Smartphone Thoughts - Daily News, Views, Rants and Raves

"Elecont Weather is powerful and accurate 10-day Weather Forecast with Barometer, Weather Alerts, Hour by Hour weather forecast and Current Weather Conditions. The forecast is displayed with animated effects and multiple icon sets. Elecont Weather is compatible with Windows Mobile 6.1 Sliding Media panel home screen."

Every time I use a Windows Mobile Professional device I think "Boy, I sure do miss the sliding panels home screen". It's an elegant, quick way to get what you need from your smartphone - and Elecont has released a version of their weather application that plugs in as a panel. It's great to see software developers plugging directly into the panel infrastructure - I hope we see more of it. You can pick up Elecont Weather for $9.95 from our affiliate store.

Bev Howard has set up his mobile web page with tons of links to sites optimized for mobile browsers over any speed to keep you up to date on the latest track of hurricate Gustav or other tropical storms that may be brewing. If you are interested in hurricane activity in North America, you should click on the link above and add it to your mobile favorites.

"Need to know the weather? Don't always have the time to check? Well, with Elecont weather you don't have to. It's right on the home screen of your Smartphone or Pocket PC. Of course if you want more details you can check out current conditions, barometric pressure, wind speed, ultraviolet intensity level, and more. That's quite a bit weather info to fit in your pocket."

Need another weather program? Who doesn't after all? Well here is Yet Another Weather Program (YAWP). We old Unix and Linux programmers will remember YACC of course, but I digress. If you are still looking for that perfect weather application here is another one for you to try.

Weather has become one of the most popular 3rd party applications to be added on a Smartphone. At least, in my opinion anyway. It's the first thing I add whenever I get a new phone or flash my existing device. And why not? Who doesn't want to know what the weather is like before you leave the house for the day.

Elecont has released an animated home screen plugin that will show you the current and future weather conditions on your Smartphone. I sure hope the application is smart enough to know when the screen is off, or the home screen is not visible and stops the animation. Otherwise this would eat through your battery pretty quick. If anyone gives it a try, please let the rest of us know how it works out.

"I spend all day indoors behind a computer...therefore, whenever I get the chance, I love to get outside: walking the dog, riding my bike, rollerblading, you name it. Unfortunately, thanks to the weather, the experience is not always pleasant. Being a Type Zero civilization, humankind has yet to learn how to control the weather...well if you can't control it, you need to know what Mother Nature is up to. Enter Fizz Weather."



This has always been a great application. If you haven't tried Fizz Weather here is a nice little review. Give it a read and if you like give it a try. I have used Fizz Traveler (more features) for years and have appreciated what it can do.

"Your smartphone starts keeping you organized on the go. Handy Weather software for Windows Mobile-based Smartphone will keep you connected with updated forecast anytime and anywhere. All you need is Internet connectability to get weather news and forecast for 40 000+ preset cities worldwide and for any arbitrary location by coordinates (latitude and longitude). No more complicated menus to scroll through to find the info you need. Just add Handy Weather to your Home screen and enjoy exact weather forecast. You will wonder how you ever got by without it!"



Even though there are a lot of weather programs to choose from, another one is here for your consideration. The big difference between most of these basic applications is how the data is presented. It is nice to have a few choices so if you are looking for a weather application, have a look at this one.

"Fizz Software recently announce the availability of Fizz Weather 2.3 for Pocket PC and Smartphone which is a free upgrade for all current 2.x users. Fizz Weather is a fully featured application & home screen plug-in, supporting over 58,000 cities world wide it might be one of the best and most comprehensive weather reporting tools for your mobile device. New features in this version includes animated satellite maps for short, medium and long range weather forecast, current conditions layout which is part of the Homescreen plug-in also now as well as and updated landscape QVGA Smartphone Homescreen layout for Motorola Q."



Fizz Weather [Affiliate] is being updated left and right, huh? Either way, a new update with better support for the Motorola Q should make a few of our users happy! ;)

"Your smartphone starts keeping you organized on the go. Handy Weather software for Windows Mobile-based Smartphone will keep you connected with updated forecast anytime and anywhere. All you need is Internet connectability to get weather news and forecast for 40 000+ preset cities worldwide and for any arbitrary location by coordinates (latitude and longitude). No more complicated menus to scroll through to find the info you need. Just add Handy Weather to your Home screen and enjoy exact weather forecast. You will wonder how you ever got by without it!"



Paragon Software Group released the Windows Mobile application named Handy Weather [Affiliate]. Equipped with weather information for over 40,000 cities, a homescreen plugin, and a full 30 day return policy, this application might give Fizz Traveller [Affiliate] a run for its money :)

Moving right along in our Gigantic Giveaway Event; This week we have one of the best rainy day applications available for the Smartphone - Fizz Weather from Fizz Software. With coverage for over 58,000 cities world wide, Fizz Weather keeps you informed of the weather conditions around the world. We have 3 copies of Fizz Weather to giveaway to our loyal and loving readers. If you want to win a copy all you have to do is reply to this thread with the correct cost of a subscription to Fizz Weather. You have until 11:59pm (PST) on Monday May 29th to enter. Winners will be randomly selected from the responses and announced on the following Wednesday.



