WeatherSA app

roguemat said:
I don't develop the iOS version but can pass on a message to the team. Anything in particular that you feel needs updating?

@DA-LION-619, thanks!
Click to expand...
Nothing specific feature wise, I just think the look needs an update. It really is still very much stick in the iOS 5 era.
Thanks!
 
Love the design, but the Bing Weather app seems to have more accurate daily temp predictions (I live one suburb away from the weather station list).
 
Thanks a lot for the feedback guys!

@Dr@g0nic, I put transparent tiles in the original UX briefs but it never made it to the final app.
I've added added it to the bottom tile in this screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/yEDkrEh.png
I think I'll need to give the user the option. Also need to take into account that someone might want the front tile to have the contextual image but a transparent back.
 
roguemat said:
Thanks a lot for the feedback guys!

@Dr@g0nic, I put transparent tiles in the original UX briefs but it never made it to the final app.
I've added added it to the bottom tile in this screenshot: http://i.imgur.com/yEDkrEh.png
I think I'll need to give the user the option. Also need to take into account that someone might want the front tile to have the contextual image but a transparent back.
Click to expand...

Yeah... all these options and decisions. But no worries just thought I'd ask. But yeah I'm one of the people that would just like a plain transparent tile :D
Then I'll Viether to the curb.
 
p51mustang said:
Love the design, but the Bing Weather app seems to have more accurate daily temp predictions (I live one suburb away from the weather station list).
Click to expand...

roguemat, could you address the above? Would the bing app not be using free feeds and providing rubbish data?
 
mister said:
roguemat, could you address the above? Would the bing app not be using free feeds and providing rubbish data?
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The Bing app pulls it's data from FORECA, WDT, AccuWeather, weather2travel.com, holidayweather.com and weathertrends360
 
Thanks, glad you like the app! :)

mister said:
roguemat, could you address the above? Would the bing app not be using free feeds and providing rubbish data?
Click to expand...
Personally, I've found WSA to be more accurate or equal. I've been running Bing Weather (plus a few others) alongside WSA for months to compare them.

I think the better answer is from the AfricaWeather FAQ, which directly addresses your question:

-We've done extensive research into various data sources for SA (NOAA, ECMWF, NCEP, etc) as used by sites like windguru, accuweather, yr.no.
-SAWS use several sources, they selectively ensemble (aggregate) them, and then calibrate and re-grid (run at higher resolution) to the actual weather stations they have in SA.
-NO ONE else does that, and our research proved it's well worth us paying for. So we pay SAWS, millions per year, and we get far better data as a result.
-Oh sure there are days it's not great, and certain towns where we are picking up definite issues, but even on these towns when we compare all of the above sites to SAWS, we are finding that SAWS is considerably more accurate over time. We could switch at any day, and even get data for free, but we choose not to.
-Note that we have a substantial industrial client base (almost every single mine in SA uses us through our advanced web interface) and they are incredibly intolerant of the slightest error in our forecasts.
-So yes, you will hear people with subjective views on other sources of data, and all we can say is; have they done the extensive year-long research we did into various sources, and did they choose to PAY millions per year when they could have gotten (WMO pirated) data for free?
-We are NOT SAWS. We are simply the only team that has chosen to support the local met office rather than riding rough shod over them.
 
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Ah... so you are from AfricaWeather who is not SAWS, but your app is WeatherSA but the website, www.weathersa.co.za is not yours and belongs to SAWS

lol, confusing :)

I originally thought africaweather was the new weathersa.co.za website! Thanks for clearing that up :)
 
mister said:
Ah... so you are from AfricaWeather who is not SAWS, but your app is WeatherSA but the website, www.weathersa.co.za is not yours and belongs to SAWS

lol, confusing :)

I originally thought africaweather was the new weathersa.co.za website! Thanks for clearing that up :)
Click to expand...

To complicate matters more, AfricaWeather has/had rights to the weathersa domain.
Also, just to be clear, I'm not "from AfricaWeather", I wrote their WP app :)
 
Thanks for the app roguemat, I've been using the Windows 8 app, especially during the rainy season to check for storms. After a while though, I swapped to africaweather.com for the simple reason that I can just refresh the web page to see the status of an approaching storm. In the Windows app you have to close and re-open to refresh, this seems to be the case in the phone app also, or am I missing something?
 
DearHeart said:
Thanks for the app roguemat, I've been using the Windows 8 app, especially during the rainy season to check for storms. After a while though, I swapped to africaweather.com for the simple reason that I can just refresh the web page to see the status of an approaching storm. In the Windows app you have to close and re-open to refresh, this seems to be the case in the phone app also, or am I missing something?
Click to expand...

The app will grab new data when you open it again. Or in the case of the maps, when you nav back and forward again.
Can you explain your specific scenario and what you'd like to be able to do?

p.s. FYI, I did not have any involvement in the W8 app, only WP8.
 
Well, the storm map is updated every ten minutes or so, an automatic periodic refresh or refresh button will be nice to see if the storm is coming closer. One can do this on the website by clicking refresh. I do this often so it is a bit of a schlep to navigate in and out again.
 
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