WeatherPro adds widgets and more for iOS
WeatherPro has always been a top-flight weather app, and the latest iOS update adds some nice features like widgets, worldwide webcams and customizable info.
The US$1.99 app comes from the MeteoGroup in Germany, but I find their U.S. coverage excellent and detailed. The forecasts have been solid in older versions, and I expect the same in this rewritten iOS iteration.
The user interface is tunable, letting you view things like the forecast as a graph. There are animated satellite maps of the USA, Austrailia and most of Europe. You can choose an unlimited number of favorite locations, and the app can find your current location automatically. WeatherPro also can interface with personal weather stations via Netamo.
Using this new version is simple, but help is included if needed. Different features are available from a menu at the bottom of the screen (weather, maps, favorites etc) and you bring them up with a tap.
WeatherPro is incredibly complete, including things like mountain and hiking forecasts, animated radar and cloud maps, UV indexes and water temperatures. Hourly forecast details are there for the next two weeks.
New to iOS 8 is widget support. If you pull down your iPhone notification menu, and tap the Edit link, you can see which installed apps support widgets. WeatherPro is among them, so you can get things like current temperatures, wind speeds and and a forecast with a single flick to the Notification Center. Once you get used to it, you will use it all the time.
The new for iOS 8 Windtheme feature (part of a premium subscription in-app purchase) lets you change the entire GUI to focus on winds. Wind direction and speed become visible on every app page, along with forecasts for the best times for winds -- perfect for windsurfers, pilot, kite flyers, and more.
Webcams that are nearby can be located, but basically the app opens an internal browser and you get images from a third party provider complete with some junky ads. I'd like to see that part of WeatherPro improved.
I also think the overall look of the app could be a little more modern and reflective of the best design cues from iOS 8. There is a lot of data to display, but it's not the prettiest presentation of weather data I've seen.
Still, WeatherPro is well named. It has more well organized data than any weather app I've seen. It's feature rich, and somewhat customizable.
A premium subscription is $1.99 for 3 months or $5.99 for a year. The app requires iOS 7 or later. If I was a real weather buff and could only choose one weather app to have on my iPhone, WeatherPro would be it.
