If you want to find out about the weather from a steely computer overlord, this is the app for you
You certainly get the feel for an app when it opens with ‘Greetings, meatbag!’ and then awards you with an achievement when you search for London and unlock a secret location: ‘The Ripper’s first kill site’. But then like the other CARROT apps, this entry is suitably twisted, offering weather forecasting with a side order of malevolency, dished out by an irritable AI that’s clearly had enough of dealing with pesky humans.
A helpful illustration highlights that it’s a bit blustery today.
When it comes to forecasting, the app is ably supported by data from Forecast.io, which in our experience is broadly accurate (if occasionally pessimistic regarding long-range conditions), and provides eerily precise rainfall predictions for the coming hour, if you’re in the UK, Ireland, USA or Canada.
Secret locations can be found, one of which CARROT particularly likes.
On selecting a location (either via Location Services or a manual search), you get a weather symbol and temperature to outline current conditions, some slightly spindly descriptive text, and a details bar on a hovering platform. This can be swiped between short-term, hourly and daily forecasts; a vertical swipe provides a further detail view, including sunrise and sunset info, and a more descriptive overview of the coming week’s weather.
On a clear night, CARROT recommends unsavoury activities.
Regarding data, there’s nothing here you can’t find in dozens of other weather apps (or even the free Forecast website, which can be saved to your home screen). However, CARROT Weather sinks its robot talons in with if not a winning personality then certainly a very compelling one. Right from the off, dialogue and strange animations inject fun into what’s usually a dry, po-faced type of app. If it’s windy, you might see someone clinging on to a lamppost for dear life, or evil penguins will stare from the screen when conditions are cold; naturally, CARROT doesn’t care for humans, and so will in all cases dispassionately read the forecast, occasionally insulting meteorologists for good measure, or joke about your misfortune in the Today view widget if it happens to be pouring down.
CARROT’s rhyming is first-rate; its sense of compassion… less so.
You also get rewarded for exploring and experimenting with the app. As noted previously, certain searches unlock hidden locations; elsewhere, actions are the key. You can then find out just how hot it’s going to be today on Tatooine, or be told “One does not simply check the weather in Mordor”. Fortunately, standard locations are easily stored, too, being automatically added to your list after a search. A swipe and tap deletes any you don’t want to hang around permanently, and those you do can be reordered.
Even the Today view is no escape from CARROT’s snark.
For total weather geeks, CARROT Weather might be a touch lacking in details — there’s no radar, for example. But such people will be glued to Weather Pro anyway. For everyone else, CARROT is a solid weather app backed by a highly entertaining theme — even if you do get the feeling it’s just counting the hours until the ‘robocalypse’.
Right from the off, CARROT shows its disdain for human operators.
Price: $2.99/£2.29
Size: 10.7 MB
Version: 1.0
Developer: Grailr LLC
