A mini Weather Apps review - Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Windows Mobile General

I have been looking for a nice today screen weather app for some time. I don't use the TF3D interface and did not like the built in app anyway. It had that really pesky problem of limited city selections. Anyway this is not intended to be a full comparison but just some comments I hope you will find useful in selecting a solid today weather app.
Tools I looked at:
-HTC TF3D app
-MSN Weather app
-Elocent Weather: http://www.elecont.com/weather-for-pocket-pc.aspx
-Weather to go: http://tonaya.com/products/wtg/index.php
-PocketWeather: http://www.sbsh.net/products/windows_mobile_pocket_pc/pocketweather
Indirectly looked at:
-Fizz Weather
-SPB Weather
Through this nice "shoot out": http://www.mytodayscreen.com/shootout-weather-applications/ (also included PocketWeather)
MSN Weather: Way too simple only the basics, not a today screen app.
Elocent: Looks like a solid contender, nice time history graphs, full featured, $10.
Weather To Go: Nice basic today screen, FREE, not maintained. Had some issues with memorization of the default city.
PocketWeather: Pricier at $15 but nice free eval period. Is both a nice light today app and provides more details than most will ever need. The winner for me.
PocketWeather provides current conditions, forecast, descriptive icons, customizeable icons, customizeable today details, sunrise/sunset, wind, humidity, direct METAR reports from nearby airfields, radar pictures, world daylight map, earthquake data and auto updates, strong control over data sources and download frequencies. UV index would be a nice feature that is missing.
In short an amazing little app. Do note I have no affiliation, stake nor conflict of interest with any of the products nor companies mentioned here.
I hope you found this useful in selecting a weather app. Feel free to add reviews, links or comparisons, whatever.

Have you tried WeatherPanel. I think its the best one out there and its free.

^ Looks very solid. I think you have the price wrong. Perhaps you can download for free or perhaps payment is optional but the site ( http://www.marsware.net/WeatherPanel/purchase.htm ) says $13. Moon phase info by any chance - it did not look like it. Lastly it does not appear to be maintained (not since 2005). Thanks.
Edit, update. I DL-ed this but no matter how I choose the two uddate options I can not even get a single data update to populate the today page. Bummer.

Ive been trying to find a good weather app as well. I also have TF3D disabled.. Ive been looking for something that will add in to my zune-ish today screen and has nifty animations. I've been checking out this one which allows to find location by GPS. Not free but has a really nice layout and functionality. Might go with this one..
edit: have new user restrictions and cant post a link. Google GWeather Ageye

I use WeatherBug (free):
http://weather.weatherbug.com/mobile/weatherbug-windows-mobile.html
and SPB's weather plugins.

swamp2 said:
^ Looks very solid. I think you have the price wrong. Perhaps you can download for free or perhaps payment is optional but the site ( http://www.marsware.net/WeatherPanel/purchase.htm ) says $13. Moon phase info by any chance - it did not look like it. Lastly it does not appear to be maintained (not since 2005). Thanks.
Edit, update. I DL-ed this but no matter how I choose the two uddate options I can not even get a single data update to populate the today page. Bummer.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It was discontinued by the writers but was picked up and supported by PPCGeeks and Storyr in particlular.
This is a great thread on it at PPC Geeks although the same info in here on XDA. http://forum.ppcgeeks.com/showthread.php?t=7357&highlight=weatherpanel
Try this cab. Weatherpanel 2010 with moon phase fixed until end of 2012.

Related

Are there any better PIM programs out there?

