Today was a big day for the team at Êelios, Inc., a spin-off subsidiary of 21st Century Systems, Inc. (21CSI). Their location-based personal weather app, WxFix, became available for purchase in Apple’s App Store.

This morning, they shared the good news in a blog entry. It began:

Well, we finally got our new WxFix “Lifestyle Weather” app up on the iTunes App Store. Congrats to the Team – Jim, Hasani, Kyle, Ted, Plamen, Kimo, Brian and all the others for their contributions and continued support. We could not have gotten here without y’alls help and faith in this project.

Also, huge thanks to 21CSI (21st Century Systems, Inc.), our parent company, for its continued support and patience.

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We’ve been following the development of WxFix since interviewing Êelios’ CEO, Dave Andersen, in April. The following month, we heard more from Dave when he attended, and had Êelios sponsor, Big Omaha. In August, our interest in it continued to pique when we interviewed one of the app’s developers, Hasani Hunter of I.COM.

In their press release for the app, Dave noted that Eelios and WxFix grew out of software technology originally developed by 21CSI for the U.S. military. The app was developed in Omaha with local developers, along with 21CSI’s internal resources.

Here’s a highlight of it’s core features:

• Get weather anywhere simply by dropping a pin on the map. Drag the pin to the desired location and get up to 6 days worth of weather conditions and forecasts instantly by the day or by the hour – for up to 144 hours.
• Create and store personal “favorite” pin locations, and the ability to retrieve personalized weather with a single tap. Further personalize each favorite location with a user-selected iPhone photo.
• Access weather “exactly where you are”, updated dynamically using iPhone’s geo-location.
• Share favorites easily via Bluetooth, and share forecasts via Email.
• See local-area Doppler radar anywhere, at any resolution. Zoom and pan easily to show any number of locations; home, golf course, beach, trail, stadium, park, or kids’ soccer field.

WxFix Standard will cost you $2.99, but you can give the app a drive test drive with WxFix Lite. I’ve had fun playing around with it, especially the pin drop feature — I sure wish I had a lake cabin or a ski lodge to keep tabs on. For now, I’m tracking weather at my parent’s house in Minnesota, my apartment in Omaha, and SPN’s office. The latter two, even though they’re just four miles apart, are showing one degree of difference. I’m impressed by that detail, and it’ll be interesting to see the temperatures fluctuate in winter when wind chill is a factor.

I grabbed an interview with Dave today to hear more about the technology behind the app, how long it’s been in development, and what feature he’s most excited to use. I also recorded a demo of the app with him, but unfortunately the sound cut out in the first minute. We’ll record another one in the near future and publish it in another post.

Here’s a couple screenshots of the app: