yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Jimi, thanks for the information. We'll have to do some additional digging on our own Nexus 7, OS 4.2 device, since it does not act the same as what you are reporting. It would be interesting for you to try adding a custom, manual location, switch it to WWO, and try the same refresh action, as that works to fix the "?" icon weather on every device we have tried today.

We had felt that we covered the OEM calendar issue before but for the purposes of clarification, here it goes: Recast cannot know about every app that provides calendar or time functions on every device. Recast uses a standardized, Google SDK approved calendar and time/alarm call that many stock and OEM apps respond to. There is no way for Recast to support every flavor, every version and every app for each individual data type if they do not follow the Google SDK. It simply isn't possible for us to own all devices and OEM versions to test or have documentation for them all. It is very time consuming and error prone to add new apps since, like in the case of your HTC device, there is no documented information on what the OEM changed or what alternative API calls could be made to offer feature parity with Google's apps.

The alternative, as some have asked for, is to list every single, individual app on the device and then let you pick one. However, that wouldn't satisfy the many customer requests made when the calendar and time tap features were being added, which was to jump to a specific view or page within these apps to set alarms or see meetings listed. We have "all apps list" on our investigation list for the future, but it isn't something that is likely to give people what they have told us they want thus far.

Although we are sure that this will sound like we are trying to make excuses, it is worth pointing out that we are a small developer, working on a small budget, with absolutely no profit being made from our apps. There is a lot of piracy on our app. The costs of adding better weather providers, servers and hosting are not insignificant. It takes time, patience and a lot of luck to have an app be successful any more in the Play Store, and the process of doing so isn't getting easier. We continue to invest in Recast (and our other app Impel) but we can't always find the "right way" to provide every feature, function or option that we are asked for. All we can do is ask for your patience and support while we work on the apps and do the best we can as a small developer in a big software corporation world.
[Android Apps and Games] LifeInAnalog:
..to be sure, your "paying public" appreciates the effort and support you have put into Recast.

1LifeInAnalog on Twitter
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Thanks, we appreciate it. :)
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
OK Jimi Mack, something very strange is happening where you are, evidently, as there isn't any way we can make MSN fail here with the ? icons.

Can you tell us, as close is is practical, what the Lat/Long coordinates are where you are when you get these weather conditions, and what Recast reports the name of that place as? You should be able to use Google Maps to give you the Latitude and Longitude as the phone sees it, so we can use that to compare with what the place-name is.

Beyond that, we may have to cook up a special version of Recast with extra logging for you to try. This is definitely not normal or common behavior, we feel.

Thanks for your help.
[Android Apps and Games] Rio97:
Nice weather app..:good:
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
Just stepping in here to report that World Weather Online doesn't want to work for any of my locations (in either US or Europe), as someone has already indicated.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
floepie, thanks for the report. Can you define what you mean by "doesn't want to work for any of my locations"... is it:

No weather data is returned or locations can't be found

Weather data is wrong

Icons are wrong (did you manually refresh them once?)

Something else is goofed

Knowing and seeing the case where someone has a problem is much better than getting a generic report of an issue. Anything you could provide to help us narrow down the issue would be very helpful.

Thanks for your assistance!
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
E. All of the above. <----------

Yeah, I always hate it too when people are vague and don't fully explain what's happening. So, here's the deal. I am using two locations in the app - one in Europe and one in the US, both rather sizable locales. If I switch from one weather provider to another, and vice-versa, the data does not refresh properly. That is, all the weather icons are replaced with the '?', and the temperature data is retained from the most recent successful refresh from the previous provider. Manually refreshing either within the widget or from within the app doesn't resolve the issue.

However, if I put the phone down for "a while" (I'm not prepared to test how long this needs to occur, but safe to say less than 20 minutes), a refresh solves the problem. I don't recall this happening in the past when I had at one time switched providers for a few seconds and just for kicks. But, at least for now, having tried it 3x within the last hour, a successful refresh cannot be carried out immediately and shortly after switching weather providers. Strange but true.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Thanks for that clear and concise answer. This is an issue that we never see in development, probably because we don't have the app in release mode nor have a "used database" when restarting the app. We'll check into this and see if we can fix it in the next release.
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
Glad to help, but surely you have the app running on your own phone right now to verify?
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Developer admission: I never, ever run the same release version as the public does. I am always running on a newer one so that I can work on widgets, icons, features, etc. that the rest of you cannot see yet. Otherwise it would be a messy catalog experience for everyone.

