I guess I need a reasonable definition of "right around the corner," especially as it relates to reasonably comprehensive coverage.
Last I heard was that we were supposed to have ConUS ADS-B coverage by 2012. I'll add "Maybe," because as you note, it is a government program! But it's a pretty high-profile one that a lot of people want to get done, which should help.
WxWorx has a robust and well-crafted XM receiver that is USB standard compliant. What is the problem with using that with an iPad?
USB? Well, you'd have to drop another $100 on the "Camera Connection Kit" to get a USB port.
Bluetooth is a possiblity. I'm not sure what profile the WxWorx box uses nor whether the iPad supports that profile (or profiles) - But the iPad does support bluetooth GPS these days, so there is hope.
But, it's not as simple as "insert tab a into slot b." Even if they do hook up, all you have is a stream of useless data until you rewrite your app to decode and display that data. To do all that on top of a separate map and have it all be infinitely zoomable is, to make the understatement of the year, non-trivial.
Note, of course, that I do not speak for ForeFlight. I'm just a lowly beta tester. And I'm under NDA, so I can't give you any juicy details even in the rare case that I do know them. For all I know, they'll announce WxWorx support tomorrow.
I don't think Apple is doing anything that would prevent use of the WxWorx box unless it uses an unsupported Bluetooth profile... And I have no idea what it uses.
Fit nicely on a yoke mount...
Touché!
With the particular RAM mount setup that I have, it fits nicely in the Diamond, though only in a couple of very specific spots (and I'm not mounting it on the stick). I need another screw kit to mount the second ball on the cradle, so I haven't done a good yoke mount on it yet, but it certainly will require some creativity.
Also, anticipate a substantial value-add for for the XMWX, as FIS-B comes on-line; the ADS-B will never duplicate the utility or quality of the WX provided by XM, not to mention the additional services.
Can you expand on that? What makes you think the utility and quality of weather services from ADS-B will be worse than XM? And what "additional services" are you speaking of?
The worst thing though was the glare, which was terrible compared to the Garmin
IMO, the glare is a problem right up until you actually turn the iPad on. Then, you don't notice it any more, since your eyes are focusing on the data on the screen instead of on whatever's being reflected on the blank screen.
Everything except the weather that a 496 does.
So... Like what? Sure, ForeFlight doesn't have a panel page, a terrain page, and it doesn't connect to a portable traffic device/GTX330 or Garmin radios.
OTOH, the georef taxi diagrams give you the equivalent to SafeTaxi, you've got the same AOPA airport directory info (plus data from a few other sources that you don't have on the Garmin), you've got georef plates, you've got your position on actual charts instead of a unit-generated map...
No hate on Garmin, I love their stuff - And I think an Aera 510 or 560 plus an iPad with ForeFlight makes a great, usable, fairly redundant system that's easy even for renters to get something out of. But, the iPad is way more important to me than the Garmin - I rented a 496 for 6 months a couple of summers ago and it was great, now I own the iPad and I know if given a choice of one or the other, I'll go with the iPad.
Now, of course, I *am* spoiled these days because I'm flying a bird with G1000 that has the XM weather datalink on it, so I get the best of both worlds.
Maybe I've been lucky so far, but I've really only *needed* to use the XM weather once, and it pretty much just verified what I was seeing out the window. (Turn left, maintain VFR, air-file, turn back right, fly home.)