yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Hello again folks from the Recast HQ.

We just pushed out version 1.0.8 of Recast for Google Play, Amazon and Free customers. It will take a bit of time for everyone to see this in their store or region, but rest assured it will show up!

The new changes in this version are a complete revamp of typefaces and fonts. They have been combined and they are now downloadable from the Catalog. This means that everything inside Recast can now be added and updated without new a release of the app for the first time. This was something we've been working towards since the first release, but it is now possible :)

There are several smaller fixes, tweaks and improvements included as well. Amazon customers will have to uninstall their existing Recast and install this new version clean, as there were too many changes between versions and upgrades just weren't possible. Sorry about that.

Visit the release notes page for full details, go to the download page for your version or look for the update in your favored app store. Let us know what you think of this release when you get it... we worked hard to get it done!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
It appears that Recast 1.0.8 is now live in the Google Play Store, at least here in the USA. We'll let everyone know when Amazon has approved and released 1.0.8 for the appstore, too... likely in 7 to 10 days from now.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Well, that was quick: Amazon has approved it and Recast 1.0.8 is now posted! If you have an older version of Recast you will have to uninstall it before grabbing this version, but the fixes and improvements are worth it.

Let us know if you have any issues or ideas for the next version. In the meantime, enjoy the latest Recast release.
[Android Apps and Games] babylonbwoy:
Downloading one by one all widgets, font, background, etc is painful ! Why not allowing us to dl each pack entirely ?

Also if I uninstall recast (licensing issue message) and reinstall it right after I have to redownload everything, is it normal ?
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
babylonbwoy, that is interesting feedback.

To date, nearly every email or post has said "make Recast smaller" or "please use less SDCard space" or "reduce the install footprint" when using Recast. We have tried to compress, remove or otherwise put the resources that are not critical for Recast to run onto the server so that the app is as small and light as possible to meet these requests. It also allows us to improve things much faster as all of the assets are installed on-demand instead of being baked into the app. We will have to look into your suggestion to see what could be improved here.

We're more concerned about this comment, however: "if I uninstall recast (licensing issue message)" This is an issue that should not be happening regularly. Once you install Recast, Google should issue you a license and that should be the last time you see that message. Since Recast must have access to the internet in order to get weather, being online for the license should not be an issue. Can you tell us about the problem you are seeing? You shouldn't have to uninstall/reinstall more than once to take care of this issue. Feel free to send us an email or PM if you want to.
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
Great app! 5 stars. Didn't see you had a thread here on XDA! Just sent you an email regarding possible addition of a *white* climacons icon set in addition to the grey ones?

Also, as mentioned above, I also ran across a licensing issue where there were locks next available font downloads. A restart of the app seemed to cure it. It is only the second time it occurred however.

I would love to see the app fleshed out a bit with additional data stored behind a second (or third) side-swipable holo tab to make it my sole go-to weather app. However, it is nice for the highly customizable widgets.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
floepie, thanks for the feedback. Yes, we've had a topic here on XDA for a while and it seems to work well for a number of folks who like to give us more detailed information and requests.

I'm looking at the weather icon request, but it may be a few days before I'm able to get to it. I'll keep you posted.

Thanks for the report on the licensing issue. This is something we see sporadically and it is unique to the Google Play Store version of the app. We're continuing to look at what Google is doing there, but so far it seems somewhat random whether or not the license is properly applied when it is asked for. We will add your info to our FAQs so that other customers can try the stop/restart the app trick and see if it works for them.

What "additional data" are you looking for? We have been asked to provide more weather information in the past, but so far the costs to the different weather service providers for extra data, like hourly forecast, radar, chance of rain, etc. are all quite costly. We're keeping this request on the front burner but it isn't something we've been able to commit to yet due to the cost.
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
In terms of additional information, I would like to see more data with respect to probability and amount of forecasted precipitation in terms of both a 24 hour time frame as well as a 5-7 day time frame plotted on a chart as a function of time along the X axis. I envision something along the lines of what Go Weather has done with their weather app. Along the bottom, there is a strip with a few buttons/tabs, including a home tab, a "24-hour" tab, and a tab for a longer range forecast.

The home button could be used to bring up the data the way it is currently presented. The 24-hour tab could bring up a graph with two traces - probability and amount of precip, each with their own scaled Y-axis. And, the tab representing the longer range forecast, the same two traces - probability and amount of forecasted precip.

But, props to the developers who have created such a unique and friendly way to customize the widgets by allowing the user to see in "real time" how settings changes affect the overall look of the widget before dropping it onto the homescreen.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
floepie, boy that is a lot of detailed information. Thanks for that, we will look into it!

