BuddyPhones: Keeping kids hearing first (Review)

Everywhere you look around the internet there is no shortage of headphone reviews. All types from over-the-ear to in-ear, you can find both Bluetooth and traditional styles. One category that seems to get lost in the shuffle is kids headphones. They listen to music, play games and watch videos just like grown ups and we know that adult ears and the ears of a child are vastly different.

A child’s ear is still in development, thus the need for a kid-friendly headphones. That’s why onanoff have created a fun and kid friendly headphone called BuddyPhones for a low price of $25.

Design and Build

BuddyPhones come in four bright colors that’s sure to please any child. The designers have recognized that each child has different personalities and different tastes in design. So instead of cornering a child into having to choose one design option, they’ve included five pre-designed and blank stickers that fit BuddyPhones perfectly.

It’s no secret that kids can be a tad on the rough side when it comes to handling their toys. Keeping that in mind BuddyPhones are built tough and durable. They can withstand twisting and bending liberally and they bounce back.

Included in the package is a separate four-foot long flat cable that includes an in-line microphone and flat design. The flat design is great for preventing tangling. Since the cable isn’t attached to the headphones there is less of a chance of getting choked by the cable. At one end it includes a built-in audio splitter so your child can share their listening experience with a friend.

Sound

The World Health Organization, as well as many government agencies, recommends 85 decibels as the maximum listening levels for children. Long-term exposure that exceeds these levels can be detrimental to their hearing. Onanoff has taken this to heart and complied with this recommendation.

While they have lowered the decimal levels, that doesn’t mean the lowered their quality. It has a very gentle sound. It makes the child’s listening experience pleasant. Even with another set of  headphones plugged in, it doesn’t take away from the sound.

Summary

BuddyPhones are a great product for any kid. The combination of bright colors, customization, sound and a low price, it’s hard not to purchase these for your kid, niece, nephew, or grandchild. Especially when you think about their long term hearing.

Buy BuddyPhones from their website

Buy from Amazon

iQunix Zand is a great tablet stand, but why does it exist?

If you’ve ever been the type of person to attempt to replace your laptop with a tablet, you’ve probably realized that trying to do that with an Android tablet was nearly a lost cause, at least until recently. After more than 5 years of Android tablets, productivity is finally becoming more viable with mature photo and video editing products and word processing software such as Microsoft Office.

You probably also realized that most stand cases are pretty mediocre, but you’re not sure what you’d replace it with. If you haven’t already given up and bought a Microsoft Surface, the iQunix Zand tablet stand might be exactly what you’ve been looking for…to some extent.

What I really like about it

The height of the stand is perfect for using your tablet as a laptop. Combine that with a Bluetooth keyboard, mouse, and Remix OS 2.0, and you’re really cooking!

1 of 7

It has an incredibly minimalist design and looks absolutely stellar with the tablet “attached.” I put attached into quotes because the stand just has a really tacky pad on the top and bottom that grip to your tablet and the table. At first I was worried about things falling off but I’ve had my Nexus 10 sitting on the stand for about a week and it hasn’t budged, even with regular use.

It seems like iQunix thought of everything, including having a nice opening on the back of the stand to thread a charging cable through so that you can have a sort of permanent set up. And I think that’s the problem, at least for me, because that seems to be what it’s for.

Where it falls short

It’s clearly designed to be for something that you never move. None of it is permanent, there’s nothing to worry about, there, but you aren’t going to be moving it about very often. It has a very tacky bottom – to the point that I have to hold down my side-table that I have it stuck to if I want to remove it, which means that this isn’t something that you can just take with you to your meetings like you would a laptop.

What’s more, the shape of it (albeit very aesthetically pleasing) is the furthest thing from portable. Once you take the wax paper off when you take it out of the box, it’s sticky forever (or at least as long as you don’t get it dirty) and it’s shaped like a giant metal “Z,” which doesn’t exactly fit into your backpack without complication.

