Weather Apps

[mikepr]

One thing I've been curious about the Xoom is the built-in barometer. I have an interest in weather and I've been trying to think of a use for the barometer on this thing. I know it's there to make GPS initialization faster. I'm sure it can be used as an altimeter, but with the GPS that's a bit redundant. I don't think it can be used as a normal barometer for forecasting the weather since it's a mobile device and you might be going up and down hills that will change the pressure too; Does anyone have any thoughts of other uses for the barometer?

 

[Auzo]

I know it's there to make GPS initialization faster.

How do you figure it will speed up getting a gps fix?

I don't think it can be used as a normal barometer for forecasting the weather since it's a mobile device and you might be going up and down hills that will change the pressure too

Well the GPS can get you a pretty accurate altitude which can be used to compensate for differences in pressures. So I believe that it should be able to act as a normal barometer.

But besides that I don't really know what else it could be used for. I guess its up to the imagination of developers to come up with some good uses.

 

[mikepr]

How do you figure it will speed up getting a gps fix?

I've heard that knowing the altitude from the barometer would help the GPS Sync just a bit faster. I don't know how true that is