 |
Available In: Cydia |  |
Price: Free |
I wrote a post this morning about a reflective dock application. I also warned in that post about another application title WeatherIcon (available through the same source). I received word today that the application had been upgraded and no longer creating crashing problems so, I decided to check it out.
Ok, I had this post written this afternoon but, I had to completely rewrite it tonight! We have done a lot of testing on this application and it does work however, it is going to take some explaining. So, take a deap breath and then continue reading!
When you install the WeatherIcon app in Cydia (be sure you install version 1.1.1 or newer), it adds an option to your WinterBoard titled Weather Icon. When you select the Weather Icon option in WinterBoard, it will activate the application. When the app is activated, it changes your stock weather icon to a blank weather icon and then puts the new temp and weather image on top of the blank weather icon.
Note: This afternoon, I had an issue where when I selected the Weather Icon option in WinterBoard, it did not change the weather icon to a blank weather icon instead it added the new weather image and temp on top of my stock icon which looked absolutely terrible. If you are also having this issue, uninstall and reinstall the app in Cydia. Example screenshots below.
Ok, now, there are a few catches. When the app is not activated in WinterBoard, it adds a ? on top of your weather icon. The only way to get rid of the ? is to always have the app activated or to uninstall it. Example screenshots below.
The other catch…the app does not automatically detect your current location, you will need to change the zip code in the .plist to your current zip code. If you are comfortable with ssh, this is an easy thing to do. Below are instructions.
1. Find the file Library/Themes/Weather Icon.theme/Bundles/com.apple.springboard/com.ashman.WeatherIcon.plist on your iPhone or iPod Touch.
2. Open the com.ashman.WeatherIcon.plist file. Below is what it will look like.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Celsius</key>
<false/>
<key>Location</key>
<string>20852</string>
</dict>
</plist>
3. Change the number 20852 to whatever your current zip code is. Below is an example of what it would look like changed.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Celsius</key>
<false/>
<key>Location</key>
<string>50023</string>
</dict>
</plist>
4. Close the file…it should ask you if you would like to save the change…yes, you want to save the changes.
5. Respring your springboard and you will have the current temp for your zip code on your weather icon.
With the current temp, it will also display a weather image that corresponds with the current time of day and weather conditions ex) a sun with clouds or a moon with snow.
I’m not sure how often the temp updates. The temperature has changed three times throughout the day today (so, maybe it updates every few hours?). There are also times when it doesn’t seem to connect and it says N/A instead of a temp.
Personally, I LOVE the concept and this is by far the closest we have come to this sort or mod. Does it need improvements to be more user friendly, most definitly. Will I leave it on my iPhone, yes.
If you are looking to mod the app even further, Doug has created a blank weather icon that you can use instead of the blank weather icon that comes with the app. To use it, just right click and Save As on the icon below. Then drag the icon (via ssh) into the Library/Themes/Weather Icon.theme/Icon folder and rename the icon file to Weather.
There are other modding options with this app as well. For example you could create your own weather images. If you do so, the files you will need to replace are located in the Library/Themes/Weather Icon.theme/Bundles/com.apple.springboard folder.
Let me know in the comments what you think of this app and if you are going to use it. Screenshots of how you modded it are cool too. Below are two quick mods that I tried. One is with Doug’s icon and the other I created a transparent icon.
Update:
This app has been updated to version 1.2.1. This does change the .plist a little. You still need to change the number below the location in the .plist to your zip code. The new .plist also displays a refresh time of 15 minutes. You can easily change this as well by changing the number 15 to 30 or 60…etc (which would change the refresh time to 30 minutes or 60 minutes…etc). Below is what the new code looks like.
<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
<key>Celsius</key>
<false/>
<key>Location</key>
<string>50023</string>
<key>RefreshInterval</key>
<integer>15</integer>
<key>WeatherBundleIdentifier</key>
<string>com.apple.weather</string>
</dict>
</plist>
A few things to note, whenever you update the application, you will need to go back into the .plist and change all your info again…it does not save your customizations after updating.
This application does work in other countries. It pulls it’s info from yahoo.com’s weather. So, in order to use the app outside the US, head over to THIS page and search for your City and Country. When it finds the weather for your City, you can use the number from the web address as the number to change in the app’s .plist. For example, I searched for Rome, Italy and when it loaded the weather for Rome, I got this web address http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/ITXX0067.html. The bolded number is what you would change the number in the .plist to. Another example is Munich, Germany. I searched for Munich in Yahoo Weather and once it pulled up the weather for Munich…I got this web address http://weather.yahoo.com/forecast/GMXX0087.html. Just take GMXX0087 and use it to replace the numbers in the .plist file.
