There’s two easy ways to work out what the weather’s doing outside. You could stick your Android phone out the window and see if it comes back wet, in which case it’s raining. Or you could install MobWeather.
Android does have inbuilt weather, but it’s a limited service that lacks that local Aussie touch. That’s where MobWeather excels, drawing forecasts from the Bureau Of Meterology for pretty much every area of Australia; you can choose multiple locations to watch while viewing either radar, synoptic or UV forecasts. It’s a $2.99 app, but that’s got to be cheaper than getting your smartphone drowned every time it rains [MobWeather]
Adam
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:08 AMOr you could open a window….not that hard and cheaper haha
Sam
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:12 AMWeather apps are generally a pain in the ass I find. It’s generally a choice between either having nice widgets and designs, but sacrificing accuracy of weather forcasts (I generally only really trust BOM sourced forecasts) or having accurate local data, but sacrificing some of the niceties of design and widgets.
I haven’t used MobWeather admittedly, so I have no idea how it stacks up against the opposition; though the $2.99 pricetag without a free trial version is a little offputting.
I currently use WeatherZone. Unfortunately it does look like a port of an iOS app (which I’m willing to bet it is), but it does come with a reasonably nice widget, includes humidity, wind spreed, rain fall, UV levels and radar. It’s also completely free.
On a semi-related point, I just set up a Tasker profile to rotate my wallpapers based of current weather conditions issued by the BOM. Isn’t a forecast as such, but it is pretty cool having nice photography of similar weather conditions available without having to think about it.
Turd
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:14 AMI use the “Weather Australia” app. It’s so much better and uses BOM details!
Turd
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:15 AMhttps://market.android.com/details?id=tv.funtopia.weatheraustralia&hl=en That one.
Free and awesome. The Widget is great too!
Greg
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 11:44 AMThanks for the review Alex. For our new and existing customers, we know it has been a while since we have put out an update (which we do apologise for) we are hoping to rectify that very soon. Also got plans for a new HD version for tablets as well. :) Stay tuned!
Dave
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:01 PMI’ll be a second for Weather Austraia.
Free, nice widget, and uses BOM. Perfect.
Ian
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:11 PM@Turd: Re-read the review (MobWeather uses BOM data too)
It does use data taken directly from the Bureau Of Meterology web site (inc current temperature and other details, UV, radar images and Synoptic charts) so it’s as accurate as you can get.
I use MobWeather and it’s been awesome.
The thing I like about it most is that it knows where you are so the widget tells you current temperate as you travel.
But best: you can tell it how often you want it to update its information from the BOM web site (5 mins, 10, 15, 30, 1hr, 2hr, 4hr, manual). This means that when you’re out of signal range you can still see the latest weather forcast that it grabbed from BOM the last time it could (ie it won’t just say “I can’t do anything cos there’s no signal”)
Jester
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 12:14 PMWeathZone. Free, good widget, and gets its info from BOM.
https://market.android.com/details?id=au.com.weatherzone.android.weatherzonefreeapp&feature=related_apps#?t=W251bGwsMSwxLDEwOSwiYXUuY29tLndlYXRoZXJ6b25lLmFuZHJvaWQud2VhdGhlcnpvbmVmcmVlYXBwIl0.
reggie
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 1:40 PMPocket Weather AU is where its at… #winning x ∞
light487
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 2:05 PMMy SGSII came with the AcuWeather widget installed. Haven’t needed anything beyond that. I might consider going with Wunderground.com widget at some future date.. but not unless I am headed overseas.. I just don’t need that level of acurrate reporting for day-to-day stuff.
Josh
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 4:17 PMI like to open up a voice search window and say ‘Weather in Sydney’ and then it does the rest for me. Pretty easy.
nik
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 7:37 PMI use my browser and go to willyweather.com lol full featured site.
why pay for an app ?
Mmmmm
Friday, October 28, 2011 at 8:54 PMI just have a bookmark for BOM in my browser and get all the information direct from source and view the radar feeds when needed. I don’t need to pay for something thats free.