Conditions Provides A Simple And Elegant Way To Get The Weather On Your iPhone
Conditions — Beautiful Weather Info on the Go! ($0.99) by Rubber Duck Software is the epitome of simple weather apps for your iPhone.
It seems that the latest trend in the App Store is — you guessed it — weather apps. They’re like a dime a dozen now, and you can’t throw a rock into the App Store and not hit a weather app. It’s also incredibly difficult to find the single, perfect weather app, because there are just so many options, and they do some things better than others.
Personally, I have been using Haze and Today Weather as my go-to weather apps as of late. I still give the good ol’ Solar Weather a run every now and then as well. Yeah, as I wrote that out, I realize I may have too many weather apps on my iPhone. But that’s alright, isn’t it? Anyway, there’s a new one I’m going to throw in the mix today: Conditions – Beautiful Weather on the Go! from Rubber Duck Software.
This is basically as simple as it gets. The app will launch and ask for your location. Give it permission, and it will quickly fetch the weather data for your current position. You will see an icon that will represent the current weather condition: a sun for clear and sunny, maybe a cloud for overcast, and a raincloud if it’s raining — you get the idea. It will also tell you the condition in text, so it’s quite clear (if the icon wasn’t enough for you).
Conditions will also reveal the current temperature, which is fairly accurate. As of this writing, Conditions was only one degree off from the stock Weather app.
If you want to plan ahead, Conditions will also have a five day forecast at the bottom. You will get the highs for today, and the next four days, along with an icon to represent the weather condition that day. If you just want to focus on the now, just tap anywhere on the screen to hide the five-day forecast. Minimalism is the key part of this app, and it’s done in quite an elegant fashion.
The background color will also change depending on the time you check the weather. During the day, it will be white, and at night, it will be black. This makes it easy to check the weather without blinding yourself in the dark, which is always appreciated.
Want to refresh the data to make sure you’re current with the weather? Conditions has a pull-to-refresh gesture built-in, so if you pull the screen down, you’ll reveal a small little thermometer icon. Release when you see it, and the data will update. This is great if you have experienced apps that just don’t seem to refresh as often as you’d want it to, and have always wanted a manual way to update the information you’re seeing.
There is only one setting for Conditions, and it’s found in Settings.app. This is to determine the units used in the app, which you can set to Fahrenheit, Celsius, or Automatic.
I’m enjoying Conditions because it’s so simple. Nothing fancy, just the current weather and nothing more. If you are looking for multiple locations at once, I’d recommend Today Weather. If you want design that pushes the boundaries of the norm, then I’d recommend Haze or Solar. But if you just want a simple app for knowing the weather right now, then Conditions is for you.
I kind of wish that Conditions allowed you to save multiple locations though, because I’m the kind of person that likes to plan ahead for where I’m going to. I understand that it may detract from the simplistic nature of the app, but it would definitely be nice to see it implemented somehow.
Still, I recommend checking out Conditions if you’re looking for something beautiful and simple. You can get it for $0.99 in the App Store for your iPhone.