Dude, Where’s My Water? 5 Water Apps You Will Find Useful

Water is a complicated necessity: it affects almost every facet of life. So it”s no surprise that an abundance of water-focused apps exist.

Here are five of the most useful water-based apps today. Most of them are free downloads.

Waterlogged

This sleek and clever app keeps track of how much water you consume each day. Think you”re drinking enough? You might be surprised.

For users who aren”t sure how much water is “enough,” the app provides intake recommendations. For people who drink water about as often as they floss their teeth, reminders make regulating your consumption easy.

It”s popular too; Waterlogged has been recommended by Apple, Lifehacker, and the estimable Dr. Oz. Certain extras, like graphs and charts, must be purchased via subscription within the app, but general usage is totally free.

It”s best selling point: the app allows users to photograph the glasses they drink from most frequently. This improves accuracy and makes using the app easy and rewarding.

Image Source: Pixabay

Dark Sky

A reasonably priced ($3.99) dreamer”s app for the iOS, Dark Sky makes this list for ingenuity and potential. Its aim? To provide you with a down-to-the-minute weather forecast.

Not for your state, or town, but you, personally. By marrying radar to GPS technology, the app could put weather-people everywhere on unemployment. Imagine knowing the fat dark cloud above you won”t pour for another ten minutes. The practical uses for this kind of tech are seriously endless.

Imperfect for now, but still far more accurate and helpful than the Weather Channel.

Buoys w/NOAA data

Courtesy of The Gonzo Consortium, this free app is essential for anyone living on a coastline or low-lying flood plain. Ideal for tracking tropical storms, hurricanes, and more.

Culling data from NOAA, CDIP, and NDBC, this app helps surfers, sailors, and beach bums determine wind, wave, and directional swells. Many used the app in the hours preceding Hurricane Sandy, but data is also available for fresh-water bodies like the Great Lakes.

Waterprint

Created by Water Efficiency Journal, this app for the iOS helps you to think of your daily actions in terms of water usage. Everything you do, they say, creates a water footprint — similar to a carbon footprint. Encouraging mindfulness, the app educates and enlightens.

Consider: How much water did it take to make your T-shirt? With Waterprint”s calculator, you can find out and track your own waterprint. Ideal for the environmentally conscious smartphone user.

Can I Drink the Water?

This $0.99 app provides a basic and necessary service for world travelers: it lets you know whether the tap water is generally potable in the country you”re visiting. While access to clean and safe water varies worldwide, sometimes tap water isn”t safe for travelers, even though the locals can drink it.

Our bodies adjust to the chemicals and minerals in the water we drink most often. That”s why American tourists get sick when they drink water in, say, Mexico. It”s not bad water; we”re just not acclimated to it. This app takes away the confusion. Worth the pocket change if you”re planning a long trip.