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Best weather app for skiers? - Krystyna Chauncey
Tuesday March 23, 2010 - Email this article to a friend
It is a simple question, but there certainly isn't a simple answer. In fact it's a bewildering minefield of information.
Someone asked us at Planetski to recommend the best iPhone Weather Application for skiing.
What a shock to find that there are 620 Weather Apps to choose from making the selection a somewhat daunting process.
We decided that to review them all would be near nigh impossible.
To get through the list we would need quite a team and then as some of the subscriptions vary from Free, right through to 59p, £1.19, £2.39, £1.79, £2.99, £3.49, £4.99 and even £5.99, we realised we would be substantially out of pocket too. And then there were more new products being introduced on to the market the whole time.
Complicated or what!
We had a quick look at them anyway.
It seems that the first 6 Weather Apps ever were introduced on 11th July 2008.
The following 3 were Free downloads Who is Hot; Weather Bug; Pocket Express; and the other 3 charged as follows NavClock £1.19; MyWeather Mobile £1.19; FizzWeather £2.39.
And the newest Weather Apps include Wooly Wind Chill - Plus Ground Speed released 5th March 2010 (£0.59), and the day before both Oz Radar Lite (free) and MeteoAlarm (£0.59) appeared - and in between there are hundreds more.
So, how to choose?
Around a quarter of the Weather Apps are Free to download and approximately half cost 59p, so I guess its not so bad if you find the App you select doesn't quite meet your needs, but it must be very frustrating if you've paid for one costing over £2 and or even £5.99 to find its not quite what you expected.
iTunes have tried to make the process simple by offering a list of Top 20 Free Weather Apps and a list of Top 20 Paid Weather Apps and then you can select further by 'release date' or 'most popular'.
But there are so many others which might suit your needs better than the Top 20's selections, but what an effort to trawl through them all.
We thought it was a shame there weren't any sub categories which might for example include sailing weather, skiing weather, summer weather plus earthquake and other weather warnings etc.
Moreover we thought it was a shame that the Apps could not be checked out 'in reality' rather than just being able to view them as pretty 'still' screenshots.
OK, there is a brief run down on what they offer but it is the content and presentation that matter and how easy it is to navigate that really counts.
Admittedly you can read the customer reviews and whilst in some cases users profer what appears to be slightly biased support and endorsement for some of the Apps, others overwhelmingly support an App with genuine positive feedback such as the new MetOffice Weather Application (free) which seems to be exceedingly popular.
As for Weather Apps specifically relating to skiing - we quite like the look of: SnowReportMySwitzerland (free) for Piste maps, webcams and snow reports on Swiss ski areas introduced January 2010; Snoveo (free) for Piste data from 250 resorts plus snow reports from 20 Countries along with snow depths and a 5 day forecast, introduced February 2010; and Skiinfo Snow Report (£1.19) offering snow reports, weather observations, snow depths and lift status amongst other things from a staggering 1500 ski resorts, and its available in 15 languages, updated February 2010.
There were a few Apps that we thought were quirky but fun and extremely 'niche'; Ice Thickness - designed for safer ice skating (59p), Cloud Twitter Photo Frame (£1.19) for those must have important still images of clouds, and then the absolute essential App for many women we know, Haircaster (59p) for women who need to know how the weather is going to affect their hair - is it safe to go out, or should they stay at home?
On a more serious note perhaps there should be a few more safety Apps similar to Avalanche Utah (free), Earthquakes (59p), WindfinderPro (£1.19), TideApp (free) and iPollen (£1.79).
For the ever changing list of Top 20 Free Weather Applications and Top 20 Paid for Weather Applications go to the iTunes store for more information.
But beware it's a bewildering business.
Do you use ski apps? If so which ones and why?PlanetSKI reserves the right to edit any comments. In most cases a selection of your comments will be published, displaying your name and location unless you state otherwise in the box below.
This is what I was quoted as saying to NMK (techy webzine) following MWC in Barcelona... Might be of interest to others.
"Not all attendees were turned on by the prevalence of apps on display. Xavier Adam, managing director of marketing consultants, AMC Network, cited the change of names from “Content Hall” to “App Hall” as evidence of what he described as “app hype”.
“Anywhere there is a (perceived) buck to be made you will find plenty of takers,” Adam said. “It seems the app hype is in full force at MWC 2010. The fact still many people don't download, or use the apps they do download, together with there being more apps than takers, does not seem to deter the money men and their merry band of entrepreneurs.”
Adam believes that while there is a place for apps, they should not be seen as the be all and end all of the future of wireless. “Get roaming charges down, data packages sorted and customer service up, and the rest will follow,” he advised service providers.
Xavier Adam, Barcelona, Spain
OnTheSnow is an excellent ap. They have an ap for IPhones and Blackberry.
Brad, San Francisco, CA (US)
Why would you want to pay for any Apps? Waste of money. Just check out weather forecast from a reliable local source online in the morning before you set off. It'll be accurate-then just check avalanche risk at bottom of lift system. Reckon that should be enough and probably safer!
Tom Gregory, SE London
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