Car Starter is a dashboard companion app for Windows Phone 8 devices that puts essential apps and information at your fingertips. The app was updated to version 1.7, which optimizes the app for 1080p phones, adds a few new shortcuts, and adds a weather forecast feature as an in-app purchase.
The 1080p optimization has five main buttons instead of the four and four tiles running across the top of the app. Live Music Access and Metrotube apps have been added to the shortcut button lists. You also have French and Polish language support along with a few bug fixes and stability tweaks.
Car Starter Main Page, Weather Tiles and Weather Options
As far as the weather feature is concerned, an hourly or three-day forecast is displayed at the top of the app. Your forecast location can be based on a specific location or set to your Windows Phone location services. Tapping on a weather tile will cause Car Starter to read a more detailed forecast and if there are weather alerts in your area, Car Starter will notify you of such.
While the weather forecast has been added to Car Starter, it has been added as a $.99 in-app purchase. The weather feature joins the NFC feature, also $.99, on Car Starter’s in-app purchase menu. The developer has added a “Pro” option for $1.49, which unlocks both NFC and weather features and any future premium feature.
The update does give Car Starter a little more meat to the bone and even though the weather feature is an IAP, it is a nice touch. I can see the audible weather alerts coming in handy while you are traveling and need a hands free update on the weather ahead.
The base Car Starter app is a freebie with the add-on features running $.99 each or $1.49 for the group. Car Starter is available for Windows Phone 8 and you can find it here at the Windows Phone Store.