Does anyone know of any good Personal Information Management software for Windows Mobile? I am not asking a whole lot. Just be able to search for a key word among appointments, todos, notes shouldn't be too much to ask for, is it? The current Calendar and Task applications can't even do that.
Thanks!
there are a ton of them, google PIM, windows mobile and your search will come up with Pocket Informant, Agenda One, and a bunch of others.
thanks!
dmd1272 said:
there are a ton of them, google PIM, windows mobile and your search will come up with Pocket Informant, Agenda One, and a bunch of others.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually, I have done a google search before. Like you said, there are a ton. Perhaps, I should change my question to which PIM is better for the WM 6.1.
thanks!
i have been using agenda one - works for everything I need and I am kinda picky. If theres something better fill me in. Download the free trial and see if you like it.
PIM
Try Papyrus or Agenda One - both are among the best
Agenda One not working very well
[email protected] said:
Try Papyrus or Agenda One - both are among the best
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thank you for the suggestions! I downloaded the trial version of Agenda One - supposed to be full featured with time limit. I tried several searches - some search all, some search only in appointment, or only todos. None of them worked. It looked like the program tried for a while, then it simply terminated (not the search, but the entire Agenda one program). It kicked me back to the today screen, and the process no longer listed in the task list
Try the recently released Papyrus 2. It's frakkin' amazing
try agendus over at www.iambic.com
Agenda One is no go
anewbie said:
Thank you for the suggestions! I downloaded the trial version of Agenda One - supposed to be full featured with time limit. I tried several searches - some search all, some search only in appointment, or only todos. None of them worked. It looked like the program tried for a while, then it simply terminated (not the search, but the entire Agenda one program). It kicked me back to the today screen, and the process no longer listed in the task list
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I signed up at Developer One support forum, and tried to post this question. It's been a couple of days, they don't even show my posting in the forum. I tried to ask the same question again, still blocked by the moderator. Oh well, moving on to Papyrus 2 trial now.
Thank you all for the suggestions! I thought I'd spend a few words sharing my opinions on the products I've been trying out:
Agenda One - in spite of the awards the company claims they have received, I find this product adds very little value to the existing WM 6.1 PIM functionality. Some pretty colors, that's it. When I started my quest for a better PIM, all I was looking for was a search function. Agenda One has it. I had made many variations of attempts to use it, search all, search in appointments only, search in todos only, search whole word, partial word, any words .... Not once did it ever complete the search with any result. Every single time, the function started, try for a while, then the program crashed. It simply terminate. I submitted the question to the company's support forum, the question itself didn't get posted until 5 days later - as the moderator has to screen every single post. When it did appear, other user indicated same problem on other smart phone as well. I'm not the only one.
Edit: the forum blocked my complaint, and finally come back with a question - it remotely sounds like it cares, but the question is useless. If they read my post, they would have found the answer there. I feel like dealing with a communist government official - sensor everything, sloooooooooow to respond and defend every criticism ...
Papyrus 2.0 - the calendar layouts are reasonably flexible, so you can customize how you want to see all the activities. The search is very fast, even if I have more than 30 matches, they show up as soon as the program finds them. There is one thing I don't like, but I suspect I may be able to figure out a way to change, that is, I only want to see todos that are not yet completed on a daily basis. Even though I have that specified, it is still showing me the todos that are already marked complete (not all of them, just the ones that have no dates associated with). To me, they are done, they are done. Why would I want to look at them everyday just because their complete dates were not marked? Other than that, everything seems to be pretty good. They've got nice colors just like Agenda One, and price is about the same.
Agendus Pro - Agendus Pro has a rich set of nice features - in addition to the regular calendar/todo/contact views, you can also access call log, email, quote of the day, day in history, weather forecast, and stock quote all from this application. I didn't think about these before, but, they are very nice to have. The cost of this product is no more than the others. Another nice feature - there is a tool bar (either on top or bottom of the screen) you can use to select the format of display (day view, week view, month view, list, contact, email, etc, etc. With the other products (Agenda One, and Papyrus), you have to press the view soft bottom, which brings up another screen that let you select the format. Agendus layout is more intuitive and direct.
Having said all of that, I do have a couple of complaints -
- Agendus Pro take up 3.7 MB, whereas Papyrus - 700 KB, Agenda One - 966 KB. These are the cab size, I know that Agendus Pro includes several language supports, which contribute to the bigger CAB size. Nevertheless, the memory foot print is still the biggest among the 3.
- my 2nd complaint is that when you load the program just to look at some details in an appointment, the program starts and you don't see anything in the calendar - it tells you that you don't have any activity. Then, a little box flashes "initializing ...", "initializing ...", "initializing ..." ... My screen went out 4 times before I can finally see the content of my day's calendar. If it takes less memory, I may just keep it running, which would not have the "initializing ..." problem. Since the program takes up so much memory, I don't want to keep it in the memory. This is a deal killer for me. It's too bad. I like the features a lot.
Edit: Since the above was written, I've tried two more software packages. Nothing stood out. One fenomenal ability make Papyrus shine among all the others is how fast the search function performs. Everyone else wait, and wait, and wait until they've collected all the matches and put them on the screen all at once. If you have a sizable database (mine has about 2000 entries), you'll be staring at a blank screen with a spinning wheel forever, the screen saver would kick in multiple times. Whereas Papyrus' search shows you the match results as it progresses through the database. Maybe the match I am looking for is the first couple out of 50, why would I need to wait until it finds 50 before showing me first two? That's just a simply logic. I don't get what the other developers were thinking ....
Needless to say, Papyrus 2.0 becomes my choice. Their forum is great, too! Very happy about this decision
thanks!

