Checking the weather is one of the things I’ve rediscovered thanks to the iPhone. I’ve always been that kind of guy that is interested in knowing weather conditions and forecasts, but it was quite a pain to go to different websites everytime and buy standalone weather stations to get accurate data about my location. Thanks to the iPhone, and thanks to the App Store, I’ve managed to rediscover my old interested using applications like Outisde from Robocat (which I reviewed here) and Apple’s weather widget.These apps provide a simple and great looking way to see what the weather is like and even what I need to wear based on the temperature. It’s a wether geek’s dreams come true.
Some weeks ago I heard that there was a new weather app, called Climate, which was pretty good and worth trying out. How could I miss a good new weather app?
Unfortunately I haven’t been able to include my own screenshots in the review, due to the “bug” of iPhone OS 4.0 Beta 2 that doesn’t let you save photos on your camera roll. Bear with me for this.
Anyway, Climate takes a similar approach to Outside’s one, as it displays a real window on screen that lets you take a look at the outside. Is the sun shining today? Oh well, I guess I should bring an umbrella with me. That’s the kind of stuff you’ll say after testing Climate. You have this polished wooden window, a plant , a digital clock and the info about the weather. It’s a curios mix of real items and on screen menus, but the result is quite pleasant and it definitely works. The settings are accessible via the little i button in the bottom right corner, and that’s where you’ll have to go to customize every single aspect of the app. You can manually enter a location or pin the current one, choose between Celsius and Fahrenheit degrees, pick up the kind of plant you want, hide the digital clock, switch to a minimal (non window) view and even turn sounds on and off. Also, the settings interface lays out a custom wooden top bar and light blue switchers.
Like I said, you can turn sounds on and off, but Climate doesn’t stop at natural sounds: by double tapping on the screen you can bring up the music controls and access your iPod library to pick up a song to play while taking a look outside. Very cool.
About the forecasts, you can check them by tapping on the daily button. You can check weather for all the different days of the week by swiping through them, but the animation isn’t very smooth.
That’s it for Climate. It’s simple weather that is very similar to Outside but doesn’t come with all the features of Robocat’s app, and that’s why it’s priced at $0.99 in the App Store. It’s a good looking app that you can use to take a look outside, have some info about the weather and even listen to music in the meantime. If you’re a weather geek, this is money well spent.
