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

SunGPS is a thermometer, altimeter, and compass all in one.

iTunes Link : SunGPS

On deck: Z is for Zombie (Games)

Apple’s default weather app is sooooooo lame! No blood, no zombies, nothing.

Clockrocket Games gets goofy here with their version of the weather, complete with a not-quite-dead guy bleeding next to the forecast. Tap Mr. Zombie to attack him and spray blood all over the screen and then rub him to get him cleaned up.

Adding and swiping through different cities works pretty much just like the default weather. I can’t really say the weather this app serves up is all that accurate since the numbers deviate by 3-5 degrees (F) from Weather.com, but you’re not really getting Zombie Weatherman for the weather, are you?

It’s gross, it’s funny, and thankfully there’s a free version to try out.

iTunes Link – Zombie Weatherman
Version 1.1
Reviewed on iPhone 3G OS3.0.1

I'll take this dude over Al Roker any day of the week

So – I know the burning question in your mind, fair reader, is where the hell has Chrisa been??  Well, as it turns out, I was traveling.  I travel quite a bit for work (shameless plug – www.sceneexchange.com), but I also got in a leisure trip – I went to the Academy Awards.  Before you ask how I got my no-name behind into the Oscars and get this post COMPLETELY off track, let me just say, if you really want to know, leave me a comment, and I’ll fill you in on all the details.  Oh – and yes, Brad and Angelina ARE that gorgeous in person, thanks for asking.

Being that I travel so much, I thought I’d try out FlightTrack Pro.  I’ve tried a few of the cheap (read: free) flight tracking apps, so I really wanted to see what $9.99 would buy me.  I am notoriously cheap, so I really expected a crapload of features for this kind of price tag.  FlightTrack Pro delivers….99%. 

How does it deliver?  It’s really easy to track your travel.  This version of the app is integrated with TripIt, an extremely handy and free feature where you email your itinerary to TripIt, and your flights automatically show up and are tracked in FlightTrack Pro.  By far, the coolest feature there is.  When I book a flight, all the airline websites let me email a copy to a bunch of addresses – I just type in the TripIt address, and it shows up in the app.  There’s also integrated weather for your destination(s), email itineraries directly from the application, and it supports both domestic and international flights.  Very, very, cool.   It even has a fun feature where, if you’re super bored or not traveling this week, you can shake your iPhone and get a random flight.

But, even this cool of an app has a drawback.  There’s a nice feature that lets you see a map of exactly where a flight is in the air, but unless you’re on one of the very few airlines that has Wi-Fi in route, you can’t see any maps.   Seems a bit pointless, unless you’re an administrative assistant or secretary.  And, since my admin assistant is a thumbless canine (I’ll wait while you process that………), not that useful for her.  But, honestly, that’s the only drawback – if you want to call it that – that this application has.  

If you travel a lot, go and get this application now.  Seriously – stop reading this post and download it.  Now.  If I’m telling you it’s worth ten bucks, trust me, it really is.  If you aren’t a road warrior, there is a lighter version, FlightTrack, for $4.99.  Not as feature rich, of course, but worth it if you travel a few times a year.