The Weather Channel For iPad Gets A Visual Revamp, But Is That Enough?
October 20, 2011
Having a rough history, The Weather Channel app for iPad gets a completely new design as the company hopes to revive confidence in its viewers.
TWC's new UI appears to have been strongly influenced from more popular iOS weather apps, such as Weather HD and Living Earth HD.
The weather pane now consists of a horizon photo, animated on iPad 2, generally depicting the current conditions with the city and temp being displayed towards the top and more specific details being shown across the bottom. Swipe left or right to navigate those cities you've marked as a favorite.
Performing a single tap will bring up the forecast and navigation menu. As before, swipe left or right on the forecast gallery to view more days. Single tap on a day to open or close the details pane.
As you would have likely guessed, the maps and radar section has also been enhanced visually, zooming out to a 3-D globe and offering satellite view for ground level terrain. Panning and zooming seem sluggish, but that has been the case far before this version.
The updated news section seems efficient, provided in a grid-like layout with both the regular TWC news and their latest Twitter integration rolled together. Nevertheless, it just seems tacky to me. I doubt I'll ever use it.
Not providing any expanded content, I can't say I'm against the mission control look that was chosen for the videos section. The three main videos, including your local region forecast, are displayed across the top and previews of the News, Forecast, and On TV lists are shown along the lower half.
Before anyone chooses to make comments on why anyone would still use this app, I want to admit that I stick with The Weather Channel apps as a main source of weather because of the amount and accuracy of information, especially the radar, which most other iOS weather apps lack. However, while I do find the appearance greatly improved, I am still extremely disappointed in the lack of effort to optimize the actual code.
The Weather Channel for iPad is compatible with iOS 4.2 or later, and available in the App Store as a free download.
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