forecast

The Forecast, a uniquely simple Windows Phone weather app

Apps

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Apr 23, 2013 at 4:40 pm

The Forecast is a bare bones weather app for your Windows Phone 8 and 7.x devices. Not much flash with The Forecast but it does provide you with the basic weather information to help you plan you day or week.

The Forecast lays out the weather forecasts across three screen and has Live Tile and Lockscreen support. The app does support multiple locations or you can just let it present the weather based on your current location.

If you're looking for a simple weather app, The Forecast is worth considering.

Weather Smiles for Windows Phone temporarily available for free

By Rich Edmonds, Sunday, Sep 16, 2012 at 4:31 pm

You'll be smiling when it's sunny

The developer of Weather Smiles has made the app available for free for a limited time, according to the Marketplace listing. The app enables Windows Phone owners to keep up-to-date on weather forecasts and has the unique feature of sporting two locations on a single tile - as opposed to one weather reading seen in most weather apps. It's a unique twist with smilies being deployed to add humour to condition reports.

Windows Phone App Review: WeatherPro

Apps

By George Ponder, Thursday, Mar 29, 2012 at 8:49 am

There's little argument that there is no great shortage of Weather apps for your Windows Phone these days. WeatherPro is one such Windows Phone app that was recently updated and after receiving several requests, we took a peek at it. With regards to features, WeatherPro is a notch above your basic weather app by providing both forecast information and animated weather radars.

Weatherpro is a nice app but its weakness rests within its navigation. While you can find what you're looking for fairly easy, there's a little inconsistency in how certain screens react. It's nothing detrimental but rather something that I couldn't help but feel could be better. The update (version 2.0) brings live tiles into the mix and mangofies the app, all of which helps WeatherPro's overall impression.

WeatherPro isn't a bad weather app, I just expected more for the $2.99 price tag.

Windows Phone App Review: Weather Flow

By George Ponder, Thursday, Mar 22, 2012 at 8:59 am

Looking for a basic weather forecast app? Take a look at the Windows Phone app Weather Flow. The app is from the developers of AppFlow and Cocktail Flow and is a visually appealing app that presents you with current conditions and a five day forecast.

Throw in an hourly forecast, two design layouts and an interesting live tile and Weather Flow is a basic, very nice looking weather app worth considering.

Weather26 update adds Live Tiles and GPS

By George Ponder, Thursday, Mar 1, 2012 at 4:44 pm

The Windows Phone weather app Weather26 (here's our review) was updated today to version 1.6 which now adds Live Tile service. The previous update, version 1.5, added location/GPS services to your location search page.

The Live Tile will place the current conditions for your default location on your Windows Phone Start Screen. The reverse side of the tile will show when the conditions were last updated.

The other big addition that hit with the v1.5 update is the use of location services to set a forecast location. When you go to add a forecast city, just tap the satellite button at the bottom of the screen. From there you can customize the location and add it to your list.

The Weather26 updates brings two nice features to a nice weather app for your Windows Phone. I would have liked the next days forecast appear on the reverse side of the tile but knowing when the tile was last updated has its uses.

Weather26 is a free, ad supported app for your Windows Phone that you can grab here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

Windows Phone App Review: Vadret

Apps

By George Ponder, Thursday, Dec 29, 2011 at 8:57 am

"Vadret" is Swedish for "weather" (which I've probably mispronounced terribly) and Vadret is a simple but nicely laid out weather app for your Windows Phone. It gives you quick and easy access to your basic weather conditions and forecasts for up to five of your favorite worldwide locations.

When you first launch Vadret you are prompted to go to the Settings Menu where you will choose your cities, establish the general layout of the app, how you want your live tiles to look, and which of the eleven backgrounds you want to use.

WeatherMaster gets bumped to v2.0

Apps

By George Ponder, Sunday, Dec 18, 2011 at 7:43 pm

WeatherMaster is a simple, yet detailed weather app for your Windows Phone. When we first took a look at WeatherMaster we found it to be a very nice weather app choice for your Windows Phone. WeatherMaster was recently updated to version 2.0 to bring mango features into the mix.

