In Melbourne? Got an iPhone? Please help…

May 26th, 2010

I’ve spent a lot of my time recently reading, playing and generally getting more up–to-date. Part of this has been learning how to build my own iPhone app. As part of designing the app, I  have built a prototype web app that I would love your feedback on.

This simple web app provides up-to-date weather forecasts and observations for the Melbourne metro area. At the moment, that’s it. You load the app and you can see the current forecast for the next seven days, and the most recent observations (temperature, wind speed, etc.). Here are some screen caps from the app:

As you can see it is pretty simple, but that’s the idea. I wanted something on my phone, that didn’t make me wait half a minute or more just to get the weather forecast.

As a web app, you have to visit the site (http://melbourneweather.eeoh.com.au/) on your iPhone, then click the plus button in the bottom toolbar, and then choose “Add to Home Screen.” This will save the app for quick and easy, full-screen access when you need it.

What’s good about it now?

• It’s fast, about 5-6 seconds to load the current conditions.
• I got “fixed positioning” to work in a web app.
• It’s clean, quick and simple.

What’s coming?

• Use phone’s GPS to get observations from the closest station.
• Add more iPhone-like momentum to the scrolling.
• Add the ability to see the rain radar.

After that I’ll probably focus on the App-app, but this seems like a good way to get feedback while I’m learning.

Please take five minutes to install the app and try it out over a few days. I’d love to get you’re thoughts.

Thanks.

Note: The app may well work on Andriod or other good webkit mobile browsers, but I don’t have anything to test this with…