iPad Weather Apps Review and Shootout
By NewtoApple on Jun 18, 2010 with Comments 0
There is no shortage of apps in the App store to help you with the weather. Today I’ll be looking at the following apps.
The Weather Channel Max for iPad,Accuweather.com for iPad, and Weatherbug Elite for iPad
The Weather Channel Max for iPad
TWC MAX+ starts with a very nice presentation. It must do a lookup of your current local weather and present you with a background of clear skies or storms. On the front page you can tap to navigate to what you are most interested in. Usually this would be the Local forecast or the weather radar.
The local weather presentation is laid out well for getting an idea of what today’s weather will be like as well as the evening weather. It also presents the week ahead very nicely. The bottom bar of TWC presents an ad as well as an up to date radar image and other information. If you are interested in TWC’s tweets there is also a twitter box.
The radar imagery in TWC is on par with other apps if not above. You are presented with many overlay choices including, clouds, temperature, rain, and snow. Transparency is also adjustable. TWC is a big miss when trying to “play” or loop the last 3 hours of radar images. It’s very jumpy and you can’t get a good feel for where the rain clouds came from or where they are headed. That was a big con in my choice for a weather app.
My biggest issue with this app is the advertising. At random times when tapping from local to maps or any of the other presented information TWC will pop up a video advertisement. It’s easily circumvented by tapping close but it’s a huge drawback for an otherwise nice weather app. Sentiments in the feedback section of the app store agree.
The one spot where TWC rises to the top is the ability to see weather alerts for your area. It’s nice to know when your area is under a severe weather alert or not.
This app is free but there is no ability to upgrade to a “no advertising” app.
Accuweather.com for iPad
Accuweather also has a free weather app. It’s front page presentation is nice and informative. You are immediately presented with today’s weather, evening forecast as well as the rest of the week. A tappable spot in the lower right allows you to view radar imagery but it’s not zoomable. It does allow you to playback recent radar images in a loop better than TWC but the map leaves a lot to be desired.
This app relies heavily on forwarding you to the accuweather.com website for more information. Touch anywhere in the forecast and you see a pop up browser to that info.
It also presents weather warnings for the area though. Touch the red exclamation and a popup gives you quick info about the warning. A more info option once again takes you out of the app and into a browser. I would much rather this information be presented in the app rather than taking the user to a browser. In my opinion that detracts from why we use apps rather than going straight to their website in the first place.
Overall its presentation is good information wise. It’s not the most colorful app but it gets the job done. It has an ad at the bottom which is easily hidden by a single tap. Speaking of ads, this is a free app although they do have a paid app for $0.99 I don’t think the ads are intrusive enough to warranty the paid app but it is nice to have the option.
Weatherbug Elite for iPad
Weatherbug differentiates itself from the previous apps in several different ways. It gives you quick information about your area in it’s top bar and immediately presents a radar map in the bottom section of the app. One thing that jumps out at you is the Camera section. There is a webcam monitor at the top and with a quick tap you can swipe through area cams. It’s a fun feature but unless one of the cams is in an area you actually know and live it’s mostly just for show. Example: The Titusville FL/Cape Canaveral area has a Walt Disney World webcam which is actually an hour away from the Cape. Fun but not as handy as you may first think.
The forecast box presents the weeks forecast quickly and is tappable to gain more information. The conditions box is a great view of what is currently happening in your area. It’ is tappable for even more information. I like the wind and humidity index of this look.
Radar imagery is provided by bing and is top notch. Playback of past weather images is precise and has a loading bar so you know exactly when the images will start to loop. The map also zooms in and out very well. In my opinion this app has the best radar map for the three listed here.
WeatherBug also has Alerts but I was only able to find them on the front page in landscape mode. In portrait mode you have to swipe the top bar in order to see the Alerts. It would be nice to have some type of visible alert on the front page in portrait mode.
WeatherBug is free but only for a limited time.
Conclusions:
All these apps make it easy to add or change your location. If you are travelling it’s easy to look at your vacation weather as well as what is going on back home.
Each app has more features than what is reviewed. There are a multitude of different options especially with radar presentation.
Is there a winner? In my opinion there is, but everybody is different and that’s what makes this platform so unique. I tried VERY hard to like The Weather Channel app but the pop up ads and the absence of fluidity in radar imagery playback will earn it the little red remove “x” on my iPad. Accuweather is Ok, but it just doesn’t compare to the other two.
Yes, there are more apps in the app store covering weather. That will be for a future review.
WeatherBug wins the spot in my iPad.
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