Weather for wireless PDA

Don't hold your breath. Garmin was VERY non-committal regarding WxWorx for
the 430/530, despite its selection for the Gucci G1000. The reason? I was
told it was due to the existing contractual relationship with EchoFlight. I
told them the "customer is always right", and this customer does not want an
unreliable, strategic-only view, "request-reply" system. They said "too bad"
in so many words. I asked them how nice it was to spend all that development
money on a product customers don't want because of lack of perceived
value... No response!!! Surprise!!!

I suspect Garmin will eventually come out with some form of interface for
the 530 when EchoFlight goes belly up, and all the GDL-49 suckers get ****ed
at spending almost $10K for the hardware and installation...

For now, I was told Garmin's sole efforts on the 430/530 was the promised
upgrade to meet the TSO 146 WAAS spec. This is something Garmin promised
from day one of the 530 (WAAS "upgradeable"), but they still haven't worked
out the hardware mods.

Rumor on the street is it will take Garmin at least another year to work out
the WAAS upgrades. Only then will they devote any resources to "fixing" the
weather issue with the 530, and only if the newly acquired UPSAT CNX80 does
not outsell it...

For now, I am going with a PDA option on WxWorx. It is here, it is now, it
is the right price, and it performs, in addition, I don't see XM going out
of business anytime soon, and WxWorx seems to have their **** together.
COMANT is even coming out with a dual VHF/XM antenna mast (very nice!)

I gave up on the CBAV solution when I couldn't get NexRAD when I really
needed it... It ALWAYS worked when I NEVER needed it!!!


"Viperdoc" wrote in message
news
Will the Tungsten W pick up the CBAV and display the weather radar in
color?

I already use satellite radio in the plane, which is unbelievable for the
quality of sound. However, I don't want to go to WXWorx yet, since it
makes
a rat nest of cables, etc. I would rather wait and see an interface with a
panel mount like the Garmin 530.

In the meantime, I was hoping for something easier that I could use at
work
for email and imaging like the Palm or Blackberry.