This article reviews some of the weather clients available for the Symbian mobile operating system.
A continuation of the previous article on Symbian weather clients; in this article, we look at a few more candidates.
| 3. Weather for Series 60 | Rating  |
After using Handy Weather and to some extent Mobile Weather as well, there is a certain amount of expectation as to the presentation and the aesthetics of a weather client. In that particular department, Weather for Series 60 fails dismally.
However, Weather for Series 60 does deliver pertinent weather information. As a matter of fact, the application retrieves its data from the United States National Weather Service. These reports are usually in the format of METAR, and it seems that the application merely decodes this information and displays it in a viewable format.
The entire application is very basic, and has no special features to speak of. However, it falls under the GNU public license and therefore it free to use. Additionally, the actually downloads are insignificantly small, and therefore a good option if mobile Internet is charged per downloaded Kb. The software also runs on more Symbian devices, including Siemens, although it will not function on newer versions of the operating system.
| 4. Foreca Weather | Rating  |
Foreca Weather packs in a lot of weather information, some of which was not available on other applications. First off, the interface is nice, with bright colours. The typeface is a little large, but it certainly is better than squinting at tiny lettering.
This application is designed almost exclusively for the Nokia S60 3rd edition mobiles, and while that isn’t a point in its favour, one of the benefits is the application’s ability to use some of the S60 3rd edition features. For example, a location from the Landmarks application can be picked up for a weather update. Or the updates from Foreca Weather can be stored as memos in the Calendar application. This integration works extraordinarily well.
Among the other great features this application has is the ability to enter geographical coordinates for a weather update. Additionally Foreca Weather can predict a 10 day forecast, making it very useful indeed. If the user is in America or Northern Europe, the application also has a weather radar. It is possible to view satellite images, and various different map views, including cloudiness, precipitation, and wind forecast.
| 5. WeatherGuide | Rating  |
WeatherGuide is exceedingly similar to Weather for Symbian, even down to the interface and how the details are displayed onscreen. However, there are a few differences, although not particularly notable.
This software application works on later versions of the Symbian operating system. It has more information in terms of weather related parameters like, dew level and ultraviolet intensity level. It also offers a 5-day forecast.
Conclusion
Out of all the applications reviewed in these articles, Handy Weather seems to be the best by far. It is fairly reasonably priced as well, at $20. The free software applications are sketchy at best, although they do get the job done, and deliver the weather information in a comprehensible manner.