Weather Unwired

Here's one for the Boy Scouts: Air2Web, a developer of many wireless data applications targeted at business travelers and field employees on the go, has created a new service linking wireless users to The Weather Channel's content, specifically its continuously updated radar images for more than 80,000 locations worldwide.

Now you have no excuse to be unprepared. Want to take a client to the ball game on a moment's notice to save the sale? Better check the radar first for the creeping green image that surely means rain is imminent. Otherwise you and the client will be all wet--and probably the sale, too.

Currently, Air2Web's Weather Channel Wireless Doppler radar service, which was announced late last year, is available only through Sprint PCS on the carrier's Java-enabled PCS Vision phones connected to its 1XRTT network. Users subscribing to the service can get a radar image with adjustable screen zoom by submitting a city name or ZIP code, the same way visitors to The Weather Channel Web site access localized information.

Though the service is available from only one carrier so far, it's anticipated that such a common-interest application will become increasingly popular as more carriers hunt for new applications to create revenue from their expensive 2.5G and 3G network upgrades.

The only problem with this app: Once we all know the weather forecast, we'll have one less thing to talk about.

For a related story, read our February 2002 feature, How a Little Software Company in Seattle is Mobilizing E-mail for Everybody (One Person at a Time).