Introducing Weather Gods, a new iOS weather app made accessible with help from the AppleVis community

Meters per second

Hi,

Thanks for purchasing Weather Gods and for the feedback.

I can put in meters per second but there would be a small restriction in that the summary information for day and night would still be km/h.

Would this be acceptable?

Hello!
Sure it would be acceptable. As I wrote earlier it's quite OK to estimate the wind speed based on the km/h value. Of course the ideal would be to have meters per second everywhere, but if that isn't possible it's absolutely fine to have it where it can be.

Meters per second

That's great. I will add it to our feature list.

What I will do is leave the 3 settings as they are and have a switch for 'wind speed mps' - this case any of the three settings can enjoy the meters per second for wind speed

Sound effects?

Hello again Scott,
Just thinking about the notifications and perhaps this might be an icing on the cake thing but what about adding sound effects to the notifications? I believe that you do get a brief notification sound (at least I do at 7AM and 7PM), some kind of gong. However, what about adding sound effects that denote the type of weather?
I'm near Southend in Essex and it has been raining cats and dogs here today as us Brit's say and wouldn't it be great to have a rain sound with my notification at 7AM?
However, taking it a stage further, I can think wind and lightning but what about sounds for sun (if we ever get any), and snow? Seriously though, I find it quite hard to listen to the notification when doing other things and a sound might add to my understanding of what the weather is likely to be for that day.

Otherwise, I say again, a brilliant app.

Steve.

Sound effects?

Hi Steve,

Yes, we've got much more in the pipeline on the sound front and would love to do different sound effects for different weather notification events - it's very straightforward.

As you know, we've already got the sounds, we just need to convert them to a different format which can be played for a notification.

I will add this to our feature list as well :)

Been a dreadful day in the UK for rain, I'm in the south west and twice I had to abandon my journey due to flooded roads. Hoping for a drier day tomorrow.

just look...

Hello Scott,
Yes, I see on the news that Devon and Cornwall have had it quite bad. However, might I suggest that you look at WG to get your forecast for tomorrow? I understand that it's much better.

Steve.

just look...

Ha ha! I was checking WG and was pleased to see in the daily summary it warned of localised flooding and heavy rain. Unfortunately, both journeys were kind of essential and I was convinced I would be okay :) Much less rain tomorrow according to WG, so should be okay for a second attempt!

Notifications

Hi,

This is one of the best weather apps I have come across.

I just have one question relating to notifications. This concerns the morning and evening summaries. Are these only being delivered by text at the moment? If so, could they be extended as push notifications for those devices which do not have a sim card such as the iPod Touch 6th Generation for example?

Many thanks.

Notifications

Hi,

Thanks for the feedback.

The notifications are delivered using a network connection and Apple Push Notifications Service - if you have WiFi then there is a good chance you will get some, but you would need to be connected to wifi on a regular basis.

Notifications by location

Hello,
I am considering purchasing this app. Something I am curious about though, does this app follow your iPhone's location? I would like to receive weather alerts where ever I am at.

Notifications by location

Hi Lisa

Not currently. It's a feature we would very much like to add in the next 3-6 months.

Notifications

Hi Scott,

Thanks for your reply. I am using an iPod Touch 6th Gen at the moment and it is always connected by wi fi. The only notifications I have been getting in the last few days is the wind one. That's why I was asking about the summary notifications as I am not getting these at all. I have them set for 8am and 8pm.

Thanks, and keep up the good work.

Notifications

Hi Rob,

Sorry about the problems with the notifications - we've had some teething problems and those should definitely be working on your iPod Touch.

We've got an update, currently in review with Apple, which has fixed some of the notifications issues and made them a lot more robust. I'm hoping the update will be out today (version 1.0.2) .

Something we've added with this update, is that when you send us a support email, we include debug information about the notifications, which should help us try and resolve these kind of issues, as they are very difficult to figure out.

I'd recommend that once you get the update, send us an email and I should be able to get a much better understanding about what is happening with them.

Moon God

I wish the Moon God would give a one line summary, like the Fire God does. The moon details are great, but when flicking through, it would be nice to know the Moon phase.

Rolling Forward Dayes

I am confused by the dates at the bottom of the app. I understand I need to leave the app open in order to get notifications. When I go in, I see that instead of buttons for Now, Today, Tomorrow etc, it starts with yesterday.

Will it roll these days forward as days go by?

If I highlight today, rather than now, when I open the app tomorrow, it will still be on today, which by then will be yesterday. I then get the wrong information.

I'm confused.

dp

Moon God

hi,

Hoping to add this in the next update (1.0.3)

Rolling Forward Dayes

Hi,

Sorry for any confusion.

Yes, the app rolls forward automatically whenever it is resumed or reloaded.

The app isn't designed to be left 'open' all the time as it wont auto update.

