Weather radar on laptop GPS?

I would like to know why there hasn't been a strong movement towards adding weather radar/severe alerts to gps systems. I know that Garmin has only ONE gps standalone unit (376c?), and it's geared towards marine use. And a limited effort towards a custom GPS in one model of car from Toyota (I think) that has this feature also.

IMO, having weather radar and/or alerts for the area you are driving would be invaluable compared to the other features pushed into GPS systems lately (like Bluetooth, MP3 player, etc). Maybe there's not much of a need for weather alerts in some parts of the country. But here in the Midwest, it's helpful to detour or delay your travel so you don't drive into a hailstorm that trashes your windshield....or a tornado. For a laptop, which has the CPU power to integrate such features into the map easily, it shouldn't be a hard thing to do. XM satellite sends the weather info out (which is how the Garmin 376c gets it), so I can't see any difficulties making this happen.

What do the forum members think? Anyone?

Hi skeptic,

I think you need to do a little more homework. Garmin's Mobile PC on the PC and Mobile XT on PDAs and smartphones can access Garmin Online to get local weather, including alerts.

At least two Nuvi models have MSNDirect receivers that will let you access, among other things, local weather. More than a dozen other Nuvi models can have the MSNDirect receivers added as options.

The fact that the MSNDirect receiver exists as an option for Garmin GPS receivers suggests that other manufacturers may also offer it as an option. I don't know that to be the case because I'm a Garmin user and haven't bothered to look for any other examples, but I would be astonished if others aren't offering something similar.

Why is it mainly an option and not more widespread as a standard feature? The answer is really simple: CO$T of the $ervice and spotty or no access to the signals anywhere except a few high-density urban regions.

...ken...

Hey Ken,

The models you pointed out does show local weather, but I'm talking more like actual radar imposed onto the navigation map along with your position and possibly coloring counties showing severe thunderstorm/tornado warnings. Something like this being overlaid on my navigation map while driving:

http://www.wxworx.com/ground/index.php

You're right about the price. Outrageous. BUT.....all things become cheaper over time, right? I myself would pay a small monthly fee to have the feature.

Or am I wrong about the MSN Direct receiver/Garmin Nuvi models. Do they have such a feature?? I looked and researched for a while, but couldn't find such features on any other GPS makes/models.

Here's what I'm talking about. Only available in the 2009 Acura TSX and RL for only $9.95/mo. Now why limit it to just only two models of a car company??

http://www.xmradio.com/navweather/index.xmc

Hi skeptic,

As far as I know, the Garmin and Microsoft stuff is just a weather report and forecast. I like what you are describing, but that's already available for free from a number of weather sites on the internet. All you need is a device with a web browser and a way to connect to the internet.

That's where the current focus is -- PDAs and smartphones. Compared to PDAs and smartphones, personal navigation devices (PNDs) are a very small market. It's more likely you would see the sort of feature you're describing appear on GPS-enabled smartphones before they will appear on dedicated PNDs. But that's just my guess.

...ken...

I suspect the manufacturers are reluctant to load the units down with two much. First, the cost goes up. Second, they would be more difficult operate.

I can see a device with GPS, weather, stock information (NYSE, Nikkei & NASDAQ), hog futures, gold prices, oil prices, gasoline prices, diesel prices.............

Hi Mandolin Guy,

You should be able to set up any decent smartphone to do those things. The key is internet access and a tabbed mobile browser. All that stuff is there and it's not terribly difficult to set up the tabs in a browser to automatically open the relevant web pages with a click or two. That's why you see so much of the focus on those devices.

All you have to do is look at Garmin's Nuvifone to understand what's going on. Even Garmin has chosen to add GPS features to a smartphone and let someone else deal with hooking in the various non-navigation features, rather than going the other direction and trying to add all the PDA and phone features to a GPS. Their first attempt at this was the iQue line, where they also started with a non-navigation device (PDA in that case) and added navigation to it.

I agree with you that the real magic of the dedicated personal navigation devices like the Nuvi models is that they have a really short learning curve. Garmin isn't likely to mess up that formula in any significant way. That's why only two models come with the MSNDirect receiver as standard equipment, even though there are more than a dozen that can have it added as an option.

...ken...

You are correct, it shouldn't be too difficult to do it for a laptop that has the CPU power, etc. Perhaps a few years down the road there will be such functionality. It would be helpful, indeed.

