AppAdvice App Of The Week For September 10, 2012
Every week, our staff will handpick an app from the past two weeks that we believe is a must-download for your iPhone or iPad. These apps will always be from various categories, but they are chosen because our own staff members love it and have been using them daily. So here are this week’s picks! Enjoy!
Weathercube
It is actually pretty amazing how many developers can put their own unique spin on something as simple as the weather. Meet Weathercube, an app that packs the weather information you need into a cute, oblong cube on your iPhone, with a very Clear-like interface.
There are no iOS chrome or buttons in Weathercube, so the app is entirely reliant on intuitive gestures, such as swipes and pinches. You can access the app settings by pinching out, and from there, you can add up to six cities. You can even change the color theme of the cube, as well as various measurement units. Exit by pinching in.
There are three different forecast views in Weathercube: Weekly, Daily, and Hourly (every three hours). You can switch between these views by swiping up or down to “pull” the cube down. Each cell in the Daily and Weekly views can display more information with a tap — the Daily can give you information for the morning, afternoon, and evening. Swiping left to right on the Daily forecast will also bring up information for the next three days, which is pretty handy. For current temperature and information, you’ll want to be in the Hourly view, however.
Despite the simplistic interface of Weathercube, the app does pack a lot of useful information, unlike other minimal weather apps. You can get the condition, temperature, wind speed and direction, precipitation, cloud cover, and humidity.
If you like to share the weather, you can pinch out to access the share screen, where you can send an image of the daily forecast to Twitter or Facebook.
Weathercube is gorgeous and definitely a fun and interesting approach to the weather. There are still a few kinks to work out, but the developers are on top of it. The app is still very polished for being a 1.0, and our staff has been enamored by it.
Don’t forget to check out my original review here.
Honorable Mention
Starmatic
Starmatic is a new camera app on the block. At first glance, it seems very similar to Instagram, but the focus here is quality over quantity (let’s face it — Instagram is plagued with “amateur food porn” and other pointless photos). Think of it as how Vimeo is to YouTube and 500px is to Flickr.
To use Starmatic, you’ll have to create an account, or you can sign in with your Facebook or Twitter account. Then you can find people to follow or invite them to join you.
You can snap new photos or import them from your Photo Library. Then you can apply a filter to the photo, though don’t expect the same kind of “hipster” filters in Instagram. Starmatic comes with Starmacolor film, which comes with 16 unique filters that have been developed with aid from iPhone photographers and Brownie enthusiasts. If you like what Starmatic has to offer, then you can also purchase the Starmachrome film, which has 10 more filters for softer and more subtle effects. If that sounds like your thing, then you can grab it for only $0.99 through in-app purchase.
To stay competitive with Instagram, Starmatic also has search and discovery tools to help you explore the community of quality iPhone photographers.
Our staff loves the well-designed interface of Starmatic, as it has definitely caught our eye. So if you’re tired of all the silly images that pollute Instagram, give Starmatic a try.
Check out our original article here.
For video coverage of these apps in action, don’t miss Robin’s AppAdvice Daily below!
