Review: Spb Weather 2.0

Since the early days of the Personal Digital Assistant (PDA), one of its most popular uses has been for displaying weather information. To this end, a number of programs have been developed, and the device makers themselves are also beginning to include simple weather displays.

Spb Software have been selling their Spb Weather application for some years, and we are now embarking on a review of the significantly updated version 2.0 of this program which has just been released. Read on to find out how it performs!

Supplier:	Spb Software
Product:	Spb Weather 2.0
Platform:	Windows Mobile 5 onwards; Touchscreen devices only. All screen resolutions supported
Price:	$19.95. Upgrade from V1 $9.95. 20% discount for owners of any other Spb product. Free trial available.
Devices used for review:	HTC Touch Diamond & O2 XDA Flint. Both VGA running WM6.1

Thanks to Denis Khitrov of Spb Software for supplying the review copy of Spb Weather 2.0



Introduction

Spb Weather has long been a popular program amongst the comings and goings in this sector. Over recent months Spb have further developed and enhanced the underlying code, initially incorporating it into their Spb Traveler application, and now releasing it as Spb Weather 2.0. This version adds a number of visual enhancements and a 'finger friendly' interface to the original program's capabilities and retains its useful features such as integration with other Spb products and the ability to define alternative sources for weather data.

Installation

As always with Spb products, Weather can be installed via the PC using ActiveSync, or directly on the device using a cab file. The PC installation follows Spb's normal procedure of allowing the license code to be entered during the installation, a feature I wish other developers would follow.

The installed file size is 6MB, and it can happily reside in, and run from an expansion card. When in use the program requires 5MB of RAM to run.

The initial installation will create a Today screen plug-in and a Programs entry linking to the main program. If Spb Pocket Plus or Mobile Shell are also installed, Weather can be integrated into either or both of these. If Spb Diary is installed, a weather icon can be displayed for each diary day.

Please note that Spb Weather 2.0 is continuing its development. Some features covered in this review may not be in their final form.


Spb Weather Main Screen

Whichever way the Weather main screen is invoked, it opens with a full page display of the weather for your default location. This shows a large top frame with the location, current temperature and a graphic of the current weather conditions. There is also a 'n of n' indicator showing which of the user's defined locations is currently being displayed, and an indication of when the last data update occurred. Below this is a list of further days for which forecast data is available, consisting of the day, weather graphic and maximum/minimum temperatures. If there are more days than can be viewed on the screen, the whole screen can be dragged with a finger or moved using the navigation keys of the device. Left or right finger drags move to the previous or next location. The bottom line of the display indicates the currently selected weather source for that location. Depending on the weather source being used, there may be up to ten days of weather data available. Each day can be divided into four timezones. Not all weather sources will provide this much detail. I have found the Foreca source to be the most comprehensive for my selected cities. At the bottom of the main screen, there are four icons with the following actions: Cross: Exits from Spb Weather List: Opens the City selection screen; details below Globe: opens the graphical globe display Update: downloads the latest update for the current location

Daily Details Screen Tapping any of the days opens a detailed screen with the location and date at the top, and weather conditions for different times of the day, if available, showing minimum and maximum temperatures, humidity and wind speed and direction. If the current day is selected, the top frame of the details screen also shows the current temperature, and barometric pressure plus the time of the last update. Left and right dragging moves between the previous and next day's forecast for the current location. The details screen has a single 'Back' arrow at the bottom of the screen to return to the multi-day display for the location.

The Globe Display

This is an animated globe which can be set to show one of four overlay displays, selected by tapping the icon at the bottom left of the main globe frame. The principal element of this screen is the globe. This can be dragged in any direction to display any part of the globe. A quick lateral swipe causes the globe to spin, bringing back memories of those toy globes we used to play with! Some of the overlays also have a Play/Pause button at the bottom right of the screen. This causes the selected overlay to play the weather sequence for the number of days for which data is available. Each screen shows the date and time of the current display at the top, and the loading progress of updates while downloading. The layer select icon at the bottom left of the main screen brings up a page with four options. Each shows the time of the last data update, and has a download icon to refresh the data manually if required. Selecting one of the options by tapping it will automatically download data if it is out of date.

Satellite View This is a static snapshot view of the earth at the time of the most recent data download and shows the cloud cover as a transparent overlay. The overlay size is about 150KB.

