[iSin]

Bellshare support S*CKS! i used to love their apps but it's like their customers are garbage, when i got a new phone i stopped paying for their upgrades (which is a rip off too) and noticed there were apps that did the same for a cheaper price and even for FREE. So, i won't be getting this one, and Android Port? are you serious?!

My 2 cents.

[Sith_Apprentice]

Its odd people come to this thread to just bash Bellshare. If you dont want the app then dont buy it. But its useless to ramble about a developer in a thread about an app. Its an android port, for $5. If this should be for reviews of the APP not the dev.

[Mikey_T]

Its odd people come to this thread to just bash Bellshare. If you dont want the app then dont buy it. But its useless to ramble about a developer in a thread about an app. Its an android port, for $5. If this should be for reviews of the APP not the dev.

How is it odd? The two are linked, bad (and good) experiences with a developer are legitimate considerations when looking at purchasing an app.

And why should this thread be ONLY for reviews of the app? This is a discussion about the new app; and the creaters of that app are relevant to the conversation.

[gwinegarden]

What is wrong with Android apps? 99% of them work well on playbook.

Have you tried them all?

Seriously, a few that I have tried lock up the player and a couple locked up my whole system.

[gwinegarden]

What makes it worth $5 more than the free native app?

[travaz]

It works great on my PlayBook and I just dont know why everyone complains about it being an Android App. All I heard was how cool it was to sideload apps from Android Market Place. Now we can get them from App World they are not cool. I love Beweather for both my 9930 and my PB. If you dont want it dont buy it. I did so and am very happy with it. I have never had a problem with any app playing on my PB native or not.

[trsbbs]

Not concerned about the price (if you can't afford it don't buy it)

But the fact that is is NOT ready for prime time leaves a bad taste in my
mouth, once again with BellShare.

CONS:
It's unstable.Crashes way to often
Start up is slow and poorly done (player menu pops in before the app)
Selecting local pictures seem to have issues showing multiple folders.
Animated weather background does not always work
No "backup settings" function
BellShare customer support stinks from one end to the other

PRO
Ability to add custom radar and media sources
Very cool looking when it works
Uses mine and others weather stations for local data
Stock radar works and better than many others
Price is not bad (if they get the CONS fixed)

Good start, but not even close to be complete or stable.

I recommend waiting a couple of versions before buying to see if
they can fix it and make it useful.

I do find it in bad test for BellShare to port the Droid over instead of writing a
PB native app that sort of works.

Half a$$esed at best right now.

Tim

For those that say it works great, I suspect you havent used all its functions.

[trsbbs]

So this is not a native app, that's disappointing
I will not spent 5 dollar for an Android app, that's for sure.

Common developers, you can do better than this!

Really? $4.99 is to high for you?

Give up a Big Mac and shake just one time and you can afford it.

But I do agree it should be much more stable before asking anything for it.

Tim

[kcpaynev1]

Posted by the Bellshare developer in the comments section on blog:

If you take a look at the app you will notice that it is not a simple repackaging of our Android version. Our original Android version never worked on Playbook Android Runtime.

This version has been heavily customized to make the user experience feel as native as possible to the Playbook.

Some of the features this app provides using the Android Runtime wouldn't have been possible to implement in a native/AIR app.

If RIM decides to drop the non-native task switching for Android apps this app couldn't be distinguished from a native/AIR Playbook app.

[masqueofhastur]

It works great on my PlayBook and I just dont know why everyone complains about it being an Android App. All I heard was how cool it was to sideload apps from Android Market Place. Now we can get them from App World they are not cool. I love Beweather for both my 9930 and my PB. If you dont want it dont buy it. I did so and am very happy with it. I have never had a problem with any app playing on my PB native or not.

When you sideload an app you know what you're getting, when an app suddenly turns out to be an Android app in App World it's surprising to say the least.

[pfluger]

I wonder if the 'bug' they mention is just the fact that the Android Player is so laggy, slow and limited as to be nearly un-useable?