Weather - wind speed/direction possible?

I love the weather app on my HD especially since it's now working on S2U2, but one thing that really annoys me is the lack of info about wind speed & direction.
I like to get out sea fishing when I can, and this would be REALLY useful info if there was a way to add it into the Touch HD's weather app, or if there is an alternative program that would pretty much do the same nice front end as it but with more info and the same locations.
Is there any hope of finding something suitable?
I'm sorry, with TF3D you have no chance. If you need advanced weather infos, then you should try a advanced application. Unfortunately I'm not into this whole weather thing - I only use the TF3D thing, but I'm sure somebody can tell what Prog you need.
TF3D defenetly doesn't work
Would you rely on a mobile phone app for weather info before going out to sea??
No, of course not - despite what some may think I'm not a moron and have been safe at sea for many years now.
It would be extremely useful however to see at a glance what the wind speed is predicted to be for the next few days on one of the tabs, like the weather one, as then it can show you at a glance whether it's even worth contemplating & planning a trip out, or if there'll be no likely chance of it.
Regardless of the use of it,the question was whether/how it's doable, not whether I'm a competent mariner or not.
For instance my watch has a built in tide graph that lets me see at a glance what sort of times the tides will be and it's very useful. But I wouldn't go out without knowing the exact tides otherwise I could have problems when I come back in. Having a gadget isn't mutually exclusive with common sense & reliable methods.
Not an app but...
www.xcweather.co.uk
you can get it on the mobile browsers
Cheers - have added that to bookmarks.
I found an app called secil weather that looks great but no wvga/vga sadly