Loading...
Loading ...
thanks for the info
Hi, i would like to know where i get zip code??
thanks
I’m guessing that you are probably not in the US. I’m not sure that the app will work outside the US. That would be a good question for the developer, you can email him by selecting the Author option while in the app in Cydia.
Your zip code is the mailing code that corresponds to where you live in the U.S. If you are outside the U.S., I’m not sure what you would change the .plist to. Anyone else know?
The extension uses the yahoo weather APIs. Check out http://developer.yahoo.com/weather/ for instructions on how to find international codes.
there needs to be a easier way!! ssh is confusing…
Awesome! Now the clokc now the weather!
Tx for the the info on this. KInd of wierd since the weater shows for example 21 degrees but when i open up the app it shows 16?
Humm?
Did you change it to your zip code? Also, I have noticed that it is a little different from the stock weather app temp…though, I believe they are both pulling from Yahoo.
Thanks a lot Brooke! Really cool to have this and LiveTIme. I couldn’t get the overlapping of the current weather icon to go away by uninstalling and reinstalling so I used SSH to replace the weather icon on my theme with the blank one Doug made and now it looks great. When’s the next iPhone 101 episode coming out?
thanks for this ! is great ! i like it ! no wonder this site is number 1 !
Hey, really cool! I don’t know how many times I’ve looked at the “73” on the stock icon and wondered why it was never automated. Thanks! :)
Do you want to write my user documentation? I hate writing docs and you did a great job explaining how to configure it! Thanks!
Yep…email me.
it just went from 1.1.1 to 1.2, i dont know what the change is but it just got upgraded at 11:50pm Eastern Time
it change teh refresh insterval i guess , 15 mins i guess not sure
this is the plist file
Celsius
Location
20852
RefreshInterval
15
WeatherBundleIdentifier
com.apple.weather
?xml version=”1.0″ encoding=”UTF-8″?>
!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC “-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN” “http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd”>
plist version=”1.0″>
dict>
key>Celsius
false/>
key>Location
string>20852
key>RefreshInterval
integer>15
key>WeatherBundleIdentifier
string>com.apple.weather
/dict>
/plist>
ok now this is it hehehe
Question is: with all of these mods, how likely does it slow down the UI and performance? More and more I am reminded of Android-ish, Vista-Widget-ish…yuk.
Can someone please help provide the code for Singapore
Any news on what to enter as “zip-code” if not living in the US? Where is it getting its weather data from? Doesn’t the native weather app get its data from weather.yahoo.com? Maybe one could just look for the city there, and get the “zip-code” from the URL? Like this might be the id for Karlstad, Sweden: SWXX0060. (Singapore would, then, be: SNXX0006.) Haven’t tried it yet, but perhaps?
Also curios about the question 8lias raised; is this slowing down performance in a noticeable amount?
You are correct. The data feed is yahoo weather so your code would work for Singapore.
I haven’t noticed any application performance issues since it’s simply rendering some additional views when the UI refreshes.
Hey thanks for confirming, Stimpy5050 (and Stanley). Good to know — then I’ll be doing some cydiaing (now that’s a mouthful) later today, I believe. ;-)
As to application performance, I tried out the snow-app (cydia; can’t remember correct name; it makes it snow anyway), and that made flicking pages choppy. I don’t like choppy. But yeah, I see your point. That was continuous rendering, this is just done once every [insert interval of the refresh here], and then it’s done pestering the processor. Good stuff.
The zip code works only for US. If it also can be make to work for other countries with editing the .plist, this mod will be well received internationally.
Anyway, well done to Stimpy5050 for the good mod of WeatherIcon and ReflectiveDock.
i´ve tested it with weather.yahoo.com and it works fine
just get your code there for Munich, Germany it will be GMXX0087
and if you want weather data shown in celsius change
Celsius
to
Celsius
here is my setting for Munich, Germany.
Celsius
Location
GMXX0087
RefreshInterval
15
WeatherBundleIdentifier
com.apple.weather
Great extension, but the used images looked a bit blurry can somebody confirm this?
the codes doesn´t show up.
so change celsius false to celsius true
@ blatz
Thanks a lot for the tip of getting the City, Country code from the weather.yahoo.com (the code is on the URL bar, just for information for those who do not know where to find it, like me at first :).
