4cast

It is the beginning of winter here in Israel and it is in erratic times like these - when one moment the sky is clear and the sun is shining and in the other the rain is pouring and a chilly wind hits you in the face - that I heavily rely on the weather forecasts. Up till now I used to be switching on my computer to browse the national weather service website, or wait for the radio broadcast - both methods not too effective given the little time I have in the mornings for that crucial "what should I wear today" decision (well I AM a girl you know. .. ;-).

But not any more. Not since I have the excellent 4cast application installed on my Treo.

As its name obviously suggests, 4cast is a weather forecast application. Basically it taps into Yahoo's weather service and gets a very detailed 5 days forecast for the city or cities of your choice, which is than presented in a crisp eye-pleasing graphical way. Not only do you get the basic info about current, and low/high temperature and weather condition - you also get some stats about the Wind, Humidity, Visibility, Barometric pressures and even the times of the Sunrise and Sunset for that day.

And if that's not enough for the weather-savvy freak - 4cast also offers a nifty option to download and display colourful weather satellite pictures for your intellectual pleasure.

Though 4cast is a stand-alone application, one of its greatest features in my opinion is the ability to use it in a Plug-in mode with either Zlauncher or the highly recommended 2day application (the latter written by the same excellent programmer - Shimon Shnitzer who's also responsible for some other quality Palm software like 2dial). That way you get your daily dose of weather alongside your other tasks and meetings for the day. Add to that 4cast's ability to auto-refresh on user-chosen interval, such as daily at 6 AM, why this is a REALLY convenient way of staying up-to-date on what's going on outside.

As it relies on Internet connection to mine its data - 4cast is especially useful for online devices such as the Treo, though of course any other online method (like wifi or bluetooth+phone) should do.

Bottom line: Absolutely fabulous.

Maya Rozenshein, Associate Writer (Israel)