USA Traffic & Weather for iPhone Will Give Return on Investment

By: Hillel Fuld

I come a across tens if not hundreds of apps on a weekly basis, and while some are just plain dumb, others show some real initiative on the part of the developer.  This app, which, in my opinion, should be renamed to something a little more “attractive” is a useful and time saving app that all residents of the US should have on their iPhones.

USA Traffic & Weather gives you a lot of information at your fingertips, that might have been a lot less accessible to you in that moment when you need it. I do not think I need to tell you what kind of information I am referring to, the app’s title kinda gives it away, but just in case, you get the most updated and real time information about traffic and weather according to the city or state you define.

The app is designed well, and that is more of an accomplishment than you might think. Out of all the apps I encounter, I would estimate that 20% of them make me want to close the app within seconds of opening it. Another 20% keep me curious, and after 5 minutes of trying to figure out how to use the app, I close it. Then there is 10% of apps that are annoying and not designed well, but their functionality makes up for it, so I keep the app open. You are left with 50% of apps that are actually intuitive and easy to use. Out of those 50%, I would say another 20% are useless and pointless apps I will never use again. So, after all is said and done, out of the 100,000 apps in the app store, only 30% are useful and usable apps, and this app is one of them.

When you first open USA Traffic & Weather, you are greeted by a day view of the weather including the date, the city, a nice visualization of the weather, the temperatures, and the low and highs of the day. Using your finger (of course), you can swipe the screen, and move to the next day, up to 7 days ahead. On that screen, you can of course select the city that is relevant for you by typing a name in the search box and selecting the city. Interestingly enough, when searching for New York, it gave me many choices of cities within New York State, but New York City was not one of them. Hmm.. There seems to be a problem with their database since many cities I searched for did not show up.

Along the bottom, you have a few tabs including traffic, which is based on Yahoo, and also includes a user generated element. There is also a weather tab, which also includes user generated reports. The Breaking News tab displays any big events that are related to weather or traffic I am assuming, but it was empty when I tested. I guess no news is good news.

All in all, a useful app I would recommend US residents download. I would give the app a higher score if there was not the issue with the cities and it had not crashed on me a few times, but even given those issues, it is sure to save you some headaches in your daily lives. Pretty sure that in itself is worth $1.99.

Our Rating: 3/5

Download Link

Developer: Appscroatia

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