It’s clearly not meant for a retail setting as a permanent mount because it is too easy to take the tablet off of the stand or just take the whole stand and go.

Conclusion

At the end of the day, the iQunix Zand tablet stand is really fun to say, it’s really good at standing up a tablet, and it looks great doing it, but I can’t work out who is going to buy one. It’s not for the tablet junkie who wants to replace their laptop and it’s not for someone who wants to drill their tablet to the table and make it into a point of sale. It might be for someone who wants to have a permanent tablet stand with a keyboard and mouse instead of a desktop or proper laptop at home but I’m not really sure that that person exists.

Ultimately, I really like it and wish that I had a purpose for it, but I don’t know what that purpose is. Admittedly, $40 is a lot – I would have probably guessed that it cost $25-30 and probably only half of that to manufacturer, but it really does have an Apple-like elegance to it that you don’t see every day. If you know what you’d use it for, please tell me about it in the comments because even at $40 I kind of want one, but I can’t possibly justify it without a real reason for it.

DoDo Wonderland: A solid, adorable endless runner (Review)

Overview:

DoDo Wonderland is a Jetpack-Joyride inspired endless runner, that has you in control of a cute dodo bird as you avoid obstacles and collect coins while getting as far as you can.

Developer: MYFREEAPPS.DE

Cost: Free (with ads)

Impressions:

DoDo Wonderland, or DoDo Superbird Endless Runner as it’s called in the Play store, is one of those addicting little runner games like Jetpack Joyride or Temple Run, with an infectious charm and simple mechanics that make it accessible to everyone. The art is cute, and appealing to the eye and the music is jaunty and uplifting, although I wish the song loop was a bit longer.

Gameplay is straightforward, tap the screen to make the bird rise, and release to let him fall. You can collect power ups like magnets to pull in coins, and a points multiplier, and you can kill the enemies on screen by landing on them to gain a bit of distance points as well. Simple, and accessible if not entirely original. The game doesn’t do enough to up the difficulty, however, and after a while it becomes very easy to get far without being hit once. I would have liked to see some more challenge thrown in once you pass a distance milestone, to add some gratification to beating high scores.

There are upgrades to acquire using the in-game coins, which boost your abilities and power up effectiveness, but they are rather pricey. Thankfully, there are no microtransactions to worry about, but the ads can be a bit intrusive at times, pulling you from the game to watch a video ad too often for my tastes.

Conclusion:

There isn’t too much to say about DoDo, it’s simple and innocent while still being fun and engaging. It’s certainly easier than similar games in it’s genre, and definitely appeals to kids more than anyone else. I’d certainly recommend this one for the kids’ tablets as a great alternative to Jetpack Joyride or Temple Run.

Download DoDo Wonderland from the Google Play Store.

1 of 3

Beme: A Snapchat and Vine hybrid with big ambitions (Review)

Overview:

Beme is a video sharing social networking app that aims to be the most natural and true to life social video sharing app.

Developer: Beme Inc.

Cost: Free

Impressions:

Beme is a sort of hybridization of Snapchat and Vine. It’s a social network app about sharing short clips and videos, as well as reactions to other users content. The catch is, you can’t see what you’ve recorded until it’s published, and there is no editing. This makes every Beme video more natural and less gimmicky compared to some other social video apps. I will say that Beme clips have to try harder to be funny, and are generally less entertaining than Vines due to lack of editing abilities, but the more simple ‘slice of life’ feel to the clips is a welcome breath of fresh air.

1 of 3

Beme as an app is fairly straightforward. You simply hold the button for the camera you want to record on, point at what you want to record, and hold the button till you’re satisfied. The video is automatically uploaded and shared, and that’s when you can see what you’ve captured. It certainly takes a bit of practice to get right, but once you do it’s as easy as Snapchat to quickly record and share some great moments.

