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7 of the Most Popular Weather Apps for your Mac

Your Mac comes prepared with its own widget for you to check the weather, and it works just fine, but sometimes you want something more accurate, with more features, or perhaps that works through your menu bar or your desktop instead of in your widgets.

Today we are presenting you some of the most popular weather apps available for your Mac. These will range from simple menu bar apps to real pieces of art with animations and other visual flair. Take a look!

Weather+

Weather+ is a beautiful app that can give you the weather along with an animation of the current forecast, and you can throw it into full screen to get the forecast for the next 5 days along with a big clock. You also get a few details like wind direction and speed, along with humidity and all those things that nobody really understands.

Weather+ is one of the most popular weather apps on the Mac App Store, for its gorgeous design and its informative weather animations, but I find it to be too distracting to check often. I prefer very much a simpler menu bar app than an app I have to open to check constantly.

Price: $2.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: International Travel Weather Calculator

WeatherEye

WeatherEye is a free alternative to apps like Weather+, and it uses the information of The Weather Network. Along with the app, you get a small menu bar icon that displays the current temperature on a small box. In the main menu you get a not-so-pretty and ad-filled interface where you can see a few days’ worth of forecasts and the other stats like humidity and wind.

Not the best option out there, but if what you are looking for is a conventional, free weather app and you don’t care about simlicity or design, this is a decent alternative.

Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: The Weather Network

Weather HD

Weather HD is similar to Weather+ in that it relies on animations and cool graphics to get your attention. I do, however, like this one more than Weather+ because the animations are just amazing. It allows you to have multiple cities in your configuration and it comes with a useful menu bar icon.

Of course, a beautiful design work comes with a price. If you are willing to pay $4 for a weather app, you won’t regret buying this one. It goes along with the Mac theme very well and it is a pleasure to use. Despite the price, this might be the most pretty option out there.

Price: $3.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Vimov

MachWeather

MachWeather is a free and very simple menu bar weather app that lets you check on the local temperature without having to go into any confusing menus. It just always sits there on your menu bar displaying the current conditions, such as the temperature and the cloud conditions, along with a small icon of the current weather.

While it is a free app and it works very well, I find it to be a bit unsightly. I don’t know why, the icons somehow seem to be off and too much info is displayed on the menu bar. I like simplicity, which is what the next app has.

Price: Free
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later.
Developer: Mach Software Design

Menu Weather

MenuWeather is very similar to MachWeather in that it only runs in the menu bar. I use the Lite version of MenuWeather and I have no need for any other weather app, ever. It has beautiful themes that let you use different types of icons, and it displays all the necessary information on a very simple way.

I’ve heard bad things about the paid version, but I’m not sure why anyone would need anything more than the Lite version offers. It’s a very simple and decent looking app, and it’s free!

Price: Free / $2.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later
Developer: Evan Coleman

Weather Dock

Weather Dock is another app that features full-screen animations to let you know the weather, but it does so in a cartoon-ish way that makes it feel pleasant to use. It has basic colors and just a few things on the screen while displaying the weather, so it’s not confusing at all. It will also display the time, date and it even has an alarm feature. Even the icon on the dock displays useful info on the weather.

It might not be as pretty or artsy as WeatherHD or Weather+, but this is a cheaper and less pretentious alternative to those. It has all the features that they do and more, so it’s a very competitive choice.

Price: $0.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6 or later
Developer: Presselite

Live Dock Weather

Live Dock Weather also displays the temperature with a useful icon on the dock, and uses that as its gimmick. When you click the icon, a window is displayed showing the current conditions with all the details, a sidebar with the hour-by-hour forecast and on the bottom the forecast for the next seven days. There’s also a menu bar icon that displays a small window with the current weather and allows you to change a few settings.

It works differently than Weather Dock in that Weather Dock works full screen, but this one just displays a small window. This is also less simple, it has more features and displays way too many things in one window. It’s a good app, just not my favorite.

Price: $1.99
Requires: Mac OS X 10.6.6 or later
Developer: Raj Kumar Shaw

Conclusion

The weather app market is a big one. Just go into the Mac App Store and search for the weather category and you’ll be shown about 50 of them. Today we showed the most popular options and tried to break them down into the best menu-bar options and the best full-screen animation options.

