Government Alerts and Capitalization

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I just finished hand sifting through thousands of words-to-capitalize by hand that we'll be adding to the government alerts automatically in order to fix the capitalization errors.

These errors occur because we convert from all caps to "Sentence-case", however, that process only capitalizes the first word of each sentence, which ends up making words like "tuesday" and "february" look strange.

Machine Learning is an alternative solution but we're going to give this a shot first and then improve it as we go. :)

Update

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Good morning! So much to talk about! :)

COMPLETED:

- We have finalized changes to our radar loading process to ensure there are no missing or mixing of tiles. Smooth sailing here on in if you have version 1.0.507!

- Coming up in the next version, we've successfully added Apple Maps, on both iOS and Android, as an alternative to Google Maps. This should help users on Android who find the Google Map to be glitchy or on a couple devices, won't load at all.

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TO-DO:

- We continue to develop the widget for Apple and Android users and we're so excited to finish an MVP, test it on as many devices as possible, and eventually send it out to all users when it's ready to rock! It will take some time to make all of this happen but we're so very excited to get it launched!

- We're working on adding more notification types to the app. Eg. Rain, S***, Lightning, Winds, etc. Please let us know if there's anything you'd personally want to see as far as notifications are concerned. Customization perhaps? "Only notify me for [3cm] or more [snow] expected between [6 AM] and [9 AM]". :D

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UPCOMING ANDROID FIXES (Apple below):

- We're getting much closer to launching a fix for the "Hours" loading bug that some Android users are experiencing since the new app version. For those having this issue, our apologies and please use the "Minutes" product in the meantime until the next update. "Minutes" goes out 6.5 hours or so and has all the same data that "Hours" has except with even more detail (15-min), and a rain/snow animation for intensity.

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UPCOMING APPLE FIXES:

- Apple users with older devices running iOS version 12.4 or older are having problems with our radar not loading with version 1.0.507. The map seems to work fine but the loading wheel just spins. Our apologies for this! When Apple upgrades to a new iOS version, they support older devices less and less (as you likely know). This is quite frustrating as we'd like to continue supporting as many older devices as we can. Nevertheless, we'll work hard to support them as long as possible and get this radar issue fixed!

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WEBSITE:

Now that we've added Apple Maps, launching the website version shouldn't take much time at all! The website will work in Canada, the US, and worldwide! US alerts will be unavailable until we're finished upgrading our US alert system to be instantaneous. We can't, in our right minds, launch a weather app called Instant Weather in the US with alerts that are delayed. Once that's finished, we'll also launch the app in the US for Apple and Android!

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We're so thankful for this wonderful community and thank you for all your support, feedback, and weather reports! <3

Adam

Version 507 is available now

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Big radar improvement available now with version 507! Available for Apple & Android! Much smoother animations!

Download free at: InstantWeatherApp.com

No more radar mixing and/or back-and-forth animation issues. Woohoo!

- Adam

P.S. If you have an older iPad running iOS 12.4 or older, please hold off on the update until we apply a fix for that, coming soon! (Our apologies if you already did and we’ll have a fix ASAP!)

Did you know?

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I bet you didn't know that when precipitation is in the forecast on our FREE InstantWeatherApp.com, we add ////// lines to the blue forecast bars?

You can also tap any blue bar to expand the forecast:

- Day and Night Details

- Written Forecasts

- Severity Details

- Jump to Min or Hour

- Sunrise & Sunset Time

Download InstantWeather™ for free by tapping this link on your phone or tablet:

http://InstantWeatherApp.com

Or click "Use App" at the top of our page and choose Apple or Android.

Thank you so much and please leave a review on the App Store or Google Play Store as those really help!

- Adam

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FAQ Why does your radar go from clear to fuzzy?

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Frequently Asked Question: Why does your radar go from clear to fuzzy? Is this suppose to happen?

Answer: The radar on our free app Instant Weather is a mix of “Past” and “Future” Radar.