[APP IDEA] Need a developer for RSS feed scroller in Home tab

[I posted similar idea recently, but now I have some new stuff, so hoping to get someones attention]
Idea: An application that would scroll RSS feeds on Home screen in Manila.
Of course, such an app isn't hard to make, the RSS Hub saves its channels into simple files - the problem is how to incorporate it into Home screen.
Well, I got an idea for that as well! Recently a small program called Personalizer showed up that enables us to change the network provider name into anything we want - that would be the perfect place for RSS scroller to show up! And since there already exists a way to modify this data, I suppose it would be possible to use Personalizer as backdoor for the feeds to show up in that text filed!
Even if they wouldn't actually "scroll", I believe they could be made to change every 4-5 seconds.
Then the only issue remaining is how to make those feeds clickable...
This is all theorycraft, of course, but I think it's still worth a shot.
I love this idea!
Unfortunately, no one seems to be interested to give this a try
i would love such an app too!
I think a better implementation would be to make a seperate TF3D tab for RSS feed (like they did months ago with the calendar/call history/Communications tabs). This way we could have tabs (in the RSS tab) which would allow for switching between various feed sources (CNN, BBC, etc). I think this could be easier to implement as well.
And one again, I'l love this feature too. (as well as more facebook intergration, so it renames contact to the linked facebook name, and gets email address if provided on facebook instead of just pic and bday)
This would be one of the best additions to touchFlo 3D in a while. i would actually pay for a nice working version. It should have its own RSS Tab with sub tabs. We should put donations up for whoever come up with this. I have $20 US on this. This should be promoted.
Please someone take this up.
why dont you get yourself a good dataplan / dataflatrate for this 20$?
Then there is no more need for pushinternet, rss and all this stuff.
str0nz0 said:
why dont you get yourself a good dataplan / dataflatrate for this 20$?
Then there is no more need for pushinternet, rss and all this stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
FYI that makes no sense. You still need a dataplan to use 'pushinternet, rss and all this stuff.' Such additions just a better way to integrate the extra features, making them faster and more user friendly.
Silly you
Would be a great idea if this took off as I use RSS all the time and it would be so much more convenient if it was on a tab.
Svegetto said:
FYI that makes no sense. You still need a dataplan to use 'pushinternet, rss and all this stuff.' Such additions just a better way to integrate the extra features, making them faster and more user friendly.
Silly you
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you don't get the idea of this tools. you use pushinternet and rss in order to view online content while you don't have an internet connection. but why should u use outdated and cutted information when you can have internetaccess anytime? silly you.
str0nz0 said:
why dont you get yourself a good dataplan / dataflatrate for this 20$?
Then there is no more need for pushinternet, rss and all this stuff.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
i do have that data plan u are talking about. i just think this is a good idea.
Oh, definitively would love a separate tab in TF3D, as well!
Basically, I would be happy with ANY way to implement RSS feeds directly into TF3D, whether it's via a special tab, or a scrolling bar... Whatever!
I'm not giving up on it. I didn't give up on Manila high-res wallpaper and a month later we got 3 applications that solve the damn low-res wallpaper issue.
So, lets hope the same principle works for this ))
str0nz0 said:
I think you don't get the idea of this tools. you use pushinternet and rss in order to view online content while you don't have an internet connection. but why should u use outdated and cutted information when you can have internetaccess anytime? silly you.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Lol you miss the entire point of the idea of an RSS tab. If I'm using a feed, I want to know what's happening now, not 12 hours ago. If old, outdated information works for you then great, no need for you to post pointless posts to get data plans. Not to mention the convenience that a RSS tab would bring. Hopefully someone will be able to integrate it into TF3D
Svegetto said:
Lol you miss the entire point of the idea of an RSS tab. If I'm using a feed, I want to know what's happening now, not 12 hours ago. If old, outdated information works for you then great, no need for you to post pointless posts to get data plans. Not to mention the convenience that a RSS tab would bring. Hopefully someone will be able to integrate it into TF3D
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I think you mixed up something
feeds, podcasts etc. have no live information. the real internet does!
if i browse the internet, newspages etc i get fresh news. if you download an rss feed and read it later, you have old information. and most rss feeds have only very little information, most of them give you 3 sentences and a link for their webpage, where you can read more.
so, the idea of an rss tab is not bad! but its only useful for people, who dont have a good dataplan to grab news instantly.
str0nz0 said:
I think you mixed up something
feeds, podcasts etc. have no live information. the real internet does!
if i browse the internet, newspages etc i get fresh news. if you download an rss feed and read it later, you have old information. and most rss feeds have only very little information, most of them give you 3 sentences and a link for their webpage, where you can read more.
so, the idea of an rss tab is not bad! but its only useful for people, who dont have a good dataplan to grab news instantly.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry but I think you're missing the point a little bit. I have 20+ RSS feeds and it would be fantastic to have these on a tab. Although I have a very good dataplan, I don't have the time to go to 20+ websites every 30 mins to see if there's something interesting. I go to the website maybe 1 in 30 RSS feeds for more info but I do like to be kept up to date on what is new on the websites concerned.
Just my twopenneth worth.
M
martint235 said:
Sorry but I think you're missing the point a little bit. I have 20+ RSS feeds and it would be fantastic to have these on a tab. Although I have a very good dataplan, I don't have the time to go to 20+ websites every 30 mins to see if there's something interesting. I go to the website maybe 1 in 30 RSS feeds for more info but I do like to be kept up to date on what is new on the websites concerned.
Just my twopenneth worth.
M
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
that's the exact reason i want the extra tab. who wants to go on slow ass 3g networks to check out websites when i can get it in an rss feed. i live in nyc and take the subway a lot so there is noway i can use the data plan underground making rss feeds perfect for me. adding it to TF3D would make it a lot more convenient for browsing instead of opening an application.
Exactly
I've posted a request for an extra tab for RSS a while ago in the Diamond section (since I owned a Diamond then). I would be happy to join the dev team with some UI designs...
Nielsepiels said:
I've posted a request for an extra tab for RSS a while ago in the Diamond section (since I owned a Diamond then). I would be happy to join the dev team with some UI designs...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Man those screen shots are nice. i wish this would get some more attention becuz its a great idea. htc might even steal it lol. the stocks tab was nice but a full news tab would be alot nicer. come on people we need some donations maybe then we will get some attention. i have $25 dollars on this.

