Topic: Apps For Smart Phones

[George Richardson]

I have a Samsung Mesmerize smart phone and a few weather apps for it. I would like to see a section of this forum devoted to apps for smart phones. If a person could say if the app is for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, or whatever; if it is free or how much it costs; if it works or has trouble.

I know I have seen posts over the years for various apps but have no idea how to find them.

I have found and use "RaindarTest". I started with "Raindar" but it has problems with Samsung memory and there is a "fix" in "RaindarTest". It isn't perfect but I have very little problem with it.

FWIW

George

[W3DRM]

I have a Samsung Mesmerize smart phone and a few weather apps for it. I would like to see a section of this forum devoted to apps for smart phones. If a person could say if the app is for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, or whatever; if it is free or how much it costs; if it works or has trouble.

I know I have seen posts over the years for various apps but have no idea how to find them.

I have found and use "RaindarTest". I started with "Raindar" but it has problems with Samsung memory and there is a "fix" in "RaindarTest". It isn't perfect but I have very little problem with it.

FWIW

George

George,

Your post goes right along with mine relative to having an area on the forum to collect information and pointers (links) to software and other items related to specific equipment the forum members may have or want. Searching can be a major pain if you don't know exactly what to search for.

[ocala]

I think that would be a great idea. Now that I am a smart phone user (as of 2 weeks ago) I spend a lot of time looking at apps.
So far I have DL these free apps
BeWeather
Instant Radar
My Cast Lite
Radar Now
Raindar
Also Radarscope just came out with the Android version of their app. This one you have to buy.
Just a couple non weather apps so far. Also free.
My Data Manager keeps track of your data use.
No Lock got rid of that annoying swipe you had to do every time you turned on your phone. Now it just goes straight to your home page.

[SLOweather]

I have a Droid2, and, in general, I get the whole "apps" thing.

However, the puzzle for me is people like the lady who emailed me and wanted a SLOweather.com app for iPhones.

Uh, it works perfectly fine in the browser on my Droid. Why mess with an "app"?

[chief-david]

I will agree with Ocala and SLO.  I have had mine for about two weeks.
Why have an app for a site when it works well on the internet.
But I think that is the mentality now. 

No lock is great.  I have a few music players so I don't have to carry another device.

[kray1000]

Why have an app for a site when it works well on the internet.

I do prefer a well-designed mobile Web page, but people like apps because they are generally faster than navigating most Web sites, use less data, and fit smartphone screens better.<sup>1

1</sup>Your mileage may vary, member FDIC, price tax and participation may vary, void where prohibited, not good with any other discount.

[kray1000]

 

I have a Samsung Mesmerize smart phone and a few weather apps for it. I would like to see a section of this forum devoted to apps for smart phones. If a person could say if the app is for Android, iPhone, Blackberry, or whatever; if it is free or how much it costs; if it works or has trouble.

I know I have seen posts over the years for various apps but have no idea how to find them.

I have found and use "RaindarTest". I started with "Raindar" but it has problems with Samsung memory and there is a "fix" in "RaindarTest". It isn't perfect but I have very little problem with it.

I just read a Smartphone-related post in another thread and almost posted a reply in the same vein as yours.  I'd also be interested in perusing a collection of wxforum-recommended apps.

I've also downloaded "Radar Now" and like it pretty well. Just tried Raindar and it kicks ass.  Would never have found it if not for this thread.  (Thanks, ocala!)  

Normally I'm not a fan of WeatherBug, but I must say that I do very much like the WeatherBug app... far superior to The Weather Channel app, in my opinion.

[IMADreamer]

I've been using Pykyl3 for my radar, I love it, especially since the recent update. 

[DaculaWeather]

Radarscope is a GRL3 app for newer Droids or iPhones. Very slick and worth the money.

[ocala]

A photographic app I found recently is called HDR Camera. This is for Android.
It lets you take HD photos using the camera on your phone. I know there was a thread a while back about HD pics not being the real thing. With this app you can turn down the filters so the pic isn't quite as "shopped" so to speak. Its a free app but you should take a bunch of pics with different settings to get effect you want.

[wmcatty]

Are there any apps that will provide for lightning strike data in real time?

[kray1000]

Are there any apps that will provide for lightning strike data in real time?

Probably need a hand-held lightning detector for that.

Next fastest thing might be browsing to Weather Underground... one of their radar overlays is (experimental) lightning data.

[ocala]

Are there any apps that will provide for lightning strike data in real time?

