Robocat

In a February column on weather apps, I complained about the substandard quality of most in the category. As mentioned in this week’s App Smart column, though, things got considerably better with the debut of MyWeather, which now sits atop my list of best weather apps and is available for Android and iOS devices. Most of its competitors are either easy to use but short on features (like Outside, for instance), or they include more features but are harder to use (like The Weather Channel). MyWeather is free, it’s filled with good features and it’s easy to use. The app shows you weather information about your particular neighborhood or block, not just your town or ZIP code. That level of specificity may be helpful in big towns, or those with varied geography. If you happen to be traveling internationally, the app can track weather anywhere on the globe — although given the data-heavy nature of this information, you’d be advised to open it while in a Wi-Fi hotspot. MyWeather, which was developed by Weather Central, a company with deep roots (30 years+) in weather technology, offers alerts whenever storms or other severe conditions are imminent. I’ve used a similar Web-based service from the company over the years, and I’ve found its alerts to be remarkably reliable. There are caveats, of course. Users who paid for a previous version of the app have complained about the ads that now appear, and the app can shut down unexpectedly at times. But I‘ve found it reliable and the ads not very intrusive — especially given the amount of value MyWeather provides. Read More

In celebration of WWDC festivities, Robocat is offering a limited time savings of 70% on their awesome Outside – Visual Weather Forecast app.  This is actually the very first time the app has ever been on sale. Outside is a very visually pleasing app that allows you to view the current local weather conditions, upcoming conditions, and even stay notified when those conditions change.  The app also allows you to view detailed information, the 5-day forecast and more with quick and simple swipes of your fingers. Outside can keep you up-to-date on that ever changing weather with local alerts and custom push notifications. You can choose to monitor only your currently location or multiple locations at once. Your initial purchase of Outside includes a 30 day push subscription. Additional subscriptions of 30 or 300 days can be obtained through in-app purchase  at relatively fair prices, as long as you find it to be a useful feature. Push is not required to use the remainder of the app’s functions. Grab this visually appealing little weather app at this limited time price and be prepared to enjoy all that the great outdoors can offer. Read More

10 Feb 2010 alle 22:30 Produttore: Robocat | Download Link: AppStore | Prezzo: 2,39€ Ci sono tante applicazioni in AppStore che permettono di visualizzare le previsioni del tempo ma oggi vi parliamo di Outside, una utility che colpisce sia per la sua grafica che per le funzionalità. E’ stata rilasciata qualche giorno fa dalla RoboCat ed offre anche le notifiche push oltre ad un estrema semplicità nell’utilizzo. Appena avviamo l’applicazione per la prima volta, il GPS troverà la posizione attuale e subito dopo si “aprirà la finestra”  per visualizzare il meteo del giorno o di quelli seguenti. Da questa schermata abbiamo due possibilità per muoverci: con uno slide vero il basso possiamo visualizzare le informazioni aggiuntive come l’orario di alba e tramonto, la percentuale di umidità, la temperatura minima, la nebbia e la direzione e la velocità del vento; con uno slide verso sinistra, come se ci spostassimo tra le varie pagine dell’iPhone, possiamo visualizzare le previsioni per i giorni successivi. In basso abbiamo tre icone poggiate sul davanzale della finestra: Qui di seguito una videorecensione di AppleiPodTouchFan nella quale vengono descritte tutte le funzionalità in maniera molto dettagliata: Read More

...desarrolladores de la aplicación Outside han publicado un video sobre las horas previas al lanzamiento de la aplicación. Una curiosa vista de la parte de atrás de un pequeño grupo de desarrollo:... Read More

Apple’s native iPhone weather app is simple and fairly minimalistic, like the iPhone itself. That’s fine for some people, but if you want more eye candy from your weather app, you’ll need to look elsewhere. We did just that and we came across the new iPhone weather app Outside. With artsy graphics and detailed weather information, Outside is like a fortune-telling window into your local weather. It’ll even push weather notifications to your iPhone for free for 30 days. Compared to the iPhone’s weather app, Outside is refreshingly informative. The app literally opens a window into your local weather. The background graphics change based on time of day and weather status. You swipe left or right to switch between weather forecasts for the entire week. Swiping down reveals detailed data like UV index, humidity, cloud cover, wind speed and direction, and sunrise and sunset times. And, to keep you up-to-the-minute on your weather, push notifications alert you when the weather forecast changes. Outside can be setup to send you push notifications when it sees cold, rainy, high UV , or t-shirt weather in your future. The app comes with a 30-day push notification subscription, and offers additional 90-day subscriptions at $0.99 cents. Outside costs $2.99, so it’s more for people that are serious about your weather. But, if detailed weather information and a pretty UI make you giddy, you’ll get what you pay for. Outside ($2.99) [iTunes link] Will hails from The City of Angels - Los Angeles, California. He spends his time playing with his numerous gadgets and looking forward to seeing what future holds for mobile technology. An avid promoter of a fully "digital" life, he promotes the widespread adoption of truly mobile, paper-less living. He dreams of the day when he can go completely digital. No more snail mail, paper receipts, bound books, notepads/spiral notebooks, credit cards, hard currency. He's a digital warrior - fighting for the converged life. He is an idealist and a realist - he has a perfect view of what the world should be but knows that the world is not perfect. Can we ever hope to see Will's dream become reality? We'll see... Read More

