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Favorite Four: At-a-Glance Weather Apps

Posted by Rob Rich on April 10th, 2013

Anyone who ventures outside with any regularity needs to know what the weather is doing, no matter how they get around. Thing is, people are often in a rush and need to either figure out how to plan for the day or wing it and hope for the best. For anyone who often finds themselves flying out the door and subsequently caught in the rain without an umbrella or sporting a thick coat in 60 degree temperatures, this list of at-a-glance weather apps is for you.

Weather Neue
What makes Weather Neue so great is that it pretty much embodies “at-a-glance.” As soon as the app starts up users are greeted with a screen displaying the current temperature and weather conditions, wind speed, and a peek at what the next three days will bring. All with a big, bold, easy to read presentation.

Climate Clock
It might seem odd to have this and Weather Neue in the same list since they’re so similar, but what sets Climate Clock apart is the way it displays information for most of the day on a single screen. Users can see how hot or cold it will be later on that evening, and even if they should think about bringing an umbrella, without touching a single menu option.

Daily Weather
It’s not as elegantly simple as some of the other apps on this list, but Daily Weather is still great for avoiding awkward weather situations. The current temperature, highs and lows, cloud cover, wind, humidity, and a general sense of what it feels like outside (i.e. “warm”) is all front and center. In a handy and familiar newspaper-style format, no less.

Beautiful Weather
It’s perhaps the most complex out of these four apps, but Beautiful Weather is still a cinch to use and great for figuring out how to dress. A title of the device and a single upward swipe will call up a window with virtually every bit of weather-related info the user would most likely want to know (temperature, conditions, high, low, humidity, moon phases, sunrise and sunset times, etc), along with random historical facts.

Weather Neue Review

Posted by Rob Rich on July 30th, 2012
iPhone App - Designed for iPhone, compatible with iPad

Developer: Switch Soft Technologies
Price: FREE
Version: 1.01
App Reviewed on: iPhone 3GS

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

[rating:overall]

In this day and age where just about any amount of information can be acquired anywhere with a few screen taps, some can often forget that it’s the information itself that’s most important. Sometimes the relevant data can be hidden behind several menus or overly complicated interfaces, resulting in a delay of acquisition or even users flat out giving up on their inquiry. It’s nice then to see that apps such as Weather Neue are still out there. Because sometimes I just want to know if it’s going to rain in the evening.

Weather Neue is, quite simply (and literally), an app that displays the weather. Locations are gleaned from the iOS device’s GPS, and the current temperature and weather conditions are displayed. Location, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and a three day forecast with highs and lows are the only other bits of information shown. Settings can be adjusted to switch between metric (Celsius) and non-metric (Fahrenheit), and users can toggle between four different display themes until they find one they prefer. My theme of choice is Cloudy.

Weather Neue is perfect for anyone who just wants to see what it’s like outside, or what tomorrow will look like. There are no extraneous bits of information to dig for and no menus to fight through. It’s just the weather. The app starts up quickly and displays the pertinent information prominently in the center of the screen with no need for the user to do anything, really. Giving the device a shake to refresh the info is about as complicated as it gets. The clean and simple visuals do well to round out the package with instantly recognizable icons and helpful text that’s just big enough to stand out but small enough so that it doesn’t obscure anything or fight other visual elements for attention.

As perfect as such a simple weather app may be, Weather Neue does have one potential drawback in that it’s just the local weather. Anyone who wants to know the forecast for the whole week or what the skies are doing in another city is out of luck.

Personally, I couldn’t be happier with Weather Neue. I rarely need to know what the weather for the whole week is doing and there are several ways to figure out if it’s raining in other areas of the world. Knowing what it’s doing right now or will this evening – or within the next few days – is much more important to me, so being able to find all of that out within seconds is most certainly appreciated.