Overcast View This shows the predicted cloud cover as a denser overlay. This is a dynamic screen and can play the forthcoming cloud cover conditions. The overlay size is about 500KB.

Temperature View This colourful overlay shows the temperatures across the globe using the standard red to blue gradient. Again, this is dynamic and will play through predicted temperatures. The overlay size is about 650KB.

Precipitation View This shows predicted rainfall patterns around the world as a transparent indigo coloured layer. As before, it can play predicted rainfall sequences for the duration of the available forecast. The overlay size is about 325KB.

The icon on the left returns to the location screen. The two rightmost icons on each Globe display allow zooming in and out of the map. There are only three levels of zoom, with the most detailed level only going down to an area covering the whole of Europe and Northern Africa. It would have been nice to have a closer zoom available, but I assume the amount of data required would increase to an unacceptable extent.

The next icon to the right opens the Settings page for the Globe which has three check-box selections Show Night: Displays the globe with a shadow representing where the night shadow falls. This is relative to the current time and does not alter with the layer sequences. Animation: When selected, this continually reorientates the globe to show each of your main locations. Weather Layers: Selects whether to display the layer selection icon on the main screen. If deselected there will be no access to the layers apart from the default Globe view. For those without access to WiFi or a substantial data allowance, this would be a good choice, as there will be no Globe data download in this mode. The location labels in this mode also show the current data and time for the selected city, and the predicted minimum and maximum temperature for the current day. Using WiFi I have found the Globe layer updates to be fast and reliable. For some reason using GPRS has been less successful. Updates often stall and exit before fully downloading over GPRS. This may be due to signal conditions, but I have not had time to fully investigate that. This does not impact on the downloading of the weather forecast data itself, only the Globe graphics. When downloading Globe layer data over GPRS, the system pops up a message asking if you wish to proceed when no free data source is available. Bearing in mind that a full set of data is over 1.5MB this is a good feature, though the warning cannot be turned off. The Globe data does not automatically update according to the main weather forecast update schedule.

City List Screen

Tapping the 'List' icon from the main weather page opens the City List page. This lists each of your configured cities/locations, showing an icon depicting the current weather, and minimum and maximum temperatures for the day. Tapping any city in the list opens the main weather screen for the selected city. Each city also has a List icon for accessing its options. These are: Move Up and Move Down: Moving Up and Down change the position of the city in the location list. This is also reflected in the position of the cities in the Today Plug-in Set as Startup City: Makes the current city the default when the program is opened. Remove City: Deletes the current city from your list. Edit City: This allows the displayed name of the current city to be changed. The Timezone, Latitude and Longitude can also be edited, the latter two being reflected when the Globe is displayed. The current GPS location, if available, can also be used to populate the location fields (but see below) . There are four icons at the base of the City Selection screen: Arrow: Returns to the previous screen Settings Plus: Adds a location Sync: Updates all City data.

Settings

Accessed from the City List screen, this is where the general settings for the whole program are configured. There are tabs for the units displayed, synchronisation options and the location of the cache for the satellite images.

Sync includes options for data connections and whether to use manual or automatic updating. The Sources tab allows the addition or removal of sources of weather data. Spb Weather includes two weather sources by default, from Weather.gov and Foreca. Weather.gov is a US based national weather agency and Foreca is an independent Finnish weather forecasting company which also provides MSN with its weather data.

Additional sources can be configured and added to the list using the Add button. Currently, the instructions for creating your own weather template appear to be unavailable, but the SpbClub forums have a number of custom templates developed by members and available for download. I have installed the BBC Weather template. This is downloaded and copied to a Templates folder within Spb Weather, from where it can be selected as a weather source in the Add Source dialog. Selecting 'Templates' as the type, then navigating to the Templates folder shows the available sources; once selected, my 'BBCWeather24' template placed 'BBC World' in the available sources list. When selected for a City, BBC World is then used as the source for weather data. Please note that to download items from SpbClub, it is necessary to be registered and logged in. Registration and use is free of charge.