...combines current weather and local forecasts with custom push notifications on the iPhone. With Outside, you can setup push notifications to for various weather conditions and get alerts when the weather matches your criteria, even when the app isn’t running. To get the notifications, you have to sign up for a subscription service. You get 30 days of push notifications when you purchase O... Read More

This week Robocat released a beautiful new weather application called Outside [App Store, $2.99]. The app focuses primarily on visually showing you the weather with pleasant graphics and animations. It automatically figures out where you are and shows you what the weather’s like outside right now! Perfect for us “indoor people.” If you swipe down, you can see details and swiping left shows you the forecast for other days of the week. Outside also comes with the ability to send out push notifications whenever the forecast meets certain criteria. You can have Outside tell you when it’ll be cold, hot, rainy, or really sunny. And because these notifications are delivered via push notifications, the app doesn’t have to be running.   Bottom line: if you’re a fan of shiny apps (you know I am) and care about what the weather’s doing, then you’ll want to pick up a copy of Outside right away. It works quite well and just looks so darn good. Categories: News  Tags: Read More

Outside [iTunes link] is a new, personal weather app for the iPhone/iPod touch that provides a visual forecast with some paid options for push notifications. I like the idea of the app; it has some nice graphics and a fresh approach to weather information. The GUI is based on a metaphor of looking out a window: you can get the current conditions or a five-day forecast, if you want to glance into the future. For the relevant stats, like humidity, cloud cover and winds, you just flick up the screen, and it'll tell you everything you need to know. The app also features an interesting pay model: when you buy the U.S $2.99 app, you get 30 days of push notifications for free. Then it's $0.99 for the notifications every three months. Notifications include letting you know if rain is in the forecast, the UV index when it goes above a set level, a warning if the temperature goes below your preference, and a notification that the weather is OK to wear a T-shirt. There are a few things that would make this app better. First, it'd be nice to reduce the need to flick the screen so often. The five-day forecast could be placed on one page, not five. And the notifications are unique, but a bit strange. I'd much rather be notified of upcoming storm warnings rather than T-shirt weather, but there is no such option -- especially since the notifications are so pricey (getting them for a year costs more than the app itself), it'd be nice to have some more options. And if you want weather from a different location, you have to enter that location manually. There is no list of favorites. I think weather junkies would be better off with the Weather Channel app [iTunes link], which is free, Weather Channel Max for $3.99 [iTunes link], or MyWeather [iTunes link] mobile which provides very detailed info for a one-time $4.99, and includes (free) push notifications for severe weather. There is some clever thinking behind Outside, and it's a fresh approach to a function that's seen its share of rainy days. But I wish it had more information on the individual screens, and it wasn't so expensive to get notifications. Read More

New from the developers at Robocat, ‘Outside’ is a neat little Weather app that is unlike any I’ve seen before. It’s quite customizable, and allows you to follow current conditions, local forecasts and more… Plus you can setup custom push notifications to ensure you always know what’s going on weather-wise… or to alert you whenever a certain weather condition is met. The imagery for the app is quite unique. Pop open the app to check the weather, and it’s like you’re looking out a window to see what the current conditions are. Clever. You can even set custom notifications to let you know when certain conditions are reached… For example, ‘T-Shirt Weather’. Whatever temperature you deem to be ‘t-shirt weather’, you can have the app send you a notification once the temperature reaches that mark. Cool. Key features of ‘Outside’ include: The only bummer I can see with this one is the actual push notification service. When you buy the app you get 30 free days of push notifications. To extend this service you’ll need to sign-up for a subscription for a nominal fee. James was born and raised in Winnipeg, Canada. Almost 15 years ago he started out in the 'real world' as a web and graphic designer. Through the years he has finely tuned his skills in SEO, internet marketing, conversion strategy, and project management. To date, he runs his own successful consulting business where he advises companies all over the globe. A co-founder of www.crackberry.com, and sole proprietor of www.mactropolis.com, James in recent years has become very active in the tech blogosphere. Online community building and strategy is fast becoming one of his passions. Watch for James' no frills attitude, unique perspective and to-the-point comments here on IntoMobile! Read More