Found this  for an Iphone.
http://prmac.com/release-id-17814.htm
Found this for Android but it doesn't look too good.
https://market.android.com/details?id=com.ino.Lightning&hl=en

[ocala]

Found this really cool app. Ever wonder where that plane with contrails way up in the sky is going? Now you can. It called Skyspy. Here's the website. http://www.skyspy.info/index.html
All you do is point your phone to the sky like you are taking a picture. When it spots where a plane should be the flight number and position will come up in orange letters. You move those orange letters to the middle in the cross hair and it turns green. Then all you do is tap the screen. It gives you the planes coordinates, it's position relative to you, speed, altitude, vector, origination and destination, flight number and carrier.
Now it doesn't always work and I don't know why but for free, I'll take it. This app is for Android based phones. It covers all the United States, Europe, and parts of Australia.
If you go to the website it explains things much better.

[RainAware]

RainAware.

Predicts precipitation beginning and ending times for your exact GPS location.  Up to 3 hours out.

http://www.rainaware.com

It's works well enough to be very useful...but we are always making it better.

[ocala]

Weathertap Zoom.
Available in both Android and Apple and it's free.
Using the Android version I have to say it's pretty good. The only bug I found is that if I choose over 6 frames to animate it just keeps retrieving them. 6 frames and below it works fine.
https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.weathertap.zoom&feature=nav_result#?t=W251bGwsMSwyLDNd
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/weathertap_zoom/id435198586?mt=8

[cospringswx]

Radarscope is the best in my opinion. 

[ocala]

Radarscope is the best in my opinion. 

I am considering Radarscope or Pykle. It looks like Pykle has more customization. Other then that they both seem to be pretty good apps.

[fubaya]

These are all for Android...

Radar: None of these have forecasts or current conditions for your area, they're just radar apps.

Raindar is a great radar app but it doesn't have all the radar features that are available in something like Pykl3. It's essentially a mobile version of Weather Underground's wundermap. It's free and I love the look of it but I like the features of Pykl3 more.

Pykl3 has relative velocity, spectrum width etc, and all the dual pol radar products for sites that have dual pol. Pretty much all the Level 3 radar data the NWS releases is available with Pykl3. It can also use third party data from Allisonhouse.com, and if you're on spotternetwork, it will update your location with them. Radarscope is similar but I haven't used it because the reviews on their market page weren't as good as Pykl3's. Unfortunately neither has a lite or trial version.

General weather: your forecast, current conditions, high/low, sunrise/sunset etc

There are a ton of weather apps for this. Weather.com, weatherbug, etc, just pick the one you like. I've found one company named WSI Corporation makes apps for a lot of TV news station weather departments. They all look the same but each one is branded for that TV station and only has data for that area. It's pretty good though, all the forecast, current conditions, a basic radar, and none of the junk that some of the larger apps have. It might be worth searching for "WSI Corporation" and seeing if your local TV station has one of their apps.

Misc:
Simple Weather Alert. Set your area and decide which alerts you're interested in, and it will warn you when your area gets an alert. The notification method is customizable so you can have it vibrate for a wind advisory and turn the volume all the way up and scream like crazy for a tornado.

WeatherGeekPro has a ton of forecast model maps. NAM, GSF, RUC, WRF, SREF, all with multiple hours into the future and all with multiple parameters for different mb heights and various forecasted readings. Example, the GSF model has 11 different parameters and hourly models for 24 hours, so that alone is 264 GSF maps.

Beat the Traffic. Not necessarily weather related but it can be. This app is for viewing department of transportation webcams all over the US, mainly around large cities. I will sometimes watch a nasty storm on radar and open this app to watch it on camera.

[The Garden Meterologist]

I'am looking at storm eye for droid its free to use here is the link goto https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.cds.stormeye&feature=also_installed#?t=W10. for the info on the app.

[JACK10562]

Are there any apps that will provide for lightning strike data in real time?

For iPhone or iPad, check out  BoltMeter by AllisonHouse, $1.99
http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/boltmeter-lightning/id400351652?mt=8

[edit] oops.  I see ocala already mentioned boltmeter [/edit]

[cospringswx]

I've had radarscope for about a year now. I have it on both the iPhone and iPad and it looks fantastic. Storm chasers out here use radarscope.

[smorris]

I have RadarScope on my desktop computer as well as iPad and iPhone.

For the few of you running Mac computers and WeatherCat weather software, there is an iPhone app to view your station's weather data on your phone either via your home network or across the web.

http://itunes.com/app/poohbahindustries

Steve

[JACK10562]

I just downloaded a FREE copy of iMap weather radio for my iPhone! A $9.99 value!

See link:

http://www.fatwallet.com/forums/hot-deals/1185952/

Follow the text instructions to redeem and download, leave out the partner information code (GARY) and just activate it based on your zip.

[CNYWeather]

Nothing against the guys who have written them for us, but the Weather Underground app is pretty good.