SPB is known for their excellent Windows Mobile applications, and here lately they’ve been working feverishly to bring out some really excellent Symbian applications, including SPBtv and SPB Puzzle. Today’s announcement brings SPB Weather to Symbian-powered smartphones with some really cool features. I’ve been testing it out on my Nokia N97, and it has completely replaced the Accuweather widget for me. Read on to find out why.
Features
SPB Weather for Symbian is a 4MB app installed, though you can easily put it on your memory card storage, so that’s not much of a concern. It doesn’t seem to take up much RAM on my N97, which is again a welcome change. You can setup a number of different cities to track, both by searching for the city name or by using your phone’s built-in GPS receiver.
This is the main view, showing today’s weather details, along with weather for the next several days. On touchscreen phones like my Nokia N97, you can simply swipe your finger across to switch to another city that you have added.
If you click on a certain day, you get more detailed information on the forecast for that entire day, including a breakdown of temperatures/conditions at several points through the day.
You’ll also notice the globe icon in the bottom toolbar. This is, by far, one of the coolest features of SPB Weather. Pressing this button takes you to the world view, with a 3D globe that you can grab and drag to find your desired location. There is also a hidden zoom bar on the right, so you can zoom in to get a closer look. Any cities that you have added will also be marked on this globe, which is convenient.
Another great aspect of this view is the number of layers you can apply to get more information. As you can see, there are several layers, including clouds, temperature, precipitation, and more. It’s really quite handy, and you can put this in motion with the Play button, as well.
One of my favorite parts of SPB Weather, though, and the reason this application has usurped Accuweather on my N97′s homescreen, is the homescreen widget. In the application, you can choose which city is shown on your homescreen, and then you actually get a full 4-day forecast, with highs, lows, and conditions. Also, since SPB Weather is a native application, it doesn’t use nearly as much RAM on the homescreen as Accuweather does, nor has it ever shown a ‘Loading’ message.
Conclusion
Although it’s a large install, SPB Weather runs smoothly on my Nokia N97, and its more informative homescreen widget earned it a permanent position on my N97, too. I really like the globe view, with its easy grab-and-drag interface and zooming capability. The different layers are helpful in providing me information about weather around the world.
Here’s a video demo of the application in action:
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You can purchase SPB Weather directly from SPB Software here, and there is also a free trial available, if you’d like to check it out first. SPB Weather is available for all S60 3rd Edition and S60 5th Edition smartphones.
We also have 5 license keys to giveaway to our readers, courtesy of SPB Software! Simply leave a comment on this post, letting us know at least one feature that you would like to see added to a future version of SPB Weather. We’ll leave the contest open until 7pm CST (GMT -6) Wednesday, December 16. Winners will be randomly chosen, and there are no geographical limitations (please do leave an email address when you comment so we can contact you easily).
A nice little feature would be a weather report. Similar to that of Psiloc World Traveler or WorldMate, I only use Psiloc for quick weather check-ups and the nice little report feature. So this could completely replace it for me. :)
Alerts for when a certain type of weather is forecast. For example if frost is forecast that an alert goes off telling you. You could link this to overnight temp
Maybe a nice addition for nautical types would be the addition of wave tables, making this the ideal for surfers, sailers, etc. Maybe even periodical weather updates and warnings if necessary with the period user defined.
I believe there should be a way to add other cities into the Widget…so it would show forecasts for multiple cities, refreshing ever 10 seconds or so.
I agree with baoiiee a weather report like in World traveler would be great.
But so far i like this great app/
I would love a licence, weather forecasts here are so important, they can save your life as the weather her can change so quickly. its almost minus 20 outside now.
I'd like to get an alert when inclimate weather is in your 'home' area. Say a Thunderstorm Watch or even better for my area (Houston) would be hurricane tracking.
Been waiting for a good weather app for my N86. Downloading trial now, so not sure if this app does this or not, but a homescreen plug-in showing todays forecast for the s60v3 phones would be great in my opinion.
I'd like to see more control over update schedule: not only 1/6/24 hours, but specifying exact times, eg. 6am, 5pm – it's better to know the forecast is up-to-date when you're about to hit the road.
Pick up location for forecast automatically from cell-id and/or GPS location, so that weather tracks current location.
This is a fantastic app! It is so much better than the default AccuWeather app that came with my N97. The frustrations I have had with that version have been many and I am sure shared by others. I now have a weather app that is truly useful and pleasant.
What would I change? Four things come to mind:
1. Add the ability to import our favorite locations from either Nokia Maps or Google Maps. Doing so would allow us to have a more personalized weather map and would help those that are in remote areas not found in the default cities (like Big Bear Lake, CA).
2. For the cities add the state (if U.S.) or province or county as many cities have the same name in the U.S. and other countries.
3. Add international airports so we can see the weather for either our departure or location.
4. Add the ability to zoom on the globe (unless it is already there and I can't see it). An integration with Nokia Maps or Google Maps could help with this as well.
Two features i would like to see are:
-automatically show local weather on homescreen based on where i am at the moment
and
-weather warnings, like storms and all that stuff.
