14 DAY TRIAL // Retrieving details about the weather may not seem like an important activity, yet we all check the conditions almost on a daily basis. YoWindow assumes the role of the weather man and retrieves meteorological information, relaying it in a very nifty and attractive form: animated landscape which can also be set as the default screensaver in Windows.
Although the number of program you can use to get the weather forecast is definitely a hefty one, almost all of them being free of charge. Despite all competition and the freebies it competes against, you can enjoy the full functionality of YoWindow for $9.99.
If this kind of money is too much for you there is always the limited edition of the application, which cuts down a few features, but manages to be way above average. The restrictions imposed prevent you from viewing the forecast is for more than 3 days. Also, weather updates are not automatic; you will have to refresh manually for the latest info.
Installing the application is a simple job, but if you do not want your homepage changed and a toolbar pushed onto your system you may want to pay attention to the process.
Before realizing why the application is worth the measly $9.99 for the fully functional version you have to set a location for which the details should be retrieved. Unfortunately there is no automatic geo-location implementation yet, so you have to input the details yourself.
Another mild disadvantage is the fact that the names of some cities are not displayed in their original name. Also, we noticed that there are doubles as far as the cities are concerned.
Once loaded and all the basic settings in place you will see that weather information is not presented in the same dull way as most similar apps do, but in a landscape reflecting the conditions. The default image is that of a village. The meteorological elements will be present in the landscape, so you will see some changes in the imagery as night falls, if it rains or if it is cloudy.
Thus you won’t have the same image displayed regardless of the elements affecting your input location. And for even broader diversity the developer makes available more than this landscape. Your options extend to two more choices, Seaside and the newly added Airport, but if you search the application’s forum you will find plenty of examples to load up. You can also create your own landscape with a bit of image editing.
The newest landscape addition in YoWindow is a tad more special than the other choices since the elements composing it are constantly moving. Planes land and take off, airport cars move on the landing strip, and, most importantly, the name of the city you retrieve weather details for is shown on the terminal building.
City lights are also an important detail. The developer actually spent time to render the night city life as close to reality as possible. As such, you will notice lights turning on gradually in the buildings, some of them going off and then on again as the inhabitants wake up at night and then go back to sleep. Airport personnel may pull an all-nighter at times, so some office light will stay on until morning.
Unlike other software that limits weather forecast generally to five days, in YoWindow you’ll be able to see the activity of the elements on a 9-day stretch. Of course, the details for the last days of the forecast are more prone to changes. But even so, you have a hint at how the weather is going to be.
For a detailed look at a day’s weather shenanigans the application puts at your disposal a timeline in the top right hand part of the screen. You can navigate back and forth through the hours of the day and check the atmospheric conditions in the morning or late at night. You can also use the keyboard for this activity, by using the arrows alone or in combination with Ctrl modifier.
Besides the temperature and weather condition, YoWindow also provides you details about the speed of the wind, pressure, humidity level, dew point, UV index or visibility. These can all be pinned in the top right widget-like screen in the application window.
YoWindow is definitely different than the rest of apps getting you information about the weather. Apart from the cool looks sporting animation, it also lets you add a different information source for each location you add. Also, the landscape can successfully act as a screensaver for your Windows machine. Thus, whenever it is idle it can show useful details in beautiful scenery.
The forecast is for 9 days and you can navigate through the timeline to get details for specific hours of the day. You can add any picture you want as a landscape and it will be animated according to the weather conditions. The newly added Airport landscape contains details specific to both airport and city night activity. The information when hovering the mouse over the system tray icon window would rarely show up and the icon itself would be invisible during our evaluation. Also, automatic detection of the geographical position of the user when first launching the program would be a nice feature. Weather details are accurate by default, but you can also set your own sources for each input location. Set at $9.99 the price is worth paying even if there is a limited, free edition of the application.
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