For those jailbroken iOS users who may find the whole lock screen experience a little bit bland, boring and outdated, then the Forecast tweak might be something which would appeal to you. Users of Android devices certainly have the bragging rights when it comes to interactive and engaging lock screens, something that iOS users will be forgiven for being just a little bit envious.
The Forecast tweak, one of the latest from developer Stimpy5050, brings with it a small change to the device’s lock screen by totally removing the familiar time and date snippet that appears at the top of the display and replacing it with a native looking weather widget that users may recognize from the Notification Center pull-down menu.
After installation, Forecast does not come with any additional home screen icons or configurable settings entries. The tweak is activated by default when installed, meaning users will need to remove the package entirely through Cydia if they wish to go back to the old time and date display. One of the great things about Forecast is the native aesthetics that it offers and certainly doesn’t look out of place when displayed on the lock screen.
When installed, the Forecast tweak will use the local weather system to pull up weather information including the current temperature, as well as high and low forecasts for the day. The time and date are also displayed on the left hand side of the widget, as well as a very well crafted image that shows the local conditions visually.
By default, Forecast refreshes itself after every fifteen minutes, but it does have a refresh option on the bottom right hand corner which allows users to to manually update the weather. One of the benefits of the fifteen minute refresh is that the tweak will not use a great deal of cellular data should no Wi-Fi connection be available. It also means that it shouldn’t have a great or an adverse effect on battery life, considering the tweak won’t be constantly requiring attention.
Forecast is definitely a nice little option for those who want a change from the standard iOS lock screen experience, and the native implementation means it fits in perfectly with the rest of iOS. Forecast is available from the ModMyi repository for an introductory price of $0.99 before rising to an unspecified full price.
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