Something is not right with Smartphone Link Advanced
Weather. At least I hope it is a technical problem. If this is how it is intended
to work, then I've been duped into thinking Garmin got the Smartphone Link
strategy right. If this is "how it works" I was clearly wrong.
Advanced Weather is a premium annual subscription option in Smartphone Link.
Here is what Garmin says about it:
So far, the animated radar images have worked fine - as have the current conditions and the forecasts. Today's problem is with the severe weather alerts feature. Today we had our first instance of severe weather in my area. As I am driving on a route, my Nuvi alerted me. Cool, a weather alert! Look at the black weather warning icon below:
A few minutes later while at a red light, I clicked on the black weather alert cloud. I looked forward to reading about this weather alert. Here is what I got:
Yes, Smartphone Link was connected fine. Yes, my phone had a
data connection. Yes, other Smartphone Link services were working. That isn't
the problem.
A few minutes later, driving on the route, I received
another severe weather alert. This time the black cloud icon changed. Notice
the '2' underneath the cloud symbol. That must mean there are now 2 severe
weather alerts.
That is better! Now I see that I have been notified of 2 winter storm warnings. Great. Let's find out more. I clicked on each of the yellow banner icons:
I got nothing. Again. Over the course of the day, the cloud icon built up to 5 alerts in quantity with 5 identical winter storm warning boxes with 5 blank black screens when you clicked them. Clearly there is no useful purpose in how this feature is currently implemented, assuming of course this isn't a technical problem.
Three explanations that I can think of:
- The feature is half-baked and what I expect to happen above isn't done yet. In this scenario marketing had to get Smartphone Link out by CES and engineering wasn't ready. In that case, the fact that they are charging a subscription fee for the above is just bad business.
- The feature is fully implemented but isn't working correctly. In this case, some things clearly haven't changed at Garmin.
- The feature
is fully implemented and this experience represents what Garmin had intended
the feature to do. If that is the case then run people. Run as far as you can
from these subscription services in Smartphone Link because they are an utter
waste of your hard earned money.
This feature is significantly lacking in substance.
- Why show me multiple, identical "Winter Storm Warning" icons if you aren't going to tell me the details of the multiple winter storm warnings? What good does knowing there are multiples of them do me?
- What
possible good do these warning provide me when you don't tell me anything about
their location? Are they near my current location, along my route or near my
destination? What time did they start? What time do they end? What is the
nature of the weather event I'll experience during the time span of the alert?
Think about it Garmin. I HAVE a smartphone, or I wouldn't be
using Smartphone Link. I HAVE free weather programs available from multiple
vendors. I can access weather information with my voice on my smartphone with
SpeaktoIt, Nuance Dragon Go, Vlingo and others. I don't NEED one more weather
app. What I NEED is Garmin to leverage that weather content against my current
location and planned route and present it to me in an innovative way that only can be done on a PND. The above, if that is truly it, fails badly at this.