Beme also has a pretty solid community, and it’s steadily growing. There are categories in the Discover section, where you can see clips based on trending topics, or locations both local and international. You can follow friends, and send direct clips between them, as well as discover new trending users to follow. Scrolling through the categories grants you neat snippets of everyday life in places all over the world. Sure, some are hits and most are misses, but sometimes Beme managed to surprise me with a neat clip or an interesting event captured by a user somewhere.

Conclusion:

I can see Beme as a popular app for celebrities to adopt over Snapchat for it’s more natural and organic feel as opposed to Snapchat, but it has a long way to go before it can reach that kind of mass appeal. It certainly has the potential to get there, as even in the early days it has some solid content and is so simple to use that I can see it catching on quickly. I’m rooting for Beme in this crowded social sharing app world we live in, and I hope to see it succeed.

Download Beme from the Google Play Store

EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger: This should be in your charger inventory (Review)

Overview

We live in an ever-changing world where our electronic devices have become everyday necessities. While tech has enabled us to do things beyond our wildest imagination just a decade ago, the downside is portable devices need to be recharged. Most on a daily basis. For those of us considered power users, devices with terrible battery lives are the bane of our existence. This means we need to charge those devices all too frequently, and unfortunately, there isn’t always an outlet around to help us refuel. You could use a power bank, but those need charging too.

For the times we don’t have access to power banks or wall outlets, we have the EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger.

In the box

• Portable solar charger
• MicroUSB cable
• Two carabiner clips
• Backpack rope
• Travel pouch
• User manual

Review

A few years ago while on vacation, I was telling my wife I wished there was a solar charging battery case. I had horrible battery life and needed to charge my phone up to three times a day. While on vacation, this can prove to be quite the chore, and you can easily become a wall hugger. You could say I was excited to find out about the next best thing. Yes, I know I could have used a power bank, but I didn’t have one.

The EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger is a 28 watt, four-port USB charger that is compatible with most 5V input devices. It can harness the energy from the sun and can provide you with a full charge within two to three hours. It’s made up of a durable, weatherproof material that can handle just about any type of weather while still looking charming.

The pouch is equipped with the four-port charging station. The charging station is armed with two 2.4 amp Smart Charge ports and two one amp ports. The Smart Charge ports are designed to detect how much current your device needs to charge to prevent overcharging. In the event that your devices get too hot, the charger will pause until the battery cools down to prevent a nasty fire or other internal damage.

Although there are four ports to hook devices up to, there isn’t much room inside the pouch. There’s enough room for two large smartphones, or a regular size tablet and small phone. There is room to throw in small Bluetooth headphones too, but you’re not getting too much else in there. Unless you’re sitting still for a while, don’t plan to charge a lot of devices on the go.

Four solar panels open to lay out flat to collect as much sunlight as possible. The more direct sunlight you get, the stronger the charge your charge will be. I would suggest tucking the pouch under the panels during hotter days to reduce heat exposure to your electronic devices.

Of course, there are many times when you’re not sitting still. If you’re always on the go, you can attach the solar charger to your backpack with the included clips or rope. Or you can get creative with the attachments, just make sure you maintain direct contact with the sun to get the best charge.

Conclusion

For those of you enjoying the great outdoors this summer, the EasyAcc 28W solar charger is a great option for staying powered and on the go when you’re away from an outlet. Even if you bring power banks on your camping trips, they still need charging. With the EasyAcc solar charger, you could charge your power bank during the day and use your power bank to charge your phones when the sun is down at night. For the price of $60, it is a solid investment for any outdoorsman or for those who wish to preserve the environment by harnessing the free energy from the sun.

Buy the EasyAcc 28W Solar Charger at Amazon for $59.99 with free shipping included.

Yoga Monkey: Monkey see, monkey do yoga (Review)

Overview

Yoga is good for your physical and mental health. It relieves stress and helps you feel better. However, not everyone has the time, energy, or money to go to a yoga studio. That is where apps like Yoga Monkey come in. These apps make yoga very simple and time-flexible. This one in particular uses a monkey – because Monkey See, Monkey Do, right?

Developer: Guru Inc.

