MeteoEarth
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Review: MeteoEarth brings detailed weather info to your Mac
I've previously reviewed MeteoEarth in its iOS incarnation, and found it a capable and useful weather app. One of the strong points of MeteoEarth has always been the quality of the graphics, largely because the company that produces the app also does professional weather graphics for TV broadcasters. Now the company has brought its skills to a Mac app (US$4.99 in the Mac App Store), and it has more detailed information and nicer graphics. Maps are presented in 3D or 2D mode with realistic shading, and there are layers for temperatures, precipitation, cloud cover, wind and pressure. All these map features can be animated, and you can drag a slider into the future to see an educated guess at the forecast. You get an option to view current conditions at your location in your menu bar, or you can make the map your full-screen desktop. There is also an option to turn the live data into a screensaver. You can turn the globe with your mouse, and zoom in for details, out for the big picture. MeteoEarth is a solid app, but the developers can't resist the temptation to sell you a subscription for more data for three months ($1.99) or 12 months ($5.99). With the tremendous availability of weather info around for free, I don't think this is a good investment. The extra information includes things like the surface temperature of water, and most people won't want it. If you are a fisherman or pilot, that information may be valuable, but chances are you get more targeted weather services anyway. Still, MeteoEarth has loads of good weather information, and provides a nice-looking desktop, menubar feature and a screensaver. Graphics are first-rate. Other nice apps in the category are Clear Day screensaver ($1.99) and Weather Tab Pro at $1.99. MeteoEarth requires OS X 10.9 or later and a 64-bit processor.
MeteoEarth is a high-end weather app for iPad with a catch
MeteoEarth is a US$4.99 weather app with enough visual treats to makes your iPad's screen look like something from a TV weathercast. In fact, much of the display tech in the app was adopted from professional weather applications. The app offers high-resolution animated graphics of precipitation, temperature, wind, cloud cover and isobars that show barometric pressure. You can add each item as a layer on the screen, and set up your favorite cities. In addition, the map shows what parts of the globe are in daytime or nighttime, moon phases and country borders. You can also create custom set ups and save them for later viewing. Zooming is done with common gestures. %Gallery-179459% I spent some time using the app and found it powerful, but I have a few complaints. First, it could use a help function though, because its many powerful features aren't immediately intuitive. Also, MeteoEarth provides a one-day forecast, but access to long-range forecast information requires a subscription, which is available via in-app purchase. Three months is available for $1.99 and a year is $5.99. Frankly, I think those extra charges are ludicrous. The app is not overpriced, but having to buy the extended weather forecast strikes me as over the top. There are lots of free weather apps that give you an extended forecast. To not have it in a paid app is, in my view, just plain wrong. MeteoEarth is an advanced, slick weather app. It is iPad-only at this point, and requires iOS 6 or later. I would put it in the top echelon of weather apps if it wasn't for the stingy forecast info and lack of any help screens. If you are satisfied with real-time displays of worldwide weather conditions, MeteoEarth is first-rate. I would also suggest weather mavens take a look at WeatherHD which is $0.99 and Windscape, which will give you beautiful animated views of wind flow for $0.99.
