[APP] Weather4Me WP7 - Fastest Weather Anywhere! [Mar 5 2012] -[V]-2.3

Name: "Weather4Me WP7"

Current version 2.3

Weather information provided by AccuWeather(TM)
* Weather by GPS location or for selected city
* Live Tile on the Start screen
* Detailed actual weather conditions
* Today weather forecast
* Up to 5 days forecast information
* Both Metric and US (Imperial) units support and their automatic selection
* Data refreshing on the application startup and manual data refreshing
* Fast search city by name (partial name) or US zip code
* Ability to add city to the favorites and fast switching between them
* No limitation on the favorites number
* Since the version 2.2 app shows ads at the bottom of the main window

The program is optimized for traffic usage.
For example, one weather query takes near the 15K data.
Traffic for city search query may be vary, but no more than 1K in the most cases.
When you tap on the "Details" link on the "5 Days" page program creates temporary page named "AccuWeather"
and shows detailed weather info from the Accuweather site for mobile devices.
In this case program works as web browser.

If you like this app and think others might find this application useful,
sharing your experience in a short review on the WP7 Marketplace would be highly appreciated.
It is very easy with the "Weather4Me WP7". Just tap "Review" button on the "About application" page.

What's new in the 2.3 version
* Some usability improvement and minor bugs fixed
* Live Tile service several upgrades since the version 2.2
* Fixed Live Tile generation bug for Australia and Canada
* Improved Live Tile support for most European countries

Live Tile Demo (1 of 2)
Live Tile Demo (2 of 2)

Tile Samples:


"Weather4Me WP7" screen shots:






Source: (of app) http://www.softexpanse.com/plugins/forum/forum_viewtopic.php?180
Download Page Link: http://www.softexpanse.com/download.php?view.48

FAQ (based on the users reviews on the WP7 Marketplace)

Q. Program shows me weather info in the wrong units. How to fix this?
A. Application selects units automatically according to your Regional Formats settings.
Just tap on device "Start" button, go to the programs and start "Settings".
On the "system" page tap on the "region & language" item.
On the "region & language" page you should select "Region format" properly.
After that WP7 will prompt you to restart system to apply new settings.
(Also you can see these actions on the demo video, link below)

Q. On the "5 Days" page program shows me date without days name. I want to see them. How to change date format on that page?
A. "Weather4Me WP7" is using Long Date format specified in your system settings for date display on the "5 Days" page.
Since the version 2.2 application always shows days of week for all regions/countries.

Demo videos:
Weather4Me WP7 1.0 first start, basic functionality demo http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THL-iUu0xrU
Weather4Me WP7 2.2 what's new demo

Very good review by George Ponder on "WPCentral" for version 1.0 with the own video:
http://www.wpcentral.com/weather4me-review

Ddriver said:

Great app, very fast and informative.

Thank you very much.

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You are welcome
Your feedback on the WP7 Marketplace is very desirable.

Weather4Me WP7 demo video

Demo video is available here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=THL-iUu0xrU
It shows Weather4Me WP7 in action.

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mikeeam said:

I don't understand.. Why not live tiles?

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Good question and simple answer below
Because for Live Tiles "push notification" should be used.
Currently it is slow and non reliable in most cases and does not meet my requirements for this technique.

Here very good article about "push notification" and its problems.
Especially very interesting comments from the developers.
http://windowsteamblog.com/windows_phone/b/wpdev/archive/2011/02/17/push-notification-status.aspx

Thanks for your feedback

mikeeam said:

I don't understand.. Why not live tiles?

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Here the quote of that article (see link to it in my previous post):
"Since the configurations of mobile operator networks are all different, the delivery of Push Notifications may vary.
Microsoft works closely with our mobile operator partners to ensure consistent delivery where possible
but developers should test across multiple mobile operator networks when feasible.

By programming defensively around real world connection states, developers can gracefully degrade functionality in their applications.
As we move forward with future versions, we’ll work to make this easier and more reliable for developers."

So, when push notification becomes more reliable, live tiles will be implemented ASAP.

Pauldimar said:

Works better then other apps!

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Thanks!
Please, leave your opinion on the WP7 Marketplace.
It is very easy with the "Weather4Me WP7".
Just tap on "About application" and tap on "Review" button.

vangrieg said:

An unreliable live tile is much better than no live tile. I really don't see the point in yet another weather app without a live tile when the major problem with current popular ones is that their tiles are butt ugly.

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Does it means that false (or out of date) weather information provided by me on the live tile to my users much better than just static picture?
Program is very fast, just one tap and you can see actual info.

I'm not against this modern technique, which comes from other popular platform.
I'm watching for WP7 evolution very attentively.
Currently it looks like MS DOS for IBM PC AT (1987~1989) without real multitasking but with the great graphics shell.
And the push notifications looks like the interrupts implementation for that OS.

Please, read article linked in my post http://xdaforums.com/showpost.php?p=12137060&postcount=8

Thanks for your point of view.

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colossus_r said:

Thanks for the good app m8...its realy nice and fast...

But i will not use it or recomment it to my clients until you get the live tiles working...

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Thanks for your feedback.
Sorry, Live Tiles is not in my current development plan, there are some other primary goals.

Additionally for people who want this feature I must say following:
1. Live Tiles requires web service implementation.
2. This web service should be hosted on the Windows hosting.
3. Reliable (commercial) Windows hosting is more expensive than Linux hosting with the similar parameters (monthly traffic limit, disk space, etc.)
So, if you really want this feature you can vote for it on my site.

Yesterday, someone put the rating on this my forum thread 1 star. Probably he did not like my previous answer.
Nevertheless, the current position of the program in the WP7 Marketplace -> 38 of 714.
Thank you to all my users who really support me. Good luck to all!

Initial post has been changed.
Link to the reviews and overall rating by countries (most complete info)
and link to the info about position on the WP7 Marketplace were added.
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Current position -> 38 of 723 in the News&Weather category since March 8.