Meteorologists UNITE! *OFFICIAL* Forecast Channel thread! OUT NOW!!!

[quote name='gizmogc']Its just...weather. Not all that exciting.[/quote]True, but I have nothing to do and what does it take to check every 30 mins? Besides I will up playing Warcraft tonight so since my laptop is right next to my tv, it wont hurt.
 
you know you've got a rabid fanbase when people are staying up to see when they can check the weather on your system.. lol.
 
[quote name='gizmogc']Its just...weather. Not all that exciting.[/quote]

It's kinda exciting if you'll get a lot of use out of it, which I expect to. I think it'll be neat.
 
The Forecast Channel is now active. I just downloaded the update. It was odd though because after downloading the update, the message only said something about parental controls being available.
 
It's up and running! Going through the setup now...

EDIT: Very quick setup, and the main menu basically looks like the graphics that local news stations use for the weather. However, it doesn't work in such a way that displays your current weather on the main Wii Menu, it just says "Forecast Channel" and "Weathernews" alternately. However, once you select the icon for the Forecast Channel, it takes you to a title card like with "Wii Menu" and "Start", and on said title card it displays your location's weather. So no, there is no loading time between selecting the Forecast Channel and seeing your own weather.

The globe is pretty cool, but it won't be fun for me until they add the news. For now it consists of me spinning the globe fast, grabbing a spot and going "There's a thunderstorm in Sri-Lanka. Huh." and getting bored.
 
Awesome. Thanks for the heads up. Updating now.

Better get it over with now before the rest of the world wakes up.

327035852_db761036fd_m.jpg


Update: Wow. This thing is so cool. Simple and informative. Unfortunately, the weather does not show up on the main Wii Menu screen (at least not until you select the channel - the title screen). But other than that, accessing the channel itself is very fast and simple.

...and as I suspected: Spinning the globe is pretty much a game itself. Fun. Haha...

Also: Everyone go to Singapore. It's like you're there (almost).
 
WTF? I thought Dec 20th. It's only, like just barely the 19th. Well, cool, anyway, I'm off to update. I *almost* did it on a whim a short while ago, too, wierd (and I haven't in weeks).
 
Oh damn!

updating too! It's 5:15am here..hopefully this is a good time to do so..before everyone tries and makes the system crash!!
 
As hack and supershammy say, this thing is kinda cool. Spinning the globe around is like a really reduced version of playing with Mario's face.

Also, the music in all of this is unbelievably soothing. I could see myself loading this up just to listen to it in the background. It's even more so than the normal Wii menus.

For example, when you are checking extended forecasts and so on, if the graphic shows a thunderstorm, you get to hear rain. Which means it is essentially like one of those relaxing sounds things. And I can totally see myself doing that once in a great while (and would suggest it to others as well, I have no idea why they work, but they do).

Dunno how well this things updates in real time as you are using it - i.e., do I have to exit the channel to get updates, and even then are they instantaneous? But this is a fun little channel, I'm going to go play with it some more.

Thanks shammy! :D

Edit: November 19 at about 4 AM Central time is when it went live. /will add to his FAQ

Edit 2: Yea. The more I think about the music, the more I think it would be perfectly suited for the Wii version of Animal Crossing. It has this nice "looking at stars" feel to it, at least with the globe music. Kinda like Katamari Damacy, actually. Very soothing.
 
NICE, downloading it! Looking forward to this...it'll be a nice, fun, easy way to check the weather without tuning into the television Weather Channel during the constant commercials or having to sit at the computer desk. Same reason I cannot wait to get the Opera browser, and the News Channel to a lesser extent.
 
[quote name='Strell']Dunno how well this things updates in real time as you are using it - i.e., do I have to exit the channel to get updates, and even then are they instantaneous?[/quote]

You know, it seems like the Wii is caching the weather information via WiiConnect24, and then the Forecast Channel simple pulls up the last cached piece of information and uses it to render the information/globe. It doesn't seem to be constantly connecting or updating during use of the channel, and there is a 'last updated' time stamp in various areas around the channel.

Also, as I sit here with the channel on, it has connected to the net a few times. I assume that WiiConnect24 checks for updates as usual, but I'm unsure if weather updates will render immediately or will require a restart of the channel. Guess the only way to find out is to keep the channel on for a while. I wonder how often weathernews updates their information?

[quote name='Strell']Edit 2: Yea. The more I think about the music, the more I think it would be perfectly suited for the Wii version of Animal Crossing. It has this nice "looking at stars" feel to it, at least with the globe music. Kinda like Katamari Damacy, actually. Very soothing.[/quote]

I was thinking that it would be the kind of music we'd hear in a town area of a Zelda game. But you are right, its very nice, soothing music. Although I still love the Shop Channel's music more.
 