RSS Reader recommendations

I am looking for a mobile RSS Reader. Do not know much about them. am using pRSSreader and Viigo. Brand new to both but am really liking the feeds. Obviously free is nice, but would pay if it was a good reader. Want the full article, offline ability, ease of adding links, so new that I do not even know what i want - other than not to spend a lot of time entering links into a bad piece of software.
WM 6.1 Pro
Do a search for YomoMedia. Works great, looks nice, and you can manage your subscriptions from your PC as well as from the phone. And it's free.
i like that i can organize my feeds on the desktop. it has been difficult getting the feed urls entered into my device. with yomomedia, can you download the entire article and look at them offline?
thebrenda said:
i like that i can organize my feeds on the desktop. it has been difficult getting the feed urls entered into my device. with yomomedia, can you download the entire article and look at them offline?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm testing it right now (great find by the way, thanks Commdr64!!), and on the few feeds I've tested so far, the full version of the article has been included with the downloaded updates, available when you're offline.
It's a nice clean interface, runs smooth, and I like that you can manage your subscriptions from the desktop
Correction
Ok, I've found some feeds now that don't have the full article downloaded for offline viewing...they download in the app, but only when you click a link for the full article. I can't seem to find any settings that change that behavior, so I'm guessing it's dictated by the feed and not the app.
Right now I'm using the default RSS reader installed which works great, but Yomomedia sounds also very interesting.
I use SPB News (Full Text News Reader ) it's pretty good here's a link , and it has a Free Trial. I use alot of SPB products.
http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/pocketpc-software/news/
BioTecK said:
Right now I'm using the default RSS reader installed which works great, but Yomomedia sounds also very interesting.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What default RSS Reader? My HTC TP2 does not have one.
sirphunkee said:
Ok, I've found some feeds now that don't have the full article downloaded for offline viewing...they download in the app, but only when you click a link for the full article. I can't seem to find any settings that change that behavior, so I'm guessing it's dictated by the feed and not the app.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was thinking that some feeds would not want the article downloaded. I am new to it but why would they want to give you the full article? Would think that they would want you to go to the site. Anyway ... I will download tonight and play with it.
RSS reader
I spend almost an hour in a train on my way to work/home and need a reader that can retrieve articles for offline reading. So recently I spent my whole weekend testing about 13 rss readers and podcast catchers - all i could find on the web. thought i would share my experience. I actually installed all of them and compared one by one. In my opinion the best reader is Egress and it is far superior than any of the readers both by the number of features it has and also customizations you can do. The only feature that this reader does not have compared to all others is that it is not designed to sync with online/desktop readers. I do not need that because in the train i read specific feeds only and leave the rest for desktop reading. It has not been updated for some time (i think it went to android), but even now its touch interface and visual looks are very modern. It is not free... The second best is Yomomedia, though it installs few things on device even though you choose Storage card.
wondering if you tried pRSSreader? it is not verying finger friendly and it is pretty stripped down. but i am a stock WM person - no too interested in the flash. but so far i like thr pRSSreader. don't know enough to know all the features. i do like that i can flag and save the likes to delicious to look at later on my desktop.
thebrenda said:
wondering if you tried pRSSreader? it is not verying finger friendly and it is pretty stripped down. but i am a stock WM person - no too interested in the flash. but so far i like thr pRSSreader. don't know enough to know all the features. i do like that i can flag and save the likes to delicious to look at later on my desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Yes, I tried pRSSreader as well and still have it on my device. However, I do not need an article to be saved for further reading in delicious (actually, i do not think such option is available in pRSSreader , as far as i can remember viigo has it).
egress is actually not flashy at all, just very convenient for use with fingers: scrolling up and down or left and right is well thought and produces intuitive results. The real winner is actually customizations available in its Options menu. For example, pRSSreader allows you define global setting on how to retrieve offline/webcontent. Egress allows both global and per feed customizations. You can organize your feeds, say, using Google reader and then export opml file to egress. I believe you can get 30-day trial version of egress, just try it.
how do you think egress compares with pRSSreader?
i save the feeds/urls in delicious because it is an easy way for me to flag them for later review on my desktop.
thebrenda said:
how do you think egress compares with pRSSreader?
i save the feeds/urls in delicious because it is an easy way for me to flag them for later review on my desktop.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I believe i have replied in my previous post. Also as I mentioned in my first post, there is a free excellent alternative - Yomomedia.
SpeedReader 1.5