The “Past” radar is clear at 1km resolution and “Future” radar is a bit fuzzy or soft as it’s a lower, 3km resolution.

Some popular apps just take the “Past” radar and move it in the direction it was heading to create a cheap and cleaner looking “Future” radar. We could have done this and saved a lot of money but we decided to use a premium future model that runs on a supercomputer and updates every 15mins, worldwide.

Why? If storms are expected to develop or dissipate, a model approach has a much better chance of predicting the future. Simply moving “Past” radar looks cleaner but often doesn’t provide you with an accurate picture of what could actually happen.

We do have some ideas for creating a hybrid between the two methods in the future as moving “Past” radar, even just a few frames can be useful for pop-up storms that show up out of the blue.

We hope this makes sense! 🙂

- Adam

P.S. Because of how expensive the premium radar data we purchase is, we were only able to include 4 intervals on the free version (1 “Past” and 3 “Future”). We do, however, offer the option to ‘Upgrade Radar’ in the app menu (top left button) and this will provide you with 5 hours and remove ads from the app. Thank you to all those who have subscribed! You’re the reason we can offer the app for free to everyone!!

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Important App Update 495

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1. Version 495 of our FREE app Instant Weather includes clickable links to our Instant Updates™!

Anytime we post a custom severe weather forecast to our website, we can now instantly notify those in the affected area that the forecast is available! Then, with one click inside of our app, you'll be directed right to the full forecast on our website with a map, detailed write-up, etc.

We plan to eventually add our custom forecasts directly inside of the app, including an interactive map, etc. All in due time! :)

2. We've also added Humidex & Windchill as the default option for "Feels like" temperature. This works in the "Current Condition" and also in the "Minutes" & "Hours" products. You can switch back to the original "Hybrid" option in the settings if you prefer the way the app previously handled "Feels like".

3. We've added Humidity & Pressure to the "Minutes" and "Hourly" products as well and have increased the size of the UV a bit.

4. On our servers, we've made significant improvements to notification speeds, especially when it's a widespread alert. We'll have more improvements to notification speed in the coming weeks but this should already be a big improvement!

5. We've added and refined our Instant Updates™ for localized severe weather and other important notifications

6. Other bug and stability fixes (more coming!)

Thank you so much to all of those who have subscribed to our "Upgrade Radar" & "Remove Ads" options! You're the reason we're able to make the app free for everyone else so a HUGE thank you to everyone who has subscribed!

Sincerely,

- Adam, Teresa, & the IW team!

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Version 495 and server improvements

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Version 495 is now available. We also made some improvements on the server side.

  • One cool change is clickable links in the alert bar details.

  • We've also switched to kPa instead of hPa for pressure as that's most commonly used in Canada. If you like hPa, simply move the decimal point in your minds-eye. Eg. 101.35 kPa is 1013.5 hPa. :) We plan to add hPa as an option eventually. Thank you for your patience!

  • Humidex & Windchill added for "Feels like". You can choose between the hybrid feels like that includes wind and cloud or the more traditional Humidex/Windchill.

  • Humidity & Pressure for "Minutes" & "Hourly" products.

  • Big improvements to notification speed, especially for a large alert. More improvements coming soon!

  • Added & refined our Instant Updates™ for localized severe weather notifications .

  • Other bug and stability fixes (more coming!)

  • Great news! We’ve launched a fix on our servers (no update required) to combine alerts that are located in one alert-area into one single notification instead of several.

    Eg. Barrie, Oro, Collingwood

    Please keep an eye on it and let us know how it works! 

You can choose under settings the method used for the feels like calculation

You can choose under settings the method used for the feels like calculation

Humidity and pressure added to minutes and hourly products

Humidity and pressure added to minutes and hourly products

Hybrid feels like

Hybrid feels like

Humidex feels like

Humidex feels like

Note wind, humidity, and new pressure units

Note wind, humidity, and new pressure units