I will pass your thanks along to the team. I am sure they will appreciate it.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
We've had a couple of people continue to tell us that they are seeing crashes in the latest 1.0.8 release of Recast. Evidently, in each case that person hasn't ever run the app... they just looked at the widgets. We made a FAQ entry on the web site about this, but the fix is really, really simple: go run the app once!

A bunch of things changed in 1.0.8 that required an update of critical parts of Recast. These should run if you visit the app one time in full screen mode. After that you can go back to happy widget only existence, if you want (we hope you visit full screen a little more often, though!).

FAQ link is here.
[Android Apps and Games] Moore74:
Good morning. Is it possible have the menu language settings?

Thanks a lot

:D
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Moore74, maybe you can help us with your request. In Recast there are no settings to change for languages: Android's "Language & Input" settings for Language determine what text is shown to you. We do not provide any way to override these settings, since they are built-in to the OS.

What setting was it that you were hoping to change?
[Android Apps and Games] Moore74:
I'd like to select different languages, nothing else ... Thanks

:good:
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
OK, thanks for that input. I'm not sure what the ability to add this feature is right now, but I will pass the request along to the engineers and see what they say.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
We had a customer request for the Climacons weather set in white, so we have just posted it into the Catalog. To get it, simply start up Recast and tap on the Catalog icon, then visit the Weather Icon Sets section and download it for yourself. Tell us how you like it!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Just in case anyone was wondering, without any changes, hacks or upgrades at all, Recast works just fine on Android 4.2 and the Nexus 10. Take a look at a few 5x2 and 5x1 widgets in all their 2560x1600 glory... scaled down for this web page, obviously!
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
Looks great! Thanks for the new climacons. I'm not so keen (perhaps others are?) on the "oversized" action/toggle icons. Do they really need to be that large? Perhaps that's the appeal, but for me, I'd rather see them a bit more discrete, and designed more in keeping to the original holo/AOSP Google-designed icons. Perhaps new toggle icon sets could be added to the catalog?
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Floepie, perhaps you haven't seen them, but we do already have an ICS/JB utility icon set in the Catalog: Ice Cream Utils. Here's an image we posted with them earlier...

As for the size, I think that is a matter of preference. You are the first person to request something that is smaller, as the layout of the utility widgets that Recast offers match the sizes, roughly, of all of the other available Recast weather widgets. I could look at providing something smaller, similar to ICS like you ask, but it will no longer match the size and shape of all the other Recast widgets. Are you sure that's really what you want?
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Recast 1.0.9 is now rolling out across the Google Play Store customer world, and is available now for Free users. You should see an update in the next 24 hours or so, if history holds up. Amazon appstore customers will have to wait the customary "extra time" for the approval and posting process on that store.

The main new things in this release are support for Motorola "1%" battery devices, restoring support for "system fonts", fixes for the crash that some folks saw going from 1.0.7 to 1.0.8 and other general tweaks and fixes.

We have some big changes in store for the next release, so you will certainly want to move up to this latest version to be ready for the next set of updates. If we missed anything or you see something we can improve on please let us know. And if I don't get another chance to say so, Happy Thanksgiving from all of us here at the Phase 2 HQ!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Just in time for Thanksgiving....

Amazon Appstore now has Recast 1.0.9: get it on Amazon

Google Play Store now has Recast 1.0.9: get it at Google Play Store

Recast 1.0.9 is on SALE for US$0.99 (or the local equivalent)! Depending on your store and/or region, it may take a little while for this sale to show up. This will be a short-time offer, so if you've been holding off the move to the full, paid version of Recast now is the time to jump over and save.

Happy Thanksgiving!
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Bought it (= Just to give you support, but i will still be using Stock Samsung Weather Widget which comes with SGS3 (=

PS: It would be nice to see "last update" (time) on the widget when you put it on the homescreen, cuz when i click it, it only vibrates (i guess that means it's updated), but i wanna know for sure, for example if it's updating automatically or something, cuz i can't see that when i unlock the screen, i can't know if that is 10 hours or 1 hour old (=
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
NaabKing, thanks for the support and comments.

It is rather tough to add "last update time" on most widgets because there isn't enough room to put that information. Maybe it could be added to some of the larger "x2" widget styles, but I'll have to look into that.
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
1. Would it be possible to add options to raise (or lower) the font size in addition to the already configurable font typeface?

2. Widget layout suggestion: 4x1 widget with simple 5 elements all of the same size with Hi/Lo temps: "Today", followed by the following 4 days. There are already so many various options to choose from, it almost seems like a glaring omission of this simple, common widget layout.

Thanks!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
floepie, here are some answers for you...