Awesome, Globementum for the win!

I love the way it spins for a bit after you flick it. Plus you can change the perspective so you are looking towards the horizon - you can really see the simulated atmosphere this way - nice touch.

Sorry, but this stuff is right up my line of work ;). I could provide a much better image than they are using, but it isn't too bad. In future updates I'd like to see some terrain modeling - elevation data and the like. And of course, there is no higher res data when you zoom in. That would be nice but would probably have to be stored locally on your sytem (don't want to pull this down over wifi too much - I'm sure they are trying to keep this fairly simple). This could be a real learning tool for the kiddies.

Plus I just found out, according to this, that it is supposed to snow in Portland on Wednesday! It hasn't snowed here in nearly 3 years (at least nothing substantial - we had a bit in the middle of the night last week).

Awesome - my wife and kids will be in for a surprise when they get up!
 
[quote name='io']Awesome, Globementum for the win!
[/QUOTE]

That is one of the most awesome words I have ever seen and heard with these immortal eyes and ears. I am going to use it in everyday speech to describe all manner of things. Things that might get a post deleted if I were to inflect upon them further.
 
[quote name='hack']
Also, as I sit here with the channel on, it has connected to the net a few times. I assume that WiiConnect24 checks for updates as usual, but I'm unsure if weather updates will render immediately or will require a restart of the channel. Guess the only way to find out is to keep the channel on for a while. I wonder how often weathernews updates their information?

.[/QUOTE]


Don't know how often it updates - but the fact that the weather isn't entirely up to date is more a function of the various weather services than anything else. They aren't usually updated in real time anyway - THEN it has to be pulled down to your Wii, and THEN rendered at whatever time they choose to do that.

But, for example, look at OR right now. It is showing Portland weather for 11pm (it is nearly 3am now). But go a little to the east - it is showing Bend (I think - or maybe some other Eastern OR town) as being sunny! The data there is from noon yesterday. Obviously that is not left over in my cache as I just started the thing. Whoever is controlling the data has not updated it on whatever server this thing gets it from.
 
Jeeze, after like 20-25 minutes of waiting to update it finally finished. This thing is pretttty damn cool. It has the attention span of maybe a few days and I'll stop caring.. but overall it's pretty neat :)

I thought I had saw pictures before of the Wii Channels, and the slot for the Forecast channel had the current temperature and the low for that day?? Am I crazy??

Ahh, now I can't wait for the News and Opera browser to be up then my Wii will FINALLY feel complete :)
 
[quote name='Strell']That is one of the most awesome words I have ever seen and heard with these immortal eyes and ears. I am going to use it in everyday speech to describe all manner of things. Things that might get a post deleted if I were to inflect upon them further.[/QUOTE]

And here I thought you'd have fun with my subsequent line: "I love the way it spins for a bit after you flick it". I never can tell with you, Strell ;).
 
Needs more cities, but it works well for what it is. I love the starmap that you see when zoomed out all the way.

I see my trip home on Friday may meet with some showers (rain and/or snow). :whistle2:(
 
Needs more cities, but it works well for what it is. I love the starmap that you see when zoomed out all the way.

I see my trip home on Friday
 
Nice--forgot about this until the I noticed the blue light as I was heading off to bed. It's pretty cool stuff, for something that's so extraneous (at least right now)...
 
[quote name='io']And here I thought you'd have fun with my subsequent line: "I love the way it spins for a bit after you flick it". I never can tell with you, Strell ;).[/QUOTE]

Yes. I am an enigma burrito.
 
Well I will agree that it should be updated a bit more...

It tells me 43 degrees. But it also tells me "as of 1:00am 12/19/06".It's 5:50am right now.

It's probably the SAME.. but still.
 
[quote name='io']Don't know how often it updates - but the fact that the weather isn't entirely up to date is more a function of the various weather services than anything else. They aren't usually updated in real time anyway - THEN it has to be pulled down to your Wii, and THEN rendered at whatever time they choose to do that.

But, for example, look at OR right now. It is showing Portland weather for 11pm (it is nearly 3am now). But go a little to the east - it is showing Bend (I think - or maybe some other Eastern OR town) as being sunny! The data there is from noon yesterday. Obviously that is not left over in my cache as I just started the thing. Whoever is controlling the data has not updated it on whatever server this thing gets it from.[/quote]

Blame weathernews! Haha...

I'm still guessing that the weather information is cached. That means that if weathernews doesn't have the latest information, neither will the Wii. Odd system... thank you weathernews.

My local information is current as of 8 PM. Its 1 AM now. Hah.