Cost: Free

Impressions

User Interface

Yoga Monkey uses a nice hamburger menu to present the available settings and then tabs to access your coursework. The light yellow used throughout the app is quite attractive and everything is placed in a really fluid experience. The video player for the courses is a bit rudimentary, but it’s still easy to go through the different videos.

In these videos, it shows you everything you’re supposed to be doing. There’s also a voice that explains everything as well. However, the voice doesn’t feel very human, but that does not get in the way of understanding the instructions.

Ad Obtrusiveness

I can’t say that Yoga Monkey’s ads are obtrusive as much as they are just strange. They show up after you pause a video… SOMETIMES. That being said, they don’t interfere with any functions of the video player. As soon as you start your video, the ad disappears.

Features

Yoga Monkey has a lot of things to keep you on track. It has 10 series, ascending by rank. In each series, there are 10 videos that appear in a timeline. Aside from the series, there’s a calendar to help keep you organized. If there’s a desired effect you’re looking for, you can add additional plugins such as weight loss, better sleep, etc.

Conclusion

Yoga monkey is great for all users. It has a good interface with a system that keeps you motivated to do yoga each and every day.

Download and install Yoga Monkey from the Google Play Store.

1 of 4

Five Android games for getting your word fix in

Enjoy word games? Or do you sometimes need to kill some time with a game that doesn’t require an intense amount of skill or time? I am the type who always has a bunch of word games on my phone – they challenge my brain and are fun at the same time and don’t have a large learning curve. They’re also a ton of fun to play with friends in competition or in tandem mode.

Today’s list of apps are here to help you sort through the thousands of word games available in the Google Play Store. And since it is Friday, you can try some of them out this weekend while you relax and enjoy your time away from work.

This week: Android games for getting your word fix in

Words with Friends

Words with Friends is the world’s most popular word game app you can get today. So there’s a good chance you have played it, but if for some reason you have stopped, today is a good day to download it again. Words with Friends challenges your word building skills by giving you seven random letters that you assemble on a game board with point multipliers. You can play in solo mode, random mode, or select who you want to play if you know their username.

The developers of Words with Friends are constantly adding new features and it is available in English, Spanish, French, German, Italian, Brazilian Portuguese and British English.

You can play random people or you can play friends you know anywhere in the world. If you want an easy win, feel free to challenge me directly. My username is pandab55 and love a good challenge. Just don’t cheat! If you do happen to challenge me it is a great way to chat with me about anything related to Android too using the Words with Friends chat tool.

Google Play Store – LINK

.Word Fever.

One of my new favorite games is Word Fever. It’s not too often you come across a fun game that is also ad-free, and this one is both.

Word Fever is part crossword, part word search game. Use the clues to figure out what the hidden words are. The answers can be about nature, food, science, sports, vacation, geography and many other categories.

It starts very easy but gets challenging quickly. Find the twisted words and slide your finger over the letters – as easy as that! If you like to play brain teasers, charades, text twist, quiz and word puzzles, this one is for you.

Google Play Store – LINK

Word Streak With Friends

 Another fun game from Zygna is Word Streak with Friends. This game is a little more fast paced as you need to find and select as many words as humanly possible in a limited amount of time.

You’re given a 4×4 grid of random letters where you must connect letters to make new words. The longer the word the more points you get. You can play solo, tournament mode, head to head, or enter the daily challenge. The app does cost $1.99 but is worth every penny. It’s highly addictive so be careful if you’re worried about having too much fun.

Google Play Store – LINK

Word Search

Rather than creating words, Word Search is a mashup of letters with hidden words that you need to find vertically, horizontally, or diagonally. You’re given a list of words to find at the bottom of the app and all you have to do is simply find them in the grid. It’s a fun game to kill time while also challenging your brain to look for words in odd directions. One of my favorite features is that you can play this game with no time restraints. Pick up when you have time and leave it when you’re busy. It will always be waiting for you to find your next word.

Google Play Store – LINK

What Restaurant ?

