Weather Fans Rejoice - Spb Weather Has Been Released! [Archive]

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Darius Wey

02-15-2005, 12:55 AM

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=157838&productType=2' target='_blank'>http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/...8&productType=2</a><br /><br /></div><i>"Spb Weather is the most powerful weather forecast Today plug-in. You can customize weather views, skins and even the weather forecast data source. Spb Pocket Plus users can save space on their Today screen running Spb Weather as a tab."</i><br /><br /><img src="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/images/web/2003/wey-20050215-SpbWeather.jpg" /><br /><br />Over the past few months, I've watched Spb Weather grow from an idea to a final product, and I'm happy to see that after a lot of testing, it is now a joy to use. Spb Weather is a today plug-in designed to deliver the latest worldwide weather reports from a variety of weather sources - these include GisMeteo, Intellicast, and Weather.com, and if you want, you can even create your own! Support for <a href="http://www.spbsoftwarehouse.com/products/weather/skins.html?en">skins</a> is extensive and units can be extensively customised. In addition, options such as frequency of updates, view modes, traffic statistics, and extended information can all be accessed, and lastly, if you remember the product integration feature that was <a href="http://www.pocketpcthoughts.com/index.php?action=expand,37522&/spb_pocket_plus_2.5_released.htm">discussed in Spb Pocket Plus 2.5</a>, Spb Weather is another supported application, so you can save even more space on your today screen. Spb Weather can be purchased for $14.95 from <a href="http://www.handango.com/ampp/store/PlatformProductDetail.jsp?siteId=311&productId=157838&productType=2">Handango</a>. A trial version is also available. [Affiliate]

Ed Hansberry

02-15-2005, 01:22 AM

Agreed. Additional screenshot at www.ehansberry.com/pages/pocketpc.html using a slightly different config for the view. This is one killer plugin to the already top notch Pocket Plus. :way to go:

Jon Westfall

02-15-2005, 01:36 AM

I'm hooked on it already - no more having to wait for a Yahoo! SMS every morning to plan my day :)

ctmagnus

02-15-2005, 01:40 AM

Bought it, configured it, got it running as smoothly as I had PocketWeather. Then I got the email from Spb stating that since I had bought other products from them in the past, I was eligible for a $5 discount on the product. :?

But, neglecting that fact, I :ppclove: it. Especially the ability to add custom locations. :D

gorkon280

02-15-2005, 01:42 AM

OSUKid7

02-15-2005, 01:55 AM

Ed Hansberry

02-15-2005, 01:55 AM

Looks like a nice weather app. Just curious though, what is with the tick marks at the to of the screen shot? My 4355 does not have this. Is that a plugin or other program?
The dashes? that is the always-available battery meter in Pocket Plus 2.X.

Darius Wey

02-15-2005, 03:39 AM

I'm hooked on it already - no more having to wait for a Yahoo! SMS every morning to plan my day :)

And more pleasing to the eye too. :D

TheWolfen

02-15-2005, 04:03 AM

I love Spb products, but I'm a bit disappointed by this app. I've been hoping Spb Weather would be the ultimate weather app, but it doesn't even come close (yes - I realize now that's not what they were shooting for). Radar and satellite image support is critical to me, as are text forecasts (far more detail there). However, it is a powerful Today plug-in with a great deal of flexibility, just as they claim. I'll probably purchase it (once I get that email with the discount :wink: ) so I can have a nice VGA plug-in, especially with the Spb Plus integration, but I'll keep using ADB Weather Plus as my main weather application. I just wish it supported VGA like this app does!

KTamas

02-15-2005, 04:55 AM

Well...Looks good but...I'll stay with pocketweather :)

gorkon280

02-15-2005, 05:28 AM

Looks like a nice weather app. Just curious though, what is with the tick marks at the to of the screen shot? My 4355 does not have this. Is that a plugin or other program?

I have not used a program like WISBar for quit sometime as it's never gave me a good setup for turning WiFi on and off which is something I do quite often.
That's a battery meeter from Spb Pocket Plus. The tabs in the screenshot are also a part of Pocket Plus, and a feature of Pocket Plus 2.5 lets you put several other Spb programs in these tabs. :)

Great program, I'll probably buy it later this week. :D

Ahhh....I see. Well, not for me personally. I'd turn that off. I always liked the way Wisbar did it, but I can see the appeal of the larger meter....especially for those of us getting up the years! ;) I just wish I could get a good task manager that looked good as well as function good and lately I have not had either. Always has problems of some sort with any of them. Usually weird crap would happen once I enabled it and it woudl go away upon getting it out of memory. For now I have been dealing with iTask and it's ok but I don't have the memory problems I did back when I had ye olde em500.