Some of the key features to the update include:

You can add new cities/locations (unlimited) or use your current position (GPS) as well
Seven day forecast with detailed view and temperature chart
US and Metric units are supported (Fahrenheit/Celsius, mile/km)
Mango Live Tile support with current weather condition and two days forecast info for selected city / current location
Pin as many Live Tiles (with city weather) as you want
Weather Map with Weather/Cloud/US Radar layers to check out nearby locations quickly
Supports Dark/Light mode and Tile icon uses your Accent color as background to integrate perfectly
Intelligent caching of weather data to avoid unnecessary data transfer

You still can't animate the radar layer on the weather map view (maybe in the next update) but it's nice to be able to add locations to your city list from the map view. There is a free, two-week trial version available that is fully functional. The full version of WeatherMaster is running $1.99 and you can find it here at the Windows Phone Marketplace.

World Weather - Review

Apps

By George Ponder, Friday, Nov 4, 2011 at 4:30 am

We touched briefly touched on the Windows Phone weather app, World Weather, earlier this year. It's a handy, basic weather app that covers locations world wide. World Weather was recently updated to version 2.5 adding mango features such as fast resume and multiple live tile support. The app also received a major facelift in design and added new features beyond what Mango has brought to the table.

To see if the changes to World Weather helped or hurt, slide on past the break.

App Update Roundup: GChat, 4th & Mayor, Forecast, Slacker Radio and Pictures Lab

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Oct 3, 2011 at 5:12 pm

Busy weekend for developers as they've been pushing out update after update lately--see Flickr, Lindy Comics and Mixtapes. A few more have slipped by and we figured we'd quickly run through 'em in case you were curious. Check out the video for a fast run through of the apps in action.

GChat hit v1.2, bringing it with it some bug fixes and more importantly, contact picture support (for non-mobile contacts). The app looks a little nicer now with photos of your contacts, especially when you pin them to the start screen. The app is free and open source, which is pretty awesome, though we still find IM+ more reliable for now. Grab it here in the Marketplace.
4th & Mayor jumped to v2.9 bringing with it rudimentary support for notifications--the structure is there but they're not working, yet. A few other bug fixes on board too and while the app is still not Mango-ready yet, it looks to be getting there. And it's still way faster than the official Foursquare app. Pick up the update here in the web Marketplace.
Forecast went to v2.0, getting a Mango make-over. The app now supports double-side Live Tiles, multiple live tiles for locations and of course fast-app resume. In addition, the app has some new features and customizations that we really dig. The app is free (ad-supported) or $1.99 for no ads. Overall a solid update for a solid weather program. Grab the update here in the web Marketplace.
Slacker Radio is finally Mango-ready for the masses. Bringing with it background-audio support and fast-app resume, the popular music streaming service (and nice alternative to Pandora) feels much more native to Windows Phone now that it can run in the background. In addition, you can pin individual stations to your start screen for quick access. Grab the update here in the web Marketplace.
Finally Pictures Lab, like Thumba, has received a Mango update. Now at v3.0, the popular photo editing app now supports direct-camera access, including touch-focus and gyroscope support for image stabilization. That custom camera app is also pinnable to the Start screen for quick access. In addition, you get fast-app switching, performance improvements and Pictures Hub integration returns. Grab the update here in the web Marketplace.

Thanks to all who sent in tips!

Windows Phone Weather App Roundup

Apps

By George Ponder, Wednesday, Jul 20, 2011 at 9:20 pm

If you search the keyword "weather" over at the Windows Phone Marketplace it will yield you about one hundred results. Everything from Accuweather to Nude Beach Weather, the choices cover a lot of territory. But which one is the best?

You've got Windows Phone weather apps that will deliver the basics such as your current conditions and an extended forecast. You also have weather apps that will throw radar imagery, videos, and more weather stats into the mix. Then there are non-weather apps that have weather features.

After taking a look at a handful of the weather apps on the Marketplace, we've rounded up the ones that stood out. After the break, found out which weather apps we think should find their way to your Windows Phone.

