Amazing Weather is a very nice weather app for your Windows Phone and for the free, ad-supported app fans out there the developer has recently recently released Amazing Weather Lite. The free Lite version has banner ads and only supports one live tile (paid version supports six) that can only be updated daily.
Beyond those two differences, Amazing Weather Lite is just as impressive of a weather app as the original. Key features include:
- Unique attractive UI with three distinct themes
- Live tile with auto location feature using GPS
- Five different cities and an optional auto location using GPS
- Weather Alerts
- Weather animations based on current conditions, and daily forecast
- Detailed current conditions data including UV, wind,visibility, humidity, pressure and more
- Seven days quick view weather forecast
- Detailed text and daily forecast.Radar, infrared and satellite imagery
- Offline (manual) mode for when you are traveling
One nice feature about the Live Tile is that while you can only update it daily, you can set the approximate time of the update. Amazing Weather Lite may be limited to one tile, but this is a nice feature to help ease the pain of the restriction.
As far as the layout is concerned Amazing Weather Lite does differ slightly from Amazing Weather. The control buttons that would normal line up at the bottom of the screen (alerts, hourly forecast, radar, and pin) are now hidden in the "three dot" menu. This gives the main display a little more real estate and minimizes the impact of the ad banner. A nice touch by the developer.
Weather data is still provided by Weather Underground and if you're looking for a nice looking weather app for your Windows Phone, Amazing Weather Lite is worth a gander. You can find Amazing Weather Lite (free) here at the Windows Phone Marketplace and Amazing Weather ($1.49) here at the Marketplace.
Reader comments
Amazing Weather goes Lite with free version
These separate full versions and lite versions of apps annoy me. Microsoft added trial functionality to the marketplace to get rid of just this. I realize that developers get twice the exposure by having separate apps but this isn't iOS or Android.
This, I see quite a few apps also available as free versions. I've always wondered if it's not possible for developers to add the limitations of the free version + ad banner in to the apps' trial functionality? If it's technically not possible then it makes sense I guess.
As for Amazing Weather it looks really good and I'll try it out.
BY THE DEVELOPER **IMPORTANT **
If you have a crashing settings, then please wait until the updated v3.3 is out (already certified and published, it needs some time to appear on the marketplace).
Second the Full app supports up to 6 different cities and 6 live tiles.
Thanks a lot WPCentral. :)
I agree with Gatlyn. I would say even more: Microsoft should ban these apps...
Are these Weather Alerts the severe alerts issued by the National Weather Center? Also, more importantly, are they available via push/toast notification? That, to me, is an important feature in a weather app.
This is off topic and should be in the forums, not in the review of an application. I have no issues with separate full and free apps. Trial applications will stop/cease after a period of time and Free apps will not. Free apps may be missing some features or have all the features and use advertising for income generation. Sounds like a great way to reach a broader base of consumers and still give a great product exposure.
On topic - I stated my displeasure of the limited updating on the free version with the developer on XDA. He/She responded promptly and clearly why it works this way. I have a lot of respect for the work done here and appreciate why the application is set up this way. I highly recommend this app for it's functionality, beauty and the people behind it.
The subject is not off topic because this app is an exact example of the issue I'm talking about. Also, if you've ever used the "try" feature in the marketplace, you'll know that most apps do not have time-based limitations. Developers are able to include ads and limit functionality exactly as done in this "lite" version. I have nothing personal against Amazing Weather, in fact I've used it before and I am a fan of the brilliant Metro interface it has. I'm just pointing out a pet peave that I and other WP users share.
Pay to get live tile? Geez forget that. My wp weather app I use has built in live tile and it's free.
I might try this again. They updated their live tile, it used to be just OK. WeatherMaster had the best tile but, Amazing Weather had the best app. WHen it comes to day to day weather I use the live tile 99% of the time (unless a storm or I am trying to find out later in the week weather is).
Daily updates make this application unusable. They should not have bothered. There is absolutely no reason people should use this over free "Weather" app by microsoft.
I'm happy they've made a free version, but I am disapointed it's with the "lite" format.
The trial functionality in Windows Phone is awesome and helps make a cleaner Marketplace. It would be awesome if there was only one version of this app, and you can install the trial and have al lthe features of the above "lite" version but then pay to move up to the full version.
Here's a good read on the all the different ways to implement trial mode. http://blogs.msdn.com/b/cdnmobiledevs/archive/2012/01/25/winning-on-the-marketplace-trial-mode-the-art-of-the-upsell.aspx