[canweather]

appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/44347?lang=en

With the recent deadly tornadoes and floods and the most disastrous weather in the US history, it�s more important than ever to be timely informed about severe weather events: tornadoes, hurricanes, dangerous floods, tsunamis, storms and more.

The Active Alerts BlackBerry app provides you with the continuous update on watches,
warnings and advisories issued by the National Weather Service (USA).

Get up-to-date alerts on tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, fires, winter storms, damaging winds, thunderstorms and more. Easy to set system gives you an overview of all the alerts issued for your state and location. Click on alert to get a detailed description and preparedness instructions.Set a sound and buzz notification to get informed when an extreme alert (such as a tornado warning) is issued for your location.

Get it on BlackBerry AppWorld:
appworld.blackberry.com/webstore/content/44347?lang=en

or visit us on FaceBook:
facebook.com/pages/Active-Alerts-Blackberry-App/101065253318568

[tkr75]

hey,

cool app. does it notify only with sound, or also buzz?

does app icon change when warning is issued?

[canweather]

the alerts can be set using standard blackberry notification settings for selected profile.

this allows to set sound, buzz, and led setting.

the notification is issued only for specific level of alerts: Extreme or Extreme+Severe. In addition, the location filter can be set.

[canweather]

FYI, there is an Android version of this app as well:
market.android.com/details?id=com.simulogic.nws

[robhope123]

can you help with the location settings? i tried entering the county (New York) and i tried zip code, neither one worked. i don't want to receive updates for counties upstate, just my local county.

Thanks!

[Shilohjerry]

Active Alerts is awesome. The same day I downloaded and installed it, Active Alerts notified me of a Tornado Warning for my area. The storm became so treacherous that my family and I went to the basement for the first time in years. Later that day I watched the local news showing storm damage from the storm.

I have BerryWeather and Weatherbug on my BlackBerry. The former persistently keeps publishing duplicate weather alerts to the point that it becomes obnoxious. Neither of these fills the bill like Active Alerts.

We've used the weather alert radios, but they have proved unsatisfactory in that they have broadcast alerts that weren't even in our state!

Active Alerts is very basic, but it delivers on performance!

[canweather]

@robhope123

filtering alerts by county is certainly coming "real soon" - this is one of the most requested features. Zip code is not usable unfortunately, NOAA does not use zip codes in their data.

[canweather]

@Shilohjerry

Fantastic - we are very happy to hear that AA helped you and your family! We plan more features and improvements, please visit our FB page -facebook.com/ActiveAlerts

If you have any ideas or suggestions, please add them on FB wall, in this thread, or email directly [email protected].

[Suavechef]

I would be interested in this app. But it doesn't appear to be push enabled. That for me is a deal breaker. I want to be aware instantly not when my refresh schedule let's me know. By then it could be to late.

[canweather]

Push is something that we are looking into. It will require a server infrastructure that has to be very reliable. It's one thing to be notified 8 min later (based on periodic pull), and another to not be notified at all.

[catberryday]

This is a cool little app. Not sure it is updating on schedule like it is suppose to will give it more time to make sure though. Would definately like to see it push the alerts. It is extremely nice to know what is going on around the state. Thank you for the app!

[BergerKing]

BlackBerry App World - Active Alerts

With the recent deadly tornadoes and floods and the most disastrous weather in the US history, it�s more important than ever to be timely informed about severe weather events: tornadoes, hurricanes, dangerous floods, tsunamis, storms and more.

The Active Alerts BlackBerry app provides you with the continuous update on watches,
warnings and advisories issued by the National Weather Service (USA).

Get up-to-date alerts on tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, floods, fires, winter storms, damaging winds, thunderstorms and more. Easy to set system gives you an overview of all the alerts issued for your state and location. Click on alert to get a detailed description and preparedness instructions.Set a sound and buzz notification to get informed when an extreme alert (such as a tornado warning) is issued for your location.

Get it on BlackBerry AppWorld:
BlackBerry App World - Active Alerts

or visit us on FaceBook:
Active Alerts - Blackberry and Android App | Facebook

A little link repair.