While it'd be extra nice to have up-to-the-minute weather updates, I suppose that weather information does not have to be very current at all. After all, weather doesn't usually change too much from what technology usually forecasts. I'm sure my weather was relatively the same at 8 PM as it is now.

Also, I just realized that you don't actually have to select a location to hear a sound effect. Simply hovering over it on the globe will play the sound effect. Also, if you are zoomed far way, you'll barely hear the sound, and it'll get louder as you zoom in. Nintendo thinks of all these wonderful small touches.
 
I too enjoy the spinning globe.
I just recreated the scene from Superman where he turns the earth backwards to save Lois Lane.
"It is forbidden to interfere in the history of mankind!!!!"
 
Ok let's figure everything out. :)

I was just chillin around the world, and I went to Singapore, were sadly it's a THUNDERSTORM :(
When I clicked on it to check it out, it made a rumblin thunder sound :) I thought that was pretty cool.

ALSO.. I checked Tokyo Japan...and I went to "Today" and I clicked on the icon next to it for the 6 hour weather...the pic for their sun... is so weird.. ??? What is that about??
 
Nice to see so many late-night/early morning CAGgers (and yes i realize some people are not from the US)!

I didn't understand all the hoopla or excitement for a weather channel.

I just checked it out.

I am pleased. =P
 
[quote name='shaunLEGEND']Nice to see so many late-night/early morning CAGgers (and yes i realize some people are not from the US)!

I didn't understand all the hoopla or excitement for a weather channel.

I just checked it out.

I am pleased. =P[/QUOTE]

Haha, finally there's a benefit to my bizarre sleeping patterns - got a "preview" of the Weather Channel before the masses. I think most of us, 'cept Cheapy of course, are just night owls here in the U.S. (though perhaps a few of you on the East Coast are those freaks of nature known as "early risers" - a subspecies of human that I will never be able to understand or even communicate with).
 
[quote name='lilboo']ALSO.. I checked Tokyo Japan...and I went to "Today" and I clicked on the icon next to it for the 6 hour weather...the pic for their sun... is so weird.. ??? What is that about??[/quote]

Actually, I think that's a completely different weather forecast than the other sun. You are talking about the dark red-orange sun right? I think that meants really hot, or something to that effect.

[quote name='shaunLEGEND']Nice to see so many late-night/early morning CAGgers (and yes i realize some people are not from the US)! [/quote]

I was actually just about to head to sleep. I did what I usually do before I sleep: I check the news and some forums. Thankfully I saw that the Forecast Channel had been made available, and now I will never go to sleep.

So worth it. XD
 
[quote name='hack']Blame weathernews! Haha...

I'm still guessing that the weather information is cached. That means that if weathernews doesn't have the latest information, neither will the Wii. Odd system... thank you weathernews.

My local information is current as of 8 PM. Its 1 AM now. Hah.
[/QUOTE]

Well, of course this is something that can be fixed pretty easily on the server side so we can probably expect to see some improvements as the service matures. I don't know how often the Wii updates the weather info from the server - but considering that there really aren't that many cities, it really isn't THAT much data to get every 5 minutes or so. It is nothing compared to the continuous communication going on during most online games.

So the problem most likely lies with the "weathernews" service. THEY aren't getting the most up to date info. I went to weather.com and they had the data for my dinky town (as opposed to just the nearest Metro area like the Wii weather has) and it was only 10 minutes out of date. They need to get it down to at least hourly updates - that would be nice.

By the way, it is very cool that they have the South Pole on there - my daughter will be thrilled. It is sunny and 1 degree there ;).
 
Did anyone else just get the message on their message board from Nintendo saying the weather channel is up?

This is really cool if they do this for everything, not just telling us when the News channel is up as well as the Opera Browser.

It'd be really cool if they mailed us every monday letting us know what VC games arrived.
 
Well, downloaded it after I saw the topic heading here (had been ignoring my blue light! Forshame! ;) ). It's pretty cool, though a tad on the limited side. I'm assuming they'll flesh it out a bit sometime.

And Wii Ware? One order for Google Earth, please.
 
[quote name='io']Well, of course this is something that can be fixed pretty easily on the server side so we can probably expect to see some improvements as the service matures. I don't know how often the Wii updates the weather info from the server - but considering that there really aren't that many cities, it really isn't THAT much data to get every 5 minutes or so. It is nothing compared to the continuous communication going on during most online games.

So the problem most likely lies with the "weathernews" service. THEY aren't getting the most up to date info. I went to weather.com and they had the data for my dinky town (as opposed to just the nearest Metro area like the Wii weather has) and it was only 10 minutes out of date. They need to get it down to at least hourly updates - that would be nice.[/quote]

Right, it probably is more of an issue with weathernews. Still, I'm sure Nintendo knew that weathernews wasn't exactly keeping up-to-date, so why choose them? You've got lots of other weather services (Weather.com, all the major news outlets, etc.).