Weather Live - a Metro inspired weather app

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Jul 12, 2011 at 10:23 am

Sure we have Weather Channel, Weather Bug and AccuWeather, plus a few other indy weather apps in the Marketplace (e.g. World Weather), but we don't have too many (if any?) Metro-inspired weather programs. 'Weather Live' by Hyperise fills the niche and we're going to personally vouch for it as our new lil' favorite.

First, we should mention that this app doesn't have NextRAD, live cams, 14-day weather forecast with pollen counts. Nope, this is a simple, streamlined program that shows you current conditions and the next 3-days--that's it. So if you need more, this won't be for you.

So why is it good? For one, it turns out we only look at current conditions and the next 3-day most of the time anyways. Two, it's lightning fast, pulling only ~12kb a day when used hourly with the Live Tile. This means we can launch it and have it update within a blink of the eye.

Oh yeah and it has a cool live tile that shows you a weather icon and below it (from left to right) current temp, day high/low and time of last update. You can also set the update schedule from once a day, twice a day, four times a day or hourly. Upon an update, it pings your aGPS location, meaning you never have to set your city--it basically follows you wherever (alternatively, you can set a city of your choosing). Sure, we'd like to see a few more options like 12 hour time and perhaps a more prominent current temp, etc. Hopefully the dev plans to add some features with future updates.

Weather Live comes in two versions too: free, completely functional with ads (nice) or you can pay $0.99 to remove the ads. We did the latter because we liked it so much, but hey, the option is up to you, right? So if you need a quick weather app that blends with your default Metro tiles, here you go. Find it here in the Marketplace.

Accuweather for WP7 - A closer look

Apps

By George Ponder, Sunday, Jul 3, 2011 at 10:46 pm

Weather4me - Review

Apps

By George Ponder, Tuesday, Mar 29, 2011 at 12:03 am

Weather4me is a basic weather app for your Windows Phone that provides current conditions, what to expect for the rest of the day and a five day forecast for cities worldwide.

Weather4me pulls weather information from Accuweather.com and has a direct link to Accuweather's website for more detailed information. The apps lays the information out in a three page hub. Cities are searchable by name or zip code and you can build up a list of favorites to make switching from city to city easier.

More after the break.

IDC's Five-year smartphone forecast: Windows Phone up 43% by 2014?

By Daniel Rubino, Tuesday, Sep 7, 2010 at 8:07 pm

IDC, who you may remember from the Microsoft-used-the-wrong-slide media fiasco earlier this year, has gone ahead and released their forecast for smartphone adoption over the next five years in their Worldwide Quarterly Mobile Phone Tracker report.

Personally, we can't even imagine what a smartphone will look like in 2014, nor what the market landscape, but assuming the current state of things, lets see what IDC says:

For the first half of 2010, vendors shipped a total of 119.4 million units or 55.5% more than the 76.8 million units shipped during the first half of 2009
"Android is the wild card, deserving close observation for the rest of this year and the years to come,"
IDC now expects the 2010 overall mobile phone market to grow 14.1%, or 1.5% higher than its previous forecast. Last year, the market declined 2.8%, the first such occurrence in Mobile Phone Tracker history
Despite uncertainty about the economy, the smartphone market is expected to increase 24.5% in 2011. However, smartphone growth will decline progressively over the course of IDC's five-year forecast period. In 2014, for example, the market is expected to rise by just 13.6%
No one smartphone OS will dominate mobile phones in the way that Microsoft has with Windows on the personal computer. "IDC believes the market will comfortably support up to five OS players over the next five years,"

Finally, the big news for Microsoft it they are expected to regain market share bumping from a low of 6.8% to 9.8% by 2014. While that's only a 3% change in overall market share, due to the increasingly huge numbers of smartphones we are talking about, it translates into a 43% change in volume, which is pretty significant (assuming its accuracy). At that point, Microsoft would only trail Android as far as speed of growth.

While no one predicts Microsoft to dominate the mobile OS field anytime soon, it's not too hard to imagine them being a major player by 2014, if they play their cards right.