New Software Sunday

Upgrade!

MyMetar.com got a bit of an upgrade this weekend. New in this release:

• Configurable Radar Mosaics!
• Performance enhancements (more robust caching).
• Station and TAF “popovers” (a.k.a. tooltips).
• Widgetbox support.
• ‘Switch edit’ support for METAR group names – click the ‘Edit’ link next to a METAR group’s title and a text box appears, letting you quickly edit the group’s name.
• Privacy policy – put simply, your info will NEVER be released – your trust and privacy is uber-important.
• ‘Found a bug’ feedback form.

Thanks to all the MyMetarians who submitted new feature requests. We’re working those into upcoming releases. On the horizon:

• Profile editing
• Set the order (drag-and-drop) on your groups and METARs.
• More popovers
• Fast group adding (good for flight planning)
• Live search for station IDs (so you don’t have to remember the station code)

Radar Collections

We’ve added the concept of “radar collections”, or groupings of related radar images (e.g. the NOAA Static Doppler collection is a set of tiles from NOAA’s ADDS website). The collections aggregate radar or other weather depiction images from around the web, letting you see all your favorite images from one page.

If you would like to see radar collections added, send in a link to the images you’d like to see added or send in an XML document with the collection details. A sample radar collection XML file is available online. Coming soon is a web form you can use to add your own URLs.

If you’re outside the U.S., your radar collection contributions are especially valuable!

MyMetar.com METARs on Your Blog or Web Page!

Also new this release is support for Widgetbox widgets. This means you can drop MyMetar.com weather on your blog or website. Try it out now and see how the widget will look with your METARs configured. The East Cooper Pilots Association is using the widget to give their members a quick visual indicator for local weather. Thanks to Jean-Samuel, the first (as far as we know) MyMetarian outside the U.S. to use the widget to on a website for Kejy Aviation.

If you happen to drop a widget on your blog or web page, let us know and we’ll drop a link to it in a widget gallery page.

MyMetar.com at AOPA Expo

Tyson will be at Expo 2006 this year. Any MyMetarian at Expo is entitled to a gratis frosty beverage.