Telop, home

Tonight’s weather, on 1984 Japanese TV.

Telop rebuilds a 1984 Japanese TV forecast, card by card, and fills it with tonight’s real weather for the nearest of seventeen cities, from Kansai to London. In many of them, your local teams’ scores and the trains come on too. Free, for iPhone with iOS 18 or later. Coming soon to the App Store.

What’s on

The weather cards are filled with the day’s real forecasts and observations. In most cities the opening title runs over a satellite picture from the past few hours, then a clock card gives the time. Weather warnings get a card in Japan, the U.S. and Canada. So does a night with something to see in the sky: a lunar eclipse, a meteor shower, a harvest moon.

  • The Kansai rain card, titled “Rain at 2 p.m., AMeDAS” in Japanese: western Japan with rain-gauge readings as violet dots and a four-step key from light to heavy rain.

    Rain

    Rain from radar, or from a weather model where there’s no radar; in Kansai, from Japan’s AMeDAS rain gauges. Each card is stamped with the hour it shows.

  • The San Francisco “Tomorrow” table: nine Bay Area places, each with a weather mark and a chance of rain in percent.

    Chance of rain

    Tomorrow’s chance of rain for each area, with its weather mark.

  • Toronto’s “Forecast Tonight” card in Japanese: the Lake Ontario shore with area names, a weather mark on each area and a key for fine, cloudy and rain.

    Tonight and tomorrow

    Weather marks for tonight and tomorrow across a map, with a key for fine, cloudy and rain.

  • New York’s “Temperature Tomorrow” card: highs over lows on red and blue panels across the map.

    Highs and lows

    Tomorrow’s high and low for each area, on red and blue plates.

  • A Japanese baseball results card, the Blue Jays’ 6–5 win over the Reds first, then five more games by the teams’ initials with the winning and losing pitchers on pink and green plates. Below, the last game’s line score, the Tigers’ 8–7 win over the Pirates inning by inning, and a key to the initials.

    Your teams’ scores

    Baseball from around the majors, your local club first with its line score, and final scores for nearby football, basketball and hockey clubs, where the city has them. Turn any sport off in Settings.

  • Toronto’s subway card in Japanese: Lines 1, 4, 5 and 6 running normally; on Line 2, service suspended between Kipling and Jane until 3:30 a.m., with shuttle buses. As of 11:52 p.m., from the Toronto Transit Commission.

    The trains

    Whether the lines are running normally, and the closures planned, in Toronto, New York, London, Chicago, San Francisco, Seattle and Boulder, and the New York subway on the Croton-on-Hudson reel.

Japanese, English or both in turn

English cards follow the same 1984 rules as the Japanese ones. On a phone set to Japanese, Telop starts in Japanese. On any other, each card comes up in Japanese for a moment, then in English. Temperatures follow your phone’s Temperature Unit if you’ve set one, otherwise the city’s own (℉ in the U.S.). Change either in Settings.

The Kansai forecast card for tomorrow, in Japanese, with the prefecture names and weather marks.
The same card in English, titled “Forecast Tomorrow,” with Kyoto, Osaka and Nara.

Seventeen cities

Each time it starts, Telop uses your approximate location, on your phone, to pick the nearest of the seventeen, however far away you are. The location itself is never stored or sent. Say no, and Telop picks by your time zone.

How to watch

Each loop is a real screen recording of the app.

  • Swipe left or right

    Change cards. The island at the top of the screen (the Dynamic Island, or a pill under the notch) shows the card index as you go.

  • Touch and hold

    Pause on the card you’re watching. Hold again to play.

  • Pull down from the island

    Settings: language, units, sports, widgets and credits. Tap the island instead for the card index, with the name of the card you’re on.

  • Turn it sideways

    It plays in landscape too, at up to 120 frames per second on iPhones with ProMotion.

On your Home Screen too

Widgets put Now, Program, Forecast, Baseball and Warnings on your Home Screen, each in Japanese or English. Forecast goes on the Lock Screen too.

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