Zooper's future? (I'm looking at you, MyColorScreen)

It's been well over a year since MyColorScreen acquired Zooper, and Zooper's online presence is STILL a hideous mess. The official links at the Google Play store are broken, and even some of the reference links on this forum's sticky are dead. I can't even find an official blog post that isn't less than a year old. Zooper's documentation wasn't that good to begin with, and it looks like MyColorScreen has done absolutely nothing to improve it.
Here's my fear:
MyColorScreen is going to mothball Zooper so it won't compete with one of its future pet products (themer maybe). Zooper requires a huge time investment to use properly, and I don't want to lose that investment. I've been burned by this exact scenario with other successful apps.
PROVE ME WRONG, MYCOLORSCREEN... PLEASE! Get your support and reference material in one place and make it available. Communicate your plans for Zooper. If you're just "parking" the app until you figure out a business plan, then say so. We're on your side, so please don't screw us over.
Yeah.... You are so true.
But I have to add that they don't do anything to improve the App. Even their Promises regarding Zooper are just empty words. They promised to add multiple Timezone support, but nothing happens.... Still only possible for text....
brownblack said:
It's been well over a year since MyColorScreen acquired Zooper, and Zooper's online presence is STILL a hideous mess. The official links at the Google Play store are broken, and even some of the reference links on this forum's sticky are dead. I can't even find an official blog post that isn't less than a year old. Zooper's documentation wasn't that good to begin with, and it looks like MyColorScreen has done absolutely nothing to improve it.
Here's my fear:
MyColorScreen is going to mothball Zooper so it won't compete with one of its future pet products (themer maybe). Zooper requires a huge time investment to use properly, and I don't want to lose that investment. I've been burned by this exact scenario with other successful apps.
PROVE ME WRONG, MYCOLORSCREEN... PLEASE! Get your support and reference material in one place and make it available. Communicate your plans for Zooper. If you're just "parking" the app until you figure out a business plan, then say so. We're on your side, so please don't screw us over.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, they have apparently fixed their broken links. But their web presence is still awkward. Every link at the Play store points you to a support page which has a feedback forum, yet doesn't even mention these XDA forums. So is XDA still relevant? And one of the top hits from a google search takes you to the old zooper.org page which indeed directs you to these XDA forums. But a few people are still trying to post on the defunct zooper.org archives!
So as far as I can tell, there are 3 separate zooper forums that are unaware of each other. It's this kind of disjointed mess that makes me worry about the future of the product line.
I wouldn't of upgraded to pro had I known it was going to be abandonware myself. It was the first, and one of the few, apps I've upgraded to pro. Even if an update was months away it would be nice to know there's something going on.
bterrill said:
I wouldn't of upgraded to pro had I known it was going to be abandonware myself. It was the first, and one of the few, apps I've upgraded to pro. Even if an update was months away it would be nice to know there's something going on.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Update just released. So far it looks to be just a ui update but at least its something.
jr67 said:
Update just released. So far it looks to be just a ui update but at least its something.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The Google Play store is showing version 2.58 (Nov 2014) as the latest. Do you know of something more recent?
brownblack said:
The Google Play store is showing version 2.58 (Nov 2014) as the latest. Do you know of something more recent?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Sorry, it must be a beta update. You can join the beta google+ group to get access. As far as I can tell its just a UI update nothing more.
Well it's something I guess. I never digged too deep and didn't even know someone bought this out a while back or whatever. Damn shame there's not more work being done though. I'm not on zooper beta but not even sure what ui would need updated unless there's finally support for better weather location things.
I guess I'll join the bandwagon on hoping work that matters to most of us is done .... eg variables and what not. I would even pay 4.99 or 5.99 for a diff version that had 3 updates a year to stuff that's fun to mess with. I must of spent the first 2 months straight on my galaxy playing with zooper... like hours on end
Thanks for the info jr67
Zooper is awesome!
