Spb Software House's Spb Weather 1.0

Spb Software House’s Spb Weather 1.0

Like many things today, weather information on the Internet is abundantly available. The daily weather and forecast for almost any location in the world can quickly be found. This proves to be handy for business travelers, wanting to know how they should pack for their next trip, as well as vacationers. Until recently, the challenge has been getting this information to a useable format on Pocket PCs.

Spb Software House has a long and impressive lineup of software application for Pocket PC owners. This line was recently made better with the addition of Spb Weather 1.0. The application allows users to get both current and forecast information for cities throughout the United States, Europe and Asia while also having the flexibility to allow users to create custom locations, choose icon types and layouts. Using the resources of The Weather Channel and Intellicast, Spb Weather provides excellent weather information that is both timely and accurate.

The application itself is installed via ActiveSync and occupies approximately 700k of memory. Like most applications, Spb Weather can be installed in Main Memory or on a Storage Card. However, it is recommended by the author to install the application in Main Memory as applications touching the Today screen tend to behave better by doing so. Once the application is installed and configured, a Today plug-in displays the weather information for the city selected (Figure 1).

Figure 1: Spb Weather’s Today Plug-in

Configuring Spb Weather is done through a simple menu which is accessed either by tapping-and-holding in the plug-in area on the Today screen or by going into the application in the Programs file. The initial menu option is where locations that users want weather information for are created (Figure 2). Users can add, edit, delete or move the order of the cities selected using the provided buttons. Creating a city is done by tapping the Add… button then selecting the country, state (if in the United States) and city (Figure 3). Users can also search by zip code (in the United States) as well. In addition to the provided cities, Spb Weather also allows users to create custom cities. Doing this is done via the Custom menu located at the bottom of the City creation menu. In order for the custom city feature to work successfully, users will need the Weather Channel or Intellicast City Code for the location being created (Figure 4). Both providers are based in the United States but do provide international forecasts and information.


Figure 2: The City Selection Menu	Figure 3: Adding A City to Spb Weather

Figure 4: Creating a Custom City

Once cities are added to Spb Weather, users have a variety of customization features that can be made in order to make the application more user friendly and personal. These customizations include the ability to change the appearance of the icons on the Today plug-in as well as the number of days to display (Figures 5 & 6).


Figure 5: Change the icons of the Today plug-in	Figure 6: Change the number of days displayed on the Today plug-in

Users also have the ability to determine when Spb Weather updates its information database (Figure 7). Information can be updated as often as every five minutes or can be done manually. If multiple cities are configured in Spb Weather, the application also allows user to modify how those cities are viewed - individually or as tabs. Lastly, since the application is available globally, Spb Weather also can present the information in metric or US measurements.

Figure 7: Users can adjust how often Spb Weather updates

With the introduction of Spb Pocket Plus 2.5 (for a review, click here), Spb Weather is one of the Spb applications that can be plugged into it. Rather than having Spb Weather take up space on the Today screen, it can be integrated into Pocket Plus as an additional tab (Figure 8).

Figure 8: Adding Spb Weather to Spb Pocket Plus 2.5 as a tab

Overall Spb Weather is an excellent application and well worth the small purchase price of $14.95 (US). Like all of the other Spb Software House applications, Spb Weather is backed by outstanding customer support that is both timely and courteous.

There are other weather related applications that do have a deeper included city database but none that we have used here at Clinton Fitch (Dot) Com! are as fast nor provide as accurate weather information. If you are a Windows Mobile user who needs weather information at a glance, Spb Weather should be on your short list of applications to purchase.

For more information on Spb Weather, visit the Spb Software House site at http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/weather/?en.

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