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I cannot begin to say how much IBM ruined Weather Underground. The app was _perfect_! I was thrilled to pay for it. Now it's probably the worst app on my phone

I cannot begin to say how much IBM ruined Weather Underground. The app was _perfect_! I was thrilled to pay for it. Now it's probably the worst app on my phone and I should just delete it. It takes forever to start, more than half the time it loads no data, and even if it is loaded the UI redesign has made the whole thing slow and useless. Would love suggestions for another app on Android.

sauwan 7y ago
Totally agree. I find I have to load it, close and reopen the app about 95% of the time. Hugely bummed these two apps are going into the wastebin. Certainly leaves a huge void for us Android users.
- pergadad 7y ago
  I've been using this one since underground stopped being useful. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.weather https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.... Sadly at some point they weren't able to pay for the dark sky API anymore and since then the quality of forecasts is a bit less convincing. I'm still rather shocked by the low reviews though, for me it works well and I love that you can add a dozen cities and see the forecast.
  - Marsymars 7y ago
    That app also changed ownership a couple years ago - it's still functional, but I don't think can be downloaded if you don't already have it.
  - onychomys 7y ago
    Just a heads-up, that link is broken.
    - frosted-flakes 7y ago
      No it's not. It's only available if you bought it before it changed hands and providers, as I did. Supposedly they're still fixing bugs from the new weather provider before it's made public, but it hasn't been updated in ten months. I doubt it will be improved anymore, and I don't really use it much since the new provider is mediocre at best.
minimalist 7y ago
Restating a comment from about a year ago[0]: If you are in the United States, nothing beats getting the forecast straight from the horses mouth (NWS that is). Some companies are notorious for producing 30+ day forecasts, which can't have any meaningful levels of skill. NOAA/NWS should just create their own mobile application. I use Wx[1], which parses NWS data directly and can be found on f-droid[2] and g---le play. Granted, Wx doesn't follow Material Design for Android in the slightest, but I like it that way because it's very information-dense, snappy, and light (unlike r--ct "native" and other JS toolkits out there). [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19775291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19775291 [1]: https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx [2]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/
- kingbirdy 7y ago
  Why do you feel the need to censor the words Google and React?
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - dbuder 7y ago
    Because big corp can die in a grease fire or pay us for our analysis.
- reaperducer 7y ago
  "If you are in a densely-populated area of the United States..." Your blanket statement doesn't always hold. This is more accurate.
  - deleted 7y ago
    [deleted]
  - minimalist 7y ago
    I'm not sure, NWS does a good job of interpolating for regions without a weather station, even taking into account coastal effects and elevation. In my experience (in a rural, montane environment) it works pretty well if you specify your coordinates, not just the zipcode. Have there any been any comparisons of the commercial services to NWS? That would be an interesting casual study. Edit: There are some additional interesting comments downthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22740480 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22740480
kevin_thibedeau 7y ago
Use the native Android weather app hidden in the widgets.
drno123 7y ago
I really like Windy
kyledrake 7y ago
The reviews for the app are pretty amazing. It went from one of the highest rated weather apps to 2.5 stars in a matter of days: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wunderground.android.weather&hl=en_US&showAllReviews=true https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wundergrou...
j-james 7y ago
I use Geometric Weather [1]. It's beautifully designed, has an excellent selection of widgets, and is open source. You can even set your lock screen to be a live wallpaper of the current weather. [1] https://github.com/WangDaYeeeeee/GeometricWeather/ https://github.com/WangDaYeeeeee/GeometricWeather/
k2enemy 7y ago
I agree. I haven't found anything that compares to the old Weather Underground app's plot of weather data. It was such a brilliant way to convey so much data quickly and clearly. After finding no substitutes, I started making my own weather app (for my own private use) this week to duplicate that functionality. But of course I was using the Dark Sky API which will now get shut down. I just can't win this one!
sunflowerfly 7y ago
I would gladly pay money for a weather app that was nothing but their line graph. It was so simple and clean. I often took screenshots and shared with friends. The new version is useless, but I cannot find a replacement.

sauwan 7y ago

Totally agree. I find I have to load it, close and reopen the app about 95% of the time. Hugely bummed these two apps are going into the wastebin. Certainly leaves a huge void for us Android users.

pergadad 7y ago
I've been using this one since underground stopped being useful. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.weather https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.... Sadly at some point they weren't able to pay for the dark sky API anymore and since then the quality of forecasts is a bit less convincing. I'm still rather shocked by the low reviews though, for me it works well and I love that you can add a dozen cities and see the forecast.
- Marsymars 7y ago
  That app also changed ownership a couple years ago - it's still functional, but I don't think can be downloaded if you don't already have it.
- onychomys 7y ago
  Just a heads-up, that link is broken.
  - frosted-flakes 7y ago
    No it's not. It's only available if you bought it before it changed hands and providers, as I did. Supposedly they're still fixing bugs from the new weather provider before it's made public, but it hasn't been updated in ten months. I doubt it will be improved anymore, and I don't really use it much since the new provider is mediocre at best.

minimalist 7y ago

Restating a comment from about a year ago[0]: If you are in the United States, nothing beats getting the forecast straight from the horses mouth (NWS that is). Some companies are notorious for producing 30+ day forecasts, which can't have any meaningful levels of skill. NOAA/NWS should just create their own mobile application. I use Wx[1], which parses NWS data directly and can be found on f-droid[2] and g---le play. Granted, Wx doesn't follow Material Design for Android in the slightest, but I like it that way because it's very information-dense, snappy, and light (unlike r--ct "native" and other JS toolkits out there). [0]: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19775291 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=19775291 [1]: https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx https://gitlab.com/joshua.tee/wx [2]: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/ https://f-droid.org/en/packages/joshuatee.wx/

kingbirdy 7y ago
Why do you feel the need to censor the words Google and React?
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- dbuder 7y ago
  Because big corp can die in a grease fire or pay us for our analysis.
reaperducer 7y ago
"If you are in a densely-populated area of the United States..." Your blanket statement doesn't always hold. This is more accurate.
- deleted 7y ago
  [deleted]
- minimalist 7y ago
  I'm not sure, NWS does a good job of interpolating for regions without a weather station, even taking into account coastal effects and elevation. In my experience (in a rural, montane environment) it works pretty well if you specify your coordinates, not just the zipcode. Have there any been any comparisons of the commercial services to NWS? That would be an interesting casual study. Edit: There are some additional interesting comments downthread: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22740480 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=22740480

kevin_thibedeau 7y ago

Use the native Android weather app hidden in the widgets.

drno123 7y ago

I really like Windy

kyledrake 7y ago

The reviews for the app are pretty amazing. It went from one of the highest rated weather apps to 2.5 stars in a matter of days: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wunderground.android.weather&hl=en_US&showAllReviews=true https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.wundergrou...

j-james 7y ago

I use Geometric Weather [1]. It's beautifully designed, has an excellent selection of widgets, and is open source. You can even set your lock screen to be a live wallpaper of the current weather. [1] https://github.com/WangDaYeeeeee/GeometricWeather/ https://github.com/WangDaYeeeeee/GeometricWeather/

k2enemy 7y ago

I agree. I haven't found anything that compares to the old Weather Underground app's plot of weather data. It was such a brilliant way to convey so much data quickly and clearly. After finding no substitutes, I started making my own weather app (for my own private use) this week to duplicate that functionality. But of course I was using the Dark Sky API which will now get shut down. I just can't win this one!

sunflowerfly 7y ago

I would gladly pay money for a weather app that was nothing but their line graph. It was so simple and clean. I often took screenshots and shared with friends. The new version is useless, but I cannot find a replacement.