So for that reason no, I can't see the issues you guys are reporting without removing everything we are currently working on and rolling back to the current release. And also no, my version of the app doesn't do what you have reported, so we'll have to circle back on the fixes made since 1.0.9 to see why that is.

I live in the "Recast app future" at all times except right before and just after a new version releases. That way we get as much testing time as we can on any given release, verify that the update process works correctly, then move on again to the next release version. :)
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
Well, although unlikely, the issue may present itself only from within certain regions of the world. So, if you want to send me what you have, I can give it a shot here in Amsterdam.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
We have some work to do on the current beta of Recast before we could post it to the outside world to try. Let me see what we can come up with on Monday and I'll let you know. Thanks for offering to test!
[Android Apps and Games] LifeInAnalog:
Ah, tell the truth mstroud. Yer running an i*hone aren't you? :D

1LifeInAnalog on Twitter
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
There is no way that I would be running any kind of iDevice. I currently have a Galaxy Nexus and a Nexus 10 here at home.

We do have a few clients that require us to build apps on iOS, so our developers, on the other hand, have a number of iDevices and Android devices to test on.
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
Must be some update in the works, eh?

How's that '?' problem working itself out?

Also, I have '!' next to my "current location", which would indicate that location cannot be found or determined. And that *could* be sort of expected as I have shut off wifi and network location service polling in order to subdue a stubborn wakelock. However, I have also set Recast NOT to update location. So, is Recast attempting to update location or not? There's a bit of user confusion there.

Also, while your widgets are quite nice, Recast is hardly a weather app. If you don't have plans to implement more detailed 48 hour information, trends, or graphs, could you implement a "launch X app" feature that would open a different weather app for all current widgets, whereby the user would be able to specify "X" app, which may be a more feature-rich weather app? Just as a stop-gap of course.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
floepie,

We are still working through some issues that we've found on the icon swap/weather provider change, so we're not quite done there yet.

Whenever you see the "!" icon, that's Recast telling you that it has tried and failed to get the location, weather, or some other critical data for an extended period of time. You can find out what Recast thinks the problem is by tapping on the "!" icon and it should show you a help page with info on how to solve the issue. That said, if you are in manual only mode, you really should disable the "Current Location" altogether since it will never work properly, and instead stick with manual locations.

The request has already been entered for picking a "tap and goto app" option. The lack of more weather info isn't something we want, but it is the hard reality of having no expensive/paid weather providers.
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
Thanks for the update. I've been in manual mode for some time. How do you disable "Current Location"?
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Sure, you can go to Recast > Settings > Locations > Current Location > Display Location > and set the option to Hidden.

Your question makes me wonder if anyone really has spent any time with Recast beyond the initial widget setup screen and the full screen forecast. :(
[Android Apps and Games] floepie:
*Raises hand* I have.

But, in my defense, I will say that in the settings you have the following in order: 1. Current Location 2. Location Naming 3. Display Location.

After my eyes drift over the first two settings, I was led to believe that "display location" is a setting to show/hide just the name of the location either in the widget or in the full screen, and not what it is meant to do.

IMHO, it would make more sense to put this setting in the "context menu" when you long press on that location in the "locations" page.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Thanks for the customer usage insights, they are always valuable. We'll consider these changes in future versions of the app.
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Is there going to be an update for Recast just now? Cuz im getting some "weird" icons for widgets and saying im using an outdated version, but theres no update yet on google play.
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Can we get changelog please? :D
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Sorry, I've been traveling and haven't had a moment to get to it. I'll see if I can get this updated today. Our apologies!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
OK, release notes are now live here: http://recast.phase2i.com/help/release-notes/

The highlights: lock screen widgets are here, better handling of poor/no internet connectivity with "current location", humidity now appears in a few widgets (and works), new 4x4 widget layout (made for lock screens), 4x1 "now + 4 day weather" widget now exists, WWO weather "?" state fixed, lots of other little tweaks and things.
[Android Apps and Games] chirag123:
Great app, but thanks for it.
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Thanks for the update and changelog :P

I would just have an small request if possible. I would like to see on the 4x1 widget with Clock and Date something. It would be cool to see an option that minutes on the clock wouldnt be in bold size, meaning something like this -> 19:30 (now it's 19:30), cuz i think now everything is in bold, i think it would look great (=
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
chirag123, no problem, we're glad you like it.

NaabKing, we don't have a way to draw hours and minutes separately with different fonts at this point in time, but it is something we can look at for a future release. I was under the impression from most of the comments on the web (and my own personal tastes, too) that there wasn't much love for the unbalanced, differently styled clock look. Was I wrong?
[Android Apps and Games] slowdyve:
I have problems with the latest version.

