Hello,
I wanted to let Applevis users know about a weather app I've created that's been available for a few months now called WeatherFast. I'm a VoiceOver user myself and wanted a weather app that avoided a lot of clutter, helped answer questions about weather around me because in general radar isn't accessible and more. You can find the full appstore entry for the app at:
https://apps.apple.com/us/app/weather-fast/id6757891543
I have an audio demo of the app at https://theideaplace.net/projects/WeatherFastDemo.mp3 and a transcript of that audio at https://theideaplace.net/projects/WeatherFastDemoTranscript.txt. I do have to chuckle because if you listen to the audio or read the transcript, you'll discover I made the recording when Madison, Wisconsin, was experiencing a blizzard earlier this year. Right now it is 90 degrees as I'm writing this post.
The app has some features I've not found in other apps that I find particularly handy. For example, on the browse tab you can pick a U.S. state or country from around the world and then view weather from a list of cities for that location. You can then sort that list alphabetically, by geography or by temperature. Note that because of how the app is built, these city lists are currently built into the app so if you find coverage for a given state or country is lacking, let me know. I'm working on a way for users to populate these lists directly that also respects the usage limits of the services I use to get the data.
When you are viewing a city, there's a feature I call Weather Around Me. It allows you to set a distance from 50 to 350 miles and will then give a summary of the weather at that distance. In addition, you can pick a single direction and step through a range of cities in that direction up to the distance you set and get a sense of the weather. This can be really heopful when storms are in your area to get more of an idea how the storm is moving. Note that when your explorations are around larger bodies of water, such as ocean coast lines, or the Great Lakes, you can sometimes not have a city attached to one of the weather stops as you explore.
There is a lot more in the app including the ability to browse historical weather in many cases back 80 years, details about expected precipitation and more.
I try to give multiple ways to get information and features. For example, I make extensive use of VoiceOver actions because I find them handy but you don't have to use actions. In settings you can customize just about every aspect of what weather info is shown, the order it appears and how much info VoiceOver communicates. The app has a full user guide available inside the app near the end of the settings page.
You can also get newer releases as I make them available in Test flight from https://testflight.apple.com/join/QwMz3Hep.
If someone is so inclined and wants to put an entry for this app in the App directory, I'd appreciate it. By policy and rightly so in my opinion, I'm not allowed to submit entries on my own apps.
If you find something isn't working, have suggestions or other feedback, please let me know. I've had positive feedback on the app from users, some who use VoiceOver and some not and appreciate anyone who tries the app.
Kelly
Comments
Awesome
Great job very detailed and easy to use! Extensive use of the VO router is enjoyable! I'm hesitant to say but, I would like to have a personal weather AI presenter speak my forecast thanks for your efforts!
A power user weather app!
This is one of the cleanest and most flexible weather apps I've ran across. Excellent stuff!
Only thing is I'm having trouble loading historical data. I assume it's something to do with the data source being down at the moment. It just says "showing 0 years." I've tried a few cities as well.
Other than that, I'm digging this.
Could be a game changer
This app sounds like it can solve a real problem that many weather apps, such as Apple Weather, do not provide: the feature that monitors where the rain is going. For example, in my city, I always head out before checking the weather. However, I realize I'm always checking my current weather rather than the weather at my destination. What ends up happening is that it rains at my destination, but not at my original location. So, if you add a weather tracker that shows where the rainstorm is heading, that will be a game changer.
Edit: upon re- reading your post the feature I am referring to is called weather around me
it's super awesome!
i love it! awesome job! it's super easy to use and quick and i love that it works in germany and even supports postal code lookups here.
really awesome!
this will be my new go to weather app!
I didn’t realize I could be impressed by a weather app
Especially the weather around me feature is stunning.
If I understand correctly how this feature works, the app tells me if for example a storm is coming, from where and how fast it’s moving. to get this info however, I must play around with the directions. North, south and so on.
It would be really helpful if this info was available directly. For example, storm is approaching from their at this speed.
Historical Weather and More
Thanks all for the comments on the app. I've submitted a fix and it is in test flight for Historical Weather not working. Apologies on that. I'll submit to the appstore review process in a day after I know a few folks have installed the test flight version.
I continue to explore ways to improve the Weather Around me feature. The step-by-step in a direction and high level details in all directions are my current approach. I continue to look for quality data sources and ways to use them effectively to improve this experience.
Kelly
Amazing app!
Honestly this app is amazing. I never really cared about weather apps before, the default iPhone one was always enough for me, but this changed that. Really well done, seriously impressed. Also if there’s any way to support the project like a donation or something, I’d love to contribute. I want this app to stick around. 😊
donation button
hi, i just wanted to add that you should add a donate button in the app to let people tip you for a good app. no matter what your price model is, i like to occassionally donate to good apps. the lire, navigator and voicevista developers have done it too.
believe it or not there are people out there willing to thank you for a good app!
awesome job!
Historical weather works now, thanks!
Latest testFlight build is working great.
cheers!
iCloud sync?
Hi Kelly,
I downloaded your app from TestFlight today, after seeing the link posted in this thread & I have to say, I'm quite impressed!
I love all the Voiceover rotor actions!
The one request I would make is for iCloud sync.
This would allow me to access the same info across my iPhone, iPad, Apple watch & mac, as well as sync my data to & from those platforms, in case a device restore becomes necessary.
Is this something which is already in the works or would you be willing to consider it?
On Donations and Historical Weather
Hi All,
The fix for Historical Weather has been submitted to Apple for App Store review in addition to already being in Test Flight. My experience with small changes like the one required here is that the Apple review is typically within 24 hours. That may be just luck as they say reviews can take up to 48 hours.
Thank you again for the comments on WeatherFast. I really appreciate hearing that others are finding the app adds value. As I said, I'm a VoiceOver user myself and have been around software and accessibility for a long time both personally and professionally.
I've looked into what it takes to include a tip jar of sorts and it seems straight forward for what Apple requires. I'll add one in a future update but want to be clear, that any donations are completely optional, albeit appreciated. I know I myself do look for ways to say thanks and support apps, content and other artistic creations I find of value. That said, I want to be clear that I also recognize there are a lot of ways to support an app or other experience and financially is just one of them. The kind words here are sincerely appreciated by me.
Unless there's some big change in my costs for the app that I do not currently expect, it is my intent to keep this and my other apps free to use. I suppose if my app became wildly successful, I could hit usage limits for Open-Meteo's paid subscription that I use or the limits Apple's Weather Kit has before they start charging. That I guess would be a good problem to have.
I know Open-Meteo has a free API level as well but I've found even small apps like mine can hit their free limits and I'd rather ensure a higher level of service availability.
Thank you again to anyone who has tried the app.
Kelly
iCloud Syncing
KE8UPE,
A couple other users have asked me about iCloud syncing as well. I'll figure it out and unless there's some big reason why it doesn't work with how my app is built, I'll move it up earlier in the things I do next. Likely a couple weeks.