Welcome to the fifty-sixth installment of Queer Your Tech with Fun, Autostraddle’s nerdy tech column. Not everything we cover will be queer per se, but it will be about customizing this awesome technology you’ve got. Having it our way, expressing our appy selves just like we do with our identities. Here we can talk about anything from app recommendations to choosing a wireless printer to web sites you have to favorite to any other fun shit we can do with technology.
Header by Rory Midhani
Okay, so I know weather apps sound blah. I mean, it just tells you the weather. Blah blah blah. Except this one is different. This is a weather app that made me laugh until I actually had tears squeezing themselves from my eyes.
That’s because this weather app, Weather Whiskers, is weather told in LOL Cats.
That’s right. Weather. Cats.
I’ll pause for a hot second while you run and download this free app immediately. Here’s the iOS version. Here’s the Android one (also a Widget, fyi!).
All the text is in LOL speak. So remember when the weather was pretty universally crappy on the East Coast the night before Thanksgiving? Here’s what Weather Whiskers told me was going on.
I hate the snow, yet somehow this made it better.
I liked it so much that I immediately emailed Marie McGwier, a front-end designer for Mindspark, the person primarily responsible for the Weather Whiskers kitteh photoshopping and the person who emailed to alert me of its existence. And she definitely agreed with me that Snoze made the world just a tiny bit more bearable:
It’s a really good way to laugh even when you’re staring into an overwhelming weather forecast, like hail or snow! It’s cool, you know, it’s getting cold but you’re still going to geek out when you check your weather app.
That really was a big inspiration of the project – the idea that something as simple and routine as a weather app could be presented in a way that goes hand in hand with pop culture, memes, and a generally feel good time. My boss, Jim, and my coworker Teresa (you can find them in the “Meet teh team” section!) are cat people, so I think the conclusion of “We have to do weather. But cats,” came really naturally to them. Teresa is a LOL-Speak/Pun master, so she was super eager to really get into the 100% use of LOL-speak all throughout the app and all over our marketing. Check out the twitter I’ve been running, @WeatherWhiskers – you can see it’s damn dedicated! We’ve both enjoyed the hell out of spending hours and hours crafting scenes and giving cats weather appropriate clothing to wear. Jim is really into the smallest details of the app as well as the original overall idea dude – notice the spinner when you pull down to refresh the weather? He brings that kind of detail into it, making this app as purrrfect as pawsible.
And let me tell y’all, this is pawsibly the most purrrfect weather app I’ve seen since Swackett.
You can remove the ads for 99 cents, but otherwise this is completely free. And just as an FYI, Mindspark is hiring an iOS developer – and McGwier is very much hoping a wonderful queer designer will apply: “I’d love to have another queer woman in my workplace!”
![And this is what happens when you take your device into an area of your girlfriend's parents house that doesn't get reception!](https://www.autostraddle.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/11/error.png?resize=480%2C640)
And this is what happens when you take your device into an area of your girlfriend’s parents house that doesn’t get reception!
My roommate and I have downloaded this app while holding hands (because she indulges in my childlike whims and fancies), 8tracks is winning with Pat Benatar, and I’m catching up on The Walking Dead. Fucking right, my Saturday as a blanket burrito/couch potato is shaping up to be quite enjoyable. Mhmm.
That sounds like the perfect Saturday!
(why didn’t I say Caturday? Lost opportunities.)
also, purrfect.
You just continued a cat post with a Miley Cyrus reference. You win all the points for today. You may be able to trade them in for a bow-tie or kitty sweater or something else that will survive some mailing miles.
Your lost opportunity is okay because you quickly caught it before it resulted in a CATastrophe..an Autostraddle faux PAW.
IM ON A ROLL DONT STOP ME.
CAN’T STOP (YOU) WON’T STOP (YOU).
This looks amazing! And it comes on the heels of reports that cat photos can also help language learning (http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-25103362) – maybe some day all of my information/education needs will be met by cat apps!
That article is awesome – thanks for linking :) I’ve been using the Duolingo app to practice my Spanish but now I might have to check out CatAcademy. Now I have two cat apps to download…
Thanks for linking that article! I followed through it to the group that makes CatAcademy, Memrise. Some fantastic learning options in there! I can work on my language skills AND learn about anatomy in the same app! :D
I want to go to there. I love anything that will indulge my need to compulsively check the weather.