The best way to use the app is to launch it, listen to the weather and then when you are finished, just press the home button. This keeps the app in the background, ensuring the notifications continue to function.

Next time you want to check the weather, launch the app; either from the home screen or from the switcher or using Siri. The app will reload fresh weather data and set the 'days' accordingly.

You can relaunch the app as many times as you like and it will go off and refresh the weather, however, it will only update if the weather has actually changed.

The only time I know when it wont roll the days forward is if you are offline and it can't update with the latest weather. Voiceover indicates the app is offline when you tap the location label.

I am also hoping to add a last update date and time in the next update, which will help clarify how old the data is.

Hope that has helped, if not then please let me know.

weather sounds

Hello again Scott,
The new update arrived in the UK early this morning and I've updated. I now see that weather sounds have been added to settings, right at the bottom. Is this right or have they been there all along and I've missed them?
If they are new, you've answered my earlier question about what sounds to use for sun, snow and hail. However, what about fog? I'm not quite sure how the sounds equate to conditions such as snow and I cannot think of the link between the snow sound for example and the actual condition but I'm sure I will get used to it eventually.
Could you think about one addition though please? I've had a listen to all the sounds (with headphones) and they are very quiet. For example, I can hardly hear the light wind sound and the snow sound is almost silent (perhaps because I do not relate the sound to snow). Therefore, could you add volume to settings? This will allow users to set their own volume for notification sounds for example. I envisage waking up tomorrow morning, getting my WG notification at 7AM with the pitter-patter of rain... not only from outside but also from the app.

Thank you again,

Steve.

weather sounds

hi Steve,

Yes, they were in the last update :)

We are completely re-working the sounds to make them all much louder - we had them professionally cerated and mastered by a sound engineer in a sound studio. We need to go back and re-book and re-master.

Once re-mastered, we will reset the sound volumes in the app and then add the master volume control slider.

Snow is supposed to be a quiet and cold sound. Fog is more of an eerie sound :)

Can you let me know if the notifications are improved please in terms of reliability - i've been testing all week and they only once missed a beat when I lost my network for a couple of hours.

Thanks
Scott

Notification reliability

Hello Scott,
I've had notifications every morning at 7AM this week. However, I've missed two evening notifications at 7PM, once last Friday and on Monday.
I'll ensure to check each day this week and send you a review after the weekend.
However, I might not have anything for you early next week as I have to travel and stay in Eastbourne to do some PhD research.
I'll let you know about the notification reliability when I've got enough data.

Steve.

Notification reliability

Thanks Steve - appreciated.

Swipe Between Favourites

Thanks for the info about Moon Gods an the days.

Would it be possible to move between saved favourites with a three finger swipe right, or left, rather than tapping through to the favourites listing from the location heading? Perhaps it is because I am used to the way the stock weather app works, but it seems more intuitive to consider each location to be a page. I like to check all my favourites often, and swiping would be much quicker.

Thanks for your consideration.

Swipe Between Favourites

Hi,

Yes, some of our beta testers requested this and it is on our feature list.

It's currently scheduled for the next update (1.0.3) but we might be squeezed for time. Depends what happens with the audio changes we are making.

Will keep you posted.

Time to add it

Time to add it to my wish list. This sounds like an amazing app. Keep it going

Black Friday

Sad I did not see a sell with Weather Gods.

Review of notifications as promised

Good morning Scott,
As I promised last week, I have been monitoring the WG notifications over the lastweek.
I can report that there are no problems at all. For example, yesterday I received three notifications at or around 7am as expected: one that provided information about sunrise and sunset for 30th November 2016, the windspeed, which was 5 to 10 mph and the temperature for the day, which said it would be 5 degrees. A little later, I also received a warning of fog for between 10 pm and 11pm that night.
One thing I was surprised about was several warnings throughout the day that the temperature was approaching 0 degrees which was brilliant. Those notifications gave the current temperature, the 0 degree warning and the time for which the temperature would remain below the 0 point.

Brilliant.

Steve.

Review of notifications as promised

Hi Steve,

Really appreciate you taking the time to monitor the notifications and glad to hear that they are working well.

Got a few more tweaks in the next update around the notifications, mainly around reducing battery usage and an extra little bit more reliable when the network is poor.

Thanks
Scott

this app will be bought

There are 3 main factors that I have noticed that cause me to buy this app some time this week, after my income, well, comes in. 1. The Applevis podcast done by Thomas. 2. Looking through this discussion of the app and noticing the fast and good responses from Weather Gods. This shows your dedication to customers who use Voice-Over. Thank you for the above two reasons to buy. Lastly, reason 3. I thought, based on the features and accuracy, that this would be an expensive app, but it is not. I already have the NOAA Weather app and have purchased the lightning alert addition, and between that app and this Weather Gods app, I should be pretty well covered. Thanks in advance.

