Weather Roundup!

For our first official review I decided to tackle the all important weather app. There are several out there currently (6 to be exact). Most are free, but there are a couple of paid apps as well. Interestingly, the best weather app is currently free, but I will get to that shortly.

This roundup covers bWeather, Weatherman (free and pay), FreeWeather, AccuWeather, WeatherBug Elite, and The Weather Channel. In my video review, I cover the best of the bunch (bWeather, AccuWeather, WB Elite and Weatherman), so if you want to see those in action just click above. The others just aren’t worth mentioning, really. You can see why below.

Lets start with the freebies…

bWeather

This is a solid app. It looks nice, has the basics, but it only shows four days at a time. I like this one even with its limited feature set.

FreeWeather

This one is as bare-bones as it comes. It almost is more of a proof of concept than a full app. With it you basically can see where you are located on a map and it shows the temperature collected in nearby weather stations. Click on a weather station to get the detailed weather as of that moment… nothing for tomorrow or even an hour from now.

AccuWeather

This app is the best of the bunch… even when compared to the paid apps. It has a full feature set, looks clean and professional, and even has as few features you may not think you need but that are handy. It has one drawback: ads. And, they are kind of annoying… could be a deal breaker for some.

The Weather Channel

With a big name behind it you kinda expect something special here. Open it up and you learn quickly that, while it gets the job done, it takes too many taps to get the information you need. For instance, you open the app and it shows you the current conditions. If you want to see the high and low temperatures, you need to perform 3 taps to get to the 10 day forecast. Actually, I missed that entirely the first go round. It took me a while to finally uncover that tidbit.

Now we move onto the two apps that will cost ya.

WeatherBug Elite

This is a nice, full featured app; however, when comparing it side by side to the other apps (free ones included), the look and feel seems too simple. It has everything you could want in a weather app and a few features that really don’t add anything to the experience. For instance, you can watch a video of the Nation’s forecast. It looks like something from the weather channel in the mid 90’s. Also, you can look at photos taken around your area to see what it looks like out there. This may be cool to look at during a hurricane or something, but on average you would get the same info from looking out your own window.

Weatherman

What is neat about this app is that it tries to be different. Instead of being an app that you have to load, it superimposes itself on your wallpaper (even in locked mode). It shows you the current weather and gives you a quick glimpse of what to expect for the next 3 days… but that is all it does. No extended forecast, no hour-by-hour, no interaction at all. So if all you want is to see if you need a jacket or umbrella in the morning, then this is great because it is instant, but if you want some meat with your app, then you may leave this one hungry.

Note, there is a free version of this app, but I found it to be largely useless because it only updates the weather every 48 hours. If you like what this thing does, then pay the three bucks.