Version 4.2 (12/03/2012)

Hourly Forecasts

Two days (48) hours of hourly forecasts showing:

• Temperature
• Precipitation chance
• Wind speed
• Wind direction

Other fixes and optimizations.

Version 4.0 (08/19/2012)

NWS Alerts

It may take up to five business days before you start receiving alerts after installing this version of RadarNow!.

NWS's Watches, Warnings or Advisories can be received using RadarNow!

National Weather Service Alerts can be received by RadarNow!. The default is for all alerts to generate a silent notification. You can change this to fit your individual requirements by using the option (menu-settings-options) "Action by event type" to customize how alerts are handled.

The alerts sent to your device are dependent on the county in which your device is currently located. If you used an override location, either through favorites or by entering a Zip Code, that will be the location used to determine what county to use for alerts.

When your location changes by about 10 miles, your county will be recomputed and if you've moved into a different county, any alerts that are currently active for that county will be sent to your device. Alerts for the county you just left will be removed from the list as well.

Notification types:

• Default - Use the default action.
• Ignore - No action taken, alert ignored.
• List only - Show only on the alert list. No notification sent.
• Notify - Send a notification to the notification bar.
• Notify + sound - Send a notification to the notification bar with the notification sound.

The default action can be configured using the option (menu-settings-options) with that name.

Alerts are delivered to your device within a few minutes after they are received by our servers, however, it may take up to 15 minutes for an alert to be received.

If there are active alerts for your area, and you've selected to receive that event type (see "Action by event type" in options menu), an icon will appear on the top status bar. The color of the icon depicts the most extreme active alert. Colors correspond to the color indicator on the alert list.

Selecting the Alert icon will open a list of active alerts.

Selecting an alert from the Alert List will display the details for that message.

Long press the alert in the Alert List to open up options for that alert.

• Open Details - opens the detail list for that alert.
• Dismiss - Marks this alert as being read. When all alerts have been dismissed, the Alert icon will turn white. Dismissed alerts are still active, however, updated alerts that have already been dismissed will not cause a subsequent notification.
• Activate Alert - This option only shows on alerts that have been dismissed. Selecting this option will reactivate a dismissed alert.

New Radar Imagery

The radar imagery in full view is being upgraded to reduce clutter and improve resolution. This rollout will occur for all premium users regardless of the app version being used. Technically speaking, the new radar is using NOAA WSR-88D Level III product NCR. Radar stations in precipitation mode are included with the full range of dbZ values. Radar stations in clear air mode will only have the top 5 levels shown to help eliminate clutter.

Advertisements

Our partner AdMob is providing banner ads on the bottom of the local view display.

Anyone, anytime may opt out of banners by unchecking the "Show banners" option (menu-settings-options). If you decide to opt out, your choice will remain active for 30 days, at which time the banners will return. Simply opt out again if you still choose to do so. Premium users who opt out will have their choice in effect until their premium status expires.

Banners will hide along with controls when tapping the screen in an unused area.

Version 3.8 (04/21/2012)

NEW Premium Feature

Temperatures

With this feature active, the map shows temperatures at various stations. Selecting one of these stations will bring up the current conditions of that location. Temperatures are updated about once an hour. This feature can be switched off by unchecking the "Show temperatures" option (menu-settings-options).

NEW Features

Hide Map Controls

Tapping the screen will hide the map controls (zoom, scroll bar). Tapping the screen again will bring the map controls back. The first time this feature is used, a banner will appear at the bottom of the screen with the question: "Where did the map controls go?" Selecting this banner will display help text describing this feature.

Current Conditions

Current conditions shows a "picture" icon so you can see weather at a glance.

Other changes

Major refactoring (internals)

Tile handling improved

Out of Memory issues improved

Overall performance enhancements

Version 3.7 (03/18/2012)

NEW Premium Feature

Favorites

Save and use locations of interest.

• To add a location to the "Favorites" list, use a "long press" anywhere on the map. You'll be able to add the location to the favorites list or set it as your current location without adding it to the favorites list. Long press on a radar station to add it to your favorites too. It will automatically have the radar station's name.
• When a location is added to the "favorites" list, the name can be changed. Favorite will appear as a star on the map.
• There are two ways a favorite can be used. Selecting the star on the map or using the "favorites" list from the selection icon in the top right corner and choosing "favorites.
• To view a favorite as your current location, select the favorite by pressing the star icon on the map and select "Set as current." A favorite can be used to override current location when the app starts by selecting "Open on startup."
• To change the name of a favorite, select it, then choose "Edit" from the favorites options. Doing this will open a text dialog. Select "OK" to save the change back to the list.
• To remove a favorite, select it, then choose the "Delete" option to remove it. There is no undo for this event so be sure you really want to remove it prior to performing the delete option.

To use a "long press," touch the screen on one spot for at least one second. A dialog box with the favorites options will appear once the long press is detected.

Version 3.6 (02/06/2012)

NEW Feature

Location services are no longer required to use our app.

Find your location using USPS Zip Code. If location services aren't available or if your location can't be determined, you can use your Zip Code to pin point you on the map. The point will be the center of the Zip Code.

NEW Premium Feature

Find a location using USPS Zip Code. Select the icon at the top right corner of the display to access this feature.

Version 3.5 (12/07/2011)

• NEW Premium Features

  These new features can be reached by selecting the icon in the "local" radar view.

  • Composite Radar

    "NCR" Composite Short Range Reflectivity radar.

    Composite reflectivity displays the highest reflectivity of ALL elevations scans. When compared with Base Reflectivity, the Composite Reflectivity can reveal important storm structure features and intensity trends of storms.

