Hardware Reference
In-Depth Information
Watching the Weather
All right, I'd better admit right up front that I'm a weather nut. As a lifelong hiker and out-
door type, the weather has always affected what I like to do. After I became a professional
pilot, weather started affecting my work too. So I have good excuses. Fortunately for me
and all you other weather nuts out there, the Internet and mobile devices have put almost
unlimited weather information literally at our fingertips. I can only hit the high points here,
and I'm sure I've missed some cool apps (pun intended.)
Weather Apps and Widgets
There are many ways to arrange weather icons and widgets to customize your device. This
chapter focuses on the weather apps and widgets themselves. For more on setting up your
Home screen and Favorites area, see
Customizing Your Device
.
Personally, as a U.S. resident, I prefer to get my weather information directly from the of-
ficial source, the National Weather Service (NWS). All of the private weather services and
mass media get most of their weather information from NWS, so why not eliminate the
middleman? On the other hand, the private services sometimes present weather information
in a more useful way.
Weatherbug
Weatherbug (
http://bit.ly/1cRGIC7
)
is a great choice for detailed international weather. It
has a very attractive and useful home screen, which by default automatically displays today's
weather for your current location. Tiles show today's forecast, radar, lightning data weath-
er cams, weather photos, and the pollen forecast. Tabs at the top of the screen allow you
to display the 10-day and hourly forecasts, as well as detailed climate and astronomical in-
formation. A window at the bottom of the screen shows the top weather news from around
the country.
Tapping the Menu icon at the upper left corner gives you access to much more weather
information, including radar, severe weather alerts, lightning maps, hurricane information,
media reports, weather cams, video reports, and forecasts tailored to specific activities.
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