Minimalistic Gesture-Controlled Weather App Haze Hits the App Store

[MacRumors]

Haze, a new weather app from Robocat, offers up a clean, colorful design and animated backgrounds that accompany weather forecasts.

It is similar in appearance to weather app Solar, but Haze incorporates touch gestures allowing users to navigate through information like temperature, sunrise and sunset times, rain predictions, and wind factor.

Despite its surprisingly minimal appearance, Haze is feature rich. The app includes different unlockable colored themes for a personalized look and it also provides a five day forecast of the weather with a downward swipe.

Haze can be downloaded for $0.99 from the App Store. [Direct Link]

Article Link: Minimalistic Gesture-Controlled Weather App Haze Hits the App Store

[orangebluedevil]

Not working for me. Constantly says that Forecast Temporarily Not Available.

[imgonephishin]

I really appreciate the design of a lot of these gesture-controlled apps but the problem is that there are few clear platform standards (pinch to zoom, etc.) and it basically means as the number of gesture apps grows, I would have to relearn the app each time I used one.

[andy318]

Looks really cool. But i prefer being able to see these things without having to click many times.

[TC03]

Originally Posted by imgonephishin

I really appreciate the design of a lot of these gesture-controlled apps but the problem is that there are few clear platform standards (pinch to zoom, etc.) and it basically means as the number of gesture apps grows, I would have to relearn the app each time I used one.

Agreed. Gestures based-app are like shortkey-based apps for your desktop: quick and useful once your learn it. But you have to learn it, which is too much of a hassle for something as simple as the weather. Gestures should be complementary to buttons.

Nevertheless, I haven't checked out this specific app. But in general, the above is my opinion on gesture based apps.

[HarryKeogh]

No minimalism for me, thank you very much.

When it's sunny I just want to see an anthropomorphic sun wearing sunglasses.

[petsounds]

Why the heck do you guys (Macrumors) promote every weather app that comes out? This is getting silly.

[baller1308]

Originally Posted by petsounds

Why the heck do you guys (Macrumors) promote every weather app that comes out? This is getting silly.

slow news day and another post to add.

It's a pretty simple app. I don't think you can have more than on city. $2.99, which is the original price after this sale, is too much for this app, imo.

[vjl323]

Originally Posted by andy318

Looks really cool. But i prefer being able to see these things without having to click many times.

What app is that? Looks pretty nice!

[Razeus]

I don't understand these weather apps. I simply pull the notificatin menu down when I want to check the weather. Gives me all the info I need for the today and 5 days ahead. What more do people need?

Weather shouldn't be something for people to manage. Just info.

[nagromme]

Originally Posted by TC03

Agreed. Gestures based-app are like shortkey-based apps for your desktop: quick and useful once your learn it. But you have to learn it, which is too much of a hassle for something as simple as the weather. Gestures should be complementary to buttons.

Nevertheless, I haven't checked out this specific app. But in general, the above is my opinion on gesture based apps.

Exactly. Gestures are the new keyboard shortcut!

Gesture-heavy apps can LOOK cool (see: Metro) but except for a few very standard gestures (cross-out delete, pinch zoom, pull to reload) they shouldn't be necessary for anything.

I consider these gesture apps novelties. I salute them, but they're not the future.

Originally Posted by Razeus

I don't understand these weather apps. I simply pull the notificatin menu down when I want to check the weather. Gives me all the info I need for the today and 5 days ahead. What more do people need?

Weather shouldn't be something for people to manage. Just info.

I want to know a lot more than the widget will show me (and Yahoo! weather doesn't seem all that accurate for me).

I want to know how much time I have before a storm hits. I want to know what part of the day tomorrow will be good weather.

I use Dark Sky plus Weather Underground or Weatherbug (haven't decided) on iPhone. On iPad I use Dark Sky plus Wundermap.

[theanonymousbob]

Why do I need another weather app? If I just want to know the temperature, the standard weather app does the trick just fine. If I want to see a radar, I open the Weather Channel app. The fact that people keep thinking a different take on the same old information is worthy of an iOS app investment is mindbogglingly absurd.

[Shrink]

The triumph of form over function.

