That Time We Talked About Apps for Homes

This is episode number 28 of The Homeowner Show. Whether you're DIY or looking to hire, we're here to help you find the best information and options for you and your home. My name is Kevin Hackett, and here with me is Craig Williams.

Hello, hello, hello, and welcome to The Homeowner Show. We are so grateful that you could be with us here today. Today is a special day for Kevin and I because we are celebrating a big milestone in the month of March. month of March where we, uh, we got our first 1,000 downloads.

Yeah.

It was awesome.

We finally hit it, man.

I think when we, when we started, man, we were projecting like year 2 maybe.

Yeah, we didn't know if anyone was gonna listen to us.

Yeah, so it was, man, we, we're just so grateful and thankful for everyone out there that continues to listen, continues to download and show their appreciation for the show by listening. We are extremely grateful for each and every one of you and hope that you continue to listen, send us messages, little love notes. Reviews, all that good stuff.

Yeah, and you know, I, I, one of the, one of the things that's really going to help us as far as being able to continue to produce content is, is sharing these episodes with your friends. So, uh, you know, if you are in a situation where you're in a conversation with a friend, something may come up that, uh, you remembered hearing in one of our shows, just let them know. Man, I heard that on the Homeowner Show. You got to download it, check it out.

Yeah, no, it's— we've had several conversations with people where they've, they've been telling us that they've been doing that. So we're just, we're just really grateful for you guys. And man, what I tell you what blows me away, like I was, I was trying to do the math in my head a little bit. Um, not that I'm good at math, but, uh, what blew me away, man, is in the course of, what was it, 26 episodes when we, when we finally hit 1,000?

Yeah.

Um, man, it, what was interesting was that there's been 1,000 hours spent listening to our show at that point.

Yeah.

And we, I mean, and we've since gone past 1,000 pretty, pretty significantly. I mean, like, you know, But that, that people, that people are giving us their time.

Yeah.

You know, and that like 1,000 different times people gave us their time. That's crazy.

Yeah. Yeah. It makes, uh, makes us feel a little special, first of all, uh, which we're not. Um, but, um, obviously there's, there's something that we're, that we're doing here that's valuable to people. So, you know, that was a, a milestone that we talked about back on our, um, The first episode of 2019, when we talked about just some goals for this coming year, was hitting 1,000 downloads.

Yeah.

That was one of them, and here we are, you know, halfway through March, and man, we've hit it.

Yeah, it is interesting sometimes when maybe you've set your goals a little too low.

Yeah, seriously, we should have been aiming higher.

Yeah, you know, I need to have more confidence in me.

Maybe you have confidence in you, it's just your confidence in me Well, I didn't wanna mention that. I'll mention it.

All right. So, but man, we, again, we're, we're, we're super grateful. Thank you everybody. And, and we have, I feel like we've got a bunch more in the tank, man. We got some really cool stuff coming up in the next couple of months that we're excited to share with you guys. Uh, one, one being an, uh, an episode with an insurance adjuster.

Yeah.

Uh, and this is, this is something I've had several people tell me that they have a lot of trepidation around dealing with adjusters and, and dealing with insurance and different things like that. So we actually have an insurance claim adjuster that's going to come in studio and talk with us about, you know, how to deal with one of these guys, how to talk to them, you know, like what— how's the process works, uh, you know, and are they out to get you, right? Are they out for the insurance company? Who are they— who are they out for, right? Or who are they— who are they there for?

Sure.

Um, and because I think a lot of us have a lot of ideas when these guys come on our property, like, oh, this guy's just here to screw me.

Yeah, I mean, you, you pay all this money for insurance and somehow you feel like you never get it back. But, um, you know, this is a real opportunity, I, I think, for everyone to hear directly from the adjuster himself, to, to kind of find out these are the things that I do and that, you know, I'm looking for and those sorts of things. Um, and so yeah, looking forward to, to hearing more about that.

Yeah, absolutely. So, but today we're gonna do something a little bit different. Um, today Kevin and I thought it would be kind of fun for us to share our top 4 apps that we both use. Well, not— we don't— both of us don't use all of these, but so we each got 2.

Yeah.

To pick out and share with the audience our top 4 apps that we use on a regular basis and why, why we think they're good, why we think they're helpful, um, and, and how we can, you know, how they might be useful to you if you haven't tried them out yet.

Sure. So yeah, I think it'll be good. Um, yeah, here's the thing. I, I think that it's— there's so many apps out there. I mean, there are so many. Uh, and I think, you know, iOS is— Apple's, um, App Store is probably a little more proprietary in that they make you go through some, some, um, I don't know, some, some development things where they have to approve your app.

It's called the virtual hoops.

Yes, and you have to jump through them, and a little bit differently than Google does. That being said though, there's so many things out there, and so it's hard to know if I download this app, especially if it's a paid app, if it's something I have to spend money on, am I going to get my money out of it? And, you know, am I ever really going to use it?

Sure.

I think most of us have a ton of apps on our phone.

that just never get used.

Never get used. We rarely open them. They're taking up space on our phone. Um, and so what are the things that are out there that, uh, that you and I have found to be useful that we do use that are valuable that we just want to share with you guys today? So that's what we're going to do.

Yeah, and I, I'll say this. I mean, I think, I think the market on apps has changed a little bit in, in the consumer's favor in that most of these developers, I think, have figured out that they're more likely to get customers by offering free versions of their software in order to allow people to try out some of the features, either through like a 7-day trial, or there's just a really stripped-down version that then you can pay to have those features that are a little more handy added back in.

Yeah, that's a lot more common than it used to be.

