Weather data available on Cingular and Verizon

[Verne Carlson]

I discovered this weather radar service on my Cingular cell phone this weekend. http://www.my-cast.com/index.jsp I had been disapointed with the usual 'local forecast' stuff - but this is pretty cool!

I signed up for the Mobile My-Cast. It is only $3.95 a month plus with the Media Plus package for $19.95 you get unlimited downloads. It is centered around a City,State or zip that you key-in. There are 3-zoom levels of looping radar data, IR/Vis satellite, Temps/Dews, wind vectors and watch boxes and warnings. The 'Pilot' package has lightning data and Metars plus a few other features for more $$ per month. There is also a weather scout package but it didn't have enough extra features that a chaser might be interested in.

Check it out if you have a media ready phone from one of these companies!

 

[Andrew Pritchard]

I signed up for this in September, but never got anything more than the forecasts, and zooming radar. Where did you go to get all this other data? Should I maybe re-subsribe to get an updated version?

The radar that I did get however, was amazing. Its got a very detailed image, which is more clear than even the NWS Radar Images on their respective web sites.

 

[Skip Talbot]

Mobile data gets better and better each year doesn't it?

 

[Verne Carlson]

I signed up for this in September, but never got anything more than the forecasts, and zooming radar. Where did you go to get all this other data? Should I maybe re-subsribe to get an updated version?

All the features I mentioned came with the package I downloaded so they must have added some features since you tried it. It's amazing that you can get all this on a small handset. btw I have Cingular with a Motorola V551 handset.

 

[Jeff Whitworth]

I could really use radar data in the field, so I might subscribe. Does anyone know how this affects your bill from Cingular? Right now I have the national 450-minute rollover plan with no special data service subscription. I don't think downloading data costs you any of your plan minutes (but correct me if I'm wrong). Also, I think I heard that data costs a penny per KB, but I don't know what that translates to in terms of cost per radar image.

 

[Verne Carlson]

I could really use radar data in the field, so I might subscribe. Does anyone know how this affects your bill from Cingular? Right now I have the national 450-minute rollover plan with no special data service subscription. I don't think downloading data costs you any of your plan minutes (but correct me if I'm wrong). Also, I think I heard that data costs a penny per KB, but I don't know what that translates to in terms of cost per radar image.

If you subscribe to the Media Plus package you get unlimited downloads so that's:
Media Plus: $19.95/mo
My-Cast: $3.95/mo
-------------------------
$23.90/mo

It doesn't go against your anytime minutes as far as I know.

 

[John Diel]

Jeff,

I think it's an extra 4 bucks per month on the Cingular bill. I looked into it, but decided against it (for now). As far as "real" data goes, I know Cingular has a couple of different plans, but require a yearly subscription and it can get rather expensive if you use one of the lower throughput plans and go over your allotment.

Since I stay pretty local, I don't really need it though it would be nice. The little radar appears to be similar to Barons (or maybe what you see on Intellecast?) and all I saw was a composite reflectivity. I doubt they have anything more than that.

 

[Skip Talbot]

As far as "real" data goes, I know Cingular has a couple of different plans, but require a yearly subscription and it can get rather expensive if you use one of the lower throughput plans and go over your allotment.

See my posts under the Which cell phone plan is the best in the FAQ/Newbies section. You can configure the Media Works package to get unlimited data to your laptop. At $20/month with no setup or cancellation fee its not a bad deal. This is a loophole though so I wouldnt go overboard with your downloads and I know there are compatibility issues with some phones (you need a USB data cable or bluetooth).

 

[David Schuttler]

Why not use the WAP browser and skip the $3.95?

 

[Verne Carlson]

Thanks David for showing me the WAP access. I think the two access methods could be complimentary. I like all seeing all the NWS products that we know and love from the WAP access but I like the looping radar/satellite from the My-Cast service. Both are great! I'm torn now.

 

[rdale]

Pilot MyCast is VERY much worth the money... Raw METARs, plotted conditions, lightning strikes, hi-res (and updated) radar & VIS/IR sat, and more for $9.95/month. Verizon doesn't charge any other data fees, just airtime minutes.

- Rob

 

[Verne Carlson]

Yeah I may upgrade to the Pilot My-cast, I spend $9.95 on a quarter tank of gas! Here's the link to what's available for free from the NWS, you can give the HTML link a 'test drive' on your regular browser to get a feel for what's there before investing in a WAP enabled phone:

http://www.srh.noaa.gov/cte.htm

 

[Josh Durkee]

Here are some WX WAP sites I've come across for free.

If you're with Verizon, you can set your phone up to get this stuff for free instead of paying the $4.99 a month, it only costs airtime minutes. Hopefully we can get the NWS to set up a zoom on their radar, sorta like the mapquest WAP site has theirs setup :wink:

I believe the my-cast stuff on VZW GIN is $2.99/mo for basic.

 

[Justin Turcotte]

My first post. Hello all. I have a Verizon phone with the Get-It-Now enable service. I was able to use a free trial version of the My-Cast services on the phone. I liked the Pilot My-Cast best as it offered fairly high-res NEXRAD which was zoomable to the county level. It also offered good looking 1km VIS and IR as well as surface and text data. Navigating radars and other data was easily accomplished but you must know the station identifiers to center the radar. The data rendered very quickly. The radar loop loaded faster than a loop off an NWS site on my home PC. Verizon's coverage is great for this in the northern plains but lackluster further south. When I activate the service in the spring I'll post some images on my site. Not as ideal as XM but in my price range for the time being.

More info on My-Cast:
http://www.my-cast.com/

 

[Mike Johnson]

Do I understand that you can receive NWS products via WAP
on a Mot. V551 phone? I have one of those and Cingular
service, but I was unaware of this service. Can you access
SPC outlooks, mesoscales, local discussions, etc? Do you go directly to their browser sites (http....) or do you need a special WAP third party to
access those pages as text for the phone? It's my understanding that normal html pages will not work?

Sorry if the answers were posted before. I'll go back and check
the old posts later.

Mike