While I agree that updates are great and there are things that would be nice to have added, I think the app is pretty awesome as is. I rarely feel like I run out of opportunities for new ways to customize my phone and tablet because it lends itself to so many possibilities. Now if they would only update their app Media Utilities to work correctly with Android Lollipop (Zooper can't display cover art and music information at the same time with Lollipop), I'd be all smiles!!
MyColorScreen kinda died
I'm sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but according to my sources, MyColorScreen is dead and it's likely that they won't be coming back. I talked to a former MyColorScreen employee, about how to get a human response from MyColorScreen, and here was the interaction (Via Twitter)
@MarcoJHB I need a little help. How can I get in contact with mycolorscreen and get a human response?"
"@burner_studios sad to say but MCS is pretty much dead. Anything I can help with though?"
@MarcoJHB not really, but thanks for the info!"
Here is a link to the conversation.
https://twitter.com/burner_studios/status/631000884072349696
Why do I believe this?
1. MyColorScreen's last tweet was "All good things must come to an end. Follow @MarcoJHB to stay updated with his new ventures! https://youtu.be/kxFyq1I-g-I #dontstopcustomizing" and proves that the source is trustworthy.
2. The last update to Zooper Widget (free and pro) was 11/3/2015, Media Utilities was last updated 18/12/15, and Themer, MyColorScreen's main product, is no longer avalible on the Play Store.
3. The Zooper Widget beta community has a very old icon
4. The official MyColorScreen community had it's last "Screen of the day" post 19/3/2015.
5. The last "Question of the day" post in the aforementioned community was 19/3/2014.
6. Again with the aforementioned community, Marcos Agas is still a co-owner, despite him no longer being employed with MyColorScreen.
7. Again with the MyColorScreen Google+ community, there is essentially no moderation whatsoever.
8. MyColorScreen CEO Ashvin Dhingra last posted on Google+ 30/4/2014.
9. Ashvin's LinkedIn profile says "Co-Founder & CEO at Themer by MyColorScreen (acquired by IAC)"
10. On the Zooper Widget uservoice website, under "Report a Problem" you will find an item with 111 votes (As of this post) named "Editing interface HUGE lag" which is a bug that appears to be occurring on devices primarily running lollipop. It was reported on 5/5/2015, however I can testify that this has occurred on devices running 4.4 as early as 2014.
Based on that, I'd say that the information is fairly trustworthy.
So I suppose, the real question is, "What is OUR future with Zooper Widget?"
Are we going to decompile and update it ourselves, just like with steam?
Are we going to look for a new design tool to use?
Are we all just going to switch to using KLWP?
because I may know what the future of Zooper Widget is from the perspective of MyColorScreen, but we have great developers in this community that could keep the app going now that MCS stopped doing so.
That sad news, I dont like KWLP I stay with Zooper Widget I made like 200+ widgets. I hope someone acquire ZW and gonna develop it further
I tried kwlp but I hate ui and everything is unorganized.. In Zooper is nice and simple organised. What alternatives do we have? Can't find anything that match zooper customization and easy to use.
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I'm not a fan of KLWP. Looks like the people who did Themer and Zooper just moved on to another app and abandoned the others.
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Has anybody tried Make Your Own Clock Widget? It seems to do a lot more than just clocks
ewa12321 said:
That sad news, I dont like KWLP I stay with Zooper Widget I made like 200+ widgets. I hope someone acquire ZW and gonna develop it further
I tried kwlp but I hate ui and everything is unorganized.. In Zooper is nice and simple organised. What alternatives do we have? Can't find anything that match zooper customization and easy to use.
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I completely agree with you on that front. I already have invested so much into zooper widget development that I'm willing to push it to, and far past its limits. Although I don't expect IAC to let someone else acquire zooper widget until the profits from it begin to decrease.
But yeah zooper hasn't hit the end of its lifespan just yet. In the end it's developers that decide when that happens.
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What other widget maker I can recommend is Buzz Widget. Easy to use some functions are really cool wish to have some in Zooper Widget: bigger preview, tap hold and move object with your finger (optional), filter widgets by show only clocks, weather widgets, music widgets etc only disadvantage is that to share download stuff from other people it's recommend to download Buzz Launcher and idk if it works with Tasker and no support with Kolorette . Worth trying.
Maybe UCCW lots of skins similar to Zooper
That's not fair, Themer got update and Zooper Widget nothing since March
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Another update, KWGT by the team of KLWP is now in development.