Looks like a nice app though. Going to try it now.
I want it to auto tweet the temperature everyday. Also if it can refer to a database and tell me what the weather was on this day last year, and the year before that.
Integrate with Handy shell to be able to show this instead of Handy weather? I guess that ball's not really SPB's side though, sigh… :(
Hi, thanks for letting us know about this beautiful app! This is definitely way better than accuweather app. One thing i'm missing at this app is that i'd like personalisation of home screen. Like position, background image and etc. Apart from that, i loved trying this app on my e71
Would like to see little real-time snapshots of weather in the chosen city with an interesting landmark.
This app seems really interesting. I'm going to try it on my Nokia E72 (S60) and of course I'd love to win a license. :)
There's a feature I'd like to have – it might appear strange to some but it would be useful at least here in Lisbon. We don't usually get a lot of rain but I wouldn't mind having some sort of “Rainy tomorrow” alarm that would make me realize that I'll have to take my umbrella tomorrow. You can get that from the icons of course but we often get used to it and don't really scan them every day.
Looks awsome! How about speech integration and or daily text with “today's local forecast” with the ability to sign up for multiple txt updates w local weather. LEM617@gmail.com
I don't think it does, but Psiloc World Traveler has an option to show today's weather as a to-do note on the standby. It's also free :)
Spoken report (text to specch) and TXTed weather update sign up. I would sign up for that, to receive weather alerts when needed and weather reports once daily at 9 AM for 3 cities that I care about. LEM617@ovi.com
I'd like to be able to mention the current forecast to my Twitter followers or Facebook friends through a status update / tweet.
I think a Rotation Cities Feature could be added to the homescreen widget. Also a Temperature Chart could be really interesting
What I'd like to see in a future version is more of a fun kind. When I check the weather ist mostly in the morning before leaving the house. I love stupid and totally useless facts, so why not add something like “whats up in the world” to get a fact about whats the weather like in random city, or coldest or hottest place on earth this day, or maybe some statistics about the wheater somewhere. I looove having such facts on mind when leaving the house, because you talk about the weather so much all over tha day!
Getting me the Demo of this bad ass app now, looks damn great!!
Love you SG ;)
I think it could trace a weather “timeline” using a previusly made route for a trip, using for exemple Google maps. This way you could trace your trip in a map software, indicating the route (cities) you will be passing by and “exporting it to SPB weather.
It would be realy cool to know all weather you will be facing in your trip, right?
Nice app. Also visually entertaining. Wish the would add support for Umlaut like ü, ä, ö.
i was using handy weather, switched to forecaweather for the simple fact that handy weather while a very good app at giving hourly forcasts, daily forcasts, weekly forcasts, for current condtions here in edmonton, alberta, canada, only gives temperature. Nothing about the wind, conditions, etc which is not very helpful. Especially considering it's been below -40C the last 5 days. What would be great is a feature which would give an alert when weather warnings are issued (ie tornados, winter storms, etc)
I'd like more customisation available for the widget on my n97 homescreen… so I can chose whether to have a 4 day forecast, or a more detailed current day forecast showing.
I would like to have the function to get the weather forecast based on the GPS in my Nokia 5800th It can be associated with the closest major city.
I want widget/active standby support for my e72!
It is definitely the best weather app till date.
You can't even compare it to widget weather apps. Native ones are so much better.
I would like to see a screen notification for other phones like 5800. It can be done as a static window on a home screen like for example LonelyCatGames music player. Also weather icon themes would be nice.
It most definitely needs auto updating on the N97 home screen widget and an hour by hour breakdown, like on AccuWeather. If I'm nipping to the shops at lunch I like to know if it's expected to rain within the next hour or so, you never can tell where I live :-)
This is a sweet app! I love it already, having used it on my previous WinMo device. Perhaps one feature for a future release could be to enable selection of weather source (as in WinMo version). This would allow a user to choose a local weather source to use for current conditions and forecasts.
Grat weather app.. In Mexcio works great. Great pictures ando accurate information.
I'd like to suggest the ability to show multiple locations on the homescreen in place of just 1 location across a 4 day period.
How about severe weather alerts! This app looks better than my Handy Weather that only shows high temps on the homescreen.
It really needs moon phase and sunrise sunset times… For us hunters and fisherpeople…
This is actually a possibility in the app – when you go to add a city, you can either search their built-in database, or use your phone's GPS.
Really nice Application. I try now the trial its wonderfull. I would like see maps from continents, additionally to world map. So you can just take whole europe. i also would like see screen notification for 5800xm.
Ricky, How did you get the homescreen widget to show up? I am using it on the N97 Mini, but the SPB Weather widget doesn't show up in the available widgets. Do you have to register the app to get access to the widget?
i registered my copy, but i also cannot find the widget.
Ricky, How did you get the homescreen widget to show up? I am using it on the N97 Mini, but the SPB Weather widget doesn't show up in the available widgets. Do you have to register the app to get access to the widget?
i registered my copy, but i also cannot find the widget.