If you like the animation ones (I don’t), I would suggest that you spend the $4 dollars for Weather HD. It’s beautiful and it works well. If you are looking for a free alternative that just tells you the weather straight up, I would suggest you try the free Menu Weather and MachWeather.

Which weather app do you use? What are your favorite features from it?

Weekly Poll: Will You Buy Lion Right Away?

Will You Buy Lion Right Away?survey software

At this point, you probably know all about the newest update to Apple’s legendary operating system: OS X Lion. It has over 250 new features, including new gestures, full-screen apps, Mission Control, Launchpad and all kinds of other goodies that I just can’t wait to get my hands on.

The demos at WWDC had us all drooling over this new toy and we learned that it will hit the Mac App Store in July for a mere $29.99! This marks a serious shift in the way that Apple does business. Never before have they released a major operating system update as a download-only product. At over 4GB, many are nervous about the logistics of this affair. It’s easy to imagine Apple forums filling up on launch day with stories from frustrated users.

Today we want to know whether or not you will purchase and download Lion right away. Will you hit the Mac App Store as soon as possible on launch day or wait a while to see how things work out for early adopters before jumping on the bandwagon? Vote in the poll and leave a comment below with your thoughts.

Boxee: The Death Of Front Row

This review should, in hindsight, be more of an obituary. As you are probably aware, Apple is planning to ditch Front Row from its latest release of Mac OS X, Lion. Why is anyone’s guess, but the fact that the last update for it was released in November 2009, I think we could all see it coming.

In comparison to other applications, Front Row is very basic and only offers a limited number of functions. Apple may want people to switch to the Apple TV, a small digital media receiver which did borrow heavily from Front Row, or maybe it ditched Front Row because of the rise of other, third-party media applications.

Boxee is one of these. Although the whole app and its interface had larger TVs in mind, it can still be used on desktops without too much trouble. Boxee has been around for a little while now – the public beta was released in January 2010 – however the application is still in its beta stage of development. It does boast a neat interface and some handy in-built features so even if you don’t have a large TV, you can still gain some use out of it on your computer.

Boxee is, in my opinion, the final nail in the coffin for Front Row. Read on to find out why.

Introduction

Boxee is a free HTPC (Home Theater PC) application available for Mac, Windows and Linux. As mentioned above, the application is still in public beta, but don’t be put off by this; the application does have a wide range of features and is extremely stable. Before you can start using Boxee, you need to sign up for a free account via their website and download the program. Once you get everything up and running, you are greeted by the main screen.

The Boxee main screen

Here you have the option of viewing your photos, listening to your music, watching your movies or TV shows and running any apps that are installed via Boxee (more on these later). Boxee syncs with your Photos folder, so any photos in iPhoto or Aperture will show up, as well as your iTunes folder, meaning that you can play all your music from iTunes in Boxee as well.

Any songs on iTunes will automatically show up in Boxee

Features

Boxee has a number of features that rank it highly in terms of media centers and puts it years ahead of Front Row, where features were quite limited. Across the whole app, the interface is sleek and polished and does not look out of place, even though the app is still in beta. You can even download a remote for iOS, meaning that as long as both devices are on the same WiFi network, you can control it using your iPhone, iPad or iPod Touch. Third-party applications are also available for Android and Palm.

Movies and TV Shows

Boxee supports almost all known video formats and you can either watch movies via a number of Internet sources (such as Netflix) or any that are stored on your computer. Boxee will download the metadata for both movies and TV shows off the internet and categorize them by title or, in the case of TV shows, the series and season number.

A list of movies in Boxee from online sources

As with movies, there is a large built-in library of TV shows sourced from online streaming services, meaning you don’t need to search around the net to find what you want to watch. Bear in mind, though, that due to copyright restrictions certain TV shows might not be available to watch in other countries (e.g. programs from BBC iPlayer and 4oD will not play outside the United Kingdom due to licensing laws).

An episode of the TV show "The Inbetweeners" ready to be streamed from the Internet in Boxee

Boxee cannot play any DRM (Digital Rights Management) protected files (e.g. purchased songs or TV shows off iTunes). Also, in the case of a TV series, if you are missing any episodes, Boxee will attempt to find the missing episode from the Internet. This sounds great, but can be a bit hit-and-miss at times.

