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The new Weather Channel app update sucks!

T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
I hate this new scrolling view! It is so laggy and wayyy to sensitive, almost impossible to scroll right to the hourly view without going too far.

Worst of all it's MUCH slower and less efficient to have to scroll 3 times to get to the 10 day forecast or even just once to get the hourly than it was to simply click on a tab. Why do companies insist on making perfectly functional designs harder to use???
 
Tyler23

Tyler23

macrumors 603
Dec 2, 2010
5,664
159
Atlanta, GA
TH55 said:
I hate this new scrolling view! It is so laggy and wayyy to sensitive, almost impossible to scroll right to the hourly view without going too far.

Worst of all it's MUCH slower and less efficient to have to scroll 3 times to get to the 10 day forecast or even just once to get the hourly than it was to simply click on a tab. Why do companies insist on making perfectly functional designs harder to use???
Click to expand...

I was pretty sure, but now I am 100% positive, you are the most resistant to change person on the internet.

Just downloaded it because I had not used it in a few months. It's way better than the previous version. Much cleaner, and simpler to use. If you do a simple, short, and not aggressive swipe up, it easily slides down to the hourly view. Swipe slightly harder, and you get to the 10 day view.

Seems like a huge overreaction to a simple, beneficial change.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
The new Weather Channel app update sucks!

No, it is horrible. They tried to make the Yahoo design work for them and failed miserably. They needed to work in tabs for the videos, blog posts, etc.

I never particularly liked their apps, but I had to see what everyone was complaining about.
 
T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
Tyler23 said:
I was pretty sure, but now I am 100% positive, you are the most resistant to change person on the internet.

Just downloaded it because I had not used it in a few months. It's way better than the previous version. Much cleaner, and simpler to use. If you do a simple, short, and not aggressive swipe up, it easily slides down to the hourly view. Swipe slightly harder, and you get to the 10 day view.

Seems like a huge overreaction to a simple, beneficial change.
Click to expand...

Clearly it's not me, if the poster below and apparently everyone else are complaining about it. Nice try though. Please don't respond just to criticize me, I make it a point to avoid directly criticizing anyone and keep the focus on the objective issues I have with the technology.

----------
Jessica Lares said:
No, it is horrible. They tried to make the Yahoo design work for them and failed miserably. They needed to work in tabs for the videos, blog posts, etc.

I never particularly liked their apps, but I had to see what everyone was complaining about.
Click to expand...

Everyone is complaining? Good that is reassuring. I am pretty pissed, it's awful.
 
T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
Jessica Lares said:
Not everyone, but It's averaging a two star rating on the App Store. Based on 5,684 reviews.
Click to expand...

That's pretty significant. Like I've always said, I'm not at all opposed to change as long as it's an improvement.
 
Jessica Lares

Jessica Lares

macrumors G3
Oct 31, 2009
9,612
1,056
Near Dallas, Texas, USA
TH55 said:
That's pretty significant. Like I've always said, I'm not at all opposed to change as long as it's an improvement.
Click to expand...

Oh yeah, me either.

Tyler23 mentioned making simple and short swipes. That's the kind of thing anyone that knows about user interfaces would warn you against. You don't want to think about how you have to use an app every time you open it.

People aren't complaining just to do so. Trust us on this one.
 
L

Lord Hamsa

macrumors 6502a
Jul 16, 2013
698
675
This redesign ranks up (down?) there with the "Ribbon" disaster that Microsoft Office inflicted on us some years ago.

Edited to add: And does anyone really want "social weather"? Really?
 
P

planktons

macrumors newbie
Apr 5, 2012
21
0
Use Dark Sky instead. Uses a bunch of different sources and some statistical magic to put together the best forecast I've ever gotten from any individual source.

And if you don't want to pay for it, open this URL on Safari: http://forecast.io. Same data, just doesn't have the hyper-local forecast.
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
Various weather apps went the same way as far as design goes--it seems like their take on iOS 7 design is that flat and single page scrolling interface: AccuWeather, Weather Underground, and now The Weather Channel.
 
T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
C DM said:
Various weather apps went the same way as far as design goes--it seems like their take on iOS 7 design is that flat and single page scrolling interface: AccuWeather, Weather Underground, and now The Weather Channel.
Click to expand...

Yeah and based on iOS 7's lukewarm reception they should probably know better.
 
T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
Tyler23 said:
I was pretty sure, but now I am 100% positive, you are the most resistant to change person on the internet.

Just downloaded it because I had not used it in a few months. It's way better than the previous version. Much cleaner, and simpler to use. If you do a simple, short, and not aggressive swipe up, it easily slides down to the hourly view. Swipe slightly harder, and you get to the 10 day view.

Seems like a huge overreaction to a simple, beneficial change.
Click to expand...

How is it simpler to use?? It's much more complicated for absolutely no reason! You cannot get more efficient than tabs, period. Everything is right there, you can get to what you want instantly. Having to carefully scroll the perfect amount every single time you use the app is ridiculous.
 
B

Belmont31R

macrumors 6502
Nov 23, 2012
387
33
I had the paid TWC Max app. Screw TWC. They aren't supporting the paid app anymore (hasn't been updated since APR of 2013) and the new free version has HUGE ads all over the place.