A lot of fc's and it says I'm not allowed to download some content because I'm using the free version.

And that's not true.

I purchased recast in July and the version i'm using was downloaded today from google play.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
slowdyve, did you have a chance to try any of the options listed in our FAQ entry for this topic?

http://recast.phase2i.com/faqs/i-ke...e-app-even-though-i-already-did-what-do-i-do/

We have also had a few reports of this happening when a device can't contact the Google Play Store license servers for some period of time, or the customer isn't logged into the Play Store with the same account used to purchase Recast. We would recommend that you try the reboot option mentioned in the FAQ entry first before attempting anything more dramatic to solve the issue.
[Android Apps and Games] guastucci:
Is there any way to provide accuweather forescat?
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
guastucci, we have looked at Accuweather and some other commercial services for Recast and unfortunately they are way, way expensive. As we have yet to make any money on Recast (we lose money on it each month) there is no way we could afford to add a monthly, high-cost service that would cost us even more per month and per customer.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Just a quick announcement in case someone is watching or wondering...

On April 3, 2013, part of the location look-up service that Recast uses each time the weather is fetched or a new location is created or updated disappeared from the internet. This causes Recast to fail to get weather and fail to get a location name or information. As you might imagine, this is a bad thing.

We quickly worked up a fix and posted a new version of Recast, 1.0.12, to all the usual places. You will need to install and use this new version of Recast as any previous version is now rendered inoperable by the look-up failure. We didn't have any warning that this service provider would fail so we found out about the issue at about the same time as you did. Sorry about this issue, hopefully you will get the updated version of Recast soon and you won't notice things not working very long.
[Android Apps and Games] NaabKing:
Already got it, btw, are you guys planing on maybe doing an Freemium Recast? Meaning Free and Premium, let's say it like this, you can use Recast normally, but if you want to change weather skins, you need to pay, i'm sure more people would buy the app when they will use it (= Something similar is doing "Go Weather" :)
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
NaabKing, we don't think that a freemium path is the right way to go with Recast right now. We have a fully free version with some limitations on http://recast.phase2i.com/ already. Our other app, Impel, is in the Google Play Store for free with limits, and has an in-app paid upgrade to unlock everything. What we've learned from our Impel experience is that the angry, unhappy and generally hostile feedback for these "try some of the app, get the full features when you upgrade" offerings isn't worth the pain of offering them. We've heard similar feedback from other developers who have tried this path with similar types of apps.

Our goal with our apps is to make each of them successful as stand-alone products on their own merits. Getting thousands of downloads of a free version and hoping for a conversion to paid, which we tried with Impel, doesn't seem like a path that works for what we build.
[Android Apps and Games] scottjb:
Thanks for the quick fix.
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
I haven't had any problems with Recast. Still my number one daily driver a year later.
[Android Apps and Games] Jimi Mack:
Still enjoying this app, sad to see that it is not really getting that much attention. Light, fast, flexible and it offers more than just weather.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Jimi Mack, as much as we'd like to devote all our time to Recast and Impel, we simply can't live on the low sales that they generate.

We have other projects that we do for corporate customers that help us pay the bills. Without that work, our Android apps wouldn't exist at all. Good engineers are expensive, you know!
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
Any chance taking the vertical margins out of this 5x2 time widget?

Attached is a time weather version with no margins and the one I'm referring to.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
21productionz, I must be missing something because I don't understand your request. The layouts of the 5x2 widgets are designed to be centered within all of the space that a 5x2 area offers. Moving the clock area to touch the top of the widget would leave huge gaps in the rest of the widget layout, since there is no way to fill that now-empty space.

Maybe you can mock-up/paint/Photoshop a version that you are asking for so I can understand the ask better?
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
You got it, I'm asking to have it touch the top. I didn't think about it leaving a gap.

Any chance of a 5x1 clock and date, or clock only widget that would have a clock like the 5x2 weather widget (without the weather)? By that I mean, the clock stretch top to bottom and left to right?
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
Btw this is why recast is the best EVAR!!! Right here. Awesome customer service!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
OK, take a look in the Widgets 5x1 section of the catalog at "Clock Only Widget" and see if that will work for you.
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
Omfg you guys are too awesome! Thank you so much
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Glad we could make your day. :)
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
Whadaya think?
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
If that is what makes you happy, then we are happy. We aim to (sometimes) please.
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
This is a quote from 1 year ago this month. And Nothing's changed. I hope sales have picked up, you guys deserve it!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
We just posted a quick update to Recast, bumping the version to 1.0.13. If you are seeing the upgrade/timeout screen this is the fix that you need. Google Play and Amazon versions should be rolling out as soon as those sites post it. The Recast web site has the latest version posted right now.