Right. Yeah. I can remember, I mean, 'cause, you know, I pretty much had an iPhone since they came out, like, you know, You know, a lot of the original apps, I mean, like, you're looking at, you know, $20, $15. I mean, I remember some that were like $200 or $300.

Yeah, for some of the apps. I remember the first GPS app that I bought was $50.

Oh, really?

Yeah.

You paid that?

I did.

Wow.

Well, I mean, you think about it, it was the full version, uh, Garmin. That's what I bought. Oh, full version Garmin, uh, with, with automatic updates. I didn't even have to plug the thing in, right? Uh, and it's the size of my phone, which is about the size of a Garmin, of the actual Garmin you go buy at Best Buy or wherever you go buy it at. Uh, and, and those things were $200.

Yeah.

And so it just made sense.

And then not only that, a lot of people don't remember that like Apple didn't always have turn-by-turn map systems built into their—

Right. It was, it was back before that was really very good. And not only that, I could also put it on my wife's phone for free.

Oh.

And you put on up to 5 devices. So now I'm no longer buying 2 devices. So yeah, $50 was a no-brainer at that time. Uh, but now it's like, I paid $50 for what?

Well, yeah, but you also paid what for that iPhone? And now they're like $1,000.

Yeah, that's, that's also very true. Very true.

Um, so anyway, so are you ready to get into, uh, Craig and Kevin's top 4?

Yeah, let's do it, man.

Yeah, you want to go first or you want me to go first?

You know what, I, uh, I'll tell you what, I'll go first.

Okay, you think mine are that much better? Is that—

Yeah, pretty much, especially one of them. Uh, uh, there is one that, that Craig and I both use that, um, I, I do think will be, uh, valuable. Uh, the first one I want to talk about, um, is, is interesting. We're kind of coming up on storm season, um, at least in certain parts of the world. It's, it's coming up on high winds and rain, those sorts of things, tornadoes. And so one of the apps that I came on to, I don't know, it's probably 7 or 8 years ago now, is an app called RadarScope.

Hmm.

So RadarScope, that's S-C-O-P-E, it is a Doppler-style radar like you would see on a network television. network TV. What am I talking about? Channel. Channel.

Channel.

How could I not think of the word channel?

Those things, you know, back in the day when you had to like turn the knob and—

Exactly.

What was that thing?

What was it called again? I have no idea what I'm talking about. Uh, so, uh, RadarScope, it's a, it's a full Doppler radar on, on your phone or your iPad. Um, and so here, here's where this thing, uh, really, really shines. Um, it's different than just the weather app.

Okay.

Which is, you know, maybe you, you have the Weather Channel app, or maybe, uh, just use the weather app on your phone, right? Uh, which is going to give you things like, you know, humidity and, you know, rain, uh, changes, 10-day forecast, all those sorts of things. RadarScope doesn't do that. The only thing it is is a radar. Uh, and so they do it really, really well. Um, but it looks exactly like what you would see on network TV. In fact, um, I've, I've done this multiple times. times to where I've had the TV open and I've got my, my app open as well, because maybe they're, you know, the meteorologist is talking and I want to zoom out, or I want to move

over to a different place, or maybe he's, he's looking at an area that I'm not living in and I want to kind of see the projections of where I live in. And so I can open up this app and it's going to show me. So especially, I lived in a tornado area for, for a pretty good portion of my life. And so if you've ever lived in an area like that, you know that on the, on the television, on that Doppler radar, um, there, there's a rectangle that they put up that shows the path of the tornado. And this thing does the very same thing. And so it's going to give you, you know, rain, and, you know, it's going to have all the different colors and, and, you know, give you the, the times

and, and various things like that. Um, it also will, will show you lightning strikes and, and when one is close to you. Uh, I will say that, um, that there is a, a pro version of this. Uh, in fact, it's probably for people that are more than just consumers, right? Yeah, people that are really into weather.

Actual meteorologists.

Well, yeah, and, and, you know, some people are just really, really into weather, right?

Yeah, there are storm chaser people out there as well.

Yeah, absolutely. Especially if you're someone like that, you probably already know about this app because some of the pro features are kind of a yearly cost. Okay, so it's not just a one-time download this app, it's a, it's a subscription, and it's gonna give you some more in-depth information. But I'll tell you, you know, when, when Hurricane Harvey was, was here, one of the things that made this really beautiful for me and my family was that I no longer have, uh, cable TV at my house. And I think a lot of people have decided to cut the cord.

Yep.

Right? And so trying to figure out how can I not pay, uh, Comcast or AT&T or whoever, uh, beaucoup of money whenever there's other apps out there, um, and options. So If you've cut the cord and you don't have an antenna at your house, or maybe you live far enough away from a central hub to where your antenna doesn't even get network channels, how are you gonna get weather information, like current weather information, not just the forecast, but how are you gonna know a storm's coming, this is what's coming? Most of us, even if you don't have cable, you're gonna have Wi-Fi.

Right.

And this runs off Wi-Fi. It's going to be the very same thing that you're going to get on network TV, but it's right there in your hand. Here's the other thing that I found. I remember one time a tornado was coming and it was bad enough that my wife and I had decided we're going to the bathroom, get into the bathtub, you know, bring the pillows, bring the dogs.

Oh wow.

We were all huddled in this bathroom and Um, there's not a TV in my bathroom. I don't get network TV in my bathroom.

Yeah.

