Portable weather radar... iPhone

[John Doe]

I just realized that (theoretically) portable weather radar is
already a reality, using an iPhone. Hopefully I will be testing the
theory in the not-too-distant future. Anyone else already have
experience with that? Apparently the iPhone applications use the
national weather service (USA) radar. I use NOAH weather radar on my
home system whenever rain is in the area. Instead of using a
third-party application, also maybe possible is to just use the
iPhone's included browser and the NOAH web page (just like at home).

Good luck and have fun.

[inlina]

Post by John Doe
I just realized that (theoretically) portable weather radar is
already a reality, using an iPhone. Hopefully I will be testing the
theory in the not-too-distant future. Anyone else already have
experience with that? Apparently the iPhone applications use the
national weather service (USA) radar. I use NOAH weather radar on my
home system whenever rain is in the area. Instead of using a
third-party application, also maybe possible is to just use the
iPhone's included browser and the NOAH web page (just like at home).

I can get still images from the Australian Bureau of Meteorology on my
Blackberry. I will have to ask my brother if he can get the dynamic
ones on his iPhone. Very handy information to have when on the go.

CG

[John Doe]

Definitely cool... Preliminarily, I think it will replace my low end
TFT color eTrex Venture HC GPS and maybe my voice/sound recorder. It
switches from regular map to satellite images that you can scroll/zoom
around with. Preliminarily, it is able to pinpoint my position well
enough, not sure about tracking. It gives directions from current
location to whatever input address (or whatever two input addresses).
The screen is 3 1/2 inches diagonal, the resolution is 480x320 versus
220x176 on my Venture HC. The touch screen makes flicking/looking
around the map easy compared to using the clumsy Venture HC
stick/pointer contraption for scrolling the screen, and zooming is
light-years easier.

[John Doe]

Regarding the iPhone as a skating utility. Still looks great. Something
I wanted to do with a digital camera is to automatically click a
picture at regular intervals. Probably are simple applications for the
iPhone that will do it.

I immediately bought a rugged rubber protective case "tough skin" with
a belt clip. I am having trouble with the 3.0 software update, it
totally wrecked WiFi and Bluetooth. Apparently, the iPhone and/or its
software is not very well tested. It also requires a lot of work
setting it up to take advantage of all its capabilities. I guess it is
more functional than it is user-friendly, even though it will do the
basic functions easily.