Hi All,
Release 1.0.5 is just hitting the app store.
The main changes are around the error handling.
1. We reviewed the error messages and found them not very accessible.
Before you had to tap a small area of the screen to get the app to retry the connection. Now you can two finger double tap anywhere after hearing the message, and Weather Gods will re-attempt to download the weather.
2. We've also improved how the app handles slow or patchy network connections. It allows longer for the data to come back, rather than giving up quite so quickly.
3. Finally, after the outage earlier this week, we had some users with the app in a 'stuck' state and only able to continue with a re-install, which is not ever good.
Now, a force close and relaunch of the app or a restart of the phone, will flush the Weather Gods cache, and hopefully prevent this problem from happening again.
As ever, App Store ratings are reset with every new version, so if you are enjoying this app, and have a moment spare, please leave us a review. Every rating helps.
Many thanks and have a Happy Holidays!
Scott
Comments
Weather Gods 1.5
I really like this app a lot. We're finally getting a lot of recent rain in Southern California so it makes for a great opportunity to apply the water God's information as I get more acquainted with the app!
Quick question about physical locations
Hello again Scott,
A quick question about physical locations if you are able to answer please.
My location is set to my home town 'Rayleigh'. However, on Monday last, I had to travel to 'Tonbridge Wells'. However, the location on the Weather Gods app did not change from 'Rayleigh'. I checked and found that I had 4G, that WG was in the background and had updated. What doyou think is going wrong?
Would I have to launch WG again to get it to change physical location or will it do it after a period of time i.e. when new weather comes in? hHowever, is it a problem with the app or where I was in the UK?
Steve.
Quick question about physical locations
Hi Steve,
It depends ...
There are three types of locations with associated behaviour in Weather Gods
Regardless of the type ... resume the app from background or relaunch will reload the weather for the location that was last 'in focus', don't want to say 'current', because that implies a GPS
We have:
1. GPS location
2. Up to five favourites
3. Recent history
Here's some scenarios:
1. Always use GPS and don't set any favourites
As you travel around and check the weather the app will attempt to get a lock on your current GPS and show the weather for that location. We only do the GPS lock when you launch or resume the app
2. Use a favourite or recent history
You load the app, select a location and hit the home button
Next time we load the weather for that location and ignore any GPS
3. Use a favourite but from time to time check the weather for your GPS
I think this is probably what you were after?
What's happening is we are loading 'Rayleigh', your home location, but you want to flip into the GPS, 'Tonbridge Wells'
To do this ...
a) Double tap location button to go to search
b) swipe down and you will hear voiceover announce 'current location'
c) Double tap this button and we will use the GPS and get the weather for the GPS
Remember though, next time you check the weather it will be in 'GPS' mode
The best tip I can recommend is to use the three finger swipe to cycle through them, until you get the location your interested in.
Shout if you need any more info or if it's not working quite as expected
Scott
Hi Scott,
Hi Scott,
I was wondering if there was a way to implement amount of fog in the hourly next/prev screens. We're supposed to get fog, I can tell by the fog sound, but it doesn't tell you other than that. Just my thoughts. Other than that, you've got an awesome app and look forward to future updates.
Fog
Hi Justin,
Fogs interesting because it can be quit thick and cover a large area, or localised and patchy.
I guess the amount of visibility might help here. I could also add that to the fog notification.
I'll add that to our roadmap.
Thanks
Scott
I had to reinstall the app.
I am one of the people who had to reinstall the app. After this, the app works perfectly. It is a wonderful thing to see, an app developer who takes an active interest in our community.
Keep up the good work!
Eric
I had to reinstall the app.
Thanks Eric,
Sorry you had to reinstall.
Physical locations
Hello Scott,
Sorry about the lengthly response time to your answer to my question but I'm afraid Christmas got in the way.
I did what you suggested and I can report it works fine. I shall use thisprocess from now on when moving outside my home town.
However, I don't know whether it is possible or not but could you look at the possibility of having an automatic location change option in a future update?
I'm not sure if the processes you have used to create the WG app and the reception of data will allow this but something along the lines of what the BBC Weather app does i.e. moving location as you travel would be a useful addition.
Happy New Year,
Steve.
Physical locations
Hi Steve,
No problems, we all need a break!
With regards to the auto update, yes, very much in our plan, we are building it out piece by piece.
It would be useful for me, if, when you get a moment please, if you could describe how you would like to see it working?
Have a Happy New Year as well!
Scott
changing locations
Hi again Scott,
The stock answer here is I don't really know as I don't know how you've built the WG app. However, from the brilliant answers you've already given and what I can make of how WG loads weather information, I guess locations are loaded in the same way?
Consequently, using the BBC weather app as a model, as I travel as a passenger in a car, I see periodic updates of location and although there is little change in the weather conditions from places close together (as you know, the weather doesn't change much even over 100 miles or so in the UK) I see location changes fairly regularly.
For example, as I travel around the M25 from Essex to Kent I getGreys followed by Dartford, followed by Orpington and so on Thisnot only allows me to monitor changes in weather as we travel (if any occur) but gives me an idea of where we are. Finally, on a trip to Tonbridge Wells where I sayed the other week, I could keep the location live while I was there.
I'm not sure how you would display the current location but just replacing the home location with the current one would be good enough for me. However, I do understand the need to maybe provide the ability to compare a home location with the current one especially if us Brit's are in Spain on holiday for example and gloat to our friends how hot and sunny it is compared with the cold and persistant rain at ome!
Is this what you are looking for?
Steve.
changing locations
Thanks Steve, exactly what I was after :) and LOL at gloating about the Spanish weather! Sharing and gloating is an upcoming feature on the UK version :D
Interestingly , we had a very similar setup as you discussed in very early versions of Weather Gods. We decided to take it out in the end because it went through the battery quite quickly with the constant fetching and loading of the weather data as the location changed.
However, it is something we are re-considering under the working title 'follow me weather'. This time though, we would look to reduce battery usage - it's the spinning up of the phone radios and the GPS which drains the battery.
In terms of how it would work, you would just need to switch to the GPS location (three finger swipe) and then thereafter it would auto update as the location changed.
Brilliant, thanks again
Scott