What Restaurant? is a lot of fun because it brings your knowledge of restaurants into play with creating words. It gives you an image of a logo from a restaurant like McDonald’s, and below is a grid of letters to pick from and you need to know how to spell the name correctly in order to advance to the next level. The game starts off easy but gets a little harder with each stage.

Google Play Store – LINK

Your turn!

What’s your favorite Android for traveling on a budget or saving a few bucks when out and about? Is it one of the five we picked?  What do you like most about it?  Leave a comment below and share with the class!

Why Stop Now?

Have you checked out our previous Five for Friday categories?  Here’s some of the most recent selection!

• Android apps for traveling on a budget
• Apps for fans of Pinterest
• Apps for tracking your run and workout

The Turtle Beach Elite Pro headset is every gamer’s dream (Review)

If you’ve ever searched for a gaming headset, you probably know who Turtle Beach is. Along with Astro, Turtle Beach is one of the most well-respected names out there because of the quality of products it brings to the market. With the ever-expanding area of competitive gaming continuing to explode, Turtle Beach decided to give gamers an option. The new Elite Pro headset for Xbox One, PS4, and PC is a simple formula: pro-gamer gear at consumer level prices.

Build and Feel

The first thing you’ll notice when taking the Elite Pro headset out of the box is how solid it feels. It feels like a product that’s been well made with strong materials that will last forever. But, what may throw you off is how light the headset is. Turtle Beach rebuilt this headset from the ground up to ensure that it was light enough for long gaming sessions. I normally wear the headset while I’m at my computer for either gaming or writing and these periods can last upwards of eight hours with only small breaks. I honestly sometimes forget I even have a headset on because it’s so light.

The earcups were also a huge area of focus for Turtle Beach with the Elite Pro. The 50mm “nanoclear” speakers sit behind earcups made of spandex, leather, and gel infused memory foam. I honestly can’t believe how comfortable they are on my ears. The soft materials don’t irritate my skin even though they extend past my ears and sit on top of my beard which is an issue I’ve had with multiple headsets in the past. Turtle Beach really tried to make sure that your ears wouldn’t sweat with these on and, for the most part, it does a good job but near hour three or four, I do get a bit of moisture going on. It’s just natural for your body to do that and even though Turtle Beach does admirably, its fighting nature.

Of special note on the ear cups is the “ProSpecs” system which is just an indent into the cups so those of you with glasses can wear them comfortably with the headset. It’s not immediately clear where this mark is just by looking at the headset, but once you slip on your glasses you’ll find a little notch cut out in the foam. I tested this out with my sunglasses to positive results. Even though there is a slight notch in the foam, the cups still maintain solid suction to your head so ambient noise isn’t getting in.

The ability to wear glasses and your headset comfortably is something that will please many players with less than perfect sight. Turtle Beach did excellently here.

Turtle Beach also added in a tension adjustment system to the top of the headset. The top bar can be adjusted to as tight or as loose as you would like it to be. This is great in combination with the standard height adjuster you find on the sides of the Elite Pro. I’ve dealt with headsets in the past that squeeze my head or just fall off because I can’t get the tension right. This allows a perfect fit. I do appreciate that the tension adjusters don’t slip out of place while you’re using the headset, but they can be a bit hard to adjust unless you actually take the headset off. Perhaps a notch system in a later revision of the headset would be welcome, but the tension system is still a huge positive.

T.A.C.

The T.A.C. or Tactical Audio Controller is an optional accessory to the Elite Pro headset that will take your ability to control exactly what goes into and what comes out of your headset to another level. There are sliders for a game/chat mix, a background noise limiter, an outbound mic boost and a mic monitor level. Let’s take a look at what each of these sliders control.

The game/chat slider lets you favor members of your party or game sounds. If you’re playing with someone who’s mic just isn’t great or who sits far away from the audio source, this is wonderful to have because you can adjust exactly how loud that person is going to be in your ear relative to game sounds. If their audio is low, favor the chat on the mixer and turn up the overall sound. It’s perfect and I adjust it all the time based on who I’m playing with.

