by Apps designed using iOS 7’s design language have a clear advantage. Those that we loved in iOS 6 are already starting to feel old and antiquated, and it won’t be long before we start looking for more modern replacements. Perfect Weather, while not quite as perfect as it claims, is a worthy contender.
With an animated, bright interface, it feels as much at home on iOS 7 as Apple’s own forecasting app, but Perfect Weather is not a Weather clone; if it borrows from any of Apple’s interfaces, it’s Passbook. A color-coded, tabbed list of cities shows current conditions at a glance, and the only animated clouds you’ll see inside come from the live radars that keep you up to date on what’s happening.
Once a tab is expanded, Perfect Weather offers a ton of information, but nothing about its interface seems cluttered or bloated. Part of its airy feel is due to the thin fonts and minimal icons, but there’s a level of organization that doesn’t bog down your eyes. A multi-level pull-down menu provides a six-day forecast and an hourly temperature graph, while swiping to the left reveals an array of stats, from humidity and real-feel temperature to barometric pressure. Real-time radar straight from the NOAA is something of a killer addition to the feature set, and we particularly loved playing with the rain and clouds sliders — a brilliant innovation that adjusts the transparency of the overlaid graphics.
It’s not all sunny, though. We ran into an unexpected six-city limit, something that could be a deal-breaker for weather junkies. A separate slot is reserved for GPS roaming, but it would have been nice to see exactly where we were, rather than the nondescript “Your Location” it lists. Also, Perfect Weather doesn’t travel well — we were rebuffed when we tried to find a city outside the United States and weren’t able to switch to Celsius.
The bottom line. Perfect Weather has a few flaws, but its interface is sure to please early iOS 7 adopters.
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