I have switched to Weather Underground w/ and paid to remove ads. I don't mind that since it's within the same app so they can't offer a paid version then stop supporting it. Yahoo did a similar stunt with the paid Sportacular app (ad free Sports). They at least pulled it from the App Store so people aren't paying for an unsupported app. TWC still has the TWC Max app up and they're unethical for not pulling an app they don't plan on supporting anymore.

RE the Weather Underground app. I like it a lot. You can change the order of the info displayed and even remove sections. I get WAY more info displayed when the app comes up than any other weather app I've used and it's a short scroll to get future forecasts. This app isn't like TWC, Accu, or Yahoo where you get a tiny bit of information when the app opens then have to scroll way down to get more.
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
Belmont31R said:
I had the paid TWC Max app. Screw TWC. They aren't supporting the paid app anymore (hasn't been updated since APR of 2013) and the new free version has HUGE ads all over the place.

I have switched to Weather Underground w/ and paid to remove ads. I don't mind that since it's within the same app so they can't offer a paid version then stop supporting it. Yahoo did a similar stunt with the paid Sportacular app (ad free Sports). They at least pulled it from the App Store so people aren't paying for an unsupported app. TWC still has the TWC Max app up and they're unethical for not pulling an app they don't plan on supporting anymore.

RE the Weather Underground app. I like it a lot. You can change the order of the info displayed and even remove sections. I get WAY more info displayed when the app comes up than any other weather app I've used and it's a short scroll to get future forecasts. This app isn't like TWC, Accu, or Yahoo where you get a tiny bit of information when the app opens then have to scroll way down to get more.
Click to expand...
It's interesting the difference experience you can get between Weather Underground and TWC apps--you'd think they would somewhat learn from each other given that both ultimately belong to The Weather Channel, LLC.
 
T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
Belmont31R said:
I had the paid TWC Max app. Screw TWC. They aren't supporting the paid app anymore (hasn't been updated since APR of 2013) and the new free version has HUGE ads all over the place.

I have switched to Weather Underground w/ and paid to remove ads. I don't mind that since it's within the same app so they can't offer a paid version then stop supporting it. Yahoo did a similar stunt with the paid Sportacular app (ad free Sports). They at least pulled it from the App Store so people aren't paying for an unsupported app. TWC still has the TWC Max app up and they're unethical for not pulling an app they don't plan on supporting anymore.

RE the Weather Underground app. I like it a lot. You can change the order of the info displayed and even remove sections. I get WAY more info displayed when the app comes up than any other weather app I've used and it's a short scroll to get future forecasts. This app isn't like TWC, Accu, or Yahoo where you get a tiny bit of information when the app opens then have to scroll way down to get more.
Click to expand...

Wait so you're saying the paid version of TWC is still the old format w tabs??? That's EXCELLENT news! I would pay $10 for that! I'm downloading it right now! Please confirm before I buy it.

Edit - just downloaded it, thank the lord! It's the old version! I'm saved! No one can take it from me!!! I just have to be careful not to update it again.
 
Last edited:
B

Belmont31R

macrumors 6502
Nov 23, 2012
387
33
TH55 said:
Wait so you're saying the paid version of TWC is still the old format w tabs??? That's EXCELLENT news! I would pay $10 for that! I'm downloading it right now! Please confirm before I buy it.



Edit - just downloaded it, thank the lord! It's the old version! I'm saved! No one can take it from me!!! I just have to be careful not to update it again.
Click to expand...



lol yes. Hasn't been updated for over a year.
 
C

C DM

macrumors Sandy Bridge
Oct 17, 2011
51,390
19,458
TH55 said:
Thank god for their incompetence/lack of respect for their user base. It solved the problem it caused! And now I'm ad-free!
Click to expand...
Until they might decide to update the app (in which case you might want to be careful and check out the information about the update before actually updating).
 
T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
C DM said:
Until they might decide to update the app (in which case you might want to be careful and check out the information about the update before actually updating).
Click to expand...

Yeah exactly. I'll be very careful from now on updating anything, you think I would've learned my lesson by now. I can always download the updated version to try it....if I don't like it I can delete and restore from backup.

My only fear is that they do a forced update. Words w Friends did that, really pissed me off.
 
T

thanhnam231092

macrumors newbie
May 8, 2014
1
0
Originally Posted by The Doctor11 View Post
I hate it too. If the default iOS app had radar the weather channel would be off my phone in a second.

Yeah I think almost everyone is in agreement here!:)
 
B

Belmont31R

macrumors 6502
Nov 23, 2012
387
33
sk1wbw said:
Yeah, scrolling is such a hassle. It takes up so much of my time.
Click to expand...


Scrolling isn't bad by itself. Scrolling is bad when you have to scroll past huge ads, irrelevant information, and promotional content to access basic weather data. The old app with the tabs was actually much faster to access the info the user was actually looking for. They removed data that was immediately available in old UI on the home screen and effectively have hidden that data set so the user has to scroll past the ads and BS to find it. That's a regression and not an improvement.
 
T

TH55

macrumors 68040
Original poster
Nov 5, 2011
3,328
152
Belmont31R said:
Scrolling isn't bad by itself. Scrolling is bad when you have to scroll past huge ads, irrelevant information, and promotional content to access basic weather data. The old app with the tabs was actually much faster to access the info the user was actually looking for. They removed data that was immediately available in old UI on the home screen and effectively have hidden that data set so the user has to scroll past the ads and BS to find it. That's a regression and not an improvement.
Click to expand...

Exactly. Not to mention it's nearly impossible to get it to stop on the right spot the first time.
 
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