"Fizz Weather is a fully featured application & home screen plug-in. Supporting over 58,000 cities world wide we have one of the best, most comprehensive weather reporting tools for your mobile device. Supporting Window Mobile 2003/SE/WM5. Includes QVGA support."

Update: Please read carefully, I didn't ask for the price of the application. I asked what the subscription cost is. You can find the answer on the Fizz Weather site. You have to answer the question right to be considered in the random draw. ;)

Fizz Software has just released an update to the popular Fizz Weather program. Version 2.2 adds a number of bug fixes and enhancements like VGA and QVGA support, Active Sync Synchronization, and support for the Motorola Q. (The Motorola Q has a landscape QVGA screen - in case anyone is wondering). If you don't need all the extras that Fizz Traveller offers, then Fizz Weather is worth checking out. if you already own a copy of Fizz Weather, then you will be happy to hear that version 2.2 is a free upgrade for existing customers. :D

"Weather Forecast is the ultimate weather forecasting package for your smartphone. Weather Forecast will give you ability quickly to know weather information for more than 11 000 cities around the world in an easy-to-use format. With a tap of a button, you can download a full five days' weather information around the globe. All you need to do it�s only to choose a continent, region and the city! In addition, you can download detailed weather current conditions for your selected cities in seconds."



Just in case you were looking for another weather application to compliment the other 276 weather applications out there well here it is! [Affiliate]

"Fizz Weather is a fully featured application & home screen plug-in. Supporting over 58,000 cities world wide we have one of the best, most comprehensive weather reporting tools for your mobile device.
Supporting Window Mobile 2003/SE."



Fizz Weather features a full 7 day forecast, ski reports from popular resorts, the ability to zoom and pan weather maps, severe weather warnings and alerts for the US, support for QVGA screens, and a lot more. I've been using Fizz Traveller for my forecasts. However, it might be better for me to switch to Fizz Weather, since I don't use any of the extras that Fizz Traveller offers. Perhaps it would save some space too. :) You can download a 3 day trial version, or purchase a license for $14.99 from our affiliate store.

"Get LIVE streaming local weather data, severe weather alerts, detailed forecasts, local radar, live weather cameras, photos and more. Choose from US or World weather conditions. Always be prepared and informed with the only live wireless weather application for Windows Mobile� Smartphone."



WeatherBug allows you to view live streaming weather forecasts on your Smartphone from over 8000 different tracking stations in the US. It features 7 day forecasts, severe weather alerts, local radar and live cameras. Unfortunately, there is no trial version available. You can purchase a copy for $14.95 from our affiliate store.

Update: The guys at WeatherBug have updated the listing and there is now a trial version available from the link above. :)

"Weather affects your everyday life in so many ways. From what you wear to where you go, the importance of knowing the latest weather cannot be discounted. Weather Center from neohand puts critical weather information for more than 5,000 cities around the world in an easy-to-use format. With a tap of a button, you can download a full seven days'''' worth of weather information. In addition, you can download detailed current conditions for your selected cities."



Weather Center supports a pretty large list of cities and the weather forecasts are updated twice each hour. So the latest weather info is only a Smartphone away. :wink: You can download a trial version, or purchase the complete application for $12.95 here. [Affiliate]

"An interesting service was launched today by the Weather Channel, that allows you to get a weather forecast by sending a short message, with your zip code in it, to 4CAST (42278), which will return the prediction by short message too. Pretty simple, easy and wise, but the rate is a bit exagerated. At $0.75 per forecast, let's hope we'll be able to get a refund if the forecast was innacurate! And it may be wiser and just as quick to simply set a bookmark to your city's weather in your wap browser."

75 cents per use? Seems a bit much, but if they're trying to generate income to offset the free feeds that they offer, so be it.

"Overall, this really is a nice application for obtaining and viewing weather conditions if you don�t mind the lag on performance. I would recommend this application if you want to have access to current and future weather conditions at your hip, but don�t have reliable GPRS coverage, no GPRS capabilities at all, or don�t have access to a website that offers comparable information. For example, in some parts of the world you can use GPRS to access current weather conditions with a 5 day outlook, along with satellite and radar maps (AccuWeather.com fits very nicely on a Smartphone). FizzWeather does have more detailed data in some cases though."

Fizz Software is popping out cool new apps left and right! Here's the latest one:

"Fizz Weather is the ultimate weather forecasting package for your smartphone. Packed with features you'll never be caught out by mother nature. Installed with an initial database of over 230 global cities, you can search our database of over 56,000 global cities and add your own."



Features include:

• Multiple city weather cache
  
• 7 day summary & 7 day full forecasts
  
• 2 day forecasts - split into 6 hour intervals
  
• Current conditions with reports from various reporting weather stations
  
• Weather maps with zoom & pan support.
  
• Skin the application
  
• Support for English, French, German, Italian, Spanish

You can download the free trial or buy it for $9.99.

This is easily the nicest-looking weather application I've ever seen on any platform, so if you're in the US and have a Smartphone, download this now - it's free! I'd pay for a version that worked in Canada though. :?