  • Velocity - Storm

    "N0S" Velocity: Storm Relative.

    This display is of radial velocity of the wind relative to the storm's motion. The result is a picture of the wind as if the storms were stationary. This often unmasks storms that rotate (supercells) which can be a precursor to the formation of tornadoes. Green colors indicate wind moving toward the radar with red colors indicating wind moving away from the radar.

  • Velocity - Base

    "N0V" Velocity: Storm Relative.

    This display of radial velocity represents the overall wind field. Green colors indicate wind moving toward the radar with red colors indicating wind moving away from the radar.

• Changes

  Full view radar motion is off by default. Having the full view radar in motion when it first displays causes the app to slow down and become less responsive as the view is panned and zoomed. This is due to a lot of radar "tiles" being requested from the server that won't be used. To resume the motion in the full view, just click on the "play" icon at the top of the display.

Version 3.4 (11/21/2011)

• New Premium Feature "Range Rings" - Displays range rings around your location so you can get an idea of how far away storms are and how fast they are moving.

  Configuration options

  • Find range rings configuration in the options (menu-settings-options) screen.
  • Show range rings - Switches range rings on and off
  • Range rings size - Choose between rings at 25, 50 and 75 miles (constant values) and 25, 50 and 100 miles (Twice the distance).
  • Range rings color - Select the color for the rings (default is black).

• New Premium Feature "Long Range Radar" - Long range radar displays a larger area than the default short range radar and shows an area about 40% larger to give a better view of the "big picture" in the area.
• Improvements to the Help text.
• Fixes and performance enhancements.

Version 3.3 (9/29/2011)

• New Premium Feature

  Radar Now! Driver keeps you current on weather as you drive. Whether across town or across the country, Radar Now! Driver shows you the storms coming your way.

• Self help topics in "Contact us" form.
• "What's New?" help showing when first starting a new version.
• "Exit" option on menu changed to a configuration option. Default is to not show it.
• Improvements to the Help text.
• Fixes and performance enhancements.

Version 3.2 (9/12/2011)

• Order radar stations list by city / state.
• Make Order Sticky in Transfer Premium Status.
• Show correct message after Transfer premium status.
• Improvements to the Help text.
• Show obvious status to users.
• Make status system more robust.

Version 3.1 (9/5/2011)

• Notify user about Internet unavailability.
• Improved server performance
• Bring back Smooth image checkbox.
• Improvements to Location system
  • Allow starting app without any location services.
  • Use Last Known Location if location is unavailable.
  • When waiting for location, compare accuracy to pick the best approximation.
  • [Use last location] button.
  • Timeout option: 5 / 15 / 30. Default: 15.
  • Use back button as [Use last location].
• Add close button to Help page and Learn more pages.
• Add "Premium" transfer to another device.
• Wiki-style help.
• Fix for initial zoom problem (sometimes Local View could start in zoom level 5).

Version 3.0

App Improvements

The app has been totally re-written from top to bottom as well as every server process has been updated to handle a larger user base.

New free mode features:

• Use in portrait or landscape mode
• Better quality and more detailed maps
• More zoom levels
• Increase by four the number of radar images in the loop (six to ten)
• Control the speed of the loop, pause or go backwards
• Opacity sliders for the base, radar and top maps
• Show WSR-88D stations on the map
• Current conditions available at the touch of a button
• Heat index and visibility added to current conditions
• Map and radar image caching to improve performance
• Less dependent on servers
• Defaults to premium mode if the radar station in your area goes down
• Faster and more efficient

Premium mode features:

• Automatically updates radar loop whenever a new image is available
• Display any NOAA WSR-88D NEXRAD radar station
• Select a radar station by icon, drop down menu or by scrolling around on the map
• Zoom and pan in "Full" mode around the entire continental US
• Current conditions shows for the location your displaying, not just where you are
• Tablets show full screen

Version 2.5

App Improvements

• Server load balancing

  In previous versions, a single server handled all the load for the app. Now, up to four servers can share the load of the app. A server is assigned randomly each time the app starts.

• Graceful degradation

  If a server is unavailable (a 404 error), the app will automatically check the next one in the list instead of erroring out.

Version 2.4

App Improvements

• App ends quickly

  The current version may cause CPU usage for several minutes after ending the app. The problem cropped up in 2.1 and is a bug in the OS, we found a way to work around it.

• Select last known location

  The current version calculates the device position each time, sometimes this can be a pain, especially when refreshing. This feature allows the user to hit the back key as soon as the location service is started to select the "last known location" instead.

• Store app on SD card

  Right now (07/9/2010), Froyo (2.2) is pretty rare, it's on the Nexus One only (officially) but starting next week, Droid owners will see an OTA update that will bring in Froyo. One of the outstanding features for 2.2 is the ability to store apps on the SD card, freeing internal memory and allowing more apps to be stored on each device. I think everyone will really like having this feature. We have made the required change to the app to enable this feature.

• Internal changes

  A bunch of internal changes have been made to increase stability and interoperability with Froyo, many won't be noticed by the average user, or at least that's the hope.

• New launcher icons

  We've added new icons for the various resolution screens that are now available. Users of Android 1.5 won't see any difference, the old launcher icon will stay but everyone else should see the new flat style icon in the correct resolution for their device.

• App loops when held horizontally

  This is a problem that mostly occurs on the Droid. It has been fixed.

Pushed UI Improvements

• Faster panning
• Ability to stop the animation by touching the screen
• Mitigating the "freeze" problem on HTC devices running 2.1 and 2.1-update1
• Help text is now one page that scrolls