Omar Anderson, Gleaner Writer
THE GLEANER'S Go-Jamaica website has achieved another milestone!
Since last Wednesday, surfers to the website have been able to download weather updates on Hurricane Dennis, provided they have a mobile phone that is GPRS capable.
GPRS is the term for General Packet Radio Service, a wireless and moderate speed data transfer, usually at a rate of 115 kilobits per second (kbps).
"We are excited to be once more able to use cyberspace to serve concerned Jamaicans at home and abroad," said Marlene Davis, manager of Gleaner Online. "This is indeed another milestone for the Gleaner Company which readers trust to lead the way in newspaper innovation."
Joseph Curtis, Gleaner Online's application programmer, said his department had been always seeking to introduce this innovation to Jamaicans, especially after Hurricane Ivan last September.
ACCESS INFORMATION
"It was always in the pipeline to develop a facility of that nature to access information," he said.
According to him, mobile phones were the most workable apparatus following the hurricane, hence Gleaner Online decided to take advantage of the facility this time around.
"Now that the hurricane
season is upon us, to be able to get information to people, we went ahead in preparing a mobile website accessible with GPRS," Mr. Curtis explained.
Like any other website, persons can just type in the Uniform Resource Location (URL) http://www.go-jamaica. com/weather/mobile/ and they are good to go!
Information about a weather system's position, intensity, and a map, are downloaded once surfers have GPRS access.
