't enjoy. However, in the past, if you were busy listening while doing other things, you might miss the opportunity to press the thumbs up or thumbs down. Once the song was over, it was too late. With the latest update, you can tap a button on the upper right portion of the screen that gives you access to information about the songs you've already listened to since you started the app. You can swipe to get to anyone of them and then hit the thumbs up or thumbs down after the fact.