Been using Journal Bar for weather. The later builds have seemed to fix the intial weirdness existed when the current version of JB came out. I still am looking for a app that will check the Storm Alerts too and make nasty noises when one comes out. So far no weather app I have seen will yet do this on PocketPC....but this one is nice though! Skinning is good.

socrates63

02-15-2005, 07:18 AM

I'm an Spb junkie and I love Spb products... but $14.95? That's seems a bit steep despite the skins and the overall polish of the program.

I'm glad Spb offered a discount. Otherwise, I probably would have passed on this one. However, I bought it as soon as the email with the discount arrived in the inbox.

Besides being an Spb product, the integration with Pocket Plus is what really sold me on this one. I tried a couple of other weather Today plug-in's in the past but deleted after a week or two because of the amount of Today real estate devoted to them.

lmtuxinc

02-15-2005, 08:03 AM

Looks nice, i like the integration with pocket plus, but it still dosent stand a chance against Marsware Weather Panel in my opinion.

carphead

02-15-2005, 09:42 AM

Me too. I tried it but it would be have to be a very good app to beat WeatherPanel.

I like the pp2 intergration and the custom weather locations and services but that's about it.

For the price both Weather Panel and Pocket Weather offer so much more information.

Jonathon Watkins

02-15-2005, 11:04 AM

Well, I've been using it for a while and I really like it. The price with the discount seems fair.

It's just really handy to always have a a weather forecast on your PPC. As with many of these things, you don't know just how useful it will be to you until you try it. :)

SHC

02-15-2005, 06:52 PM

I like weatherpanel too but had to uninstall it because that was the plug-in causing most of my Bluetooth memory errors. I've bought spb weather and really like it, I like its neat integration into Pocketplus but miss the satellite images from weather panel. And so far, no Bluetooth problems either.

ctmagnus

02-15-2005, 06:59 PM

OT post:

I just wish I could get a good task manager that looked good as well as function good and lately I have not had either. Always has problems of some sort with any of them. Usually weird crap would happen once I enabled it and it woudl go away upon getting it out of memory. For now I have been dealing with iTask and it's ok but I don't have the memory problems I did back when I had ye olde em500.

Have you tried GigaTask? It's from the same people that make iTask and it's a lot more customizable.

Phillip Dyson

02-15-2005, 09:18 PM

I guess I'll have to be the thread idiot. :oops:

I installed the demo.

I put in 20815, 21229, and 20850 and keep getting an Error trying to download. I tried Intellicast and Weather.com

Anyone else having problems?

ctmagnus

02-15-2005, 10:52 PM

Oops, I was so excited about the release that I forgot I was having problems. :oops:

I can refresh the weather data via BT or WiFi, but not via an ActiveSync connection. I get

Please, establish Internet connection.

when I tap'n'hold on the plugin and select Refresh [city name] or Refresh All when the unit has an active ActiveSync connection, even if I also have a BT or WiFi connection established.

Darius Wey

02-16-2005, 12:49 AM

I put in 20815, 21229, and 20850 and keep getting an Error trying to download. I tried Intellicast and Weather.com

I've rarely come across problems with Spb Weather. How are you trying to update it? Over ActiveSync or a direct internet connection?

Ed Hansberry

02-16-2005, 12:57 AM

ctmagnus

02-16-2005, 01:27 AM

Oops, I was so excited about the release that I forgot I was having problems. :oops:

I can refresh the weather data via BT or WiFi, but not via an ActiveSync connection. I get

Please, establish Internet connection.
1. Do other things work over ActiveSync? PIE, Messenger, Inbox (POP3/IMAP4 accounts?)

No problems with anything else.

2. Is AS in "INTERNET" mode versus "WORK" mode?

Ya got me. I read your article in Pocket PC Magazine about all that stuff, and still have it around here somewhere for reference's sake, but I find that everything I do works (except synching wirelessly and updating Spb Weather over an ActiveSync connection) if I set Home and Work both to Bluetooth Settings. I get around the first by going into AS settings and setting both to Work when I'm connected and want to sync wirelessly then setting them back when I'm done, but I don't see how that will affect updating something when the unit's cradled.