Lots of cuteness...minimal information.

[Razeus]

Originally Posted by theanonymousbob

Why do I need another weather app? If I just want to know the temperature, the standard weather app does the trick just fine. If I want to see a radar, I open the Weather Channel app. The fact that people keep thinking a different take on the same old information is worthy of an iOS app investment is mindbogglingly absurd.

It reminds of the devs that keep trying to reinvent email. Apple always touts a new email feature when OS X or iOS versions update, Sparrow, now these folks "waiting in line" for the Mailbox app. It's email for Christ Sake.

There's just not much info you need than the general for the weather folks.

[WildCowboy]

Originally Posted by petsounds

Why the heck do you guys (Macrumors) promote every weather app that comes out? This is getting silly.

Unless I'm missing something, we covered Dark Sky last year and now this one...two apps in the nearly five-year history of the App Store. That hardly qualifies as "every weather app".

[WilliamTM]

Originally Posted by TC03

Agreed. Gestures based-app are like shortkey-based apps for your desktop: quick and useful once your learn it. But you have to learn it, which is too much of a hassle for something as simple as the weather. Gestures should be complementary to buttons.

Nevertheless, I haven't checked out this specific app. But in general, the above is my opinion on gesture based apps.

They are (almost) complementary to buttons - the buttons at the bottom control access to each "page" of info. The only hidden thing is the settings and forecast data, but the app gives you a quick short tutorial at the start to show you where they are, and it's "drag down", which most iOS users are used to now. You can drag down to reveal the forecast once, and it'll remember to keep it open, and the only things in the settings worth paying attention to are the themes, too, so you can pretty much do that once and then ignore them.

I bought the app myself and so far I love it. It's very pretty to look at and gives you enough info. It's obviously designed to be pretty, and not to be a detailed super accurate forecast of every last detail over the next decade, but it gives me enough info (temp, forecast, and if it'll rain), so I'm happy with it.

As for "enough of these silly weather apps", I'd rather have more than we need on the App Store. It gives people choice, and there are many other categories where there's only *one* app that does what I want, yet I'd really like more choice.

[andy318]

Originally Posted by vjl323

What app is that? Looks pretty nice!

WeatherPro

[Orlandoech.com]

Originally Posted by andy318

WeatherPro

Glitchy and for "minimalistic" it's very gesture confusing and the lack of even instructions make this a no go for me.

[Mike Oxard]

Originally Posted by WildCowboy

Unless I'm missing something, we covered Dark Sky last year and now this one...two apps in the nearly five-year history of the App Store. That hardly qualifies as "every weather app".

So, it's favouritism then is it?

[petsounds]

Originally Posted by WildCowboy

Unless I'm missing something, we covered Dark Sky last year and now this one...two apps in the nearly five-year history of the App Store. That hardly qualifies as "every weather app".

Okay, it seemed like more than that, but fair enough... well maybe I'm just tired of every tech press site covering 'designer' weather apps. They're mostly all just UI skins on the same weather APIs.

[inselstudent]

Seems like there can never be enough fancy looking weather apps. The main issues with all those is the poor weather data they use which makes them pretty much useless, at least to me, living in Germany.

So, again, tried many, but always return to Weather Pro. Stable data is simply worth more than a fancy UI. It's a pity though.

[Smartass]

Originally Posted by Orlandoech.com

Glitchy and for "minimalistic" it's very gesture confusing and the lack of even instructions make this a no go for me.

it's actually a pretty easy app to use and not glitchy at all. And it has instructions for people like you

[borneo76]

i need weather widget, not another weather app......

[Orlandoech.com]

Originally Posted by Smartass

it's actually a pretty easy app to use and not glitchy at all. And it has instructions for people like you

Why does it keep crashing when I swipe then? Not glitchy? It is for me.

[I WAS the one]

Originally Posted by WildCowboy

Unless I'm missing something, we covered Dark Sky last year and now this one...two apps in the nearly five-year history of the App Store. That hardly qualifies as "every weather app".

don't let this Droid-heads in disguise bother you. Even if it's true we all understand that blogs doesn't get paid with comments.