But I had my phone with me and I could see exactly, uh, what was going on and had all the information right there at my fingertips. So it was really valuable for us. And it may be something that if, uh, if you're in a situation where maybe you don't have access to network TV as easily or as readily, or maybe you just want a little bit more information than what you know, what you're gonna get. Maybe the, the network TV station isn't just showing all-day weather. Maybe you're not in, in a crisis situation where they're just 24/7 showing this, um, this storm, and you want to find out when's the rain coming, you know, what's it, what's it going to do, is it going to miss me, is it not. Uh, this app's going to be really

helpful for that.

Yeah, so, so how real-time is, is this thing?

It's absolutely real-time. In fact, Uh, 100% real time. So there's actually— I mean, you can, um, you know, kind of zoom in on your exact location, and then there's a play button. You press play and it's going to do exactly what the Doppler radar does, where it just kind of shows you this is where it was and this is where it currently is. And, um, I mean, it's as real time as you can possibly get.

So, so does it also allow you to look at like Yeah, so like how much it's moved in the last hour? Can you see Doppler projections?

You know what, I've actually not gotten that far into it over the last hour type of thing, but you can go back and see some information. And like I said, you're gonna get the latest, you know, the last 5 to 10 minutes for sure of kind of where it was and where it's going.

Sure.

And some projections of where it's heading.

Okay.

As well. So, um, you know, I, I guess there's probably some information, and that may be something that they've, that they've put into a pro version.

Yeah.

Honestly, I don't have the pro version. Uh, it's not something that's appealing to me personally. So—

Yeah, so this, this is a free—

Well, it is not free. Uh, I think it's a couple of bucks.

Okay.

Um, so, but you can upgrade to the pro version for a little bit more. That's just to download the app. It's a couple of bucks to download the app.

Okay.

Um, and, and you get all of those features. that I'm talking about, uh, in the app. And then if you want the Pro version, which is going to give you better lightning strike information, other things as well, um, then it's a, it's a yearly subscription. And I want to say it's like $10, $15 a year.

Okay.

Uh, it's just not something that was appealing to me.

So you don't, you don't recall any of the features from the Pro version?

No, I could go look. Um, in fact, I've got it pulled up right here. Let's see, ask me another question. You got any other questions?

But, but, but like right now in the, in the one that you've paid $2 for it, like there's no like 10-day weather forecast or—

No, it doesn't have any of that. I mean, you're gonna be looking, you're gonna really need to go to your weather app.

I guess they assume maybe that either that might be in the pro version or that's something they just assume, hey, we, there's native apps already.

Yeah, that's really not what they're what they're, um, really trying to target. Um, they're trying to target the radar. They're not necessarily trying to target the forecast.

Sure.

So, um, the Pro tier, uh, they've got a Pro subscription, um, that has a couple different, uh, tiers to choose from. It's going to offer you the, the high resolution. Um, it's also going to give you access to real-time lightning data. It animates along with the radar loop. So whenever, you know, it'll show you the progression of lightning.

Yeah.

As it goes. Um, it's also going to, uh, have extended loops for, for that, you know, when you press play, show you where it's going. It's got, um, progressive loops as far as that goes. Um, it's also got, um, dual pane mode.

Oh, that's kind of cool.

So you can look at 2 locations side by side. Uh, it's something that you get, um, as well. So, um, the, the— that's the first tier. The second tier, um, combines everything in the first tier with some more advanced features, including, um, some local storm reports, some outlooks, 30-day archive of all radar products, estimated hail size.

Oh wow.

Um, that's coming, uh, rotation contours for for, uh, tornadoes, which, you know, honestly, if you don't even know what I mean whenever I say rotation contours, then—

No problem.

Don't, don't go download that, you know, that subscription because it may not be something that you're interested in. Um, and so, uh, again, it's just gonna give you some detailed stuff that you're not gonna get in the regular version. Uh, for me, I've always been really impressed with the regular version.

Sure.

It's been really nice. I mean, I've been in some situations where Uh, I've got people relying on me as a leader to kind of make some decisions on whether or not we should cancel something or, you know, keep on going with it. And, um, in those situations, I've been able to pull up a radar and go, look guys, this thing's coming, we need to get out of here. Yeah, you know, so it's been nice.

Cool.

Yeah, so that's my first app.

Radar Scope.

Radar Scope.

All right, all right. So my first one is, is gonna be Philips Hue.

Philips Hue. Now, is that a name? Someone's name.

Philips Hue. Now, I am kind of cheating because this does require some hardware in order for it to be functional in your home.

Okay.

But I use it so much in my house now. Yeah, it's an everyday use for me at this point because we have the Philips Hue lighting system in our house. And so what you, what you need in order that, you know, the app is obviously free.

Yeah.

But you'll need the Philips Bridge and then the Philips Hue light bulbs.

Okay.

That pair with the bridge. And the bridge is essentially like, I think, think of it like a Wi-Fi router in your home that just talks exclusively to light bulbs. Okay. It's, it's really easy to set up. And actually, they just, they got rid of the old app. And so I'm actually having to learn the new one. It's a lot like the old one. Um, all my lights work essentially the same. They all still work on voice command. They all work through the app. Um, and so you end up— you— one of the things I really like about it, it's an app you can have on your phone that you never really have to open to use.

Okay.

Um, because you can pair it with so many things. Um, like I know you've mentioned before, like you have HomeKit. It pairs perfectly with HomeKit. It pairs perfectly with, uh, Google's What is it? What do they say?

What are they?

Google Home, uh, an Alexa device, all those things. It pairs with, it pairs with all of those things really, really nicely. So, so voice command, you know, the new, new fun technology that everybody's starting to use now, it pairs with that. Um, and, and, but you can also just use the app on your phone to just turn— it works like a remote control light switch.

