Another sub-par review because someone thinks we are wrong about the information in LETHAL. When actually, we are right.

Earthquakes are a real threat in Washington State, the most recent occurrence being in 1996. The potential for more happening in the future is there, because of existing, known fault lines.

Tornadoes are often also real threat in Washington State.  In 1972, Washington lead the country in tornado deaths. And in 1997, 6 tornadoes touched down in Washington state in a single day.

 April 5, 1972 – Washington’s Deadliest Tornado Outbreak

* An F3 tornado touched down in Vancouver

* 6 deaths and 300 injured, Washington led nation in tornado deaths that year

* Tornado swept through a grocery store, bowling alley, and grade school near where Vancouver Mall is today

* 50 million dollars in damage

* Later that day, another F3 tornado touched down west of Spokane

* And an F2 tornado struck rural Stevens county

* Numerous severe thunderstorms with large hail and damaging winds were reported over other areas of eastern Washington 

As for the Great White Shark in the woods, it’s likely the user is in a coastal forest, and when in a coastal area, we list the dangers that the oceans represent, as a general rule.

It’s frustrating that our app consistently gets bad reviews for having information that is accurate, but unexpected or against “common wisdom.” Oh well.

We here at Team LETHAL will make a deal with you, Yukon Corneilius. If you will re-rate our app with 5 stars instead of 4, we will do everything within our ability to help fix San Diego’s disease problem. If that’s what it takes to get a 5 star review, we’ll do it.

Link

Another positive review of Lethal, this time from a Canadian site.

Review: Stay aware with Lethal!

Today I have an application called “Lethal” which uses the GPS location function in your iPhone to assess the area you are in of dangers!

Lethal by Elany Arts Inc.

Lethal measures your surrounding area forthreats using four scales: Wildlife, Crime, Disease, and Disasters. The application locates you via the GPS function of the iPhone and then runs the assessment based on information complied from Government and Academic statistics and research.

Lethal just actually expanded its coverage to Canada, so along with Canadian coverage, the app has over 650 locations covered throughout North America.

When the application is started, Lethal searches for your location and then immediately assess the threats in the area. I have posted an image above of its assessment of Vancouver, BC, Canada (looks like a disaster is coming). Moreover, you can browse locations as well. So for example, if you are about to travel somewhere, you can get an early heads-up of the area. You also have access to a newly added feature called “Rank” which ranks the most dangerous areas to least areas, or vice versa.

Currently, Lethal is available in the iTunes AppStore for $0.99.

Enjoy!

User Review:

LETHAL Response:
All cities in the US and Canada with populations over 100,000 (according to most recent Census numbers) are covered in the latest update. Let us know what town you’re referring to, and we’d be happy to check it out.

None of the cities in the app are listed as 35 times the national average in any crime category. In Violent Crimes certain Canadian Provinces are 12 times. In Rape certain Canadian Provinces are 24.1 times. And in the Murder Category Downtown St. Louis is listed as 13.3 times the national average.

As a basic rule of thumb, if a city is within 10 miles of the ocean, we’ll list the aquatic dangers.

It’s 99 cents now, actually. And we do a lot of research to provide the most accurate information. As always, if you have a problem with any of the data, please contact us directly. We often make updates to make the information as valuable as possible.

User Review:

Our Response:

As we make clear in our FAQ’s and our sources section, LETHAL talks about possibilities, not what has happened. According to weather experts, tornadoes are completely possible (though with low likelihood, as noted in the app ) in the Flushings sections of Queens, as is demonstrated by the number of Tornadoes that have touched down in NY and NYC in the past. A NYC are Tornado has touched down as recently as 2006.

As for Copperheads, Queens is within their national range, and being an urban or suburban area does not mean the snake can’t show up. In fact, expects say that Copperheads may prefer some urban areas because of the many areas in which they can hide.

Since the App Store gives developers no ability to respond to user reviews, we’re going to do it here, occasionally. Mostly for our own sanity, since sometimes the things people say need to be debated a little!

Our Response:

Risk of either mosquito and crocodile attacks ARE low in the everglades. In the case of the mosquito, the LETHAL app is warning you about the possibility of an attack that would pose danger to a person. LETHAL is concerned more with deadly diseases, not just general itchiness. Disease bearing mosquitoes are actually rare in Florida, while not so rare in other parts of the world.

I think the user confused alligators and crocodiles. There are many alligators in the Everglades, and the risk of a gator attack is indeed heightened. However,  there is also a very small population of crocodiles in the Everglades. In fact, it’s the only place in the world where both crocs and gators co-exist.

But there is absolutely no documented record of an attack on a human by a crocodile there. (Or anywhere in the United States, for that matter.) American Crocs actually have a reputation of being less aggressive than crocs elsewhere in the world (though there have been attacks in Central and South America, where they are more prevalent.)

So for both mosquito and croc, putting the level of attack risk at “Low” is correct.

Thanks for saying we’re fun, but do understand that we strive to be educational too! We really really do!

Link

This is exciting! We’re listed as one of 9 apps that will change your life. Unfortunately, they’re listing our old price.

9 APPS THAT WILL CHANGE YOUR LIFE

April 24, 2009

Plan ahead

($1.99; iPhone)

Just how safe is your gated community? Lethal uses your location to determine how likely you are to be mauled, mugged, maimed or injected with flesh-eating bacteria by some otherwise cute ladybug. And you thought suburbia was safe.

Link

Even more LETHAL!

by Steven Sande on Apr 23rd 2009

Remember LETHAL? It’s an app that can keep you awake at night by telling you about all of the dangerous things that can kill, maim, or at least injure you. The good thing is that LETHAL does it in a humorous way.

We did a review of LETHAL a few months ago, and now the development team at Elany Arts has taken the app to a new level. Not only did they significantly upgrade LETHAL, but they also dropped the price of the app from US$1.99 down to US$0.99.

What’s changed? 

• LETHAL now gives a risk ranking for every US and Canadian town or city with a population over 100,000, plus all Canadian National Parks. If you’re within a large metropolitan area, you can watch your LETHAL index change as you drive around.
• More disasters! More dangerous animals!
• The crime information is more specific, with new updated crime data from the FBI database.
• You can view rankings for all locations from most dangerous to least (or vice versa) for all indexes and specific risks. Want to find the #1 area to get killed by a grizzly bear? LETHAL can help.
• Speaking of animals, they’re now displayed with their relative risk based on prevalence in the area and confirmed attacks (I griped about this in my earlier review, since they showed mountain lions as a big risk in my suburban neighborhood).
• Disasters are also displayed with their relative risk based on prevalence and confirmed incidents.

LETHAL (click opens iTunes) is a fun and fascinating app, and the new lower price and extra-chunky feature set makes it even more worthwhile.