1. Sorry, there is no way to offer per-item font sizing. The way Recast handles the widget layouts this simply isn't possible.

2. We work on requests, so if you don't see what you want, just ask! I can look into your request... however, if you notice there isn't a "4th/5th day" of weather data, so it will just be Today plus the next three days. That's all the data we get from MSN and World Weather Online, unfortunately. So a new widget would have only 4 day items to show. Do you still want that?
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
I think for a 4x1 widget, for the sake of symmetry, it would still be best with 5 elements: current, today, 3 additional days? Or, even a 48 hour forecast "current", day, night, day, night would be nice too. Just a suggestion for something I would use, not sure about others though....
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
OK, I'll look into it.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
floepie, it appears that there will have to be some changes in the way Recast handles forecasts before I can look at your widget request. We don't have a way to make the "now" weather condition appear in that list at a similar size and layout. Sorry about that, we'll have to come back to your request after we make some fixes to the app.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
We had a slight uptick in new Recast customers over the past few days, thanks to the holiday sale, no doubt.

To help new folks out we created three videos showing the basics of making a widget, adding a location, and downloading from the Catalog. If you are interested in any of these or you know someone who could use a push to try Recast, perhaps the videos could help.

Catalog Download How To:

[YOUTUBE]AjG4Olf20qg[/YOUTUBE]

New Locations How To:

[YOUTUBE]bfjJvfi6R0M[/YOUTUBE]

Create a Widget How To:

[YOUTUBE]MCLhF_AAQ3Y[/YOUTUBE]
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Our limited time sale is over! Thanks to everyone who told friends about Recast. We look forward to all the feedback from the new customers as well as those of you who jumped in early. On to the next release!
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Glad to hear that and i can see that in the Google Play Graph too (= hopefully more will do it too :P
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Hello :)

I started to use Recast a little more seriously and i was playing a little with download content and i discovered pretty serious bug, which made me to reinstall recast, cuz restart of the phone didnt work, nor did clearing the cache, but clearing data did 1 of 2 times, so i had to reinstall the other time that didnt.

So here's what i was doing, i didn't know i had already selected (was by default) the "Plain gray icons" under "Settings" "Views" "Utility Icon Set", so i went and deleted that under "Templates" and then ofcourse that didnt exist anymore, so if you go back to the "Settings" "Views" "Forecast Single Column" "Utility Icon Set" it will be blank, but if you click on that, Recast will go crazy and theres nothing you can do, only clear data or clean install again from narket.

I did it twice, so im sure it is a bug and hopefully it can be fixed :) i didn't try what would happen if you would delete a background or font if you already had selected one, but i guess it would be the same.

Hope you understand what i ment, if not, tell me and ill include photos, since im on my phone and it would take too long.

Greetings and keep up the good work

EDIT: I didn't test this quite well, but i think Recast will stop too if you wanna create a new widget if there are some templates missing, since i'm getting very much force closes now when i deleted some templates, so i guess i wont delete any for now, untill this can be fixed and ill test it again :)
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Good find on this deleting issue. We know that it has worked in the past but for some reason deleting in use resources now causes a problem. We will make sure this gets fixed in the next release. For now, don't delete anything that is in use, or quit Recast in All Apps > Settings > Apps > Recast and then clear all app data and you should be back to working again. This action should be the same as reinstalling the app.
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Yeah i know, but 1 time i cleared the data and then went back to the app, it was like it wasnt buyed, i had option to "upgrade to full version" under "info", so i just uninstalled the app and reinstall from market and everything was fine again
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
Helvetica neue. But using "fonts" folder on sd could be the bomb and give total freedom.:thumbup:
[Android Apps and Games] MFire:
I am so buying this app when it comes out. Simply SUPERB! The accessing speed for the main app could use a little tweaking but besides that, perfect!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Here are some responses to those who posted...

blackbearblanc,

We are looking at the time issue. What we need to know from you is the exact name of the location that you are having trouble with. We are currently working on the time zone issues and need this information to help fix it. It would also be very helpful if you could try manually adding your location to see if it is correct, since Current Location relies on GPS/cell tower/Network data to determine time but manual locations do not.

Recast uses fonts in a very specific way so it is doubtful that we could use an external font cache on the device. I will report this request back to the team to see what they think.

ballubas, setting Celsius is pretty easy to do and we've listed the steps on our FAQ page so that you can find this information inside of Recast. The next beta release will have better handling of this automatically for those of you outside the US who want metric settings always.

bartoloandre98, thanks for the suggestion of Notification bar weather. Based on our previous app (Impel) experience, we found the response to anything in the notify bar is overwhelmingly negative. I'll pass your suggestion on and see what the team says.

