Worth Reading?
+7 [17 votes]
Loading ...Last month I was not so much scathing as bemused about Ambient Devices’ MarketMaven, a palm-sized wireless gizmo that showed stock movements (albeit time-delayed by 15 minutes); now they’re flaunting their new 7-Day Forecaster, which adds two extra days-worth of weather prediction to the existing 5-Day model.
Like all of the company’s devices, the 7-Day Forecaster uses the Ambient Infocast Network - a radio system that has coverage across the US - to funnel current conditions and extended multi-day forecast to the 6 x 6-inch display. In an act of clever concept borrowing from the Orb, the backlight of the Forecaster changes from blue (indicating cold weather) to red (suggesting a swimsuit); you can also see UV index, wind speed/direction, pollen and air quality alerts.
Personally, I think this makes far more sense than the clever-but-flawed MarketMaven. At-a-glance weather forecasts are something many people log on to the internet for, and so having them in a dedicated wireless box is likely to make far more people happy than knowing what your portfolio was doing quarter of an hour ago.
The 7-Day Forecaster will be available Q4 2007, with a MRSP of $199.99; there are no ongoing subscription costs.
Hey genius! The Maven updates every 15 mins. Have you ever checked the latency stats for Yahoo Finance, Bloomberg.com, or Google Finance? Pretty much all web-based stock trackers lag anywhere from 10 to 20 mins. Yahoo Finance on the iPhone is 20 mins, for example.
True real time stock trackers are dedicated terminals for traders and cost $$$$.
That’s sweet of you to say, but I’m really no cleverer than anyone else.
My issue with the Maven remains that, as you say, the latency is exactly the same on free sites like Yahoo Finance and the others you mention; only Ambient ask you to pay $125 for that same information (which you could pull up free on a cellphone, for instance).
If you really need a dedicated device that solely tracks share performance then surely that 15min delay is a big deal to you. If it’s fine for you, then great, I’m glad you’ve saved all those $$$$ - I just think it’s far more of a niche product than, say, the Forecaster range.
Wow that is wonderful! Plus it is just a one time fee!!!!
Great for campers and those that need to know in a flash without having to find a frequency on the radio or TRY to find a TV. or newspaper… ;-)