Applications

Boxee supports a wide range of plug-ins (called applications in the program) which can source multimedia from other sources. For example Vevo (music videos) or Mubi (foreign cinema) are a couple of the popular choices that help justify the need to never really have to leave the app if you want to watch something else.

The list of available apps for Boxee

Boxee Social

Boxee promises to be a social media center, and you can manage all your plug-ins (i.e. any applications you’ve downloaded) as well as your social networks through the account portal on the website.

You can manage all your social networks on Boxee via your account online

If you follow any friends on Boxee, you can see what they have been watching or listening to as well as publicly rate and recommend any content to your friends. The app also supports some third-party social networking sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr and FriendFeed.

Practicality

Although Boxee is a very useful application it is, in my opinion, more suited for larger screens and media servers (such as the Mac Mini) than notebooks and desktop computers. The interface that Boxee uses is known as a 10-foot UI, which is aimed at larger screens.

Boxee is, in my opinion, more suited to larger screens

Having said that, you can install Boxee onto your Apple TV (only first-generation though), offering far more features than the default Apple offering. If you’re got a spare $199 knocking about, you can also purchase a Boxee Box, which comes with Boxee installed, and use it as your main media center. On a laptop or desktop computer, though, all the hard work that has gone into this wonderful application is unfortunately wasted slightly.

Conclusion

Boxee adds a far greater dimension to your media and for the grand price of nothing is excellent value for money. The app is very customizable and supports a wide range of different media formats, so it will work with any type of media.

Boxee will certainly meet and exceed the needs of die-hard Front Row fans and is an example of a well-developed, intuitive and useful program. Bring on the full version!

iOS 5 jailbreak offers third-party Notification Center widgets

Jailbreakers have already cracked iOS 5’s Notification Center widgets, according to 9to5Mac. Notification screen widgets are little apps — or widgets — that run in the new Notifications Center in iOS 5. iOS 5 will ship with two widgets, stocks and weather. However, as usual, the jailbreak community wants to push things forward faster than Apple does, and they’ve already come out with a host of third-party widgets.

MacStories has an excellent roundup of some of those custom Notification Center widgets but, as always, if you want to use them you’ll need to jailbreak your iPhone. One of my favorites is SpringPrefs (shown at right), which shows you details about your iOS system information, including the amount of free RAM, your Wi-Fi and Data IP addresses, and your firmware number.

iOS 5 jailbreak offers third-party Notification Center widgets originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 23:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Ask TUAW: shuffle by album and AirPlay from iOS, plus lots of iCloud questions

Welcome to Ask TUAW, our weekly (mostly) question-and-answer column. This week we’re again hitting a ton of questions about iCloud and iOS 5.

By the way, we can never have too many questions. You can’t have a Q&A column without the Q, so please go to the comments of this post and ask away. Believe it or not, we’ve had a little bit of a drought of questions, so now’s your chance to get them answered! If you prefer, instead of asking questions in the comments, you can also email your questions directly to ask [at] tuaw.com, or simply ping us on Twitter.

For our first question, Guillaume asks:

Does the Music (née iPod) app in iOS 5 have a “shuffle by album” feature, rather than just “shuffle by song” like currently? On my old first generation iPod nano, or in iTunes, I can play albums at random. This is not possible on my iPhone. I can only play songs at random, and it doesn’t make for a very pleasant experience if you jump into the middle of a classical concerto and then to a song from a rock concert.

Continue reading Ask TUAW: shuffle by album and AirPlay from iOS, plus lots of iCloud questions

Ask TUAW: shuffle by album and AirPlay from iOS, plus lots of iCloud questions originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 22:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Most common iOS passcodes discovered by developer

We’re going to guess your passcode, the set of four numbers you use to get into your iPhone when you unlock it. Ready? Is it 1234? 0000? 1998?

If it’s any of those, you may want to change it. A developer named Daniel Amitay runs an app called Big Brother Camera Security that uses its own in-app lockscreen, and he’s anonymously been tracking the numbers used there. Thinking that the numbers chosen for that lockscreen are probably similar to the main iPhone lockscreen, he’s released some information about what people use, shining some light on what are probably the most common four-digit iPhone lock codes.