I don’t even use my tablet to check the weather, but now I’m definitely doing it.
Nothing like cats and LOL speak for a good morning start
Um. This is the greatest thing to happen to the world* in my opinion.
*The list of greatest things to happen to the world includes, but is not limited to, the creation of autostraddle, grilled cheese, and the L word.
This post is perfectly timed – I just left the Humane Society, sad that I could not adopt all the kittez, and I think cats telling me the weather will be the perfect (purrfect) antidote.
I can’t even walk into a shelter without wanting to leave with everyone.
I cuddled particularly intensely with a fluffy orange gentleman named Garfield, and it broke my heart to leave him. So many cat feels!
My kitteh is an adoption – and he looks just like the cat in the error picture. But he really doesn’t care for other cats, so I can’t really bring home any fluffy orange gentleman cats called Garfield or otherwise.
This app is pretty cool but I’d also like a doge version: “Much weather! So cold!”
Yup
Dogs rule
agreed on the doge version. “very brr!”
Much quere
Such cate
Wow wether
Hopefully we’ll be able to release a dog version in the future!
This app is way more entertaining than the lab reports I have to write. The current cat for Angelus Oaks is very spacey and awesome.
Did you screenshot it?! I wants to see!
But does it work in Australia?
Can’t find it for sure, but the google play review (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.askapplications.weatherwhiskers&hl=en) shows screen grabs from China and Nepal, so hopefully it’s a worldwide app. Give me ten minutes, and I’ll let you know if it works in NZ ;)
it sure does!
I think so, Dina!
It’s working for me in the UK so I would assume so :)
NO! It’s not available for windows phones. SO SAD!!!
This app looks amazing! I hope it paves the way for kitty newscasters.
This is fantastic. Just what I need for my new phone :D
Truly the cat’s meow!
Great article! Creepy pictures though
oh my, how cuuute!! I love it!!
KITTY. want kitty.
Cats + weather. What more can I ask for in life?
This is everything I never knew I wanted and more!!!!
Reason #56 why I love this column.
This column loves you too.
I DIDN’T EVEN KNOW I WANTED THIS.
RIGHT?! I DIDN’T EITHER UNTIL I DOWNLOADED IT.
All I need for the holidays is a phone for this app
Me too.
Damn. Now I’m going to have to get a smartphone. Because cats.
This app could actually make me want to leave the house when the weather is below freezing.
So excited about this. Can’t wait to compulsively check the weather.
This app is about to solve all my “whoops didn’t check the weather” problems. Amazing.
I had to re-read the title like 4 times because I thought it said “Whiskey Weather” for the longest time. I don’t even know, brain.
Downloaded this before I finished the article, but my current city doesn’t have the weather!!
New idea! App that tells you which whiskey to drink based on the weather! (I don’t even know either, brain.)
We’ll be sure to keep that in mind ;) I could use that too.
> • <
As for your current city…oh noes! Where is it, I can check in on my end and see what's up.
You know me so well <3
I can haz cats with my weathers?! What a brilliant way to get me out of bed when it’s freezing!
I’m devastated! No Windows Phone version!
I love this idea, but realistically I will still check my weather channel app compulsively because I take the weather very seriously. Because I’m my dad. But I will still enjoy adorable kitties.
I’m working towards having even more weather data in the future, maybe we can draw you away from the weather channel app! > • <
LOLCATZ. I may or may not have a folder on my desktop dedicated to lolcatz pictures I particularly like. Shut up. I hope they come out with other languages! Slash I wonder if they need help creating other languages…?
This is amazing.
I love this so hard.
Providence, RI has a cat in a raincoat right now and everything is gonna be ok.
Denver is a pic of a cat with a mustache and it says “partly sunz”! I am so happy about this.
Hahaha. Omg. This is amazing! Thank you for feeding my crazy cat ladyness.
Immediately purchased.
It seems to only give temperatures in F, so while the cats are much appreciated, I still have only half a clue as to how I should dress for the day.
Fiona! Hi, you can see the C. On Iphone its at the bottom of the “add and edit locations” tab, and on android there’s a temperature settings in the overflow menu.
-Marie
PS, be in touch if you have other questions / concerns!
Of course, December in canada only comes in Fucking Cold and Really Fucking Cold, so it’s hardly a struggle.
Important update: There is a very obvious F/C toggle and I’m a failure.
greatest non-purchase-purchase of my life! thank you Ali!