The background noise limiter is perfect for those of us with kids. My daughter likes to run around screaming and that’s not necessarily what my teammates want to hear while we’re raiding. Rather than mute my mic completely, I can adjust the sensitivity of the noise gate with this slider so that it only allows my voice to go through. Very handy.

The outbound mic boost is fairly self-explanatory. If you’re quiet, or loud, this will control what is coming out of the headset. This is a great feature for anyone playing games late at night while others sleep. Before the writing of this article, I was able to play after my wife went to bed in the next room whereas normally I’d have to keep my mic muted and my mouth shut, no matter how many times I was killed.

The mic monitor level allows you to set exactly how much of yourself you can hear in your headset. If you like to hear yourself, like I do, I set this rather high. I’m a television director in my other life and because of how our headsets are set up, I always hear myself speak. It’s something I’ve gotten used to and using headsets that don’t have mic monitoring always feel like something is missing. Once you’re used to hearing yourself in your headset, it’s hard to let go of.

On the back of the T.A.C. are many ports but I want to focus on two: The Aux in and ethernet ports.

The Aux port allows you to plug in your phone so you can take calls and mix in music during your gameplay sessions. I normally use a Turtle Beach 800X headset and the main selling point for this wireless headset was the inclusion of Bluetooth. I keep my phone connected to the headset with Bluetooth because I like to listen more than game sounds and I need to hear my phone ring when my wife calls and I’m playing. While the Elite Pro doesn’t have Bluetooth, it does have these features through the inclusion of the Aux port.

If you’re taking your Elite Pro and T.A.C. on the go to a LAN party, the ethernet port is going to be a killer feature for you. Other competing headset makers let you daisy-chain your mixamps together for team chat during LAN parties or competitions and the T.A.C. for the Elite Pro lets you do just that too. Connecting an ethernet cable between your T.A.C.’s creates a lag free voice chat party. The only issue being that if your clanmates have other headsets, this won’t work for you.

Noise-cancelling Microphone

The Elite Pro comes with a standard detachable boom microphone in the box, but you can also grab the noise-cancelling microphone as an add-on. I subjected my clanmates to many tests back and forth between the default boom mic and the noise-cancelling mic. There is a difference in audio quality and background noise, but it isn’t game breaking.

If you play in a loud or crowded area, I’d definitely suggest picking one of these up, but if you’re playing in a quiet area like your man-cave on the weekends, this may be a pass. It’s a great accessory that does it’s job wonderfully, but not everyone will need it.

Sound

One of the biggest reasons to get a headset is the hear the game world around you. Turtle Beach has always been widely regarded as a company that puts out some of the best sounding headsets around and the Elite Pro is no exception, in fact, it may be the best sounding headset on the market.

If you’re skipping the T.A.C., you’re plugging directly into your controller and getting stereo audio. There is a significant boost in audio quality with this headset over using television speakers or a home surround system. Even without the T.A.C., I can hear footsteps all around me. I know what’s coming and that’s a huge advantage.

When you add in the T.A.C., it’s almost unfair to other players. The T.A.C. gives you 7.1 surround sound that lets you pinpoint exactly where an enemy is sneaking up on you from. There are also four presets to switch you in between game mode, movie mode, music mode and turning the surround off. In game mode, you can choose between Signature Sound, Shooter, Superhuman Hearing and Footstep Focus. Movie mode keeps Signature Sound as your first option and gives you Action, Horror, and Drama settings as well. Music Mode also starts with Signature Sound and adds in Stadium, Acoustic, and Dance modes as well. When you turn the Surround Sound off, you can select between Natural Sound focus, Bass Boost, Bass and Treble Booster and Vocal Booster modes. With these 16 choices, you’re going to find something for every occasion to make the audio coming into your headset sound perfect.

