weather live

WeatherLive getting themes & animated radar in 4.0 update [Video]

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Mar 19, 2012 at 2:41 pm

It's been awhile since we've seen WeatherLive get some major new functions, so it's with great joy to see version 4.0 beta making the rounds.

While the poplar weather app has grown in functionality, it has also become a little sluggish too. In addition, some people missed the simplicity of the the versions 1 and 2 of the app over the more busy 3.x. Luckily, the developer has been listening and 4.0 looks to make everyone happy. Here are the major changes:

Faster - the app's transitions and loading times are much zippier and more fluid
Theme support - With three themes, including Metro Minimalist, Metro and the new Glass, users can choose how they want the app to look
Animated radar - the radar map is now animated with 'pinch and zoom' built right in
Graphic tweaks - improved and cleaner UI

We really like where 4.0 is heading with the themes support as it will seemingly make everyone happy who has used this app in the past. The performance increase is also welcomed as the app was getting a big bogged down with the latest updates.

Look towards version 4.0 hitting the Marketplace in a few weeks. In the meantime, take v3.5 for a trial in the Marketplace or buy it for $1.49.

BBC News Mobile and WeatherLive get updates with UI changes

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Sunday, Jan 8, 2012 at 6:37 pm

Nothing like a few solid updates for some of our favorite apps on Windows Phone. First up is BBC News Mobile. We mentioned a few weeks ago they had a new beta version in the works and now that update has gone live. Changes include mostly how the app looks and speed:

Background Cache Service
Better Live Tiles
Faster Loading
Reworked GUI
Picture quality improvement

Definitely some nice improvements though some bugs did get into v2.9 so expect a fix-update soon to address those. You can read about those issues here. Pick up BBC News Mobile v2.9 here in the Marketplace for free.

WeatherLive has also been bumped to 3.5 with a big change to UI and information layout. It still has all the same information, including hourly, trends, moon phases, radar, maps and web cams, but you may have missed them in earlier versions due to being buried within the menu system.

Now, you can just swipe left-right and go to each section individually, resulting in a much more fluid interface. It is certainly more Metro with this panoramic view though it does veer a little from some Metro standards (font size). Still, we like the change. Grab WeatherLive here for $1.49 or free trial.

QR codes for both after the jump...

Weather Live v3.0 with new Mango features [Video]

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Sep 16, 2011 at 5:36 pm

Our favorite weather app Weather Live (previous coverage), is about to hit the big v3.0 today. This new version is for the Mango peeps out there, bringing some excellent new functionality to the Metro themed weather program. New features include:

Multiple locations with secondary tiles (in paid version).
Display location, next forecast (today or tomorrow) and alerts in the back tiles.
Background Agent to automatically update locations when you are on the go (in paid version).

As you can see in the video hands on above, the new tiles add some excellent options to the mix and with fast-app resuming and improved Mango scrolling, the app is better than ever. Expect version 3.0 to appear today or tomorrow. You can pick up Weather Live here in the Marketplace (both paid and unlimited trial).

Sneak Preview - WeatherLive headed to v2.0 with new features

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Wednesday, Aug 24, 2011 at 9:39 am

It's no secret around here that as far as indie weather apps go, WeatherLive by Hyperise is one of our favorites due it's heavy use of Metro and its simplicity. Since returning after being briefly pulled, the app has done very well for itself as it's the top selling in its category.

So we're excited to give you a sneak peak of what v2.0 is bringing as we're pretty positive it's going a long way to add all of those features that you've demanded. The app is currently in beta and should be coming out soon-ish (we'll let you know). The price is expected to go up slightly to cover the costs of the new features, but if you buy the ad-free version now ($0.99) well you'll of course get the upgrade for free.

But on to the new features!

Info provided by Weather Underground
6-day forecasts
Daily and hourly forecasts with Trends
Radar/Webcams/Satellites/Astronomy
Alerts with Toast notifications
Shows moon when it is night and the sky allows
Last but not least, current temperature along with condition on the tile

And you can of course see these new features in above (you can see the "moon" and current temp) and below screenshots. We're pretty excited to get our hands on this version as it looks to be our favorite Metro-themed weather app--heck, it should be a part of the OS as a default Live Tile, but that's just us. We'll keep you posted when the app goes live. For those who want to give it a go now, the app is completely free (with ads, endless "trial") or $0.99 ad-free. Get it here in the Marketplace.

WeatherLive v1.3 now forecasting in the Marketplace

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Friday, Jul 29, 2011 at 5:11 pm

We revealed the new v1.3 of WeatherLive the other day. It brings some great new customizable features to the Live Tile and find your location based on city instead of coordinates.

The good news is it's now available in the Marketplace -- still the same deal as before: free with ads, or $0.99 with no ads, either one gets you a swanky Metro Live Tile. Get it now right here.

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' has now been pulled from the Marketplace [Updated]

Apps

By Daniel Rubino, Monday, Jul 18, 2011 at 6:53 pm

Here we go again. The rabidly popular 'Weather Live' app which we reported on last week has disappeared from the Marketplace. The app, which started off at 3 stars quickly rose up in popularity, even bumping the #1 in News & Weather WPCentral app to #2--a first since we released our app months ago.

Now, despite receiving an update or two (we forget), the app is gone from the Marketplace without a trace. Was it the pulling weather data from an un-credited source? Did it violate the Marketplace rules? We're not sure but we hope it returns and soon as it's one of our favorites. The current version still works on your device though, so don't uninstall. This is one of numerous apps that have disappeared recently, including the Colbert Report, MTV News, Kayak, Project Sunburst and Cartoon TV (before it returned, gutted).

We've reached out to the developer for comment and we'll hopefully post a response if/when they get back to us.

Update: We've heard back from the developer--

"The app is using the undocumented (but very popular) Google weather API and late yesterday, there was a major outage at the back end. As such, all live tiles stopped working at the time. I suspect it is because Google blocked my server's access since I have ~1500 queries per hour on the hour...

I made several changes to alleviate the peak load and fortunately they seem to unblocked me this morning. So live tiles started working again. To hopefully ensure users are not subject to the downtime any more, I pulled the app from marketplace.

I do want to come back as this project is really a worthy one to me. However, I am trying to find a good source of data. As you may know, many of them prohibit use by mobile applications."

(Thanks, @Sogeman, for the heads up!)

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.