My mother loves her weather. Her favorite thing to do when she’s at someone’s house with cable, is watch the Weather Channel. Seriously. I am not my mother, but I do have an interest in knowing if it’s going to rain. After moving out of the home several years ago, I found I never was taking the time to check the weather as my mother would graciously tell me herself. Enter Outside, a weather app with push notifications, but more on that in a bit.

Upon launching Outside, users are presented with a closed window that opens up when the weather data has finished being retrieved. This is the metaphor Outside works on, as if you just looked outside.

There is, however, a bit more to it than that. Temperature data is smack dab in the middle. It is the application’s approach to other basic weather patterns that is the most fascinating. If it will snow, then the earth will be white, the tree, lightly covered and snowflakes will gently fall. Rain has dark clouds and falling drops. The animations are subtle, and very charming.

Then, look up towards the sky (swipe down to pull the sky towards the bottom of the window) and get all the other information: sun up/down, humidity, UV index, cloud cover, and wind speed. By swiping left and right, weather data for the next few days is available. Quick tip, your first screen is the current weather, swiping will give you the weather for the current day, but later. This is useful for when it’s not raining now, but might later on.

Speaking of rain. Outside can send push notifications for preset weather conditions: High UV, T-shirt weather, Rain and Cold weather. These settings are adjustable based on what one might think T-shirt weather might be, they can also come at any specific time. These updates have been useful, when I actually am able to get them.

Now comes the matter of price. $2.99 for a weather app is high, especially when it doesn’t provide radar or even weather alerts, like tornados. On top of this, the push alerts are 99¢ for 30 days and $1.99 for 300. This application gets very expensive, very quickly. For this reason alone, I cannot recommend Outside. Pretty and simple is great, when the price is right and it’s so wrong here. There just isn’t enough function to warrant the purchase for everyone.

Outside by Robocat.

UPDATE: I woke up this morning and downloaded the most recent version. It adds a complete forecast mode (swipe right), multiple location support and an interactive cup… Let me quickly explain the cup first, it changes based on the temperature, lemonade for hot weather, coffee for cooler. This is apart of the charm of this application. As for multiple locations, it takes a few too many taps to get everything going, and notifications can only be sent for one location. The most thankful addition is the forecast although it won’t say anything different than the built in weather app. My recommendation stance doesn’t change, but maybe your decision will.