The Week in iOS Apps: Making weather simple

This week’s roundup includes two different apps that aim to strip weather forecasting down to its barest essence. Read on!

The success of live-video apps like Periscope seems to have inspired some envy among audiophiles. Anchor is a free iPhone offering that lets you “broadcast” two-minute audio clips—“think mini podcasts,” the makers say—which can be shared on iMessage, Facebook, Twitter, SMS, or email, or embedded on a website or blog.

Catmania lets you send cat-themed, personalized animated postcards and greeting videos through your phone. You could say it’s the cat’s meow, a purrfect offering. Certainly, we’re feline it.

Weather apps—and there are no end of them—tend to go one of two directions: They either overload you with information, delighting the weather nerds who keep a close on on barometric pressure; or they strip it down to the essence, showing you the current weather, and maybe a short forecast. Hello Weather is the second kind.

Mood Listener is kind of like Pandora, except that this SoundCloud-based app builds playlists for you based on your mood—you let it know how you’re feeling, and it will play songs that fit your mental state.

Quartz is a new news app from the Quartz website, but it’s trying something different: News as SMS-style messaging. “We’ll send you messages, photos, GIFs, and links, and you can decide when you’re interested in reading more,” the makers say. Will it work? It’s certainly a fresh take on news delivery.

Sleep++ has always recorded your sleep and given you feedback on your nocturnal rhythms. Now the app has been overhauled with a new sleep analysis algorithm that “accurately differentiates between deep sleep, light sleep, restlessness and wakefulness.” Also among the new features: Support for time zone changes, to better and more accurately track your sleep as you travel.

Sports Illustrated has long offered its magazine as a standalone app. The new SI app does something different—it takes the mag’s website and makes it useful in the mobile format.

You think Hello Weather has a simple format? Wild Weather strips it down even further: It gives you the current temperature and a nice, artistic rendering of what the weather outside looks like. It almost makes weather info seem soothing.

WordPress now allows the creation of new blogs from within the app … Vine has added support for 3D Touch … The Walking Dead: No Man’s Land (pictured) challenges you to kill zombies. Duh.