As with many things on the Internet, finding weather information is really not much of a challenge.  From local news stations to national services, Pocket PC users can easily find weather information for the locale.  The challenge is keeping up with a weather forecast beyond the present day and remembering it later when it is needed.

The development team at SBSH Mobile Software has created not only an answer to this need but has exceeded expectations with PocketWeather.  This small but powerful application provides accurate weather information for over 37,000 locations around the world right on the Today screen with a high level of customization and accuracy.  Users can also get detailed daily information, moon phases and current condition information.  PocketWeather even automatically updates via a variety of methods including ActiveSync pass through.  Simply put, PocketWeather is a must-have application and Today plug-in for Pocket PC users, especially those who travel.

PocketWeather occupies a small 1.3MB in storage space and can be installed in either the Pocket PCs main memory or on a storage card via ActiveSync. The installation size varies depending on if users install the VGA icon packages.  Because the application utilizes a Today plug-in, it is recommended by the author to install the application into main memory.  Once the installation is complete and a soft-reset is performed, users will have the PocketWeather Today plug-in visible by default (Figure 1).  Users will also find the weather information for London, Paris and Geneva are already configured.  Users will also note the small gear icon next to the city name.  This is a quick visual indicator to the status of PocketWeather.  Green indicates that the data presented is up-to-date; Yellow that it is in the process of synchronizing with the servers to gather the information; Red indicates that the data is not accurate and/or that the information could not be updated (generally due to a connection not being available).  The data is updated every hour and can be done via ActiveSync pass through, WiFi connectivity, GPRS and traditional modems.  Below the gear icon is a down arrow which, by tapping, users can see the weather data for all of the cities that are configured in the application.

The Today plug-in displays at-a-glance the current conditions as well as the forecast for the following three days.  Icons for each day indicate the type of weather to expect as well as the temperature range and the chance of precipitation.   

In addition to the multi-day forecast, users can get detailed information on the current conditions and forecast by tapping anywhere on the day icons. This will display a full screen with more detailed information on the day including the moon phase, UV Index, Dew Point, Humidity and the forecast for that evening (Figure 2).  Users can also use the navigation arrows at the top of the display to move to different pages that will give various levels of information about each day.

The Today plug-in, like almost every aspect of PocketWeather, is configurable to users preferences.  To access the applications setup, tap the gear icon to display the menu (Figure 3).  The menu provides all of the commands to the application, including on-the-fly refreshing of data, city selection and display customizations.  By tapping the Settings… menu, users can adjust virtually any aspect of the application.  While there are multiple ways to configure PocketWeather, this review will only cover the most commonly used features and settings.   

Easily the most sought after information will be for the city that the user resides in regularly.  After tapping the Menu>Settings… users are presented with the Location Tab (Figure 4).  Three of the available locations are already filled in with London, Paris and Geneva.  These, like those that state <Unconfigured>, can be modified.  To create a new location, select the radio button for that location then tap the Configure button.  By using the pull-down menus, users select a country, state and city of the location, time zone information as well as the longitude and latitude of the city (Figure 5).  The longitude and latitude are important as other information, such as moon phases are based on that information in the application.  If you are not sure of a cities longitude and latitude, PocketWeather makes it easy by providing a Find Position button.  Tap it and the information needed is automatically generated.  Once all of the information is entered tap OK to go back to the Locations menu and select the Auto Update option.  This will let PocketWeather update the information for that city automatically at each polling interval.

On the Locations menu there is an additional option of adding maps for a location.  To do so, tap the Maps button and add the URL for a weather map for the specific location created.  Up to three can be added per location and all will be updated with each polling interval.  By configuring maps, users can see a satellite image for the location adding another rich detail to an already rich application (Figure 6).

Because users want different information available and may have limited space on their Today screen, PocketWeather’s Today plug-in is customizable both in information displayed and in visual appearance.  By selecting the Today tab, users can change these settings quickly and easily (Figure 7).  Users can have only a minimal amount of text displayed for the plug-in or larger, more visually appealing icons available.  The display is changed by using the Display Type pull-down menu while additional icons for the Settings and text for the last time the data was refreshed can also be displayed.

Because PocketWeather is available worldwide, SBSH Mobile Software made the application international friendly by allowing users to set the application up for their measurement standards (Figure 8).  These settings are found on the Units tab and allow for measurement changes to Temperature, Barometric pressure and distance.  

It is difficult to find anything to not like about this application.  It is well written and behaved and is something that most users will find to be a must-have application for their Windows Mobile device.  PocketWeather is also backed by an outstanding support department at SBSH Mobile Software.  The company provides excellent support for issues and questions related to their products.  In a support email sent to the company, I received a reply back in an astonishing 23 minutes.  Not only was the response quick but it was informative and the resolution was accurate. While time differences may make such responses impossible all the time, it is clear that the SBSH Mobile Software staff take support of their products seriously. 

For all the benefits and features of PocketWeather, the application’s price at only $7.95 makes it an outstanding value.  The application, along with the other SBSH Mobile Software offerings can be found on their website, http://www.sbsh.net.

Clinton Fitch
Senior Editor
Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! (http://www.clintonfitch.com)
HPC:Factor (http://www.hpcfactor.com)