There are many weather apps out
there allowing you to keep up to date with the current weather situation in
your area. Some of them are beautiful, but clunky or inaccurate. Still others are accurate and useful but
hideous to look at. You might even get a
pretty and useful app that just so happens to suck the very life out of your
monthly data allotment! Some even kind of hit the middle ground in all these
areas, but few of them are as easy to use AND as elegant as the EZ Weather HD
app on android, while giving you options to reduce the strain on your data
usage. With a simple, clean and beautiful Holo interface as well as the ability
to customize the app heavily through the use of themes and the multiple options
available on the EZ Weather HD’s widget, the free EZ Weather HD app available
on Google Play is this consumer’s weather app of choice and definitely one of
the top five I have ever used!
If you are anything at all like me
and have an active family life, travel a lot for business or pleasure, or even
just like to spend a great deal of time outdoors then knowing the weather
forecast is of the utmost importance!
Most would find it very useful to know if it plans to rain on your
camping trip or be blazing hot before they put on their jeans and sweater.
The EZ Weather HD app not only gives
you the current temperature and weather, but will also deliver this information
to you for a full week in advance! Don’t
need to know the weather seven days from now? No problem, it also gives you
daily and hourly forecasts for any location!
Among the first things you are
likely to notice is the well done minimalist design which follows Google’s Holo
design making it a striking yet easy to use app. Upon actually opening the app for the first
time you will also notice how clearly you can see the temperature and weather
indicator as well as the upcoming forecast and your current location.Also
available are other weather details, such as; current visibility, pressure, dew
point and even UV levels! You can also easily flip back and forth between the
hourly forecast and the seven day forecast just with the push of a button
allowing you to keep up to date on any forthcoming weather changes as soon as
they are available.
Another great facet to the EZ
Weather HD app is that it is completely FREE! Now I know what you’re saying…if
its free that means I’ll have to put up with annoying ads all over the place!
NOPE! Nothing could be further from the truth. There are no ugly advertising
banners cluttering up your app or your widget!
This is a major plus for me as many of the other apps I used, even some
which are premium apps which I had to purchase, are simply filled with these
unattractive and space stealing banners.
The EZ Weather HD app widget makes
this app one of my most used, as it’s right on my home screen and have even
replaced my default clock. It is by and
large one of the easiest weather apps I have used or seen thus far and with its
Holo-themed minimalist interface is both functional and nice to look at. Of course with the previously mentioned
customization options available it also makes it an attractive addition to my
phone’s home screen and blends in well with my overall theme.
Features
v Transparent
weather widget for easy visibility
v Daily
and hourly weather information can be seen seven days in advance and with a
simple toggle switch, hourly information can be viewed as well.
v Current
weather conditions
v Automatically
updates the weather based upon your current location
v Uses
multiple sources to ascertain the best possible weather forecast for your area
v Alerts
you when there are upcoming or sudden weather changes
v Using
your phone’s camera permissions, you have access to a weather camera allowing
you to take photos and share your weather with your friends!
v Supports
new feature (push notification) on android L as well as android wear
v Offers
expandable, customizable notification bar feature displaying current and future
weather
v Heavily
customizable widget for clock and weather, forecast and current weather
conditions
v Support
for lock screen widget as well as DashClock extensions
v Widget
allows quick-action, enabling you to open the clock, calendar, weather,
settings or other app
v Support
for tens of thousands of cities worldwide and the world clock as well
v Support
for multiple languages, including; Arabic, Catalan, Chinese, Croatian, Czech,
Danish, Dutch, English, French, German, Greek, Hebrew, Hungarian, Italian,
Japanese, Korean, Norwegian, Polish, Portuguese (Brazil), Portuguese
(Portugal), Romanian, Russian, Serbian, Slovakian, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish,
Ukrainian, Vietnamese and more.
v Supports
new feature on KitKat 4.4, allowing full-screen immersive mode.
v Still
more features planned for the near future, including customizable elements,
severe forecast alert, even MORE widget styles, tablet suitability, additional
customization and Doppler/Radar mapping!
Themes
With multiple themes and color
combinations, as well as the ability to set the Holo interface to one of four
different modes; Dark, Light, Transparent and Minimal, EZ Weather allows you to
choose the way you wish to view it.
In my opinion, one of the best
features (as well as most customizable features) of this app is the amazing
widget they have developed for it.
Allowing you to change everything from the widget’s appearance to the
icon set, app theme and even notification bar and truly make this app your own
and allowing you to match whatever theme you have on your phone.Available in
three sizes; 1x1, 4x1 and 4x2, you are able to choose a clock and weather or
just the forecast. With many free
choices in each category they also have some pretty cool pay options available
on the cheap. For those of you who like
to add a little fun to your otherwise drab phone screen, the EZ Weather app
even has animated skins for purchase!
Data Usage
Many of you, like me, have limited
data to last you for the month and the EZ Weather HD app took that into
consideration when developing this wonderful app! Allowing you to set the
refresh rate (mine is every 15 minutes) and gathering only little bits and
pieces of information at a time, this app doesn’t use up all of your available
data. With a week of use, refreshing
every 15 minutes, this app has only used around 3MB of my data package. If that is still too much data usage for you,
you have the option of changing to Wi-Fi only or various increments of time
ranging, including;
v 15
minutes
v 30
minutes
v 1
hour
v 3
hours
v 6
hours
v 12
hours
v 1
day, and even
v NEVER
In the end…
While there are other weather apps
on the market which may have more options or a few less quirks, the majority of
them are premium apps, meaning you must pay for them. The EZ Weather HD app remains competitive
with the best of them though and as of now, it’s free. That is a pretty major bonus, especially
considering the lack of advertising banners.
With the sheer number of features and customizable options already
available, the EZ Weather HD app is making its mark and with more features
promised in the near future, this user feels that this will become the app to
beat in the smartphone and tablet world.
In a day when everyone is always on the go, the EZ Weather HD app not
only keeps me up to date with the current weather it also allows me to do it
quickly and easily. That’s a win/win no
matter how you look at it!