Friday, May 8, 2009

iPhone Weather App: The Weather Channel

It might seem boring compared to a lot of the games and other apps I use, but there's no app I use more regularly than the latest update to the Weather Channel app. If I could delete the standard iPhone Weather app, I would. The Weather Channel really nailed it with this latest update.

Booting the app takes you to the Current weather screen. You can enter a location (it saves your favorites, and auto-loads your most recent search on boot). There's a pretty little icon that tells you the general weather for the moment, along with some stats like temp, weather, etc. You then have 3 other tabs, Hourly, 36 Hour, and 10 Day, which give you information accordingly.

The app gets really cool though, when you click Explore Map. The Weather Channel uses Google Maps to show you your location, along with the Doppler Radar for the region. You can scroll, zoom, and do whatever else you might normally do on a Google Map. Then you can press "Play" to get a moving version of the map, to see how that latest storm front is moving.

The next tab is the Video tab, which gives you the latest local weather forecast, in video. The video buffers in seconds, and the quality is great. It's a great thing to watch while you're getting dressed in the morning, to see what kind of clothing you should be wearing out there!

The last useful tab is "Severe," which gives a list of any severe weather alerts in the area. The final tab, more, simply hides Help, More Video, and the About screen.

Over all the app is super snappy and incredibly useful. All the information you could possibly need is right at your fingertips. The app loads quickly, closes nicely, and doesn't take up much room overall. If only they could make the icon change based on the current weather for today (something I always wished the regular iPhone Weather App would do). There's a few ads on the app, but they're unobtrusive and just simple banners.

If you need to know what to wear in the morning, or you're trying to plan your weekend, this app is a must have. The weather map is fun to cruise around on, and the video is great. Well played, Mr. Weather Channel iPhone Developer.

5 comments:

  1. Can a brother get some screenshots? iPhone Tip - Holding down the Home and Power button snaps a screenshot and saves to your Photos library.

    ReplyDelete
  2. After an update on 8/15 the app is completely messed up and will no longer function corrrectly....too bad.... Was great

    ReplyDelete
  3. i unlocked my iphone today and now i want use it on any gsm network worldwide , , it was really easy , i have 3.1.2 firmware and my iphone was iphone 3g i was on AT&T network and now i use tmobile , really nice Finally i unlocked my iphone .
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  4. You know, there are four generations of iPhone models, and they were accompanied by four major releases of iOS (formerly iPhone OS). The original iPhone was a GSM phone that established design precedents like screen size and button placement that have persisted through all models.
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    ReplyDelete