Outside

Michael E. | Jan 9, 2010 Weather

User rating:

(5 votes, average: 4.20 out of 5)

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Let’s face it- there are a ton of free and premium weather apps available in the App Store. The sheer amount of information they manage to cram onto a screen can be absolutely mind-numbing. And some of them are a little…um…dare I say it? Unattractive.

Don’t get me wrong, all those weather details are nice to know, but they aren’t especially important to me most of the time. Personally, there are only three questions I have about the weather at any given moment:

What is the current temperature?
What can I expect for the day to bring, weather and/or temperature-wise?
What can I expect for the next few days to bring weather and/or temperature-wise?

Outside is a weather application that successfully manages to combine simplicity and utility while answering those three basic questions. No more, no less. Plus, it’s pretty. So pretty that you’ll find yourself checking the weather far more than you usually do, just to admire its attractiveness. I sure did.

But Robocat’s Outside is more than a pretty face. You can swipe through current weather and future forecasts, each offering a distinct ‘out of a window’ visual graphic of what the conditions are at the moment or soon will be outside. Outside also includes many of the details we love to see in a weather app, including humidity, cloud cover, wind direction, UV index, and sunup/sundown times.

You can set push notifications (30 days of push notifications provided free, additional 90-day blocks available through .99 cent subscriptions per notification type) for a variety of conditions such as rain, high UV, cold weather, and t-shirt weather. The notifications are customizable, meaning that you are able to set temperature and time of day criteria for your alerts.

You certainly don’t need the notification alerts to use Outside, but they do enhance it. Keep in mind that there is an added cost to receive notifications beyond the initial 30-day offering. Additionally, you cannot set or receive severe weather alerts and it does not offer radar maps, animated or otherwise. Perhaps those features will be offered in future updates.

Outside is a welcome addition to the weather app world, though the $2.99 price tag is a little steep. Nevertheless, this app will help you to make the most of the weather no matter what it throws at you.

It’s also very pretty to look at.

iTunes Link – Outside

Version 1.0

Reviewed on iPod Touch 3.1.2