Monday, October 1, 2012

DOST will soon release Project NOAH mobile apps, we go hands-on (update)

The folks at Department of Science and Technology (DOST), and the UP National Institute of Geological Sciences (NIGS) has been surely very busy in the recent weeks or months. If you’ve been living under a rock these days, well, they are the ones who developed the Nationwide Operational Assessment of Hazards or better known as the Project NOAH. It is what they’ve come up to the President’s call for a more accurate, fast, and integrated disaster prevention system.

Until now, the Project NOAH has been only accessible on the web only. That limits the people who can access the system, because not all people in the Philippines have access to computers. But, most of us have mobile phones! So, why not tap that resource? That’s what they did.

Today, they sent out a beta version of the app to a few people and I was very lucky to be a part of that. Meet the Project NOAH app for Android.

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The app allows you to check different weather information like rainfall forecast, Doppler radar stations which can help track thunderstorms, weather stations, stream gauges, and rain gauges.

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From the app you can also check the Twitter timelines of PAGASA, ClimateX, and the PAGASA-FFWS (Flood Forecasting and Warning Section). This is very handy because not all people have Twitter accounts. They have also managed to hide all the tweets that are @ replies to make it look clean and uncluttered.

Screenshot_2012-10-01-14-28-23 Screenshot_2012-10-01-14-28-55

The app itself looks very nice and is designed with the Android Design Guidelines in mind. It is also optimized for devices with large screens like tablets and not just a blown-up version like what other apps do. This app will instantly come to the Staff Picks on Google Play Store for sure once it’s released!

Speaking of the release, there is no word yet on when will the final version of the app go live at the Google Play Store. And as for the devices running on the other platforms, don’t worry, I’m sure they’ve got something up their sleeves for you too. I’ll update this post as soon as more info comes in.

Props to the DOST!

UPDATE: Just got an advice from the UP NIGS that the Android version is set to be released by next week at the Google Play Store while the iOS version maybe coming next month and for the other platforms? They said that they “want to support all possible platforms.” I think their resources are just really limited for now.

UPDATE 2: The DOST has already submitted the Project NOAH app for Android and is now available at the Google Play Store.

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