Is Weather Flow The Coolest Weather App Ever?
Judging from the marketplace icon you’d think this was just another ho-hum weather app content to rest away on the Windows Phone marketplace. What you find once the app is downloaded is an explosion of awesomeness. Weather Flow, from the devs of Cocktail Flow, have produced another hit. Lets get started with the review shall we. I had never bothered with trying out Weather Flow because my Accuweather app does the job pretty well, excellently well in fact. Let me state this off the top, Weather Flow combines the cleanliness of Metro with the beauty of color.
Theme Support
Weather Flow offers the user both a light and dark theme so battery conscious users can switch to the dark theme if they choose. The light theme is so sleek its almost a shame to go dark though. The app also allows the user to choose either the Metro look or the “Rich” look which is the more graphic intense and animated look. You can even switch between the two modes by swiping up.
(Light & Dark Themes)
As you can see the graphical difference between the Metro layout (above) and the Rich layout (below) is striking. This serves to add pop when using the app and you discover this great addition. There is even a pretty sweet and quick transition effect applied to switching layouts.
Dual UIs
(Rich theme)
Finally the app has what every great Windows Phone app has, a functional and useful live tile. Weather Flow’s live tile isn’t just a static functional tile it has both the front and back filled with information that both makes sense and is personal. Its kind of like the difference between robotic Tell Me and the more personal Ask Ziggy. The front of the Live Tile reveals the current weather temperature with an accompanying weather symbol and descriptive text (sunny, light rain, cloudy, etc.) The back of the Live Tile displays a more natural language explanation of the day’s weather.
Live Tile
All in all I was extremely pleased with this late to the party discovery. Its also important to mention how big of an effect an app’s icon has on the discoverability of an app. I have probably zoomed right past this app all week. It was released on March 12th. The app does cost $1.99 but in true Windows Phone fashion comes with a try-before-you buy feature. The trial is fully functional. The limitation is that you can only open the app 10 times before having to purchase the app.
App Rating
Must Buy!!!!
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I think $1.99 is ridiculous for a weather app. There are too many hood ones for free. People gladly will pay for Cocktail Flow, but for weather? No thanks.
JD, just try the trial. Team Distinction has yet to make an app I wont pay for on WP. Cocktail Flow on Android is nerfed.
App Flow is essential to me, too.
Personally I prefer Amazing Weather. I think it is better looking and it uses Weather Underground for it’s information which has much more accurate predictions than any other weather sources I’ve used (at least in the Washington/Oregon area). I wish it supported more than 3 cities but the updates are coming out regularly and I think it’s just a matter of time until it does.
No weather app can touch the radar on the live back tile of the Weather Channel. Best wow factor on my phone, esp when its raining.
the trial version live tile on my phone hasn’t updated since 15th march even if i launch the app, might have to stick with stormglass
Everyone has a price point for every type of app. For me i don’t mind paying a couple bucks for a quality app, no matter the category. I always think about the amount of money most people waste in their day to day lives. So instead of spending $2 on a hamburger i spend it on an app which i’m going to get more use out of.
@nlm: I do really love the radar on the back of the weather channel live tile but there is just something to the natural language being utilized on the Weather Flow live tile.
B-E-A-U-T-I-F-U-L! But, incomplete.
Weather Live is $1.49 and a fully featured weather app whose soon-to-be released V4 is a stunner.
Weather Master is $1.99 and has the best live tile of the current crop of weather apps.
We’ll see what the next version of Weather Flow features look like as she matures. Not yet, though.