Best Darn Radar App Period Coming to Android

[Scott Bennett]

Just wanted to add on the CTV app we at CTV are working to make the stuff fit the screen on Android phones instead if having to resize the full website version... obviously this will be done before next season and look forward to continuing to work with Mike on this!

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

You guys want to see what the app looks like now?

I bet you do...

Ok Check out this video Storm Chaser Radar App For Andorid

Most of this stuff should be updated/fixed in the next few days I will keep everybody posted.

Not to be too harsh a critic, but you might be better off just posting about it when you're all done with the development. The "sneak peeks" aren't that awe inspiring. Google Maps with a JPG overlay and a UI that takes up a third of the already tiny screen with a bunch of ugly buttons isn't really in the same ballpark as your competition. No doubt you'll improve on this, but when you claim your product is the "best darn radar app period", it's probably best not to show the world in-development footage where it looks like it's only about 5% complete.

 

[Mike Brady]

Well I would assume the 142 other people who have watched my video do want to see whats going on so. As much as 2 people on storm track don't want to see updates oh well. I do know that if I was on the other side of the fence I would be very interested to see how things are coming along.
I will post another video later this afternoon to show everybody the 5.1% that is done (actually lots more than 5.1%)

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

Mike, again, don't take it personally, but your radar app looks like butt at this point. You can keep posting updates if you want and maybe I'm way off and people are really excited about what they are seeing. I offered that more as a point of friendly advice, since you came in here with the claim that you were developing the best radar app in the world and have posted screenshots that make it look like a freshman CS student is coding it. It's obviously nowhere near done (like maybe 10% done, at that, if you want to compete with GR3 and Radarscope) and a month ago you said it would be finished by now. I believe we've come down with a touch of the vapors.

I want your app to be successful -- the Android market needs a radar app. Whether I buy an Android or a Verizon iPhone next year will probably be dependent on whether the Droid has a decent radar app available. (Right now I could chase with nothing but an iPhone and a GPS mapping unit if AT&T's coverage weren't so bad.) I'd rather have a Droid, so if your app is awesome, I'll be one of your customers. But you've got a long way to go before you're anywhere near Radarscope or GR3.

 

[Mike Brady]

This will be the Best Darn Radar App Period for Android. There is no way to compete with a program like GR3 on a mobile platform at this point do to limitations in screen size and processing speed. Im not sure if you have a android phone but there is not much out there that is useful for chasers besides what I have released. I do not take it personally I believe in freedom of speech and I also believe that criticism is good. So thank you for your concern and please consider following along for more updates on this project. I am 100% behind my products and I will be chasing with my product on a android tablet come spring. If I trust my life to something you know it will be all that I say.

 

[Scott Bennett]

No offense to Brady but many of us have been down right spoiled with RadarScope on iPhone. Now I don't know exactly what this project/company is or if or how it is related to OU (See the about text) but I really wish they had just found a way to port it to Android. The conversations I have had with people related to that app was they did not know Android and really did not have a drive to learn.

What sucks is there has just not been a break out app for the Android at all.

An app like Angry Birds on the iPhone shows if you make a good app you can make MILLIONS. I really hoped that would be the app for Android, instead they gave it away free. I have at least $100 in paid apps for my iphone and I bet $5 tops on Android.

Development is expensive and with Android there is not the "If you build it they will come" attitude. So many people complain at the $9.99 price tag on RadarScope so Mike has one heck of a challenge to get overseas dev's to make what he wants.

It might help to offer some help Ryan as opposed to just slamming the app before it's even released. Because if nobody likes it or buys it then nobody else will make one either.

The current radar apps for Android suck, can't be any worse so technically the best app out there

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

It might help to offer some help Ryan as opposed to just slamming the app before it's even released. Because if nobody likes it or buys it then nobody else will make one either.

That's true! Here are a few of my suggestions:

1. Try to minimize the amount of screen real estate the UI takes up. Andriod screens are small. Do you really need all those buttons at the bottom of the screen?

2. Don't use Google Maps as your backdrop. For one thing, this is a huge resource hog -- when on the plains, data is sometimes hard to get (and when you get it, it's sometimes Sloowwwww). You don't want Google Maps data, which is actually rather high-bandwidth, competing with radar-updates. At least make this something you can disable. Yes, this means you'll probably have to draw some of your own maps, but both of the other radar programs you're competing with offer this.

3. Make sure you integrate GPS functionality into the app.

4. Make sure you are actually parsing raw Level 3 data. From your screenshots it appears you're just pulling a JPG image from somewhere on the net and overlaying it on Google Maps. We can do that on the internet already without an app -- what makes a radar program a radar program is that it gets level 3 or level 2 data from either the NWS public server or another service and renders it on the screen. If you already have this, then great!

5. Spend less time pumping up the software here on this forum and more time making the software. When you have something impressive, come back and tell everyone. If I posted tomorrow about how I was going to build my own TIV and showed you drawings I made in crayon that looked a lot like an M1 tank, nobody would be terribly excited and most people would give me a pretty low probability of pulling it off. If I posted actual photos of a TIV that I built that actually looked and performed like an M1 tank, people might be impressed. (Well, they'd better be, those things have a pretty long targeting range. The rain on the plains is mainly from my M1 tank cannon.) And when you do talk about your not-yet-quite-existing software, try to avoid using phrases like "best radar app ever" and "will be finished in three weeks", especially in the same sentence. If it's the best radar app ever, it has to be better than GR3 and Radarscope. If it's going to be finished in three weeks, then the examples you post need to reflect a completed product.