Okay.

Uh, and so like if you, if you end up setting up your whole house um, with these light bulbs through the bridge, you can control all the lights in your house without having to get up, you know. And, and it, you know, all of them, you don't have to put in dimmer packs.

That's huge.

Um, yeah. And so those are expensive. Dimmer packs are very expensive.

And they're, they're hard to fit in most, most outlet boxes.

Right. And, and, and so, but not only that, it comes with mood settings. Um, so if you're mad Yeah, well, I mean, like, not only that, I mean, um, so like there's a specific light setting that it offers for reading.

Oh, okay.

There's a specific light setting for concentration. Uh, there's a specific light setting for relax. Um, and, and like these are just different kinds of white light that it offers through these light bulbs. But my kids really like playing with the app itself because all the Well, not all of the light bulbs, but the nicer light bulbs all can be any color in the spectrum. And so they love getting on the color wheel and, you know, picking a light bulb and I want to make that one blue and I want to make this one green. And my son really likes having— there's a desk lamp right outside of his room and he really likes that light to be

blue when he goes to sleep.

Okay.

Um, it's not quite as bright, right? Yeah. And, and so he'll usually ask me sometimes if I, uh, if I can turn the light blue before he goes to bed.

Nice.

That's just, that's his thing. He really likes that.

Yeah.

Um, and there's even scenes that they allow. So like, if, like, in my bedroom we have 3 or 4 different bulbs, um, and I, man, I forget the name of some of these things because they're just goofy. Yeah. Um, but it's like, you know, hey, make it you know, Malibu sunrise or something. And so it'll make like one light bulb kind of orangish-yellow and the other one kind of a deep red, so it makes it look like a sunset on the ocean shore. And one's blue over here, and it just— it sort of works the whole room together to kind of make a mood. Okay, uh, that's interesting. Yeah, so they do lots of cool stuff with it. And then, you

know, obviously you can dim and, uh, and brighten the lights as well.

Yeah.

Um, which is super, especially Um, one, you can turn your lights off when you're not at home. Um, and if you're like me and you've got like 3 stories, like, dadgummit, I left the light on up there. Just turn it off. I'm not gonna walk all the way back up there. Yeah. Um, 'cause I'm lazy.

Yeah.

Well, there's that.

Yeah.

So really, really helpful app. But again, you do have to have the hardware in order for that one to work, but it's, it's, it's become a daily use for me, um, for turning light, you know, Like, I really hate turning on lights in the morning. You know what I mean? Like, if it's just like one of those flip-on switch lights and it's gonna blind you immediately.

It's bright.

That's one of the things I really love about this. If I'm gonna walk into a room, I like to like ease myself into the light first thing in the morning.

Yeah, sure.

I'm an early riser anyway, but like, I don't like the bright light.

Yeah.

Like Gizmo from the Gremlins.

Well, it makes sense. I mean, it gives— it sounds to me like what you're saying is it gives you a lot of options where your light is just not a simple on or off anymore.

Right. Yeah. I mean, it can be.

Sure.

Yeah. And if you— and that is one thing that's— so like if it's in a lamp, that lamp has to be on and that switch has to be on in order for you to have control over that bulb.

Okay.

So you can't have the lamp in like an off position and then have control over the bulb. It's just, it has to be on.

Okay.

That being said, if someone does flip it off, and you go to flip it back on, it's— it has a default setting to that bulb that it just comes on. Okay. Um, and that, that's really just to let you know that the bulb's working.

Sure. Um, so, okay, cool. And, and the other thing that is that you have the opportunity to set something that we've talked about before with, uh, like our, our Ecobee thermostat episode, uh, where, you know, if you walk in your home and it's— you have it set up with, you know, the IFTTT, um, then, you know, maybe you open the door and certain lights come on, or maybe you leave your house and certain lights go off, correct?

Yeah, no, it allows you full automation. You can even, um, put it on specific timers.

Okay.

So say you're going to be out of town, you, you could even have like a whole series of automations that you set up So like, listen, on Tuesday, turn the lights on at 6. On Wednesday, turn the lights on at 4. On Thursday, you know, you can set it up as complicated as you want.

Okay.

And I've played around with some of that. You know, our place is not really all that accessible to thieves and robbers. Not to say that we'd never have any. It's just not a lot of people even know where our house is.

Sure.

And so like that feature has not really been something I've worried too much about.

Okay.

I have played with it just to see what it would do. And one time I forgot that I set it on for like 5 in the morning and woke myself up.

Hello, there it is.

I quickly remedied that.

Yeah, yeah, absolutely.

So, but it's, it's a, it's a great product. It's a great app. Yeah. Uh, and you have to have the app to set the whole system up, and it's one of those really, really good ones that kind of walks you through the whole process. And, uh, so like if you're not You know, if you— what I've heard many people call themselves a Technosaurus Rex, uh, this is, this is something you could manage. Okay, it's, it's really, really easy.

Okay, good, very good. Um, well, I think that pretty much sums that one up.

The end.

The end. Um, hey, I do want to— to— if you got to cheat, I'm going to cheat and go back to, uh, RadarScope for just a brief moment. Um, I was wrong.

What did I cheat on? Oh, by, by doing an app that had—

Yeah, product associated.

Got it.

Okay, uh, so carry on then. Um, the, the pricing is, is different than I, than I said.

Okay.

It's $10 to download the app.

You weren't cheating, you were just wrong.

It was just wrong.

Okay. Completely wrong.

I'm gonna be cheating by going back.

So I told the truth.

