DEVELOPER’S BIOGRAPHY AND PODCAST SUMMARY
The developer of this weather game application is AI Roker. He is a famous actor and producer who is mostly known for his roles in The Big Year, Robots, and Cloudy with a Chance of Meatballs. He was born in the year 1954 on the 20th of August. He possesses a degree in the field of communications from a college located in Oswego called the State University of New York. He did two majors: one in graphic designing and the other one in journalism (Lexi). He always wanted to be a cartoonist, and this is what influenced him to develop this application. His actual motivation for this application was the day when he overslept in forty years of his career. Thus, he decided to use his graphic designing skills and give his cartoonist mind a shape in reality and come up with an app that is basically a combination of a cartoon game weather forecast application. Along with him, the developers of this application include the technology contributor to Today Show named as Katie Linendoll and the animator called Steve Lunny. This application called ‘AI’s Weather Rockies’ came live in the year of 2014 (Apple Podcasts Preview).
MICRO REVIEW
This application is a cartoon game that gives information about real-time weather. It consists of some cartoon weather characters. The players have to wake the animated Roker up, so he does not get late for his work. He is busy dreaming about some weather filled fantasies. AI Roker mentions in this podcast that as the weather is a very common topic and all the people talk about it in their day-to-day conversations consciously or unconsciously, it was intentional to use weather cartoon characters in this game. The application is very basic and targets the kids as its audience so it can help to make them familiar with the weather’s terms and entities. Not only this, but it can also help provide them with the first-hand knowledge about climate change. The climate crisis is a really important issue of this era which needs serious attention to cope up with it as soon as possible, and it is not possible with the input of each of this generation. This application can shape the minds of the kids in such a way that they realize the importance of this issue from a very early age. This was a very good initiative which proves the application to be educational as well (Rebecca).
MACRO REVIEW
The thing about this application that impressed me the most was how beautifully a very basic game app has been designed in such a way that it is proving to be really beneficial for parenting as well. This should be the target of every other application in this digital age. Children of this generation have their cell phones from a very early age, so such a small application can help educate them and progressively shape their minds. It can help to provide kids with very basic concepts and the seriousness of such big issues such as climate change. For example, looking at this very same app; it helps kids to get familiar with the attributes of a thunderstorm, the need of putting on sunblock before getting out in the sun and provides information about snowflakes, rain and so much more. It helps them learn the basics about the weather so that they can incorporate it into their conversations and actively participate when adults are talking about it. And this comes along with a fun game and real-time weather forecast, so it is in no way a dry deal.
Work Cited
Apple Podcasts Preview. “Al Roker: Meet the Developer.” Podcast. 2014. Web. 7 July 2019. https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/al-roker-meet-the-developer/id881098436?i=1000430718142.
Lexi, Schwartz. “AI Roker Then and Now.” Albany Daily News. 2018. Web. 7 June 2019. http://www.albanydailynews.com/al-roker-then-now/.
Rebecca, Gruber. “Al Roker Shares the Inspiration Behind His New Kids App (and the Other App He Recommends)!.”Pop Sugar. 21 May 2014. Web. 7 June 2019. https://www.popsugar.com/family/Al-Roker-Weather-Game-App-34814835.
