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Review: PocketWeather from SBSH.net
This Review Was Originally Posted on iGlobility.com on 20060910.
Review
Conclusion
Recommendation
First, I would like to start off by saying thank you to SBSH for helping me get my review material together. This would not have been possible if not for the assistance the folks @
SBSH have provided.
Now, on to the review!
I have never been a fan of the weather, I have always believed that if you want to know the weather, just step outside! That was when I lived in Northern Michigan, and I enjoyed the weather, regardless of the conditions. Since moving to Texas, and riding a motorcycle everyday, I am very interested in the weather. When it is hot here, it is REALLY HOT! And riding a motorcycle in that kind of heat can really take a toll on one's health. Because I am a gadget Freak, I like to think that I can get every piece of information I want into my little friend. That goes for weather as well. Thus, begins the quest for a quality weather utility...
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My criteria for a quality weather utility
1. Must have a Today Screen Plugin.
2. Must be updateable with any Internet connection.
3. Must be able to manage multiple locations.
4. Must be easy to understand, and use.
1. Must have a Today Screen Plugin
PocketWeather meets this
criteria with flying colors! Why flying colors? Because besides having a Today plugin, it is very configurable, having many ways to display the information depending on the users needs. I use the Single Vertical setup because I like to see one city at a time, and the icons depicting the weather conditions are very easy to understand. I really like the various display choices because I like to have all my stuff on the today screen with no scroll bars. The various display choices allow for this very nicely.
There are various different view for the Today screen. Here are just a few...
Single Vertical. This is my favorite, and the one I use most often. If you have multiple locations loaded, you can
access the next location by tapping on the up/down arrows on the left side.
Single Tabbed. This one removes the up/down arrows on the left and replaces them with a tab for each location at the top of the plugin
Compact Tabbed.. This one is quite nice, and takes up very little space on the screen. If you need to maximize your real estate on your today screen, then the compact display is for you.
2. Must be updateable with any Internet connection.
PocketWeather meets this
criteria as well. I have used other weather products, and while they said they had this feature, I had very little success in getting it to work reliably. I have been using
PocketWeather for a while now, and unless I had no Internet connection, it has always updated flawlessly. One of the things I really like about the update feature is that it allows you to specify days and times when you want it to update. For me, I do not care what the weather is doing after I get home from work, so I have it set to update between 5AM and 7PM on the days I work. If I want it to update outside of that time frame, I just tap on the little sun icon on the left side of the Today plugin, and choose update, and then choose what I want to update. Very nice.
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3. Must be able to manage multiple locations.
PocketWeather meets this criteria as well. While it does not have every city in the world listed in the list that ships with the product, you can manually enter locations on the fly. You just need the the geographical data (ZIP Code,
Longitude, Latitude). Picking a city is very simple, and is done via the Settings page. To access this, I tap on the sun icon in the today plugin, and choose Settings.
From there I tap Add, and find the location I want. There are listings from what appear to be every country, so that is very handy. While my list only has US locations, if I were going to travel, I could see the international locations as being very handy. Of course, if you reside in any of these countries, then you should be able to find your weather data too!
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One of the things I think is really slick about the Settings page is the Today tab. It allows you to see the way the today screen will look as you make changes before you commit to the settings. Very nice. While testing, I had made some changes, and messed up the way I wanted my weather displayed. Rather than having to make a change, save and see how it looked, I was able to play with the Today screen settings, and get it back where I liked it all in one sitting. Very handy!
4. Must be easy to understand, and use.
PocketWeather meets this criteria as well. The icons on the Today screen are very easy to understand, and because of their size, they are easy on the eyes as well. I can scan the screen with a glance, and know what the weather should be. I like
this feature because the other things I have on my screen require me to pay attention to the screen more carefully (calendar, and so forth).
There is advance data available as well. Wind direction, Wind speed, Humidity, Dew Point, Pressure (mBar), and other data that frankly, I have no idea what they all mean! May of these are displayable on the Today screen. There is even more in the Weather Console.
This is the Summary screen of the Weather Console. You can see there is a great deal of info.
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This is the METAR screen of the Weather Console. This data is drawn down from the National Weather Service. For more information on METAR data, go
here. You will notice two lines intersecting on the screen. These represent the location, and the details around the screen provide information on that location. If you tap on one of the suns, it will move the lines to that location, and then give information for that location.
This is the Forecast screen of the Weather Console. It shows a more detailed overview of the weather
data.
This is the Compare screen of the Weather Console. It groups your locations onto one screen. If you tap on one of the locations, you will be taken to the Forecast screen.
Overall, PocketWeather meets my
criteria for a Quality Weather Utility. It exceeds my expectations, and here are a few reasons why...
1. On a soft reset, PocketWeather has never failed to reload on the Today Screen.
2. When I have had questions of the developer, they have been prompt in their responses.
3. While all I was looking for was a product that made simple work out of providing weather data,
PocketWeather includes many other features I never new I might need. Now, they are features I would not want to sacrifice.
4. Price. @ $9.95 US, the price is quite reasonable.
RECOMMENDATION
If you are looking to monitor the weather on your device, then I would highly recommend PocketWeather from SBSH.net. On a 1 to 5 Globes Globility scale, I give PocketWeather 5 Globes!
Way to go SBSH!!!
© 2007 Craig L Sheppard & the KORBEK institute
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© 2007 Craig L Sheppard & the KORBEK institute
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