Yeah, yeah, good luck with that. Um, but, um, here's, here's one thing I will tell you. Um, there, there's a lot more stuff that it does, and I than I told you about. And part of it is just because I haven't dug down deep enough into it. But here's what's really cool, and we'll link this up in the show notes. If you go to radarscope.app, there is a complete website that walks you through absolutely everything that this thing does.

And it— I'm actually more impressed that .app is now a—

It's a thing. Yeah, apparently it is. But if you've got iOS or Android or, you know, Windows machine or a Mac, there's versions for each one of those.

Okay.

And so it'll walk you through those. Um, it'll— it's also got, you know, take a tour if you want to kind of, you know, look at what it looks like before you download it.

Yeah.

Because again, they understand it's a $10 app, right? I mean, this isn't— this isn't something that you're just lightly getting into.

Sure. Um, so the one that you have is for your phone and your iPad currently.

Could you—

could you also put that on your Mac as well? For what you paid for already? No, no.

Okay, it's a completely different app. And most, most of the time, if you buy something on iOS, for example, you're gonna have to buy it again on Mac. Okay, because those are 2 completely different operating systems.

Sure.

And, um, they're not reciprocal. Same is true with a lot of versions of Android and Windows. Okay, a lot of times you're gonna have to buy The whatever it is.

For some reason in my brain, that makes more sense than the iOS stuff.

But yeah, well, it, it, it kind of, uh, you will have to pay more for it. Um, if you want it on your computer, you get some advanced things. Um, but it's $30 for that app. But for the computer version, for the computer version. But again, you're talking a whole different level of software. whenever you come to a computer than you are with it with a phone. Um, but anyway, so this website goes even— even they've got something called RadarScope Academy where it kind of takes you through and helps you understand how to use it.

Super weather geek.

It really is. Uh, you know, it connects to your Apple Watch and some other really cool things.

So, um, anyway, uh, if I have to look at my Apple Watch to know that a tornado is coming at me, it's too late.

Boom.

Yeah.

Hey, just a little—

I got all my steps in. Yeah.

Uh, I will tell you a real interesting story real quick. Um, I, I had someone tell me one time, I was a, I was a young child, they said, listen, if you ever see a tornado and it looks like it's not moving, run, because it's probably coming at you. Because tornadoes don't stand still. So, uh, it's either moving left or right, or it's coming at you or moving away from you anyway. There you go. That's my little tip for the day. Anyway, so—

Run from tornadoes. Wise words from Kevin.

Thank you. That's the best I got tonight. So RadarScope, there you go. We're back on that one. Okay, my next one is called Wi-Fi Signal Pro. Now, I just learned about this last week.

So you're already an expert.

Well, I've figured some things out with it pretty quickly. This is a really cool app. It costs $2.99. on iOS. And, um, here's really what it's for. So in your house, you've got a router, uh, Wi-Fi access point is what they call it. Most of us have one access point in our home, right? Um, and you will probably find that certain parts of your home you get better signal than other parts of your home. That's just because there is a maximum distance that that router allows you, uh, to access its data. Okay, so for instance, in my home, uh, we have about a 2,400 square foot home and it's one story, so it's kind of sprawling in some ways.

Right.

Um, and our access point just happens to be, uh, installed where the most activity happens in our house, which is our living room, and it is the very front corner of our home. And there's a whole lot of house in the other corner of the home.

Right.

Right. And in that corner of the home, which we have a TV back there that needs to access the internet, it struggles. And, uh, the other thing is we, uh, we live in an area where cell phone signal is horrible and we rely on Wi-Fi calling in order to send and receive, you know, calls. And so it's really important for our Wi-Fi to be working well. And so what this thing does, what this app does, is it gives you real-time data on what type of signal strength you're getting where you are standing.

Hmm.

Okay, so you can take, uh, you know, you got to be connected to your, to your Wi-Fi on your device, and you can take it to another part of your home look at the device and give you real-time, um, data on, you know, you've got 98% connectability, great, you're doing fantastic. Maybe you go to another part of the home and you got 26% and it's really poor, right?

Yeah.

Um, and so, you know, this thing is going to, uh, give you a signal strength meter. It's one of the, the main things that it does. Um, but it's also going to do some other things It's going to give you a ping test. A ping test is going to tell you how long it takes your router to hit the access point that it is connecting to. That makes a big difference in how quickly your data is going to come back to your device. Okay, so it can, it can perform ping tests. It can also perform speed tests. Okay, so many of you may have heard of speed test. It's something that a lot of companies are saying, hey, use speed test in order to test the speed of your internet.

Right.

This thing has it built in, so you don't have to have a completely separate app for that as well. It'll also tell you how many devices you have connected to your network. Okay, so some— there are some routers out there that have this technology in an app as well, but if you don't, this will tell you, hey, you, you know, you've got 29 devices hooked up to your internet. You probably didn't know you had that many.

Yeah.

it will affect the speed that you're getting out of your internet if you have that much connected to one router, right? So maybe you can use this to say, hey, I need to kick some of these things off the network so that my signal strength goes up as well.

Sure.

And so the other thing you can do is you can use it to share your Wi-Fi password with other people. So if you come over to my house and you say, hey, Kevin, I'd really like access to your Wi-Fi, sure. And I don't have to sit there and tell you each uppercase, lowercase, whatever. I can just send you, just push you the password.

The app lets you do that.

The app lets me push the password out to you and then you're good to go. Yeah.

And I think if you, I remember you telling me, right? You found out about this because your office was having some issues with— Wi-Fi coverage.

Yeah, absolutely.