Mobile Applications

So, this is an Android website. How exactly can you use this with your Android device? The answer is, much like any other headset with a 3.5mm jack. The headset comes with a standard 3.5mm adapter to connect your headset to your controller and that works for phones too. Plugging this into your phone is amazing for long conference calls or a long conversation with family. You sound excellent by using the boom microphone, the headset is very light so you can wear it for long periods and it opens up your hands to continue on with whatever you were doing previously. As I mentioned earlier, if you pick up the T.A.C., you can already have your phone plugged in and answer calls while you continue to play.

There aren’t a ton of games on Android where you would need a headset, but for the few that are out there, this can’t hurt. It’s an ultra sensitive headset that puts out the best possible sound.

Conclusion

Turtle Beach really has a winner on its hands here. I hope it catches on in the gaming community because I’d love to see more prosumer products like this one. The audio isn’t unmatched in the market, but it’s among the leaders and it does an excellent job in-game of informing you of what’s going on around you. Even just using the Elite Pro to listen to music is an awesome experience. I love kicking on the bass boost and scrolling through Monstercat’s extensive library.

I can’t overstate how comfortable this headset actually is. Sure, you’re going to see plenty of marketing material that makes it seem amazing, but in real life situations, it really holds up. After numerous hours, the pads still feel comfortable on the sides of my head and due to the fact it’s so light, I have zero neck fatigue.

If you’re interested in grabbing the Turtle Beach Elite Pro headset, you can grab it for $199 from Best Buy, Gamestop, or Amazon. It’s compatible with Xbox One, PS4, PC and pretty much anything with an aux jack.

Amber Weather Widget: Just another Weather Widget? (Review)

The Brief

Sometimes names can be deceiving. In the case of Amber Weather Widget, this app is so much more than just a widget. It’s a full-fledged attack on all things weather. Yeah, sure, there are a few widgets that come along for the ride. But the real power shows when you click that widget on your home screen and bring the app full screen.

Digging In

First, long press the home screen and add the widget. There are 3 to choose from. Try them all to see which one you like best. I chose the small one, since I already have a clock on my home page from my alarm app that I like better.

Now it’s time for the magic! Click the temperature on the widget and you are transported to weather heaven. The first thing I needed to do was change the temperature settings to Fahrenheit from Celsius. I did this by clicking the hamburger button at the upper left of the screen and then tapping settings. Here you will have all the settings you need so the app makes sense for your location. You can change:

• Fahrenheit and Celsius
• Mph and m/s
• Mi and Km
• 12 hours and 24 hours

(Wait, did he say hamburger button? Yes, I did, it’s the 3 straight lines stacked on top of each other that take you to the settings page in most apps.)

Out on the main screen, there is a whole slew of weather info for your current location. From currents to hourly forecast and precipitation for certain days, it’s all here.

Warning: By clicking the customize button, you understand that you will waste at least half an hour trying to pick the best theme for your icons and widget. Obviously, that’s a joke but I really did spend 45 minutes once I found the customize button, downloading themes and icon packs to get the perfect look.

There are free themes and paid themes – some of the paid themes even have a 5-minute trial so you can see if you like it or not before spending $1.49 on it.

After digging a little into the settings, I found that I could even tell Amber Weather to use my alarm app when I click the clock on the widget. I was able to remove the widget for the alarm app that I was using and just use the Amber Weather Widget for opening my alarm app from the home screen (score!).

As with many apps recently, there are paid options. They are $5.99 yearly or $1.99 monthly, this will give you access to all the themes and remove the ads.

1 of 4

Custom Widgets

Main App page

Main App Page when scrolling down

Main App Page when scrolling down

In The End

If you are looking for a highly customizable, accurate and downright beautiful weather app, this is the one. Some of the menu items are not described very well and the subscription-based app purchase made me hesitate to pay for it. That being said, this is an awesome app and you should give it a try. You can find Amber Weather Widget for free with an in-app purchase of $5.99 yearly or $1.99 monthly that will remove ads and gives access to all paid themes.

Download and install Amber Weather Widget from the Google Play Store.