And it works, definitely.
Kudos, a very good mod and my gratitude for it I would say to Stimpy5050.
Have tried Kristian suggestion and it works except you get the reading in Fahrenheit instead of Celsius. Any idea?
there is a false text under “Celsius” just change it into true ;-)
Change:
Celsius
to:
Celsius
That’s it!
oops, didn’t like the the code snippets. well all you have to do is changing the line under Celsius to read TRUE instead of FALSE
Someone of you knows how can I set the Italian zip code?
Celsius
Location
13900
RefreshInterval
15
WeatherBundleIdentifier
weather.yahoo.com
Doesn’t Work (nothing shows in icon)
Celsius
Location
13900
RefreshInterval
15
WeatherBundleIdentifier
com.apple.weather
Doesn’t Work (Shows me an ?)
Please help me!!
locate your code by weather.yahoo.com it should look like this for rome ITXX0067
and don´t change the com.apple.weather it works with this also with yahoo
Tanks!
It works!!!!!
Do you know the WeatherBundleIdentifier for http://www.meteo.it/previsioni/96020/istat-96020 ?
Make sure you activate the app in WinterBoard as well.
Where are the settings for this? I can’t find them.
Check out step number 1 above.
Unfortunately I can not find the Themes folder! I have no themes installed. Where can I find the com.ashman.WeatherIcon.plist?
I have just read about the program finder to file or do I need to do better with ssh looking for?
Thx ibombi
I’ve found it! The files were hidden ;-)
Thx
this is sooooo coool! :)
but could someone create an icon-set similar to the stock icons used in the weather app, and make a cydia theme pack from it? it would be much more nice, it it reflects the weather with the same icons as in the app if you open it.
did anyone of you experience any lag or battery life change by using livetime and liveweather?
Normally when I need to put a Zip Code (but obviously have none being out of the US) I enter 00000, though I doubt it’d work in this case. Hopefully someone would come up with a solution as to what to do for non-US iPhone/WeatherIcon users
Library/Themes/Weather Icon.theme
I can not seem to find that directory even after installing it, any reason why?
As of the latest version, the Preferences file location changed, but it gets its info in a new way and you no longer need to set the zip code in the plist file.
One of the best apps I’ve ever installed : ) All they need is a GUI to change the settings and it will be perfect.
all as I’m getting is a question mark where the temp should be…
Make sure to turn on the Weather Icon.theme. It doesn’t know where to load the weather for and what icons to use without it.
Here’s an easy shell script to do the edit on the Location (I put this together after having to re-edit the same file following each update of the WeatherIcon package):
Put the following into a file (I called it fix_weather_icon_zip):
—- copy from here —–
#!/bin/sh
if [ $# -ne 1 ]
then
echo “Usage: $0 zip-code”
exit 1
fi
F=’/Library/Themes/Weather Icon.theme/Bundles/com.apple.springboard/com.ashman.WeatherIcon.plist’
plutil -s Location -v $1 “$F”
—- file ends here —–
And then “chmod +x fix_weather_icon_zip”
Use it like this:
iPhone:/var/mobile/bin root# ./fix_weather_icon_zip
Usage: ./fix_weather_icon_zip zip-code
iPhone:/var/mobile/bin root# ./fix_weather_icon_zip 95136
Setting property Location to 95136
It looks like as of version 1.4, the WeatherIcon uses the core location manager libraries to deduce the right location, making it unnecessary to do any modifications to the plist file.
Note that the preferences file has moved to /User/Library/Preferences/com.ashman.WeatherIcon.plist
What repo is this on could someone give me the URL so I can add it?
http://david.ashman.com/apt/
It’s the same as for the reflective dock (refer back to that article).
mattyb123…
i added that source to cydia, however it keeps crashing and i cant search that source for apps?
have i done something wrong….
i followed the instructions on the reflective dock post to add it
???
Is there a way to change the temp to Celsius?? all I’m getting is Fahrenheit and thats quiet confusing when you live in Austria.
I think you can change the Celsius property on the latest version. It’s set to 0 by default, so I presume if you set it to 1 it would do what you want.
thanks a lot i completely overlooked that!!!
To change from F to C or vice versa simply open the weather icon and change the value from within the utility. No need to SSH.
Yes. As of the latest versions it gets its info from the first defined location in the weather app, along with the Celsius vs farenheit setting.