Notification suggestion and taptic support

Hi Scott, still really enjoying the app.

I have a suggestion for a new type of notification, for when the temperature is outside of a user-defined range. I have freeze notifications set up, but I'd also like to be notified when it's going to be hot. Not that that'll happen at this time of year in the UK of course!

Also, what kinds of information do you provide via the taptic engine? I have an iPhone 6 so can't take advantage of it, but I'm curious about how developers are using it.

Temprature Notification

The app does send out notifications about UV levels. The UV notification offers multiple gradations, but the numeric UV forecast using guidelines of the World Health Organization is not given. Further, the UV notification does not inform the end user what to do at various UV levels, helping someone to know the difference between high and very high.

Regarding heat, dew point readings describe how moisture evaporates. At a certain dew point, moisture stops evaporating from your skin. This is why 95 degrees in Arizona is not uncomfortable. I would very much appreciate a notification when a high dew point is forecasted or reached. The app currently does not display dew point. I would also like to see the WHO numeric UV index values listed along with the precautions at higher levels.

Notification suggestion and taptic support

hi @LC3249

We can definitely add a temperature notification with a slider to set the trigger value. Combined with the sunny skies notification it should be a good combination for planning days out, picnics, that kind of thing.

With regards to the haptics - well, confession, I'm not fortunate enough to have an iPhone 7 just yet - still on my trusty 6+ :)

However, our designer James, does have one, and the haptics have been suggested and tested by him. Mostly the haptics are focussed around button taps - small bits of feedback to reinforce when a button has been pressed. For example, I know the day/night button is haptic enabled, as are the buttons in the notification screens.

I would be interested to hear from people with the iPhone 7 and who use voiceover to find out if it's actually useful or not?

I will add the temperature notification to our feature (backlog) list

Scott

Temprature Notification

Hi Kelly,

Good points about the UV and the relevant meanings.

Where would be a good place to put this information?

We could add a help page to Settings and perhaps append the meaning/precaution to the notification?

A dew point notification should be straightforward as well - I'm still pondering where to put dew point in the app; we've got the hourly dew point as well as a daily high. Where would you prefer these values to go?

Scott

bought as promised, and pleased

Well, I got the app, and really like it. As for where to put the dew point and UV notifications and meanings, I would like to see them placed right where the levels are listed, in multiple locations if necessary. As for haptics, I do have an iPhone 7 plus, but haven't even experimented with haptics because I have no idea what they are. Directions on their use are welcomed. I, too, would like to see an alert that alerts when a certain temperature has been reached or exceeded, whether it be a low temperature or a high temperature, and would like both humidity and dew points to be shown. Overall, Scott, I think this app is very good, and it will improve as you continue working on it, won't it????? Not to put you under pressure or anything, of course. (ornery grin) Thanks for an app that is Voice-Over friendly and that exceeds the expected value. It is, to me, worth more than the price paid.

bought as promised, and pleased

Thanks Charles, glad you like the app!

Of course we will continue to improve the app - we have lots planned (smile) - and I will include your comments in our feedback log.

The haptic feedback is like a small buzz beneath your fingers when you press on the home button and on buttons in apps that have been updated for it.

If it works with voiceover (and that I don't know) then tapping the gods or selecting the day tabs will generate a small buzz effect beneath your finger. That is the haptic engine working on the iPhone 7.

Would be good to know either way if this works?

Haptics

I have an iPhone 7. I don't think "buzz" is a good descriptor. I'd say it's more like a click, or a soft thunk. It's not a sustained, vibration. It's a single little .. click.

The app uses it as Scott said, when opening a God's section, or when enabling or disabling a settings button. I'm not sure it's useful, but it's a nice touch that is consistent with the general feel and operation of the device.

a suggestion about notifications especially the 7 AM summary

Hi Scott and all. I'd like to make a suggestion about notifications, especially the summary that comes in at 7 AM local time, i'm in the US eastern time zone in Virginia. The summary gives the high for the day, but either i'm missing something, but I never hear the low for the day, and I'd like to have that so I know what to expect for later on that evening if the temps will drop considerably. We get dozens of these big temperature drops sometimes 10 to 15 degrees, and it'd be handy to get all that in one notification. I'm not sure why the low temperature isn't there but it'd sure be handy to know. Thanks for a supurb weather app, I've never seen anything quite like it!

a suggestion about notifications especially the 7 AM summary

hi Toonhead

Interesting observation ... yes, you're right, the low is in the night summary, and the notification is just the day summary.

What I can do is append the night summary to the day summary so you get both pieces of information.

It would be very similar to the 'Today' and 'Tonight' text that you get on the widget.

How doe this sound?