Yeah... Bye bye zooper.
Further information found here: https://plus.google.com/+FrankMonzas/posts/9PpjCce44PL
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firebirdfilms said:
Another update, KWGT by the team of KLWP is now in development.
Yeah... Bye bye zooper.
Further information found here: https://plus.google.com/+FrankMonzas/posts/9PpjCce44PL
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Click to expand...
Click to collapse
That's the death blow to Zooper. They walked away from Themer and Zooper do they really think that they won't walk away from this?
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KLWP and KWGT are developed by "Kustom industries" hailing from Italy. MCS is from California, and has had no known interaction with kustom industries. Also KI only has 4 apps they are working on including pro keys, and KWGT reuses a lot of code from KLWP. So I'm not really worried.
Yet.
Just found this thread, so, for anyone trying to understand what's the difference between KWGT and the other widgets around i have filled up a list of Kustom advantages over Zooper / UCCW on the main thread, i will list them here just for clarity:
How is KWGT better than Zooper, Buzz, Mycw or UCCW??
You have Komponents which are like widgets inside widgets or reusable items inside the editor. So for example you can create a clock and redistribute it as a module for KWGT, users will just add your clock and change the options you expose (like colors and font), there are many examples online on the store already or you can check the dedicated thread above
You can download content directly from HTTP, so you can have a Google Map with the city you are in directly in the widget background if you want, or use Street View, or you can have a Komponent that does that for you like this, you can add it with one click
You have global variables, so you can set a color once and then use it whenever you like, so, when you want to change it you just change the global and it will change the color everywhere in one click, this allows users of your theme to change color easily
You can create touch actions that will hide / show elements based on touch, so you can show full weather data when someone clicks on a weather icon and then hide it automatically after X seconds
You have containers, so you can group items inside an object, move them together, apply effects and rotation to the entire group
You have built in music support, so music will work without any additional tool, no music utilities needed, it just works
You have more effects, like long shadows, morphable text, blur images and so on
You can extract colors from images, cover art or anything downloaded from the internet (like kolorette does, but builtin)
You can use formulas on any property you like, no need to use "advanced parameters", you just turn a property into a formula and then you can do anything you like
You have full support for different location, so you can apply a location to any group and make a world clock in seconds, locations are then easily accessible from the settings
You have much more functions, you can download text from HTTP, use regular expressions, parse RSS, XML and JSON, do math with dates, create timers
Much better resizing, the widget will resize automatically and touch will always work on any module regardless of the orientation
A wizard to create APK skins in seconds without any Android development knowledge or additional tool except the JDK
Last but not least from my measurement battery usage difference between KWGT and the others is like 1/100th (not kidding, you can try yourself with a good battery monitor like better battery stats plus, Kustom has 2 processes so you can clearly see the difference between the editor and the real widget/wallpaper service)
@Katt50 / @ewa12321 what's wrong with KWGT UI? anything i can improve? BTW i have absolutely no intention of stopping the development anytime soon, it might slow down at a certain point (i am now releasing a new version every 3 weeks because i have a HUGE todo list) but i will always try to do my best to add new stuff, so if you have any suggestion glad to help
frankmonza said:
@Katt50 / @ewa12321 what's wrong with KWGT UI? anything i can improve? BTW i have absolutely no intention of stopping the development anytime soon, it might slow down at a certain point (i am now releasing a new version every 3 weeks because i have a HUGE todo list) but i will always try to do my best to add new stuff, so if you have any suggestion glad to help
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Here's my problem...
Most of the people involved were the same people that abandoned Themer. And abandoned Zooper. I was active in the Themer G+ Community and see many names that were active there
How do I know that in a year that you decide to move on to a different app and just abandoned KWLP? Personally, I have not played around with KWLP much but I didn't find it easy to use for a beginner at all.
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