- ACCUWEATHER
FREE/ANDROID AND IOS
FOR STORM CHASERS.
A weather app for serious weather
addicts. Some of the apps on the
list display what the temperature
feels like outside. But with
Accuweather’s ReelFeel index,
we found it to be much more
accurate. On average Accuweather
got it right when we whipped out
the thermometer. In the looks
department it isn’t as glossy as
others, opting for a simple look
like Google Now cards but less
polished. Adverts take up the
bottom half of the app and are
a bit of an eyesore but nothing
detrimental to its purpose. There’s
a video section but it’s not to watch
a broadcast about your area. It
is more for the morbidly curious,
showing tornadoes and other
extreme conditions, collated from
Facebook and other video outlets.
2. GOOGLE NOW
Already installed on your phone
(Android) and the easiest one
to comprehend of the lot. Hold
down your home button and
state your desire for the weather.
Google will flash you the weather
card and read it out for you.
Perfect for on the go and a quick
overview. Hourly updates are also
available with useful info such
as today’s sunset time, and how
much daylight is left in the day.
Google’s card layout makes this
the easiest on your eyes too with
not a lot going on, just simply
what you want to know and more
info available if you so desire.
Definitely more favoured for
Android users, a lot more hoops
and hurdles to go through just for
the weather on iOS.
3. YAHOO WEATHER
FREE/ANDROID AND IOS
THE FRESHEST.
With a recent update and a simple
interface, you can’t go wrong
with Yahoo’s effort at a Siân Lloyd
impression. Using photographs
from Flickr, Yahoo Weather will
show you random pictures of your
current city location. More cities
can be added. Really one for the
eyes as new pictures are seen
everyday. There is an emphasis on
the aesthetics here, evident from
the wind barometer and sun down
graph. All are animated and give
off that classy factor (like Siân
Lloyd). As a widget it looks even
better, definitely recommended
for your home screen, although it
clashes with certain wallpapers.
Our only niggle is the sponsored
adverts, but they’re integrated into
the interface so it doesn’t look an
eye sore.
4. YOWINDOW
If you need to know minute for
minute what the weather is going
to be like, YoWindow let’s you bend
time Chronos style. By dragging
your finger across the screen you
can adjust the time to see what the
weather will be like throughout the
day. It’s a bit fiddly and by no means
perfect but with a little adjusting
we got used to it. The point of
knowing when it will rain or not
minute for minute is the accuracy. It
feels gimmicky because predicting
exactly minute for minute when
it will rain is a task even the best
meteorologist will struggle to do.
But it is accurate as can be if you
look at the weather by the hour. The
ads are annoying but they take up
a bit more space on YoWindow. The
scenery on display is animated and
customisable to your desires.
5. MORECAST
Morecast offers a very natural
experience with its vertical interface.
Transitioning from today’s weather
to tomorrow is very fluid and gives
the impression of a very well-built
app, which it is. You get the usual
today’s weather and a forecast for
the next day and day after, offering
the usual details of wind pressure,
temperature and forecast. Morecast
puts all this information in graphs
to offer even more detail for those
that really want to get to the nitty
gritty of the weather. Aiding to
the experience is the unobtrusive
advert, thoughtfully found only in the
last panel. This gives Morecast a
more cleaner look that isn’t in your
face with adverts. There’s a social
element for those that want to share
a selfie with a tornado
(not recommended).
6. WEATHERBUG
WeatherBug offers extra features
that you’d be expected to upgrade
for. The most handy of the lot
is a pollen counter, rejoice hay
fever sufferers. Hay fever is
singlehandedly the most evil
thing nature has ever produced
to mess with your day (narrowly
beating mosquitos). Granted it’s
necessary for plant reproduction
(and the small matter of keeping
the human race alive), but it is
a serious day killer if you forget
your antihistamines. A strange
but pleasant surprise; there’s a
live traffic camera to aid you in
the dreaded morning commute.
A complaint would be that it’s
not the prettiest app with a busy
interface. It has all your usual
information so you really can’t go
wrong with WeatherBug.
NEWS PHONE
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