In the mean time, why not just place a shortcut icon, on the desktop of your laptop computer, to your favorite weather website that best suits the purpose. And then, instead of paying monthly subscription fee for the service that doesn't yet exist, use the money for a mobile Internet access .

That's the key, Marvin ... internet access. With a laptop, once you have internet access you have it all anyway, so why build it into the nav software?

Actually, I can think of lots of reasons, but from a practical and commercial perspective it's expensive to develop and test and support and the payback just isn't there. People are too used to everything on the internet being "free". And you still have to have an internet connection anyway, so the immediate question for most people will be, "Why would I pay more for laptop nav software with these features when I can get them in my browser for nothing?"

If there becomes any sort of market for any of that stuff, Google will do it for free in Google Earth, so that's even less incentive for the Garmin's of the world to do it.

...ken...

The answer to "why integrate it" can be answered with the bluetooth and mp3 features already found on standalone units: convienence and versatility.

Integrating severe weather that would affect your driving would be quite convienent for travellers. To have the program tell you the latest update on your route (hailstorm ahead/high winds ahead/ tornadic activity ahead) without you having to stop and research it online and offer a detour (much like traffic situations). In the Midwest, weather conditions during the spring/summer can change every 15 minutes. It's not practical to pull over that much during driving trips.

And, the versatility to interact with your running GPS program without having to run another application (internet browser in this case).

Just my .02, but weather integration is a much more useful feature than storing/playing mp3's when a $20 device plugged into your radio can do the same thing.

Hi skeptic,

As I've mentioned a couple of times, one of the keys is the universal availability of a connection ...mmmmm... no, make that the universal availability of an affordable connection. It simply does not exist at this time.

The requirement of a data plan is hurting the sales of some smartphones in many parts of North America because either the data plan is too costly or the data coverage is unreliable or the data coverage simply doesn't exist in a wide enough area. This is an even bigger problem for the service you want.

The sorts of things you are talking about require the convergence of a variety of factors. ALL of those factors have to exist, work together and be in an acceptable range of accessability, reliability and cost.

As you have obviously identified, the necessary technical factors exist and have, in some devices, already been proven to work together. The answer to "Why haven't they been integrated into a wide range of consumer-grade GPS receivers?" is still simple. Some of the factors are not yet accessable enough, reliable enough and/or cost-accessable enough.

Bottom line: the manufacturers have not yet seen a large enough market to make money on it. When they do, they'll do it.

In the mean time you can already have it by buying yourself any of 18 Garmin Nuvi models with the MSNDirect receiver if you live and drive where there is continuous coverage. Or get Mobile PC with the Garmin Online service or a smartphone with Mobile XT with the Garmin Online service if you live and drive somewhere you can get continuous online access.

...ken...

I'm new here. I watch the weather radar on the Internet, at home, for Minneapolis. I have a Garmin Nuvi. I want to buy a laptop. I'm also looking for software that will show me the same radar I view on the Internet at home with the convenience of GPS (I want to be right around the red zones if possible). From what it sounds like all of you have said that it does not exist. There must be a simpler way to view a weather radar on a laptop and try to coordinate that info with your GPS. Any ideas?

I have a friend using AnywhereMap and a XM Weather Radio satellite feed in his (small) airplane on a tablet. The two are integrated and do amazing things. I don't know what he pays monthly for the XM weather feed, but I would think that it has to be reasonable; he's not rich. He is not constrained by cell coverage or internet connectivity.

I recently saw a 3D radar image of a storm cloud on the local TV weather. I think this is the "next thing."

Your friend has a great set-up for the airplane. It is a beautiful package but a little pricey for me. The Anywhere Map PRO is about $400, plus required updates at about $110 per year or $400 for life. Add the instrument charting for a total of about $1500 for the software with life subscriptions on everything.

The XM Wx aviation weather adds another $500-$600 for the Bluetooth weather receiver, plus $30 and up for weather service subscription. The delux Anywhere MAp PRO with the XM Wx is a little over 2 grand, plus Wx subscription.

I use OziExplorer.com for the map interface and AeroPlanner.com for pay as you go chart downloads. I would go wild over a way to overlay live weather on my OziExplorer. The Ozi was $95 and the charts run $10 to $20 per chart from AeroPlanner.

Do you know if there is something similar to AeroPlanner for Canada?