Adding a City

Tapping the Plus icon on the City List screen, opens the Add Location page. The location data itself is coded into the program and individual locations cannot be added. The default list does appear fairly comprehensive. Selection can be made using Name, Country, International Airport Code, or GPS position. Typing the name or airport code you are seeking shows matches as you type. Note that you can only add any city once, so if multiple locations resolve to one city you can only select one to display. For instance, each of the three main London Airports have entries, but all resolve to London, so it is impossible to select Stansted as one of your cities and also London.

For some reason I cannot get the GPS selection to operate. Pressing 'Get Location by GPS' turns on the internal GPS receiver in my device, but no co-ordinates are forthcoming and a message pops up saying 'Unable to Connect to GPS Receiver'. Furthermore, canceling this operation does not turn the GPS receiver off again, so I suspect there may be a configuration issue, though there are no GPS configuration options available from within Spb Weather. Up to ten cities can be configured to display on the City List screen.

Working with Weather Sources

As mentioned above, I have the two default and one user defined weather sources installed. Each city can be configured to use its own weather source. When in the main City view, at the bottom of the display is a label with the currently selected weather source. It may be necessary to drag the page up to see it. Tapping this label opens the Source Select page with a list of available weather sources.

Tapping the list box to the right of the item opens a dialog with Set as Default, Use/Don't Use Source, and Edit City Code as possible options. To simply select a source for your city, tap the name of the source. To select another source as the default for new entries, tap its list box, then Set as Default. Custom weather sources will also require the city code to be entered. Each template download will have instructions for how to obtain this. Tap the 'Edit City Code' menu to enter this code.

For my location near Cambridge in the UK, I have tried Weather.gov, Foreca and the BBC Weather sources. By far the most accurate of these has been Foreca. It also has the most comprehensive data available. The predicted temperatures from the BBC source were about two degrees off the actual temperatures for the day. Additionally it only provided four weather bands for the current day, and a single band for the next two days. Weather.gov was out by a similar margin, but it had weather data for five days. Foreca's forecast was spot on, and it had four daily segments for seven days of weather. I've therefore stuck with Foreca for all my locations.


The Today Plug-In

Weather information can be shown in a number of different ways on the device's Today Screen. By default it has tabs for each city (up to six locations) with daily weather data in a display below this in varying amounts of detail depending on the configuration selected. Tapping/holding a city's tab title opens a hierarchical menu allowing the various Today displays to be set. It also allows the city data to be updated, cities added or removed or the main Weather program to be launched.

Integration with other Spb Products

It is possible to set Spb Weather to be integrated into Spb's other products, Pocket Plus, Mobile Shell or Diary.

Spb Diary will add a weather icon depicting the weather forecast for the default location to each line of its daily display. As I don't use this program, I've included a screenshot from Spb's website.

When used with Mobile Shell, the Weather tab or the Weather Icon on the Now screen will show data for the default city selected in Spb Weather. Tapping the icon will open the main Spb Weather program. For those who are wondering, the Mobile Shell theme shown is called Nature's Beauty from PPC-Themes.

Pocket Plus can be set to include Weather as a Custom Tab. Once the tab has been created, tapping and holding its title will give the option to add the Today Plug-In to that tab, thus removing it from the main Today/Items list.

Spb Diary Integration

Spb Weather within Mobile Shell

Spb Weather in PocketPlus tab

Pros and Cons

Excellent interface	GPS integration not working in my installation
Ease of navigation	Unable to add custom locations
Configurable weather sources	Globe screen can use a lot of data
Integration with other Spb products	Limited zoom in Globe
Data source configuration to avoid unwanted data charges	Sometimes unable to add two close locations.

Conclusion

Spb Weather 2.0 is a fully featured and easy to use program. The addition of Foreca as a default weather source has seen the accuracy of my local forecasts improve significantly. It is a shame that some close locations resolve to the same city database location and can therefore not both be selected. This is not as trivial as it may seem; Stansted and Gatwick are far enough apart to have potentially different weather details but are both deemed to be London. In some instances there may be a suitable alternative city to select - in my case I could use London and Cambridge which works OK. There are some operating glitches to overcome such as the GPRS and GPS issues. The GPRS problem is under review by Spb, and it does not affect the weather data itself, only the Globe graphics. The graphical displays of cloud and rainfall, particularly when animated, are nice to watch though probably of little practical value! At $19.95 this is good value for money and anyone with an existing Spb product can get a 20% discount.