So you guys were kind of going around testing and seeing, okay, where's the best place to put this, where's the best place to put that? Is that—

Exactly. So we, we've got a, um, a couple of offices in our office, uh, complex where, uh, they're on the far-reaching corners of, of this access points range. And we've got one person specifically who does a lot of video conferencing, and he was saying that regularly Uh, you know, sometimes 3, 4, 5 times during a 1-hour video conference that his would just shut down because he didn't have enough signal to be able to access, you know, Wi-Fi streaming, right?

Right.

And we had another area, it's actually our conference room, which is a pretty important room for us, um, that the Wi-Fi signal is horrible in there. And so we were able to just move you know, kind of test by, by moving that access point to different locations and walk around with the meter in your hand on your app and figure out, okay, I get this much signal here and kind of find an ideal location for that in our office. Now you can do the same thing in your house as long as you're wired for it. The other thing is a lot of going to products when you're talking about router, a lot of people are going to what's called a mesh system. which

offers 2 or 3 access points and maybe as many as up to, you know, 20 or 30 access points depending on which system you get.

Sure.

That, that will allow you to have continuous access throughout your house without switching networks.

Right.

And if you have something like that, this app could be really, really helpful in you figuring out exactly where you need to put those access points to get maximum coverage and get the best speed coverage across your home.

Yeah.

So that's Wi-Fi Signal Pro. And man, I've been really impressed with it so far.

Yeah, and how much was it?

$2.99.

$2.99.

Yeah, and they do have a non-pro version. It just, it doesn't have, first of all, it's got ads in it, which honestly I'd pay $3 not to have ads in some of these apps. But also it just doesn't do do some of the things that the pro version does. So for me, it was worth paying the $2.99 to get the pro version.

Okay.

Yeah.

Nice. Well, good. All right, moving on.

Yeah.

We're gonna, I guess, number 4.

Number 4.

Uh, we're gonna go ahead and invoke the Nextdoor app.

Nextdoor.

Yeah, and if, if you don't know about this one yet, this one is, is really growing fast right now. You know, it's, it's kind of a community bulletin board slash social media Um, and it's, it's changing a little bit right now. Um, but what's, what's really cool about this, if you don't know about it, it really allows you to be tapped into your local community, uh, in a way that I think other apps don't that offer kind of like a social media with comments and likes and things like that. I mean, like, you know, one, you can set it up to where it's only people in your neighborhood.

Right.

Only people who are in your specific neighborhood do you see their— you can see their posts. You can set it up to where you see neighboring posts. You can set it up within a certain radius of your home. But really what it's supposed to be, it's supposed to be local stuff. Uh, and, and, you know, what a lot of people have ended up using it for is, hey, I need a good electrician. Hey, I need a plumber. Hey, I need a good pest control guy. Hey, I need somebody to come clean my pool. Who do you recommend?

Yeah.

Or, hey, I just used this company and they did a great job.

Or not.

Yeah, or not.

Yeah.

And so it's been really interesting to watch people interact on it because it's a completely different interaction than what you see typically on social media platforms. There's a little bit of the griping and moaning and wailing that goes on. But that being said, if there is that, it usually has to do with something happening in our community.

Yeah. took the time to get on there and say, this is something that I'm frustrated with, and it may be something that you might need to know about as well.

Right. Like, just as an ins— for an instance, this morning, uh, there was a really well-known restaurant near us that's out on the lake, uh, that some people showed up for work and found out that their restaurant had been closed.

Oh.

And, and, and so like people in the community were like, what's going on? Why is this restaurant closed? What, what, you know, what's going to happen to all these people? Are they out of jobs? Are they, you know, people were genuinely concerned.

Yeah.

Maybe not so much just for like the business being there, but like, what's going to happen to the people? What's going to happen to this thing? And so there was a lot of posts about it. I see a lot of posts on there about, well, at least our local constable and sheriff's office, they have accounts on there and can post and let us know when there's been specific crimes. that we need to be aware of, they post those on there. Um, and so it's, it's just really, really helpful, one, to know what's going on in your community, because it's really hard to know or to really even have the space to know, because if you're using any other kind of social media or news, you know, it's, it's really hard to have, one, the emotional space,

and two, just the brain capacity to just hold any more information than what they're throwing at you constantly.

That's right.

You know, and so like it really gives you a tool to know what's going on in your community, which is what I hear a lot of people complain about. I don't know what's going on in my community. I don't know what's going on around. I don't know my neighbors. Well, you know, here's, here's a way that you can, you know, you know, ease your way in without actually having to go knock on a door.

Yeah, absolutely.

Not that you shouldn't go knock on doors and take a pie. Yeah, you know, which is appropriate here on 3/14.

Know your neighbors, right? Um, but you know, the There's other apps that kind of try to do this. In fact, I said Neighbors. There's an app called Neighbors that works with the Ring device that we did a review on. They try to do some things with this. They actually do a really good job whenever it comes to people who are trying to scam you or trying to be in your neighborhood that shouldn't be there.

Yeah.

That's really, really good. The Nextdoor app can actually do some of those things because it's anybody who's signed up with an account can go and post those sorts of things. But it's way different than like Facebook, which is just your friends.

Right.

Right? This is people that are in your community that you may not know, but live the next street over.

Right.

Right? And so maybe they know about something that you don't know about, and they post about it, and all of a sudden, you've got information that without this app, you would have no idea what was going on. I mean, I, I was, uh, in our, in our neighborhood, we have a— it's— there's a couple of unique things that happen in our neighborhood. Um, we have parades that go through our neighborhood on occasion.

Mm-hmm.