The 'bug' is a problem with video playback in the offical Tablet OS 2.0 release. It doesn't use hardware acceleration. On the beta builds of Tablet OS 2.0 the BeWeather HD user experience when using animated backgrounds was way smoother.
RIM is aware of the issue and has promised to fix it in the next Tablet OS update.

[Denus]

Really? $4.99 is to high for you?

Give up a Big Mac and shake just one time and you can afford it.

But I do agree it should be much more stable before asking anything for it.

Tim

I have a PB, so I expect a native app for that money, that's all.
Btw, no worry about my wallet, I don't like fastfood anyway...

[kool2]

i pay 5.00 for it now so maybe it will work like the one on my phone later

[404error]

i had weather thing preloaded standard uses accuweather why would someone pay 5 bucks for weather reports ???

[rjedge54]

And for 4.99 I would not only expect it to use GPS, but to at least find my locations with the search. Since they are using weather underground and I know there are local WU Weather stations, I was surprised and a little ticked when not only do I get a location not found for Langley, Abbotsford, Surrey, Pitt Meadows, but not even Vancouver, BC. I was also expecting a native app for the price.

[pfluger]

And for 4.99 I would not only expect it to use GPS, but to at least find my locations with the search. Since they are using weather underground and I know there are local WU Weather stations, I was surprised and a little ticked when not only do I get a location not found for Langley, Abbotsford, Surrey, Pitt Meadows, but not even Vancouver, BC. I was also expecting a native app for the price.

I was able to add every single location you listed. Is your wifi connection on the Playbook working? Have you been able to add any other location?

[rjedge54]

I was able to add every single location you listed. Is your wifi connection on the Playbook working? Have you been able to add any other location?

I launched it immediately after downloading it. The first attempt took over 30 seconds to load, and then crashed. The second attempt allowed me to download the "extra content" and took over a minute to load. At the add city screen (again disappointed in no GPS location) I entered each one of those cities and got a "location not found" error for each one of them. I then sent an email to the support address asking for a refund after which I deleted the app. I expected much better than this for 4.99. I have several free apps that work much better than this.

After trying those cities I didn't try any others. Didn't see the point since those cities cover all of my local weather. Anything beyond that is of little use to me.

[sushistew]

[YT]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2o27OrebXmU[/YT]

[Maxxxpower]

@ pfluger: The thing I do miss the most ist that, in contrast to the Blackberry app which I really like, it is neither possible to show the actual weather and temperature on the app icon nor on the home screen background. Is this a limitation of Playbook OS or of the app?

[FF22]

@ pfluger: The thing I do miss the most ist that, in contrast to the Blackberry app which I really like, it is neither possible to show the actual weather and temperature on the app icon nor on the home screen background. Is this a limitation of Playbook OS or of the app?

That's the aspect that keeps me from really considering this version of BerryWeather. I can open a webpage, use the native weather program or others if I need to physically OPEN an app to see the current conditions. At this time, no 3rd party apps seem to have access to things like the Homescreen to display live information.

Then there is the Android aspect - meaning it needs the player which on occasion locks up (that could be my doing since I've got a few sideloaded apps) so that I canNOT count on any particular android app opening when I really want it. FREE programs - that's fine - I can cope. But paying to have a stalled program - probably not very likely.

[pfluger]

@ pfluger: The thing I do miss the most ist that, in contrast to the Blackberry app which I really like, it is neither possible to show the actual weather and temperature on the app icon nor on the home screen background. Is this a limitation of Playbook OS or of the app?

It is a limitation of the Playbook OS.

[Maxxxpower]

Do you have any information whether this limitation will be removed in future updates of the OS?

[pfluger]

Do you have any information whether this limitation will be removed in future updates of the OS?

Unfortunately we do not know when or if such functionality will become available to 3rd party apps.

[tsells]

I'm not sure why there's so much complaining, as the app works well. There's a little stutter on the animations (as mentioned by Bellshare), but it's no big deal. The font color can't be changed, but everything else is pretty darn good.

[jcbrunson]

Really impressed that the Bellshare dev is contributing to this thread! Thx Bellshare!