SPOTLIGHTm

Only 3 days of foresight?

Weatherbug for iPhone

What is it?

The just recently updated Weatherbug application helps you answer “What’s the weather like?” in any city around the world.

How much does it cost?

Free.

Who is it good for?

Anyone and everyone, but especially business travelers. The recent update on Weatherbug allows users to save up to ten cities in their list, providing easy access to weather information when on the go.

Summary

This is a simple application, but a good one to have from a trusted name that used to mysteriously install itself on our computers (remember those days?). Despite a few shortcomings here and there (no extended forecasts), the Weatherbug application is fast, useful, and functional. There is very little entertainment or random news to be found here and we like that.

Keep it or Delete it?

Keep it.

There’s not a whole lot not to like about Weatherbug’s iPhone offering, especially in this latest release. While most of the application is “all business,” there are some pretty neat parts to the app.

Remember the weatherman before the days of Weather.com? That guy who stood in front of that screen and showed you green and blue blobs in your area with dainty waves of his hand? Sometimes, you cursed this guy for being wrong, but you loved him nonetheless.

Weatherbug is bringing him back.

Not that you have to use it by any means, but if you’re interested in seeing a “traditional” weather forecast, Weatherbug has a fast loading forecast that is available when searching for your area’s weather - which can be customized to match your current location or a chosen zipcode.

For those who get anxiety from the “SO ten years ago” way to take in barometric pressure and rainfall guestimates, there’s the familiar forecast, which is shortened to just three days instead of the familiar five. This is a little gripe that we have with the application because three days just feels really short - especially when planning for a long trip. However, since your iPhone is generally traveling with you, it makes sense that the forecast could be shorter and hypothetically more accurate because it only takes you a second to check, but if you’re heading out for over a week, you might have to walk all the way over to your computer to get an extended forecast (gross).

Of course, you’ll get the precipitation radar that we’ve all become familiar with as well, but only for the United States, as far as we can tell. For international countries, you’ll get satellite images, but not the familiar green blobs that we’re used to.

It would have been nice to have the radar images have some movement so that you could potentially see the way a storm is moving, but it’s a fair tradeoff because the images load instantly. The map itself functions just like a Google Map application should - in that you can drag the map around to view different areas without entering a new zipcode.

While it doesn’t really tell you anything that the forecast won’t, one of our favorite features from the application is the ability to see local pictures near the zipcode you’re searching in. We’re always fascinated by the ability to see real-time pictures from other places and while it’s nothing that hasn’t been done before, it’s a fun little features nonetheless in an otherwise pretty straight forward application.

Sure, there’s no news. No “This Day in Weather History” or “Extended Forecast (that is going to be wrong, unless you live in Southern California)” - this is a straightforward weather application filled with just the basic information that you need to get by that day. It won’t help you plan a long trip, but it will get you through the next few days.

It’s quick. It’s simple. We like it.