It’s pretty fascinating — the easy ones to remember like 1234 and 0000 are the most common choices (just like 123456 and “password” are the most common real passwords), and there’s a real trend of using actual years for the password, perhaps the first year you bought the iPhone or created the code. And the numbers were surprisingly similar — 15% of all passcode sets monitored were represented by just 10 different passcodes, which means that if a hacker punches just 10 codes in and yours happened to be one of those, it’s game over for your security.

In other words, if you’re really concerned about locking someone out, “1980” isn’t going to cut it any more.

[via BGR]

Most common iOS passcodes discovered by developer originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 21:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WWDC Interview: Push IO

TUAW and MacTech Magazine teamed up to speak to developers at WWDC 2011 about the keynote announcements and how Apple’s new technologies will help them and their customers. We’ll bring you those videos here, MacTech.com and MacNews.com. Also, check out the free trial subscription offer for MacTech Magazine here.

Victor Agreda, Jr. (Editor-in-Chief, The Unofficial Apple Weblog) interviews Joe Pezzillo of Push IO at WWDC 2011. Joe was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.

WWDC Interview: Push IO originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 20:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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BBC reporters about to start broadcasting live using only an iPhone and 3G service

Within the next month, the BBC is set to roll out an iOS app that will allow field reporters to broadcast live from their iPhone using nothing but the 3G service to carry the data transmission, an article from Journalism.co.uk states.

The app will also allow BBC field reporters to file still photos, video and audio directly into the BBC content management system from any iPhone or iPad.

As Journalism.co.uk points out, the ability to broadcast right from an iPhone would mean that reporters could no longer have to carry cumbersome satellite or codex equipment. Martin Turner, BBC’s head of operations for newsgathering, told Journalism.co.uk, “Reporters have been using smartphones for a while now, but it was never good quality. You might do it when there was a really important story. Now it is beginning to be a realistic possibility to use iPhones and other devices for live reporting, and in the end, if you’ve got someone on the scene then you want to be able to use them. That capability is a really important one.”

BBC reporters about to start broadcasting live using only an iPhone and 3G service originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 19:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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iPad rigged up with 3D screen in Taiwan

Display Taiwan 2011 is going on in Taiwan this week, and at a booth for a company called CPT, there’s a device on display that looks very much like an iPad (though with the actual Apple logos and identifying information covered up) that’s been Frankenstein-ed together with what appears to be a 3D display. You can see the device in the video below thanks to YouTubers minipcpro.

They call this an iPad 3 prototype, but I don’t think it’s that — my guess is that this Taiwanese company just either opened up an actual iPad, or came across some iPad parts, and inserted their own display in the device. It’s more a proof of concept than anything else. All you see running is that photo app, not a full version of iOS.

Plus, it seems unlikely that we’d ever see 3D like this implemented in an Apple device, much less something that required glasses like that. Still, it’s wild to see a completely different display show up in an iPad wrapping like this.

[via BGR]

iPad rigged up with 3D screen in Taiwan originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Pandora Media offering IPO tomorrow

Music service Pandora is set to introduce its stock to the public tomorrow, becoming one more in a series of social networking and online service companies going with an IPO. Pandora isn’t specifically an iOS company, of course, given that its music service runs both through browsers and on a number of platforms.

But the company’s iOS app has helped its profile. It’s consistently stayed one of the top free apps on the App Store. The company’s offering 14.7 million shares initially.

Pandora’s future wasn’t ever in actual jeopardy, but certainly the value of the company’s app was in question during the lead-up to last week’s Apple keynote at WWDC. For a while, iCloud was rumored as being an iTunes streaming service like Pandora, allowing you to listen to your music collection through any iOS device.

Those rumors turned out to be untrue so far. iCloud and iTunes Match are only designed to help you sync your iTunes songs across devices, not listen to them remotely. For those whose music collections are too big to fit on an iOS device, Pandora is still one of the main ways to listen to extra music.

[via Mashable]

Pandora Media offering IPO tomorrow originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 18:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Bungie releases free iOS app

Game developer Bungie (the folks behind the Halo series, originally scheduled for release on Mac but also the game that eventually became the keystone of Microsoft’s game console) has released an official iPhone app, just in time for the company’s 20th anniversary. Bungie Mobile is available for free on the App Store, and allows you to browse through your and other players’ Halo information, see official Bungie news and just generally enjoy the heck out of one of the best gaming developers around.