And, uh, I remember last year for, uh, Memorial Day, there was, there was a parade that was supposed to go through, but it was raining. And so the, uh—

Was this the boat one?

No, this wasn't the boat one. This was completely— okay, so we got multiple parades, right? Okay, you've helped me establish that. Um, this was, uh, different than that, uh, but it was raining, and so the association that put on the parade was using Nextdoor to give updates about how the parade route was gonna change and the times that it was gonna change and these sorts of things. things that honestly they would have to spam people's email in order to give real-time updates on what was happening.

Yeah.

And this was a really good way for them to do that. So there's a lot of things that the Nextdoor app can do that just, like you said, it helps you know and understand the community that you're living in. I mean, you chose that community, you bought into that community, and, you know, we kind of talked about this and whenever we were talking with our friend, uh, Jim Kuykendall on an episode. He was the mayor, uh, is the mayor of Oak Ridge North, talking about you chose the community that you're living in.

Yeah.

For one reason or the other. It would be great if you would get out there and be part of that and, you know, help people, uh, be the best version of themselves that they can be. And honestly, I don't want to get scammed by a plumber, but if I do, I would love to have an outlet different than just Google Reviews, which Google Reviews are fine.

Sure.

But I would love to have an outlet that says this plumber was at my house just a few doors down from you. Don't let him come into your home.

Yeah, there's a big difference between telling your neighbors and telling America. Right.

Absolutely. And it's just a lot more specific. It's, it's narrowed down. One of the other things that's kind of cool about it is you can expand it out a little bit.

Oh yeah.

I mean, you can expand it to other neighborhoods, uh, in your area. And so—

Which is helpful for people like me who only have like 40 neighbors. Sure, sure.

But there are other neighborhoods around you—

Exactly.

That are still within, um, interest.

Yeah, you know, yeah. And I, I see people using it for all kinds of different things. I, you know, I'll see people like, you know, selling a couch on there. But like, uh, one of the other ones that I've I've actually used it for is like if a pet goes missing.

Yes.

Like you can post that up on there and like, here's the picture of my pet. She's been gone for a day. Please help me find her.

And I see those pets being found all the time and returned to their owners.

Oh yeah.

Yeah. Which, you know, honestly, I mean, that's, that's—

I mean, I even see it on there. It was like, hey, she's over at my house. It's this address. Come pick her up.

Absolutely.

She's fed and doing great.

Right. Yeah. And those, those kind of things, I tell you, it It gives me a little more comfort in knowing that the place that I live is not just this isolated place. I mean, I think it's just so easy in today's day and age to feel isolated.

Right.

And to feel like, you know what, I don't really need to leave my home because I've got all the information I need right here. People deliver food to me, anything I need. A lot of people office out of their own home even.

Yeah.

The need to leave your home has become less than it used to be.

Yeah.

And so this is just one more way that you can kind of feel less isolated. You got people around you that are looking out for you, that are taking care of you, and those sorts of things. And the Nextdoor app is a beautiful thing that if, if you don't have it, go download it. Just check it out. I mean, if you hate it, Get deleted. It's free.

Yeah, it's free.

Um, but, um, I think that you will find that even if you don't use it regularly, there will come a point in time when you go, I wonder what people are talking about.

Yeah.

And you get on there and go, oh, now I know something. Um, I— there you mentioned a restaurant. Um, we had a restaurant, uh, not too far from where we live, uh, that some people got sick from. They posted it on there, hey, we got sick from this restaurant. It looks like they've got some stuff to take care of before they're going to be back up and running. Little things like that, man, I'd love to be able to know that before I walk into a place and go, oh, I had no idea that people are getting sick from here. It's just the more you know, the better person you can be.

I actually do think that this app is probably going to become a little bit more popular as we get further on down the road because it is a lot more specific to the space that you live in.

Yeah.

That being said, there are ads that run on there, but I will tell you, I will tell everyone this, as a business owner who is always looking for new opportunities to promote their business, it is not super easy to get an ad put on Nextdoor.

Okay.

There's, there's a whole process that they put you through. They're pretty particular about who they let and what kind of content that they let up on their platform.

OK.

Which is completely different than just— I mean, let me tell you how easy it is to run an ad on Facebook.

Yeah.

I mean, or Instagram for that matter. I mean, you can put anything you want up there.

Right.

Nobody cares as long as it's not like stealing somebody else's content.

Especially if you're paying for it.

Yeah. And so it's not super easy to put an ad up on Nextdoor. And so just know that the ads that you're— and it's not necessarily that, you know, you look at the ads and go, OK, something I want to buy because they had to go through more of a process. Just know that the people who are looking over Nextdoor are more particular about the stuff that they put on, which just seems to be the nature of the app. I mean, like, it just, you know, because they're trying to narrow it down and be very specific as to who you're interacting with and whose content you can see and whose information that's actually being shared, you know,

they're looking out for that as well.

Sure.

And that's the other thing I think is pretty interesting is that you as the user can choose whether or not to make your information available to your neighbors.

Yeah.

And so some people choose to share their phone number on there because they know that it's only going to be in the hands of a very few people. And when it's people that live in your neighborhood, you— the expectation is that no one's going to try and take advantage of that. You know, that, that's unfortunately probably not always going to be the case, but in my mind, far less likely going to happen.

Sure.

Because once you start doing that, people are gonna be able to figure out pretty quick who you are and what you're doing and why you're doing it. And yeah, pitchforks and torches are gonna come out. Sure.

