Review: WeatherIcon 21
The App Doctor’s App of the Week is WeatherIcon (free), the latest in a long line of weather-related programs for webOS. This particular app is intended to unobtrusively display your current weather by altering its icon to reflect the temperature and conditions. In this respect, its raison d'être is similar to SimpleWeather ($1) and Weather Dashboard Lite (free), both of which also attempt to serve as weather "widgets" that serve up data at a glance. Weather Dashboard runs constantly in the Notification Area, but that gets in the way if you like to clear your notifications often, as I do. SimpleWeather, of course, is not free, but it does seem comparable to WeatherIcon in both conception and implementation.
For its intended purpose, WeatherIcon is a great option. By virtue of its information-rich icon, it can even make the Wave Launcher useful, if you deem it worthy of one of the 4 spots on the LaunchBar, allowing you to check weather without interupting even a full screen video (Wave Launcher unfortunately does not work during 3D games). Launching the app reveals a well-featured weather app with a 3-day forecast, although it lacks satellite/ radar maps. App settings include update interval (settable down to the minute), location (either via zip code or real-time GPS update), and whether to show a notification banner during updates. Incidentally, it sports the best looking launch screen I've seen to date (I won't spoil the surprise). I set it to update weather info every 30 minutes, and I personally have not noticed any additional battery drain on my Sprint Pre (which already polls twitter and facebook every 15 minutes). Overall, WeatherIcon gives us one fewer reason to ever look out the window.
Pros
Unobtrusively displays current weather at a glanceCons
GPS autolocate feature hangs every few days, necessitating a reboot.
21 Comments
great app! I use it regularly
This app has been around for 2 1/2 months (NOT: 'the latest in a long line'), and has a 4.3 rating in the app catalog. it has over 39,000 unique downloads.
Have it in my center spot on my Quick Launch Bar... Also have Weather Dashboard, but like jakerome I usually like my notification area clear (exception being when I have it on the touchstone, which is Weather Dashboard's best use). But this one has it beat, with an updating app icon and everything... Plus, it's free!
Love this app, have been using since it came out ....fyi... Have a suggestion when it seems to lock up. I found that if I stop updates using the 'update icon' from the preferences button, then restart again a few seconds later, it clears the hang a majority of the time. If that does not clear, then I reboot.
Yup, great app. I haven't experienced the hanging problem though.
I'd like to see more app icons work like widgets. It's nice and unobtrusive. Then all we need is a way to have more than 5 icons on the quick launch bar (come'on palm, we also don't need a dedicated launcher icon, up swipe works fine)
I agree.
I know some folks like the uncluttered wallpaper screen of webOS, but I really like the widgets from Android. Alternatively, I would like to see a double row of quick launch icons. You could have 10 and still leave plenty of room to see your wallpaper.
I have WI icon too. It works well and lets me check the temp without going outside. If I need a detailed weather report I use Accuweather.
I second the double row idea. Patch, anyone?
I found that the temp. reading was not right at times. It would display 92 when it was about 76 degrees. and the gps hangs up even when you click on the GPS botton it don't update yo the your location.
I tried this out a while ago for about a week and noticed a slight hit in performance (I was getting more "too many cards" errors). It wasn't huge, but it was sort of annoying during heavy use ( I have a tendency to have multiple cards of the web browser open while surfing the internets). I use a Sprint Pre. I'd imagine it would be less noticeble/unnoticeable on a Pre Plus. Idk if anyone else has had this problem.
No wonder, cause initially the app had a ridiculously large download size in context of only showing icon size graphics. This and the fact that I don't find weather information that general to be of any use to me, deterred me of even trying the app.
The graphics has later been moved on-line as I recall reading.
What is the app to the far left?
I use this app quite a bit. It would be nice if it showed the weather and one day forecast on the touchstone charging screen.
I think some of the problems with it hanging on a temperature are a problem with the server it gets its weather from. I had the problem when it was stuck on a temperature, but it fixed itself a day or two later.
Eh, I'd consider buying it if I could remove that pointless launcher Icon on the right to make room for this Icon.
It's a free app, buddy.
app worked good until i realized that there arent icons for 91+ degrees... and i live in sunny south florida :)
there are icons for 91+.
there are icons for 91+.
I like this app. I use it. It's on my dock. I like knowing the temperature.
this is a good one. wish they added a radar link in, so i could consolidate apps a bit.
Yup, definitely a great app.
The only way it could be made better is if tapping it led you to a radar map of sorts.
People check the weather for only a few reasons...
- what to wear
- whether to bring a raincoat/umbrella
- whether they will be able to ride in/on a certain "vehicle" at a certain time, or just go outside for some other sporty activity
You can do all of those with just an updated radar image and wind direction & speed.
I live near the Gulf of Mexico so I have to have an app with radar & severe weather updates due to the hurricanes & tornados we get. Not knockin this app cuz I don't have it, but a weather app without radar seems pointless to me. The Weather Channel app actually saved me from driving straight into a tornado a couple of months ago. Kudos to this developer, but the Weather Channel app will always remain my #1 weather app.