Additionally, when you sign in to the app with a Bungie account, you can get blue flames for your helmet in Halo: Reach, a special graphical effect previously reserved only for Bungie employees. Good deal.

Bungie is doing all of this to celebrate the company’s 20th anniversary on July 7, so happy anniversary to them. And now that they’re out from under the thumb of a Microsoft partnership, hopefully we’ll see even more Apple-related releases in the future.

Bungie releases free iOS app originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 17:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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WWDC Interview: 99Games

Neil Ticktin (Editor-in-Chief, MacTech Magazine and MacNews) interviews Rohith Bhat of 99Games at WWDC 2011. Rohith was kind enough to tell us about their thoughts on the announcements on WWDC, and how it will affect their plans moving forward.

WWDC Interview: 99Games originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Google launches homepage shortcuts for iOS, mobile devices

Google has released a new homepage shortcut feature for mobile devices at today’s Inside Search event in San Francisco. It’s available to iOS and Android customers and offers quick access to information on restaurants, coffee shops, bars and more, based on the user’s location.

To try it out, visit Google.com with mobile Safari. You’ll see four new icons along the bottom of the page: Restaurants, Coffee, Bars and More. Tap any one to see a map and a listing of results in your area. Scroll through the list to see each result’s location on the map as well as a brief description. Tap any result for a photo, customer reviews, star ratings from the likes of Trip Advisor and even a tap-able phone number.

It’s quite handy. Other result options include fast food, shops, ATMs and attractions. You’ll find these by tapping the More button.

[Via TechCrunch]

Google launches homepage shortcuts for iOS, mobile devices originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 16:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Apple: Samsung is harassing us with its iPhone 5 and iPad 3 request

Apple is not happy with Samsung’s latest legal request to view prototype versions of the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5. The Cupertino company recently filed a response in which it called Samsung “the copyist” and claimed the Korean company is trying to harass it with these unreasonable demands.

This latest volley is one of many between the two tech companies. Apple filed a trademark infringement lawsuit against Samsung accusing the Korean company of copying its iPhone, iPad and iPod touch. Samsung then countersued Apple with claims of patent infringement. Apple turned up the heat when it asked to review sample units of unreleased but publicly announced products such as the Galaxy Tab 10.1. Samsung responded in kind by requesting the iPad 3 and the iPhone 5. Got all that?

Some of these issues will be decided this Friday when Samsung and Apple will meet with the judge presiding over the case to discuss Samsung’s controversial iPhone 5 and iPad 3 request. These legal proceedings are taking place in the US District Court for the Northern District of California.

Apple: Samsung is harassing us with its iPhone 5 and iPad 3 request originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:30:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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TUAW’s Daily Mac App: CloudApp

Sharing small files via email is easy with attachments. But what about sharing files via IM, Twitter, Facebook or the myriad of other services? That’s where the incredibly simple CloudApp comes in.

CloudApp sits in your menu bar waiting to upload files to the cloud, ready for sharing with friends, family and colleagues. Simply drag your file onto the menu bar icon and watch as the cloud fills up and a link to the file is copied to the clipboard. Previously uploaded files, as well as their view counts, are accessible from a drop-down menu or the CloudApp web app.

These days, screenshots are often the easiest way to get your point across, and CloudApp will conveniently auto-upload any screenshots you take. That’s not all, though; you can use global shortcuts from the keyboard or even a Services menu entry to upload files directly from Finder.

All your uploads are stored in your personal Cloud account, either privately or publicly, which is free for a maximum of 10 daily uploads and files up to 25 MB. If you need more than that, unlimited uploads of up to 250 MB and the ability to use a custom domain are available with a Pro account, which costs from US$5 a month.

It’s simple, effective and free from the Mac App Store. Extensions called RainDrops, which hook into Adobe Photoshop and many other programs, are available from the CloudApp site.

TUAW’s Daily Mac App: CloudApp originally appeared on TUAW – The Unofficial Apple Weblog on Tue, 14 Jun 2011 15:00:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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