Just the app I was looking for!
Brooke what is the theme that you have on the first set of screenshots, I think that is a pretty cool…
Thanks please let me know
Stan
What’s the name of the blue theme in the screenshots? jeje
Thank you
What’s the name of that blue black theme thanks
Is there a way to use this Mod without winterboard like now I use the LiveTime without winterboard and did replace the orginal icon…
Is there a solution or a way to do this?
Right now, no. I wanted the ability to customize the images, which is what Winterboard is all about. I may introduce this feature in the future, but not now.
Owkay I did a respring and then It didn’t show the degrees but the battery from the top bar…
Did make a screen from it, very strange….
Here is the Screen:
http://img105.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0001nz2.png
Does it slide with the rest of the icons when I swipe pages?
Yes, it does.
Yep it does.
But now again a respring and my date is on top of my weather icon?!?
Screen:
http://img216.imageshack.us/my.php?image=img0002rd5.png
This has been updated to v1.3. It looks like it no longer requires you to enter the zip code. Not sure where it’s pulling the location from, but I would assume the default weather app.
The source code seems to imply that it’s getting the location from the first defined location for the Weather app.
How can I change this?
“TempStyle”
“”
You need to edit the plist to add a custom style to the temperature.
I just downloaded version 1.4 of Weathericon and the zip code was already set. It displayed cloudy and 50 degrees which is correct. Weathericon and LiveTime make for a fantastic springboard…
mine wont switch to the moon..it only shows the sun..even though its night time out..any ideas?
the same problem here! (I’m from Hungary, Europe)
tought it shows the righ weather condition right?
I dont’t have safe mode crashes but my SMS apps (iRealSMS and the stock one) are ‘badgeless’
yup shows the right temp..just always sunny!!!
Badly implemented. Updated to the latest version thinking it would have been solved of the crashing issues. But…. I reboot my iPhone, CRASH. I turn off the app in Winterboard, CRASH! Tried to get out of safe mode and my weather icon goes all weird…
useless
I think there is a compatibility issue with third party SMS apps which create a lot of springboard crashes and put the iPhone into Safe Mode even after respring or rebooting. It also created weird stuff to springboard icons and text. This happens to versions after v1.2.0. Version 1.2.0 seems do not have these issues.
The SMS apps that was tested with are iRealSMS and biteSMS (single app at each time). After uninstalling the SMS app, there was no more crashing occurred.
I think the compatibility issue should be look into, to make WeatherIcon more stable. I hope this info will help WeatherIcon further development, as it is a very good weather mod.
Are you running the latest version (1.4)? Can you send me the list of all of your mobile substrate extensions (status notifier, etc)? Do you have syslog turned on? If not, can you install syslog and run the same tests again, and send me your logs? I tried installing biteSMS and statusnotifier and did not have any crashes with 1.4.
@ Stimpy5050
E-mail sent.
same here, version 1.4 crashed mine too and put it into safe mode.
yeah I have version 1.4 & it put me into safe mode after I selected it in winterboard, but it is showing the right degrees…I also have irealsms 2.0.7.3 installed
If anyone that’s gone into safe mode has syslog turned on, can you send your logs to me at dashman at gmail dot com? I haven’t been able to cause these crashes, but seeing someones logs will help. Also, do you all have third party sms apps installed?
That calendar date issue is odd too. I’ve never seen that one either.
I’ve been able to reproduce the problem. It seems to be related to the way biteSMS and iRealSMS “replace” the default SMS app that is conflicting with something in weathericon. I’d recommend either switching back to the default SMS or turning off weathericon until I can isolate the problem.
I don’t installed 3rd party’s SMS apps.
I don’t use Winterboard > no crash.
I use winterboard > safemode.
now we need the safari icon to work lol
No longer need to use SSH…Program uses first weather location
All,
I think I’ve found the bug that caused the instabilities on many phones. Upgrade to 1.4.1 and let me know if you continue to have problems. I had a nasty bug in some multithreaded code that caused weird rendering issues with other substrate extensions (Winterboard, reflective dock) and even crashes sometimes (particularly with SMS/status notifier combinations).
Just tested it with v1.4.2.
It works brilliantly, no more crashing and rendering issues with third party SMS apps.
Excellent work Dave and a big THANK YOU :).
What’s the black/blue theme???
Bluebird
upgraded to 1.4.1
Verdict: GREAT!!!! :)
what’s the name of those themes? really like the 1st one…