And honestly, I mean, like, in my neighborhood, we have a phone book that comes out just to our neighborhood. And not every neighborhood does that, but ours does. And so people have my phone number anyway. I mean, I can, I can choose to make it unlisted, sure, but I don't. And so, you know, people have my number phone number anyway, and if I can narrow it down to just these number of people have it, it's not the worst thing in the world to have your phone number out there. They're probably not gonna be spamming you, you know, stuff.

So anyway, those are our, those are our 4 apps.

Hey, hey, hey, I got one more thing here. Oh, you got one more thing? Yeah, this is bonus.

Bonus material, folks.

Bonus material.

Heads up.

Okay, we're just gonna run through this really quickly, but iOS has a new app that's just come out with, with iOS 12. And it's kind of interesting because there's other apps out there that do this that are paid apps. And, you know, iOS is coming in and undercutting them and saying, hey, we're gonna offer this to you for free. But it's the Measure app.

Yeah, that's a super cool one.

Yeah, I mean, this is so cool, guys. If you don't know about the Measure app, you need to go find it. It's probably even already on your device.

You don't even know it yet.

If you're on iOS. If not, you can download it for free. It's just called Measure. And basically you can open your phone up into, uh, uses, accesses your camera. You can take a picture and measure out distances, whether it's, you know, you're trying to measure for new flooring or you're, you know, you're trying to figure out, uh, the distance between, you know, this wall and that wall, how far it is from this, you know, the door to the edge of the wall, whatever it is. I mean, especially if you're doing any type of interior design or anything like that. Um, You can use this, this app to measure out without going and getting a measuring tape.

Yeah, and it's, it's pretty accurate.

It's accurate.

It's really accurate.

I think, I think they said it's like, like 0.3.

I think it's within a third of an inch.

Yeah. Yeah, within—

Oh no, I'm sorry, within an eighth of an inch is what it's typically like.

Okay, within an eighth of an inch. Okay, so, so you think about that. I mean, there's a very good possibility that, um, I don't even know where my measuring tape is, but even if I do if it's a very long distance, it may be difficult for me to get within an 8th of an inch, right? But most projects out there, you're not trying to get with, you know, closer within than an 8th of an inch. Um, the only difference would be is if you're doing like, you know, skilled carpentry, right? Something like that, which I do at times. Um, but even, even then And, um, you know, we're working on the studio, or you're working on the studio in here, and you've been using the Measure app in here, right?

Yeah, to put up the wall right behind you.

Yeah.

So it's, it's really accurate.

Yeah.

And I've used it outside as well. And so like, you don't, you don't even have to take a picture. Like, it'll do it in real time.

Okay.

And so what you do is you'll set like an anchor point, and you can even move outside of the scope of the camera, and it'll keep track of that anchor point.

Wow.

It's because I've, I've done measurements well over 100 feet.

Oh man.

With this thing, just because I wanted to play with it. I wanted to see what it could do. And I was, I was measuring it for a job too. But, um, and it was crazy. I was like, how far could this thing go? Wow, that's crazy. It'll just grab a line and just, and just follow it. And then you can, and then you can actually turn with it as well. So you can set multiple anchor points and it'll I haven't, I haven't set it up to where it's done like a complete square, so I don't know if it'll do square footage.

It, it will. It'll take, uh, square objects. So like, like, um, if you're trying to measure rectangular objects, like whether it's a picture frame or a coffee table, right, it will do that.

Yeah, I know it'll do like the whole distance around. What I want to know is like, would it give me like the area within those? Oh, you know, which that should be easy to calculate. I mean, that's an easy calculation that should It should be able to generate. If it doesn't, hey Apple, we just gave you a great idea.

There you go.

But yeah, so I mean, it's a really, really cool app. And you can save those images.

Okay.

So like you set the anchor point, you measure that, and then you take like a screenshot of it. And it'll— so you can, when you're back at the hardware store going, I need this much, I need this much of this, this much of that, you can pull those pictures up and go, okay, this is for this, this is for that. And just have all those measurements right there in front of you.

Fantastic.

Really, really good stuff.

Yep. So that's, uh, 5 apps now.

A bonus, bonus extra.

The top 5 apps.

For you Apple users.

Well, yeah, and, and many of these, um, are available also on Android. The Measure app, uh, specifically isn't, although they offer some really cool— Android has some really cool apps for like seeing pipes in walls and like, yeah, and, and, and running electrical lines and, and, you know, Ethernet and those sorts of things.

It's like some infrared kind of stuff, right? Yeah, like their cameras have some infrared capabilities.

Yeah, it's fantastic. Yeah. And so lots of cool stuff out there, guys. And if you've got any questions about an app you've been thinking about, or maybe you have one that you use a lot, send us a message.

Yeah, we'd like to know what you guys are using.

Absolutely. info@homeownersshow.com. You can send that to us and we'd love to give you a shout out. and put your name up here and see what you have to say about your app, your favorite one.

Yeah, we usually say at the beginning, but if you haven't yet, go ahead and hit the subscribe button there in iTunes, Stitcher, Google Play, whatever it is you're using.

Yeah.

So we're not even gonna give Kevin the airtime this week to mention his. But yeah, and then on YouTube, if Kevin will get his stuff up there, we can hit the subscribe button and the notification bell on YouTube.

We have videos.

We got some videos. Yeah. So, um, but yeah, join us on the interwebs, listen to the content. Uh, again, thank you guys for, uh, for listening, for tuning in, for sending us the love.

1,000 episodes. 1,000, man.

Crazy.

Fantastic. Thank you guys. Well, uh, yeah, I think you said it all. Uh, join us every Tuesday and, uh, we'll see you next time. See ya.