As always, thanks for the feedback. Hopefully everyone is putting Recast to some good use and finding out just what features are valuable or needed for the next release.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
MFire, thanks for the kind reply. We're glad you like it.

Can you give us some more information about the "accessing speed" you mention? Are you having specific issues with the interface not being as responsive as you think it should be? Are there menus or functions that don't work as expected when you tap on them?

We know that we would like to improve the fullscreen performance somewhat before going final. Your specific feedback will be very helpful to tell us what to tune to make the Recast app work best in your situation. Don't be shy to tell us what you want to see improved.
[Android Apps and Games] MFire:
Just finished writing a review for Mobilissimo.ro about your app. It will be published tomorrow :)

I own a Galaxy Nexus running Android 4.0.4. When you first press the icon in the app drawer to access the app it doesn't open as fast as one would thing. The menus also lag a bit but not very noticeable.

Other then that, I haven't encountered any other issues. Compared to some other apps I use that offer the same functionality, yours looks superb, like it was made for Ice Cream Sandwich. I must congratulate you on a job well done. Hope the final version comes out soon.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Mfire,

Again, thanks for the feedback. I don't think we're quite ready for reviews just yet, due to still being in beta, but we do appreciate the love.

We have been looking at the responsiveness of the fullscreen views for a while and have some ideas of how to tune them up a bit. We do a lot of custom drawing when switching into that part of the app, as you may have seen by the Android wait spinner appearing in Settings. We'll take your comments back to the team and see what we can do to improve things before final release.

As for the overall app look, you can blame or thank me, depending on your disposition. It was a goal from the very beginning of the app design to completely (or very, very closely) follow the new Android design patterns for Ice Cream Sandwich. There are no legacy views and no bits of older UI crud carried over from any previous OS version. That made things go a bit slower to get started, but you can now see the results in Recast. It also means that the fluid views shared on phones, tablets and even the TV are possible without the pain that came with doing them in previous Android SDKs.

The last bit of info is that we're using a compatibility library that allows that great ICS look to be supported all the way back to OS 2.2 devices. So even folks who aren't yet 4.0 upgraded get most of the benefits that those of us on ICS already have.

Again, thank you for your feedback and we'll let you and everyone here know when the next beta is ready to go.
[Android Apps and Games] MFire:
Thank You for all the useful information.

I will make sure to let our readers know.

Having tested so many apps because it's my job to do it I can assure you - You are ready for a review. The app works as it should. I will of course test it further and post feedback based on our readers opinions too.

Looking forward to testing the new Beta once it becomes available,

Best Wishes.
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
+1 for option for temp in statusbar..like in beWeather
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
...tested..Clock at manual location works fine !!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
blackbearblanc,

Thanks for the update on your location time zone issue. That confirms what we think the problem is. Hopefully we can now zoom in on a fix for it.
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
Any eta on next release? I want to use it soooooo bad, but the semetry thing has kept me from it.
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
Thanks. No rooted Galaxy nexus 4.0.2
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
OK everyone, Beta 2 is now posted. Take a look back at the first post in this thread for details or visit the Recast web site for details.

Let us know how this one works for you. We're hard at work on the next beta version and fixes for things you folks have already reported.

Regards,

Micah Stroud
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
I love it.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Glad to hear it. Put some more locations in, try out the different themes, fonts, etc. and let us know what else you'd like to see in the final release.

We're firming up our "must fix" list now for the next release and then we'll start the march toward a full Google Play Store (and probably Amazon) release. Just need to make sure we have all the I's dotted and T's crossed before we commit to a final version 1.0 release.
[Android Apps and Games] dmel:
very intriguing, ill try this out.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
By the way, if you are wondering to yourself "hey, self, do I have the Beta 2 version of Recast?" you can find that out by starting the app, pressing the device Menu or Overflow button (that thing in the upper right hand corner of Android 4.0 apps) and see if your About screen looks like this one:

That should let you know that you are up-to-date.
[Android Apps and Games] TexasRules777:
Hey really love this app! Only one minor issue to report, the larger clock and weather widget icons look slightly rough around the edges when expanded for tablets. Other than that this is a great app.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
TexasRules777, thanks for the feedback.

Is it possible to share a screenshot of the "rough edges" issue you are talking about? The widgets were designed with scaling in mind, so there should be very little in the way of jagged pixels or poor blending when they are stretched up a size or two.

Here's an example of the scaling from our ASUS Transformer TF101: the top widget is a 1x1 scaled up two times; the bottom widget is a 2x2 scaled up two times. They look quite good to us when viewed on the tablet directly.
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
Is it possible to center the colin on the clock?

My ocd is kicking in and it's driving me nuts