Enjoy.
[Android Apps and Games] babylonbwoy:
I don't know if it was reported before, most of the fonts don't show up when trying to change them on 5x2 widgets, normal or wide. Only fews works (4).

Xperia Z

Edit : 5x2 widget with clock, date & weather.

C6603 SwiftKey Flow Tapatalked.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Babylonboy, I tested around a dozen different combinations of fonts and layouts in 5x2 widgets and didn't have any issues. Can you make sure that the fonts all work on the full screen layouts first? It is possible that they may have been corrupted somehow so the widgets won't redraw, but the full screen will crash if that is the case.
[Android Apps and Games] babylonbwoy:
I'm not sure to get what you said about the full screen layout.

I'll try to uninstall it and delete all datas for a clean install.

Here's how it look when applying metrophobic on 5x2 and 4x4

C6603 SwiftKey Flow Tapatalked

Edit : fixed.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
The position of the elements in the clock are related to the typeface used. The only fixed-space typeface included at this point is Digital, so using that setting is as close as you can get to a centered colon at this point.

I'm sorry if that isn't the answer you wanted to hear but that is the only level of support we have right now. If it is really that critical to be centered I would recommend switching to 24 hour time, as that will remove the am/pm and force the entire time item to be centered within whatever space it needs.
[Android Apps and Games] TexasRules777:
Here us go..my screen is set to 10x10 and these are two separate 3x2 Widgets with a minimalistic text overlay. Well after uploading the screen shot I really don't see it there..weird.
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
Dude your response time is awesome.

I am using 24hr, and it's not centered. It's cool I love how big the clock is. Also notices that the utility icons are different sizes.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
I was just going to say that, from the screenshot, everything looks fine here. It looks substantially the same as our devices.

Could it be some sort of optical effect with the screen, DPI or another device specific issue? We do care a great deal about how Recast looks on customer systems so we want to make sure there isn't an issue that's hiding out there in systems we don't have to test with.
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
21productionz,

Short response times are an occupational hazard for us product people when testing and launching a product, sadly. No sleep for me means better service for you :)

I just checked the raw bits behind the 4x2 time/date widget and I can say that the actual space reserved for each utility is identical in height and width. It is possible that some of my icons aren't precisely the same size themselves (I don't remember counting those pixels).

Hang in there and we'll see what we can do to provide a more "OCD friendly" version of widgets in a future build. It can't drive you too bonkers, I hope.
[Android Apps and Games] 21productionz:
You rock. I'm a pain I know, but I can't help it.

I design build and Install custom cabinets for a living, so semetry is an everyday thing dor me.
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
I got Sunday and Søndag (danish) on top of eachother
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
blackbearblanc, good catch! We'll see if we can find out what caused that and put in a fix for the next beta. It does seem odd that you would get two day names in that widget, as it is supposed to be Date and Day in that spot.

Can you see if any of the other widgets with date show you the same issue?
[Android Apps and Games] MFire:
I have to agree. The widgets do look a tad sharp around the edges on my Galaxy Nexus. It's visible in the screenshot too. One other small suggestion. And about the menu structure. When configuring a widget you have "Utility icon set" then all the way down "Configure Utility Items". I think it would help if they were closer together, preferably one after the other since it's the same category.

I haven't experienced any issues as of yet. Keep up to good work. :)
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
Widgets are not edgy on my Nexus
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Recast does some custom drawing to allow for widgets to be scaled, resized, and for a single set of icons & fonts to be drawn properly across a wide variety of screen sizes. It is possible that we aren't doing as much anti-aliasing or smoothing as other widget providers because of this. I'll talk to the team and see what they say on the topic.
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
It comes when choosing manual location..

First image is by gps and wifi.(the one w the wrong time)

Second is manual. Hard to see on a screenshot, but it has a double day...
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
That is a very good find, indeed. Thanks, that will help us narrow down and fix the issue more quickly!
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
Quick Tip:

Since we've noticed that many folks don't seem to have more than one location, we would like to provide a gentle reminder:

You can add more weather places easily from the Settings Locations page. Just tap that "+" button up there on the right of your screen inside Recast to get going.
[Android Apps and Games] blackbearblanc:
Which battery notification is that? :confused:
[Android Apps and Games] mstroud:
That handy little app is Battery Indicator, in the Google Play Store.
[Android Apps and Games] TexasRules777:
Got another little issue..if you look at this screenshot I have a Sunday and a Monday superimposed over each other.