Weather Center

What if the barometer was used not to provide personalized weather predictions, but to provide data to a crowdsourced weather network for the common good of commuters/travelers/pedestrians everywhere? Imagine having a server interpret thousands of pressure readings in a small radius to give you very specific, very precise weather forecasts.

I'd like to imagine that such an idea would work best in a moderate-to-dense population area where there was a pretty constant and solid mesh net of barometric readings. How many phones would be required in a given area to accomplish this? According to the NY Times, the most prominent weather app that employs crowdsourced data is Weather Underground. They currently pull from 20,000 stations across the country. With a barometer in every phone? They could be pulling from 20,000 barometric sensors in a single neighborhood or city.

There's also an app in the Android Marketplace called pressureNet, which currently logs barometric data from Motorola Xooms (which also have the sensor) and plots the info on a map. Once they have more users and more data, they promise to use the data to provide weather insights. But given that the app is all of 10 days old, its usefulness remains to be seen.

There are privacy concerns at play here—when aren't there? Such an app would have to collect your location along with the barometric data for it to matter at all. And in all likelihood, Google would have access to this data, which rightfully worries some.

But for others, location is exactly why a barometer will be most welcome.

Navigation 2.0

The other popular use for barometers? Navigation. GPS is great when you have a clear shot of the sky, but when weather is bad, or you're in the city of a cramped metropolis, things get a bit dicey. That's why accelerometers, wi-fi chips and, yes, the barometer, have become increasingly useful in navigation, able to help assist the GPS in determining location.

The barometer uses its atmospheric pressure readings to determine your altitude and more accurately determine how quickly you're moving through an area. Considering that smartphones have all but made the standalone GPS navigation device obsolete—and that Android houses one of the better navigation apps around—it would make sense that Google would want to put time and effort into making that technology even better.

Outdoorsy-type apps could become more useful to hikers and adventurers for whom topography matters.

Every once in a while we see a barometer listed among the specs of an Android device, right next to the accelerometer, gyroscope and other sensors. We saw it in the Motorola XOOM and now we are seeing it included among the components that make up the Samsung Galaxy S II. What has never been quite clear has been the exact purpose of such a sensor. It’s a bit naive to think a barometer crammed inside a cell phone has the power to divine the weather, even if that is among the first conclusions most reach when trying to peg the usefulness of including one. This is not the case, as Google’s Dan Morrill pointed out in a recent blog post.
The actual reason for the barometer’s presence is tied directly into GPS. For GPS to function it must first locate a person in three-dimensional space. To make this process quicker, aGPS helps to identify two of those coordinates (latitude and longitude) quickly, the third (height) is where a barometer comes into play. By getting a read on estimated atmospheric pressure, the Galaxy Nexus is able to make a quick determination about how far the phone is from sea level. Knowing the general location of the handset thanks to aGPS and the barometer, it becomes easier to get an accurate GPS lock. It is worth noting that Morrill states that the Galaxy Nexus’ barometer  isn’t quite powerful enough to make any meaningful predictions about the weather.

Yep..of course they will produce more device and that's why 60% of samsung profit came from Malaysia..

What does it mean "Brighter IPS LCD2 screen with a full set of subpixels"?

GSMArena's comparison:
Samsung I9300 Galaxy S III vs. HTC One X: Alien vs. Predator

Quite a lousy comparison for some areas if you ask me
I LOL the moment I see Beats Audio as an advantage for One X over SIII

amazing...wonder how does it look like when go running with this in an armband    looks big

Yeah, looks like the energy-efficient Exynos and extra battery capacity really play a big part here.  Especially during video playback

i like how the writer finish his conclusion
if only more people here can think like that

if u have too many free apps with ads, everytime u play/run the apps,it will download data from net for that ads.

also i found android has background running data automatically such as update refresh interval feature.

Also for email and facebook or any social apps,try to set the refresh time rate higher.

for me 1gb not enough. just monitor ur network usage using 3rd party apps available,then only u can know

belum

if i do sure u can see my pre-order thread

waiting for the RRP confirmation and date reaching out store.

Btw... Anywher to see info comparison on all available roms?

Or recommendation?

By the way, anyone using Celcom? Wanna know how their cellular data speed perform

as photo stated 16G=20900, 32G=22900 available June and July respectively


purchase before end of june get free battery


pre-order get early bird freebies of 16gb microsd + flip case


16G starting NT4990 with telco plan

*above all stated price in Taiwan only

*early bird gift valid for pre-order before 24 May

i guess maybe its 1U ?? or Mid valley CC.. what is the venue on S2 though ?

i see.. yea.. mostly surely maxis will be the 1.. but couldn't attend anyway.. come bak i straight rush buy.. mauahahaha...

exactly. i never buy into this telco/samsung partnership. it is only for people who have no plan. but for the rest of us i just want the damn phone f*** the plan. i hope samsung understand that there is a big market for buyers who just want the phone and only the phone (and its freebies of course).

Now, I have subscribing Celcom 50 minutes + data plan. I planned to stay with the plan but I want buy SGSIII. What are your suggestion?

really? they will customize a plan for me? i just want the phone (at retail price) and keep my original plan (i love my plan so much so please don't ask me to upgrade). they can work something to my liking?

that is really nice of celcom. i'll call now.

called them, tak mau layan me yet say that no info on sgs3 yet so cannot discuss yet. but she did mention the packaged offered can't be customized. i been a customer for 22 years and i still don't feel special.....

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Added on May 16, 2012, 10:56 am
my worry is that must wait. during launch they may not offer the "phone only and nothing else" package. so wait lah until the telco/phone deal sudah basi.

If we were to sign contract with a telco company, will they cut it to micro for us?