APP SPECIAL The Best Weather App For Android
1Weather
Features
- Current weather conditions, hourly, and detailed 10-day forecast
- Real-time severe weather alerts
- Optional persistent notification in the menu bar with current conditions
- Animated radar and satellite with multiple layers
- Tons of themes and customization options
- No ads (Pro version only)
Where It Excels
1Weather
crams just about all the weather info you could need in a
simple-to-read interface, without feeling overly cluttered or
confusing. Swipe to the right to visit different sections, like a
forecast, graph view, radar, and more-each with their own separate
tabs that customize the view (such as hour-by-hour or 10-day
forecasts). It also comes with multiple themes, so you can tweak its
looks to your heart's desire.
Where It Falls Short
While
1Weather's design is better than most weather apps-which often feel
very cluttered-I do feel like its design could still be better. Yahoo
Weather, for example, puts everything in one, simple,
vertically-scrolling view, which is nicer than switching between tons
of different tabs. Similarly. Apple's default weather app on the
iPhone lets you expand certain portions of the interface for more
info instead of putting everything in front of you. Little touches
like this can make a big difference in usability. Still, 1Weather
bests most of its competition.
The Competition
is
my personal favorite of the bunch, and it solves most of my design
issues with 1Weather. Everything you need is on one screen, with
smaller (but still readable text), so as you scroll, you see the
panels you want in descending order of common need (though you can
rearrange them). It fits in all the important stuff without wasting
space. Yahoo Weather's downfall, unfortunately, is its radar map,
which does not move-a functionality quirk that keeps it from being
our top pick.
has
improved a lot since it was our top pick, but it just hasn't
surpassed the more well-designed apps out there. Weatherbug suffers
from an overload of clutter, making it hard to read at a glance like
1Weather. However, it probably offers more weather information than
any of the others on the list-so if that's what you want, Weatherbug
is for you.
aims
to mimic the great design Yahoo Weather pioneered, and it does an
*okay* job. Its biggest annoyance, however, is the unnecessary stuff
in between the useful tiles-gigantic ads, news and video from The
Weather Channel, and something called "Social Weather,"
which I can't imagine I'd ever want. And, you can't move those tiles
around, so I see little reason to use this over any of the others.
has
a similar problem, giving precedence to graphs and gimmicks that get
in the way of the actual info you want.
If
you want a different paradigm altogether, there are a few other cool
apps out there too, like Nice
Weather
with
its flat, minimalist look, or Eye
in Sky Weather,
which is about as simple to read as they come (but doesn't give you
much beyond the basic temperatures and forecasts). If you want
something truly simple, though, one of them will probably make you
happy.
These
are far
from
the only apps in the Play Store, but they're the most popular and the
best we looked at. If you have a different favorite of your own, be
sure to mention it in the discussions below.
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