I've never gotten my weather repots from weathernews before, so I have no idea of their track record or habits. Maybe this is just how they work?

I do hope that its something that can be improved. Although I don't know if it'll be incentive enough for weathernews to improve their service/updates for a bunch of gamers.
 
=/ Hmm. My Wii is stuck at the "One moment, please..." screen when I click "Start" for the Weather Channel. Then it tells me I'm not connected to the internet...even though I just updated my system? GG. Anyone have any suggestions?

*EDIT*

Fixed it. Just refreshed the connection.
 
This thing's pretty awesome. Saw the thread and updated at 4am in the morning, LA time. Wouldn't it be super tight if this globe was paired with Google Earth ;D
 
I just updated and love the channel, but they HAVE to add more location options. Closest i can get is 45 miles to the south of me, so it isn't a very good indicator of the weather in my small town.

Was hoping it would just be, "Enter zip code" and get the forcast within 15 miles or so.

Still, I absolutely love the interface. It's very easy to navigate, and i must have spun the globe for 45 seconds just watching it spin.

God i love waking up to the blue light of goodies.
 
No blue light for me this morning, wonder why. Strange that they put it up a day early - apparently it was up at 3am in all areas, so Australia got theirs during the day yesterday.
 
[quote name='Ikohn4ever']blue light freaked me out this morning, thought it was broke or something, glad its just an update[/QUOTE]

Hmmmm. I didn't get the blue light, or the message from Nintendo about the update. Thankfully the CAG community was here to allow me to experience the joy that it globe spinning.

I have to say that I kinda like it. I'll be far more inclined to use this than to use weather.com or the like. I imagine that I'll use it more for world weather though than local - there's NY1 for that.
 
That was thrilling. Checked out the 5 day forecast and the lows for 3 days was 70. 70? So I went to my RSS feed and looked at the extended forecast (which is the most accurate weather forecast I've found) and the lows for those days were 65-66. May not seem it, but that's a lot better. And I was able to choose the actual city I live in (Wii), so that's not the reason for it being high.

And you have to have stand-by enabled to view it? B.S. I don't know why they don't give you an option to have Wi-Connect enabled whenever the ****ing machine is turned on. I don't wanna waste 8 watts 24/7 and have the Wii be hot just for the heck of it. I'll do it if there's ever a really compelling reason, but we're far from that stage at the moment.
 
[quote name='hack']Actually, I think that's a completely different weather forecast than the other sun. You are talking about the dark red-orange sun right? I think that meants really hot, or something to that effect.[/QUOTE]

No, I just checked around Japan, and that funky red sun is either a japanese thing or a vague warning to keep Superman away. Tokyo was 52 degrees, but you go just over to Shanghai, and it's 54 with a yellow sun. the only place I can see the red sun is in Japan. The really hot places (check South America) have the standard yellow.

Wait a sec... processing obscure high school knowledge... Maybe it has something to do with the red sun on their flag?


What I find really cool is the horizon tilt feature on the globe. There are some rotating arrows on the bottom toolbar. Click the left one and the globe keeps tilting down until you're looking forward onto a landscape. It even partially fades out the cities in the distance, and gives you the starfield in the background.
 
i told my coworker about the forecast channel and her response was, "why not just use ur computer, weather.com? or turn ur tv on and watch the weather channel?"

pedestrians...
 
[quote name='yukine']I like it, but why doesn't it show the forecast on the actual channel? I was hoping for that.[/quote]

Yeah, it doesn't show on the channel itself, but at least you don't have to fully load the channel to see your local data. Just one click on the channel itself will show you your current weather.
 
damn, everyone and their brother must be updating now, or this is a hella long update. I've been going for 23 minutes now, and it hasn't really moved past 1/4 of the way. I HATE how these updates are hit or miss when it comes to completing easily.

Anyone have suggestions for what to do with a stuck update? Don't wanna brick my Wii.

Edit: n/m. I just restarted my Wii, and the update took less than a minute.

Man, I have too much fun spinning the globe in the global weather part!
 
As I was walking out my door this morning I noted my Wii Glowing Blue. I figured it was an email but glad to see its this.

Bring on more Channels. Opera FTW!!
 
[quote name='lebowsky']Yeah, it doesn't show on the channel itself, but at least you don't have to fully load the channel to see your local data. Just one click on the channel itself will show you your current weather.[/quote]

Yup, if by current you mean what the temperature was last night at 8pm for me. Strell is fucking with the space time continuum again.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
bread's done
Back
Top