 

[Brandon Jenkins]

FYP

 

[Jarrod Barnett]

^^^^^ lol

Mike, again, don't take it personally, but your radar app looks like butt at this point.

Instead of being a hater why dont you show us what you have? I mean after all you seem to be such a "professional" on the matter.

Its easy to call out commands with do this & do that from your computer chair. You shouldnt run off at the mouth unless YOU have done something better yourself.

I have all of Mike's other apps and couldnt be happier with his work. They all work as advertised, they arent overly expensive and they dont crash.

 

[Tim Stoecklein]

I've not used Radar Scope, but I'm with Scott, there's not much that could come out worse than what's currently offered on the Android platform. I've already told Mike, I understand this project is in it's infancy so I'll wait to provide much feedback until we at least see the Beta. It's freakin' October, I can patiently wait for it to fully develop.

As for the title of the thread....it's marketing man, get over it. I wouldn't drive in front of an approaching tornado to save a truckload of Bud Light, but I watched that stupid #ss commercial last night anyway, lol! I'd say this title has made more than a few people curious, and obviously more than a few folks can't patiently wait for the outcome...sounds like the strategy has been successful. (No, I'm not going to argue the merits of marketing strategies...)

Work away Mike, I'm looking forward to the finished product!

 

[Brett Roberts]

JMHO, but I don't see any problem whatsoever with Mike giving us updates on his progress, even in the early stages of development. Seeing as this is a storm chasers' forum and not a television commercial, I appreciate the transparency. I don't need to be "marketed" to by withholding screen captures until the app looks nice and purty, and I'm sure the majority following this thread feel the same. After all, we're not iPhone users (yeah, I went there).

That said, I would have to agree strongly with #2 on Ryan's list. I am pretty sure Mike has already stated the images will be rendered from L3 data, so I'm not concerned about that part. But I must admit, my heart sank when I loaded up the video and saw the dreaded Google Maps background. Unless users are given the option to disable that in favor of a blank background (with cities and county lines, of course), I feel that could be the undoing of this app. Google Maps can get a bit laggy on your typical 3 GHz desktop with a 10 mbps connection, so it simply isn't practical for chasers using a mobile device, in terms of either bandwidth or computing power.

Of course, I realize rendering the GIS display within the app itself would present some formidable challenges, including the need for data files defining state/county boundaries and city locations. But I think it's a task worthy of tackling if at all feasible, because in my opinion, it could make the difference between an app that might receive a few sympathy purchases at a $3 price point vs. one that could compete directly with RadarScope at $10.

Just a few thoughts and suggestions -- I look forward to at least giving this app a shot regardless of its final feature set, considering I've yet to find one weather-related Android program worth the 5 seconds to press "download" so far!

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

As Brett mentioned, something other than the Google Maps background (perhaps it's already been stated) would be much more desirable. At this point, my most used weather app is MyCast Weather. While it doesn't cater to storm chasers, and won't give you velocity/VIL/echo tops, what have you, it's an excellent weather application that does give high quality radar and satellite imagery along with surface data and warning polygons.

Something similar to that, with more options is what I'd hope for. While it doesn't incorporate SN as I guess this app will, it does pinpoint your GPS location on the map.

I've had MyCast Weather on my cell phone since 2006, and it continues to be my favorite weather application.

 

[Ryan McGinnis]

^^^^^ lol



Instead of being a hater why dont you show us what you have? I mean after all you seem to be such a "professional" on the matter.

I am a storm chaser and a photographer, not a software developer. I also don't post weekly updates about the greatest storm photograph ever taken, period, which I haven't actually taken yet.

 

[Rob H]

Instead of being a hater why dont you show us what you have? I mean after all you seem to be such a "professional" on the matter.

This thread currently has 73 posts worth of hype for something that could be vaporware, and buries posts for programs that are actually out. It would be great if Mike's software sees the light of day because the Android platform needs a good weather app like Radarscope. It's nice that he's keeping us updated, but if you've been around any hobby development projects on the Internet, the cardinal rule is that talk is cheap. I've seen a lot of threads like this one, where several months later someone eventually says "Hey, whatever happened to that guy that was making X?" because it never materialized. I hope this isn't the case, but it explains some of the criticism of mocked up screenshots.

And I may just take you up on your challenge, since I'm a professional developer and as of yesterday it sounds like my iPhone will be replaced by a work-issued Droid X

 

[Jeremy Den Hartog]

A couple of things I would like to point out about whats being said in this thread.

It's not uncommon for software developers to release various things to hype up a product in development. Look at video games. Do you not typically see screen shots or even 'sketches' of different things within the game? Developers aren't releasing these things just for the hell of it, they do it to bring interest in what they are developing.

Secondly, about if this will be 'vapor ware'. I highly doubt this will be the case. This is not only because Mike has developed and released several Android apps already, he is also working directly with a development company for this project. In other words, he is paying a company to make the app. I highly doubt that the app wouldn't see the light of day in this case.

I think we all should just relax and let Mike (and the development company) work on the app without complaining about if its not released when expected, if Mike is releasing info or mock ups etc. Sometimes things happen during development that slows things down. I would rather have things be delayed and get a quality product then have him rush something out because he initially thought the project would be ready at the end of October...