Scott

Got Weather Gods

OK. I purchased weather gods. My issue is that I had problem typing my area in the search. I attempted to put my zip code but did not let me. I had to type Chicago twice until it gave me Chicago. Setting is easy and will see what happens with it.

Got Weather Gods

Thanks for the feedback Holger,

Currently we don't support zip code search, hoping to add at a later date.

haptics feedback

I can confirm that they do work on my 256 gig iPhone 7 plus. And, yes, it is a sort of "thunk" feel.

Weather Gods Accuracy?

Hi all, I'm wondering how accurate you've found Weather Gods. Listening to the podcast, reading the comments from both the AppleVis community and the developer, the app looks amazing. However, there is a review up on the app store that claims Weather Gods is inaccurate, saying it's raining when it's sunny and vice versa. Therefore, I figured I would ask you all your thoughts.

I like it!

I like it! Having a summary that covers both day and night all in one go would be great, like I mentioned here the temps can drop considerably, especially in the winter. This way you get all that information in one place and won't have to do any extra flicking just to hear both types of information. I like this!

weather gods

Well I setup my info to let me know at 6:00 AM but nothing happens. I got notification from my news but nothing from weather gods. I also setup for now and I know isgetting cold and is not telling me anything. My notification is set to allow.

weather gods

Hi Holger,

Can you send me a feedback email please (from the App) as it contains debug information which can help me figure out why you're not getting notifications.

The other thing to check is that Background Refresh is enabled for Weather Gods.

Thanks
Scott

Weather Gods accuracy

I think that, considering how often it is updated, it seems to be accurate. The frequency of information updates would be nice, and I think that this is being worked on.

Weather Gods

I just wanted to say that I've purchased the app, and I like it a lot! Definitely makes looking at the weather a more fun and unique experience. Love the fact that I can see estimates of how much snow I'll get per hour or in a day. Plus, it's really interesting to browse weather in a different location and hear the different sounds. So yes, this app was totally worth my $3.99

Barometric pressure and synoptic data

Hi Scot, just wanted to say that this app is one of the best weather apps I tried, and trust me I've tried a few. I do have a question/feature request, would it be possible to integrate barometric pressure into the app, or at least have a notification warning of low pressure systems moving our way? As we all know, if there is a drop in barometric pressure, it might be a sign of an approaching front, or tropical cyclone, or hurricane, I actually wanted to ask for a text synoptic chart of sorts, telling which high or low pressure system is moving your way.
This is an example of the South African daily marine summary issued by the South African weather service:
SYNOPTIC SITUATION AT 12:00Z
=============================
Low 996 hPa 37s14w
Low 972 hPa 56s30e
Low 980 hPa 52s52e.
I know this is very advanced, but it would be rather cool for all us weather buffs out here.
Note: I do realize that you obtain your data from Dark Sky and from IBM, so they might not have such capabilities.
Anyway, enjoy your day and sorry for the very long post, and keep up the good work with this awesome app.
Regards.

Barometric pressure and synoptic data

Hi Donavin,

Thanks for the feedback and feature request. We are just turning our attention to putting some pressure readings into the app - I'm hoping to try and do something for the next update. It wont be full scale text charts, as we don't currently have access to this type of data. We do have the predicted pressure readings for 48 hours though for a specific location. Not quite what you're after with the full synoptics sadly.

I like your idea of a notification and I could look at a notification that indicates significant predicated pressure drop over a period of time for a particular location e.g. six hours. That might be useful, although I wont be able to give any indication of direction of the front.

One final thought ... I'm thinking about how useful the built in barometer might be on the iPhone and whether it could be integrated into weather gods at a personal level or at a wider level for crowd sourced weather data.

You've given me some stuff to think about :)
Thanks
Scott

Thanks for the quick responce.

Thank you so much for your quick response, I think the idea of the 6 hour pressure drop is a very good one, and I understand that it would be impossible to list fronts and that type of thing, I've been thinking, the integration of the barometer on the Iphone 6 does sound cool, to me, I myself have an Iphone 5s so sadly don't have that feature, but nonetheless your idea is a great one.
Thanks again for your feedback.
WeatherGodds is definitely worth my 59 Rand that I spent on it, :)

Another feature request for a later stage.

Hi Scott, it's me again, yup, so I've been thinking some more, you mentioned a little while ago that the app might get radar and things somewhere in the future?
My feature request is as follows:
It would be cool if you could have a storm tracker of sorts, that alerts the user of approaching thunderstorms or hail by taking radar reflectivity in DBZ fore example, and also the distance and speed of the said storm. I just love this app of yours so much, I am sure it has much more good coming for it.
Anyway enjoy your day, sorry if I inundate you with questions :)
Regards.

Introducing Weather Gods, a new iOS weather app made accessible with help from the AppleVis community

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