Posted from my CrackBerry at wapforums.crackberry.com

[canweather]

@catberryday

you mean you see a different update period than the one specified in the options? It was tested and works here. If you notice that it does not work for you please contact us at [email protected]

[catberryday]

@catberryday

you mean you see a different update period than the one specified in the options? It was tested and works here. If you notice that it does not work for you please contact us at [email protected]

It is updating like it should. I think it was because I was having trouble with data for some reason on two different phones. Don't know if it was a local thing, AT&T or RIM thing. I do have a question about how to clear alerts. Whenever I click on an alert and go back it refreshes with more alerts. Sometimes the alerts are expired. Is it possible to get a general run down how it is supposed to work? I really like that app but I am just a little confused by it. Thanks!

[canweather]

@catberryday

Regarding the updates there are 2 things to keep in mind.
1) How NWS alerts work
2) How Active Alerts pulls the data

1) NWS usually updates the data feed every 2 min. That does not mean that a new alert is necessarily posted every 2 min, but that's the interval at which data is refreshed. In cases when there are fast-changing events (tornadoes, thunderstorms), it's possible that the data feed contains the events that are expired already, but still lingering in the list. This is beyond our control - it's the way NWS works (at least for now - the service is constantly being updated). What that means is when you click on alert to see the details, it may tell you that alert has expired.

2) Active Alerts pulls the data from the NWS feed at the interval that is specified in the Options (Update interval). Even if you close the program, it will still pull the data in the background to alert you if an extreme (or extreme+severe) alert is posted.

When you open the program, it refreshes the data every time you open the main screen (the one with the list of alerts). This is done to always refresh to the most recent data. The downside is that it takes a bit of time to reload (we pull fresh data from NWS server). We may change this behavior in the future with a dedicated "reload" button. Please let us know if the current way of constantly reloading is annoying - we will change it for the next version then.

Hope this helps a bit to understand what's going on.

[catberryday]

Ok that makes perfect sense! I don't really mind the expired alerts so much. I just didn't know if it was supposed to be there. A dedicated reload button might be a good idea. It might be kind of nice that once you check Active Alerts and go back to the main screen you had the option to reload if you wanted too. I wouldn't say it is annoying that it does not. Also if possible (not sure what is in involved), it would be nice if you could set the LED through an app like BerryBuzz so that you could choose what kind of LED alert to show as opposed to just the standard red light. Launching through something like QuickLaunch would be nice too. I don't develop apps so I don't know if the last two are possible. Thanks again for this really great app.

[canweather]

thanks for the suggestions.

we actually have a reload option in the Android version, so we can bring it over to the BB side.

The led color is an interesting idea - we will investigate. For now we use standard BB notifications that are configured in the main system options.

The quick launch I'm unfamiliar with - what would you like to see improved wrt Active Alerts?

[catberryday]

thanks for the suggestions.

we actually have a reload option in the Android version, so we can bring it over to the BB side.

The led color is an interesting idea - we will investigate. For now we use standard BB notifications that are configured in the main system options.

The quick launch I'm unfamiliar with - what would you like to see improved wrt Active Alerts?

QuickLaunch is a shortcut app that allows you to launch items anywhere in your phone. With Active Alerts showing up in the app switcher it is not a big deal to launch Active Alerts from there. A lot of people don't like icons on the homescreen they use shortcuts to launch apps and that is what Quicklaunch allows you to do. Thank you for considering my suggestions.

[canweather]

I see - interesting. AA should start at phone boot (we have "Autorun on startup" set) so technically the app should run at all times. As for bringing it in front by a shortcut - this is something we will investigate - thanks for the suggestion.

[canweather]

Ver 1.4 has just been released. Main changes:

1) Alerts can be limited by county. See Options/Select a county.
2) Reload option in the main screen menu - reloads alerts from server

[catberryday]

Thank you for the update! It is now easier to clear out alerts with the reload button. One thing I noticed that changed is that when I reboot I lose the selection I made for the level of alerts. For example I set it to Severe, reboot then it reverts back to All. Not a big deal but I didn't notice it in earlier versions. I think it stayed set to Severe through a reboot. Thanks again!

[canweather]

thanks - it sounds like a bug and we will look into that. Only notification level is dropped at reboot, and nothing else?

[canweather]

I meant severity level, duh

[catberryday]

thanks - it sounds like a bug and we will look into that. Only notification level is dropped at reboot, and nothing else?

I have my alerts set for all for the state not by county so I don't know it that changes or not. Thanks for looking into this!