Growing up I have always had this vision that if the future could be predicted, the world would be a really be a better place. But then, knowing future predictions, would that be a good thing? Well, it could be good or bad. Either way, it would be a great thing to experience. There could be a lot of positives from being able to predict the future, as well as negatives.
Technological advancements have given us a glimpse of how predicting the future can be used positively. One of the areas this technology has been useful is in; "Weather Forecasting". In this article, I'll be talking about weather forecasting. Not really about the science though. Instead, I'll be talking about an app that gives us access to weather forecasts.
Forecastie; A simple, opensource weather app for Android.
The project I'll be reviewing in this article is Forecastie. From the name or title of the app, you should have an insight into what it is(was) designed for. And that is; to provide information about weather forecasts (as I already stated in my introduction).
The app is quite amazing. I've used it for several days now. And it has been really efficient. I've been able to organize my daily movements based on the weather information supplied. And this was why a weather app became really necessary for me. A weather app came pre-installed in my device. However, I just had the need to explore other options. I checked out several weather apps, and Forecastie stood out amongst the pack.
So basically, what I would be doing in this article is; reviewing Forecastie, and I'll be comparing it to my stock weather app.
Let's get into the review in details.
Review of Forecastie.
To make my review as interesting a concise as I'd like, I would be working around the list of features graciously provided by the project owner.
Here's the list of the app's features (as provided by the project owner here);
- Simple design
- Detailed 5-day forecast
- Multiple units
- Works with any city in the world
- Offline functionality
The app is quite a simple app, with respect to the number of features on the list above. Since there aren't lots of features on the list, I'll talk about everything on it.
Simple Design.
This feature is basically about how the app is designed. And this is basically related to the app's UI. As I have said in my introduction, Forecastie is quite a simple app, so I expected it to have a simple UI. Now, having a simple design or UI doesn't mean that it looks bad. In fact, the UI of Forecastie is impressive. I liked the blue and white colour accents that were used. The fonts weren't bad either. All the elements on the screen really accentuate themselves. So yea, the UI of Forecastie is amazing. It was even more amazing when I discovered that there were theme options.
There are several theme options on Forecastie. They are;
- Fresh
- Classic
- Fresh dark
- Fresh black
- Classic dark
- Classic black
I checked out all the themes, and they all looked nice. I'm quite fond or dark interfaces and dark themes alike. But in this case, I sort of liked the default theme(Fresh). So that's what I'm using at the moment.
The UI of my stock weather app isn't bad either. It looks quite cool. The elements on the screen are neatly arranged. If I had to choose which app had a better UI, it would be quite a task, because both of them look really great. But I sort of liked the UI of Forecastie more. It looked more appealing to me than that of my stock weather app.
Detailed 5 day forecast.
Being able to get weather forecasts for only a day, made me really productive. Now imagine my level of productivity with weather forecasts for the next five days. I guess you can't really imagine though.
Forecastie gives me access to a detailed 5-day weather forecast. And for my line of work, it is very important. Being privy with such information, I'm able to plan my movements and activities for the day. And that's basically one of the main benefits of weather forecasting.
In terms of this feature, Forecastie is the champ. My stock weather app only provides weather forecasts for that day only. I couldn't even check out the weather forecast for the next day. It was quite appalling, and perhaps the reason I sought out other alternative weather apps.
Multiple units.
Aside from providing information about the weather, there are certain other measurements going on in the background. Without looking closely, you'll see temperature, wind, pressure and humidity measurements. Now, each of these measurements have their own units. On Forecastie, it is possible to modify those measurements to your own taste. I was okay with the default measurement units that came with the app. I only had to change the temperature unit from Celsius to Kelvin. And that's because I'm a physicist, already used to that measurement unit.
To be concise, here are the measurement units options you can tweak;
- Temperature
- Length
- Speed
- Pressure
So you can modify any of these units as you please.
My stock weather app displays certain measurements(and their units). But there's no option to modify the measurement units.
Works with any city in the world
You can check out weather forecasts of any city in the world. I really don't do this though. I only do when I'm bored. But, it could be quite an important feature when I'm making a trip to another destination. Knowing the weather forecasts of other locations even before making a trip, might save me a whole load of stress and inconvenience.
This is also possible on my stock weather app.
Offline functionality.
Forecastie ideally works best with an internet connection. You get weather forecasts in real-time. That is, as soon as there is a change in the forecast, it is updated almost instantly. However, Forecastie also thrives when there is no internet connection. You'll still get weather Forecasts, but not exactly real-time.
Conclusion.
Forecastie is an amazing project. It has become quite an indispensable app for me, and I'm glad I found it. From my review, you can see that the features are nice, and the app is all-around user-friendly. My stock weather app isn't so bad, but when compared with Forecastie, it didn't measure up.
This is my first app review. I hope you enjoyed it.
Links
Project repository: https://github.com/martykan/forecastie
App download link: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.casticalabs.forecastie
Resources
I wrote this article based on my experience on the app. The images used are screenshots on my device. Other images used have their source links just below them.