Testing extended weather apps for iPhone: Weather HD vs Weather+

“Meteorologists predict a chilly summer.
However, the anomalous heat risk is still possible.”
– From weather forecasts

   "Child’s crying, woman’s caprices and April weather are unpredictable".
                                    – The phrase published in the Weather section on a news website

So why did you buy an iPhone?

You can make calls from any phone, so don't lie to me.

Maybe, you like its status and awesome design?

Because of SMS speech bubbles?

Like the convenient Internet access?

Hate green pigs?

Give your answer in comments.

As for me, I was charmed by the opportunity to find out quickly a weather forecast without using a notebook or waiting for the end of deceitful news block on TV. Fucking convenient.

What's important for a user of a weather app?

First of all, to get quick and easy-to-understand info.

Of what kind?

Air temperature and precipitation. For today and the following few days.

That’s it, folks. The standard Weather app by Jobs copes with this task awesomely. It is conveniently accessible from the dashboard, loads quickly and shows everything you need in a simple way.

 Simply "Weather"

But the attempt to make money on the development of a better third-party, advanced weather app is quite predictable. The only question here – what to make better? Perhaps, to make it possible to show weather forecast on other planets? To add a dozen of new measuring systems and the Mayan language support? To use the Donkey’s voice from Shrek in order to dub the forecast? Apparently, there is enough of functionality of the standard app and that is why the developers chose another way.

The main idea of the developers of two most popular third-party weather apps is to add eye-catching video themes as backgrounds for a weather forecast. To visualize numbers in a pretty way, so to speak, for making an eye-candy for us. Well, not a bad idea at all.

In theory, at least. As for reality... Weather+ and Weather HD suck.

1. Video themes

The video themes are not eye-catching. At all. And not even in artistic terms. They are ugly because their resolution is too low. In comparison to the rest of the juicy visual content parading across the screen they look like raw school projects made by means of cell phones and posted on YouTube. And themes are supposed to be the main zest!

Weather HD

Weather+

Somehow like this. Don't believe me? Check on your own, it's easy. Download their free demo versions - the theme quality is identical to the themes of full paid apps.

But it is not the only blooper. The videos are not informative. The developers boast of the vast numbers of themes, but in fact Weather HD shows “Rain and snow”, “Snow” and “Snowstorm” by means of the same theme of snowflakes slowly falling from the sky.

Dudes, get your asses out of the chairs and look out of the window! This is how a real snowstorm looks like:

Here is another example from Weather+: it's -19ºC (about -2ºF) on the streets of a Russian northern city. And the screen cheerfully shows summertime views…

2. Interface

In order to demonstrate the “beauty” of these video themes, the developers took the weather info and shove it deep into the asshole made it a challenge to read.  Well, Weather+ is a sort of passable (video themes still fall into the backgrounds), but Weather HD is a total mess. Check, how it looks:

It's easy to see that it's hard to read. Beauty demands sacrifices, apparently.

3. And here comes the fatal headshot

You can't really charge the developers for this, but the weather report is unavailable on the dashboard and that is inconvenient like fucking hell.

…

To sum up, Weather+ is more eye-catching because video themes supplement the weather forecast without making it a mess to read – but still, you won’t call it an eye candy. As for the rest, both apps are inconvenient to use, bad-looking and with themes that do not coincide with the weather outside. What a pity! They could've been much better.

My advice: don't buy them. And I want my 2 bucks back!

Hence, I successfully deleted both apps from my iPhone and got back to the good old standard Weather app. Ain’t' it great?!

If you are currently reading this, you must be as tired as I am of these disappointing apps.  It’s a high time for a dessert – photos of hot weather news reporters!

Mayte Carranco, Mexico

Jackie Guerrido, USA

Angie Gonzalez, Mexico

Nicolini, USA

Unknown beauty

Now, this is something the developers should think about instead of showing us some lame themes with falling snowflakes.

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