Ed Hansberry

02-16-2005, 02:26 AM

but I don't see how that will affect updating something when the unit's cradled.
When cradled, the device uses the INTERNET/WORK settings on AS on your desktop.

Phillip Dyson

02-16-2005, 04:04 AM

Mine worked fine through AS.
I think that I may have had low signal when trying over GPRS.

ctmagnus

02-16-2005, 05:41 AM

but I don't see how that will affect updating something when the unit's cradled.
When cradled, the device uses the INTERNET/WORK settings on AS on your desktop.

...the very last option on the very last tab... :oops:

Nope, that doesn't change anything for me. I tried switching which connection passthrough uses, as well as the settings in connection manager on the Pocket PC and still nothing.

Eh well... At least I can update via wifi and bluetooth.

Ed Hansberry

02-16-2005, 12:54 PM

Eh well... At least I can update via wifi and bluetooth.
what about your firewall? I don't know what port the weather app uses, but if you are using a more feature rich firewall than what XP SP2 has, you should get some notice or log entry of what may being blocked.

juni

02-16-2005, 02:27 PM

Works fine for me. I'll include Spb Weather icons in my next update for the SWDeluxe skin suite (it will be a huge update - VGA support). :)

http://www.lakeridgesoftware.com/forum/files/spbweather.png

drop

02-16-2005, 04:08 PM

Cool! Thanks, juni.

Jonathon Watkins

02-16-2005, 06:34 PM

Cool! Thanks, juni.

Seconded. You make some seriously nice skins! 8)

Ed Hansberry

03-06-2005, 07:18 PM

Well, whatever this updating through an AS desktop connection is, it seems to be in the software or device, not the desktop. I got a new PPC and it won't update via AS, yet my old one will. :?:

ctmagnus

03-07-2005, 01:18 AM

I contacted them about my issue. They said to download again and reinstall, so I did, and it fixed my problem.

Jonathon Watkins

03-07-2005, 11:43 PM

I contacted them about my issue. They said to download again and reinstall, so I did, and it fixed my problem.

Fair enough. :) If only all PPC problem were so easy to fix. ;-)

Ed Hansberry

03-08-2005, 01:00 AM

I contacted them about my issue. They said to download again and reinstall, so I did, and it fixed my problem.

Fair enough. :) If only all PPC problem were so easy to fix. ;-)
THat fixed it. If only I could turn my car off, get out and walk around and get back in and restart it would fix its problems. :?

Darius Wey

03-08-2005, 09:23 AM

THat fixed it. If only I could turn my car off, get out and walk around and get back in and restart it would fix its problems. :?

Did you say Windows car? :D

Jonathon Watkins

03-08-2005, 09:36 AM

Did you say Windows car? :D

:twak:

Bad Darius, naughty Darius! :wink:

Darius Wey

03-08-2005, 09:52 AM

:twak:

Bad Darius, naughty Darius! :wink:

I wasn't saying a Windows car was a bad thing. What I meant was Ed's idea sounded like it could be fulfilled with a Windows car (a simple flick-the-switch, and restart process). Oh... I'm not making sense anymore. :P

Phillip Dyson

03-08-2005, 09:04 PM

Which news sources are you guys using? Those of you guys whom are using it?

ctmagnus

03-08-2005, 11:25 PM

It's not so much a news source as a weather source, but I use Weather.com. It has all the locations I'm interested in, but some of them I had to enter the city codes of manually. Ironically enough, I found that PocketWeather lists all the required city codes.

Darius Wey

03-09-2005, 12:10 AM

Which news sources are you guys using? Those of you guys whom are using it?

ctmagnus, your post was a lifesaver. I was absolutely baffled and thought sojourner753 was referring to where PPCT's news sources come from.

But back on topic, you can actually create your own weather sources if you wish, but it may be a bit complex if you have minimal background programming experience.

Phillip Dyson

03-09-2005, 04:17 AM

Sorry guys... fast typing. :oops:

Especially to you Darius. Hopefully your heart rate is back to normal.

I did mean weather source. I use weather.com as well. I discovered that Chevy Chase, MD (work) and Rockville, MD (home) were both always getting the same forecasts. I grew suspicious.

Lazy too. I could have tried the other sources myself. I don't seem to ever get to much description though. Just temps and stuff.