MyObservatory App Reviews

Try as I could, I was not able to get this App to stay open for more than 3 seconds after launching on my 3GS 32GB running IOS4.0.01 Given the weather in Hong Kong, there is a No.3 Wind signal up as I write, I would like to think that this will be atleast as good as the other Hong Kong Weather Apps. Assuming that the crashing gets fixed, the next question is why use this in preference to some of the other, excellent Hong Kong Weather Apps? Tried to start again after a couple of hours and it has stopped crashing. The language setting. By default it is preset to Cantonese. In the top right hand corner press the icon that looks like a knife and fork. Its actuallu a spanner & screwdriver. You are now in settings, but it is still in Cantonese. Look at the top of the second second box on the screen. It is full of chinese characters with an arrow on the far right handside side. Press that line of characters (it is traditional chinese for "Language"). You can now selecte either traditional or simplified chinese characters or English. When you select English, every thing in this App changes to English. Frankly, not well designed from the point of view of a non traditional character reader and obviously a feature that needs to be improved. Everything else is very good except for what appears to be a major ommission that the competition offers. I cannot find any push alerts for warnings / alerts from the Observatory. Whilst I accept that this app is free, but so is the competition which does offer all warnings / alerts from the Observatory. Given that this App is the official App from the Observatory, the ommission of push alerts that carry warnings / alerts that are generated by the Observatory is a huge ommission, given that they are provided by the competition. So in conclusion, this is good, but obviously must be improved ASAP just to match the competition. How to be better however is the real question.

Look to the upper-right corner u see a setting option tap it, then select language/語言, then chose...

Resourceful and easy to use.

Well mine is in English, so i dont get how people can only see Chinese. I think you should be able to change the language in the settings. (: Other than that, this app is easy and convenient to use (:

If you use the Observatorys website for your weather information, this app will make you more than happy. In the new version, English language can be chosen by clicking on the top right icon for settings. All moving maps load extremely fast on Hong Kong Three 3G. Since I live in the New Territories and work in Island East, being able to be instantly and automatically updated to my current location (including a picture) is a huge plus.

Great app! So much useful information

I really like the push alerts on local weather. I live in Hong Kong and occasionally check the observatory website for rain or typhoon information. A couple of nights ago, I came across this app and installed it. Thinking nothing of it, I went to bed. The next morning, I woke up, picked up my phone, and saw an alert for Typhoon 1. I called my husband in the office and he didnt even know because the skies were bright and sunny. Later in the day, the alert for Typhoon 3 came in. So I went to ensure our plants on the balcony were going to be okay. I didnt have to do anything to get the useful information and it allowed me to prepare myself. I havent figured out how timely the alerts are, but if they come out soon after the Observatory finds out, this would be very useful in times of extreme weather.

It is very useful thank you

It crashes on iPod touch 4/iPad 2 4.3.3 after launching. But its OK on iPhone 3G 4.2.1. When will it support iPad?

Its a well designed, comprehensive source of information from one of the best weather services in the World. Thank you.

v3.2 doesnt work on my iTouch.

Ive been using this app for about 18 months, first on the iPhone and now on the iPad. Bravo to the Observatory because the app just keeps getting better and better. First off, for those worried about language, the app now seems to detect your language setting automatically - I just downloaded the iPad version and it appeared in English without me doing anything at all. (If your device is set to a language other than English or Chinese, though, Im not sure which option it would choose.) The design is clean and intuitive, making it easy to find the information you need: current conditions, 7-day forecasts, warnings, radar, even data like rainfall totals. Its basically everything youll find on the Observatorys website, but more logically and attractively organized (the website looks like a refugee from 1999 or so.) Note that weather forecasting in Hong Kong is quite different from other places - certainly as an American I find that a lot of the things I think of as a standard part of a forecast (e.g. a percentage chance of rain, or a "real-feel" temperature estimate) just arent done here. And the categories of storm are mystifying at first, with a vocabulary thats a legacy of a time when many more Hong Kongers worked on the water and were warned via different colors of flags. Nevertheless, Id say that this is a more reliable app to use in Hong Kong than the apps from international or US-based sources such as Swackett or Weather.com. And its free, which is tough to beat as a price!

Have everything u need to know. Even better is the special alert, which saves me a couple times from getting soaked.

Wont let you turn off location based services- which means that it will drain your precious battery even quicker. Typical HK. Typical fail.

I use the app several times a day to plan my outdoor activities and am generally satisfied. One suggestion: the daily weather conditions (sunny/cloudy/rainy...) should always be the bigger icons on the main page instead of any cold or hot weathers alerts. They should instead be shown as small dots added to the bigger daily icons.

It crashes 75% of the time upon opening the app, i cant get into storm track, it always crash exit. It never happened till this version.

Good for HK people who can track the local weather

Good info but instable app.

The interface is perplexing, baffling and completely unusable... just like the website. Its not like the government is not able to afford good designers.

The interface needs improvement, need some iOS 7 design theme.