Review: InstaWeather Pro
Score:
82%
We've seen this style of mobile application before, of course, on most mobile platforms - overlaying weather information onto a photo showing what you see, but InstaWeather Pro seems to have taken on the mantle of front-runner, by virtue of the quality and number of graphical skins available. Given the overlap between smartphone nuts and weather geeks, I'd expect more than a little interest here too...
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[Although I'm reviewing the paid (£1.49) version here, there's also a free version with ads and a few minor restrictions.]
The idea is, as I say, immediately of interest to me - I'm fascinated by the weather (handy, as I live in the UK, which has a wide variety!), am attracted to reports and forecasts and also love sharing photos of my world with those on Twitter (etc.) And, with the proviso that - as the name suggests - the resulting graphic is 'Instagram-sized' (spit) at only 480 pixels square, InstaWeather Pro does exactly what it sets out to do, and with some style.
The interface is part Android and part 'Metro' - in fact, part iOS too, but then this is a true cross-platform offering and the Windows Phone version is picking up on skins and ideas from the other OS versions, so it's best not to be too churlish. Here's a full walk-through:
In an ideal world, I'd be reviewing this application from a tropical beach on an AAWP expenses account - in reality I'm stuck in UK suburbia in winter! InstaWeather Pro does offer a comparison feature for just such jealous mutterings though, with some of the skins offered including a '?' tap point - just set this to any searchable location and you've got a comparison like the one above left! In the UK, meanwhile, it's 2 degrees and starting to snow!
Swiping from side to side slides in new skins, different typography and combinations of weather stats for your current location - some are factual, some are forecasts, etc, but all are nicely designed. Although the skins are currently divided into nine 'sets' (so getting on for 100 in skins in all?), the name of the current set being swiped through isn't shown in the main UI, which is a litrle curious. But tapping on the '...' menu brings up the set chooser, with the current one highlighted. The UI's non-standard, but hey, it works.
The workflow then, is to snap a photo of the current weather, i.e. what you see, and then slide in the skin/set you think looks best. The ones with forecasts can be particularly useful - though I'm not sure I like the idea of 'ice pellets' tomorrow morning!! (right) In the paid-for Pro version, at least, you can switch off the 'logo overlay' (i.e. a watermark), though this can be useful for others to see what the photo and weather stats came from.
When you're happy, it's time to share with the world. The standard Windows Phone 'Share to' options appear, top of which for me is Tweetium, here I've tweeted from InstaWeather Pro through Tweetium and am viewing the posted tweet. (Also here.) Note also the option to 'save' your graphic to the local Camera roll (with the resolution caveat mentioned below).
Also on my 'Share' list here is Instagram, which should be a good fit for InstaWeather Pro - here I've used this mechanism to post another skin option to my Instagram account.
The resolution of the images produced here isn't a huge issue right now, and you certainly won't pick up on it from the screenshots here, but 480p images on even today's 720p screens is starting to look as if something's mismatched. As we progress to full 1080p screens, as Twitter, Instagram and Facebook all start to open up to higher resolutions, I do think that InstaWeather Pro needs to be producing images of at least twice the current resolution.
And, given that the device camera photos are far higher already and that its own vector graphics text and artwork should be easily scaleable, then I'd expect an application update to enable at least 960p output soon. It's not that hard to do and the current score of 82 above was going to be 90 until I realised the resolution issue.
Regardless, kudos to the developers for a slick interface and for continuing development, in part funded by people buying the 'Pro' version here. With just the resolution caveat above, this comes with a hearty recommendation.
Reviewed by Steve Litchfield at