weather

When it comes to weather, apparently you can never have too much information.

BMW's ConnectedDrive is taking the weather forecast to the next level and is now providing its European drivers with high-resolution precipitation graphics that show them where the rain is relative to their current location and destination, as well as other locations in Europe. The display features two zoom settings and graphics that show the geographical distribution of rain, hail, or snow, which are updated every 15 minutes. And starting July, drivers will also be able to dial up cloud movements over the last 90 minutes. … Read more

Starting Friday, the largest tornado research project will touch down in Norman, Okla., this time with the participation of one Lenovo.

The company announced Thursday that it has partnered with the nonprofit Center for Severe Weather Research to power advanced levels in tornado and severe weather research. This is part of a $11.9 million nomadic project called Vortex2, during which CSWR will use more than 50 pieces of Think-branded PC equipment.

The equipment includes ThinkPad notebooks, ThinkCenter desktops, ThinkVision monitors, and IdeaPad S10 Netbooks. They will be used to help track and store radar data, guide vehicles in the … Read more

Viigo has certainly matured since its early days. While it now grabs weather, financial news, flight status, and sports scores in addition to your news and blog feeds, it's still, at its core, the fastest, most complete RSS reader for BlackBerry. To users' eternal benefit, Viigo makes finding, subscribing to, and adding your own newsfeeds extremely simple with a long list of presets, browsable categories, and a way to add favorite RSS URLs, even from aggregators.

The extra channels to track the weather, flights, and stocks are bonuses, and a testament to the extensibility of Viigo's original engine. … Read more

AccuWeather may be teaming up with Mercedes to develop a next-generation navigation system, according to a source within the Pennsylvania-based weather forecasting company.

More than delivering just weather temperatures and forecasts, the partnership will integrate real-time weather information into the navigation system to inform drivers of potentially dangerous driving weather.

When a driver programs a route, the navigation system will use weather overlays provided by AccuWeather to predict encounters with rain, snow, or extreme conditions. The information should help drivers be more prepared for bad weather and improve safety.

WeatherCal is a system preference pane that displays up-to-date weather conditions and forecasts in iCal, using data from the Weather Underground Web site.

Once installed, you just open WeatherCal in your system preferences, type in the city or ZIP code for as many areas as you'd like to follow, and then current conditions and multiday forecasts (updated hourly) will appear as all-day events in iCal, within individual calendars. You can also click on each event to see a link to the Weather Underground Web site for more information, and you can sync calendars with your iPhone or iPod Touch. … Read more

How dangerous is your commute? The answer may depend on the weather.

In addition to speed traps and red light cameras, Njection.com is now offering people the option to view the traffic accident history of a route based on past weather conditions using the Njection Mobile iPhone application.

Njection took five years of accident data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and merged it with global weather conditions from WeatherBug.com. Using Microsoft Virtual Earth, this mashup enables people to see what accidents have occurred in a particular area, and if they want, filter the data to show … Read more

Mozilla announced a variety of new skins for its Firefox Web browser Tuesday. Many of the skins are from well-known brands and fashion designers. According to the company, All American Rejects-, Lady Gaga-, and No Doubt-themed music skins are currently available. Those looking for fashion designs can have a BCBG Max Azria skin, while those who want to support Lance Armstrong and the fight against cancer can download the Livestrong skin. Many more free skins are available on Mozilla's new "Personas" page.

The Weather Channel has launched the second version of its iPhone app, the company announced … Read more

As the weather warms up, it's time to get a move on. Spring has sprung, the baseball season is about to get underway, and everywhere people are going to be spending more time outside. Those people are going to be hungry. Nothing beats spending a warm afternoon surrounded by fresh air and the sweet smell of grilled meats and vegetables. This year, plan on taking your grilling show on the road and really perk up your picnics.

The Picnic Time Vulcan Cooler With Grill can help you achieve your grilling mobility. In one convenient package, you can carry all … Read more

The weather over the past few days has been awful across the U.S. Just as I was thinking that spring had finally sprung, another six inches of snow fell and, once again, I was forced to head outside and start shoveling.

Only this time, I didn't even know the storm was coming. I hadn't visited my typical weather destinations on the Web and I hadn't checked out my mobile apps. It was, for the lack of a better term, a perfect storm. So when I woke up yesterday morning and saw just how much snow had … Read more