Even though we have almost constant access to the internet and to television news, both local and international, sometimes keeping up on whether to expect snow, rain, wind, or sunshine tomorrow is a difficult task - at least, it can be for me. I am almost embarrassed to admit that I've awakened some mornings to the surprise of a fresh new six inches of snow in the driveway and blanketing my front walkway. If only I had paid attention to the weather and made sure I set the alarm an hour earlier I wouldn't be late for work. Sigh.

It doesn't have to be this way for me and for you, if you are one of those folks who is weather-forecast-awareness-challenged. Although there are numerous weather apps for the Windows Mobile Treo, I'd like to give you the scoop on a free one that also happens to be open source if any of you out there are savvy enough to tweak or customize the app to your further liking. Pocket Forecast v1.2.1, developed by Don Graham and available at www.freewareppc.com, is a handy little weather app that doesn't require much memory space on your Treo (237KB), and did I mention it's free?

Pocket Forecast supports multiple locations (up to five), multiple languages, both QVGA and VGA displays, both cached and user defined updates, customized theme, and as I mentioned before, is open source in BasicPPC. The app uses Yahoo/Weather.com RSS feed and integrates with S2U as a custom weather setting. It also supports further integration with AppToDate and Levenum's Today Screen plug-in. It appears that the developer is very active in updating this app given that the last few updates were on Dec. 20, 21 and 24.

I never tire of mentioning how thankful I am for developers like Don Graham who will use their knowledge and time to bring helpful apps like this to the rest of the WM community. We at Treo Central tip our collective hats to you, Don! For those of you who are looking for a way to stay informed about the weather so you know whether or not to break out the snow shovel, give Pocket Forecast a try.

If you are a developer with some helpful and/or fun software or if you have a tip or how-to that you wish to pass on to the rest of the community, just email me at: [email protected]. Thanks!

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