Fahrenheit Weather and Temperature on your Home Screen Review

Our Review by Lisa Caplan on November 9th, 2011
Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar :: USEFUL AND CLEAN
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As winter sets in, everyone needs a good weather app. Fahrenheit Weather and Temperature on your Home Screen takes it to the badge.

Developer: International Travel Weather Calculator
Price: $.99
Version: 1.4
App Reviewed on: iPad 2

iPad Integration Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar
User Interface Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar

Brrr! Winter has reared it’s blizzardy head already once this month as North Easterners know all too well. And, here in Canada we are in for a very long sleigh ride indeed. Checking the weather is hardly limited to cold times, but knowing when there’s a snow storm or temperature plunge is a very good reason to get a weather app.

The iPhone comes with one, but the iPad doesn’t and Apple's icon is completely static. It sits there and looks mockingly sunny even when old man winter is throwing hail stones onto windshields and taunting those with frozen toes.

Fahrenheit Weather and Temperature on your Home Screen, which for metric speaking folks (like me) is sold as Celsius too with the same GUI, has an icon with a badge that displays the current temperatue updating in something close to real time.

There is a metric caveat – Apple does not allow badges to display negative numbers, so the standout feature can be a rendered useless in some places, like here in the Great White North for months. But, to help work around that, the app will send notifications when the temperature drops below freezing and of course inside the app all is well.

Speaking of the inside there is there is a lot, but no clutter. The GUI is clean with the option of a light or dark theme and upon launch it presents the current temperature for any location, and a 10-day forecast.

Tapping on a day brings up a host of information beyond the day’s highs and lows. The app provides information on precipitation, humidity, UV index, sunrise and sunset, and the “actual” temperature when wind chill factor, “humidex” or other variables factor in and more.

Icons along the bottom of the screen allow users to view cloud patterns, temperature maps, track rain and wind and check satellite imagery. And, for those who like to boast about who has it best, or more often, worst, there is Facebook and twitter integration.

There is really nothing to pick on. As a Canadian, I wish the badges worked when it dipped below freezing since that is where it will stay starting very soon and relentlessly until March, but that is beyond the developers control.

In all other ways Celsius and for all but the most extreme climes in all ways Fahrenheit are great general purpose weather apps that have the advantage of providing the most important information right on the home screen. For a no-frills, weather-centric app Fahrenheit Weather and Temperature on your Home Screen is an excellent choice.

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