Heatwave is a Vista and Windows 7 Media Center application for displaying the current weather conditions and a four day forecast for any number of global locations.

The 32-bit version can be downloaded here.
The 64-bit version can be downloaded here.

VERSION 1.3

General:

• A widescreen layout is now included. If you don't like it, it can be disabled in Settings on the Appearance page.
• There is a day/night (sun/moon) forecast indication next to the location title. If you don't like it, it can be disabled in Settings on the Appearance page.
• The layout of the main page has been tightened up a bit (the data refresh times have been lost in this version, however will return in a later version).
• The various times will now be formatted according to the system time format.
• The temperature ranges are now presented in high-low order. You can flip them back to the way they were in Settings on the General page.
• Changed the formatting of temperature ranges to make negative temperatures more legible.
• New Start Menu icons for Windows 7 (might be too subtle for some people to notice...)
• The links at the bottom of the page now start with a weather.com link to give weather.com better credit for the data, and to offer some indication to users that they are web links.
• There is a new setting under Appearance that allows the Settings option to be removed from the start menu, potentially allowing another location to take it's place.

Installer:

• The "Show on Start Menu" and "Show in News+Sports" options are no longer selected by default.
• The "Show in News+Sports" does not appear in Windows 7
• A warning about needing to restart media center to see the changes to the start menu will now appear if either of the above options is selected.

Bug Fixes:

• Attempting to bring up the on-screen keyboard will result in an error due to no keyboard maps being included in the installer. Will be fixed with the next release (in a day or two once any other problems surface).
• There was a problem with the Windows 7 version check for some locales that prevented the application from starting ("spinning ring" issue).
• Removed the language options from the on-screen keyboard until more keyboard layouts and a better UI are available.

 

VERSION 1.2

General:

• Now compatible with Windows 7 RTM
  
• You can click OK on the remote, or press the enter key on the keyboard, to toggle day/night mode

 

VERSION 1.1

General:

• Now compatible with TV Pack 2008, including extenders
  
• The forecasts on the main page now animate from day to night mode
• The forecast for the current day now includes the supposed chance of rain...
• Multi-language support
  

New display options:

• Overscan Compensation - this should remove the border around the application that some people are seeing.
• Animate Background - toggles the background animation. If Underscan compensation still leaves you with an unacceptable border, turning off the background animation should get rid of it
• Start Menu Items in Lower Case - a number of people have mentioned they'd prefer that the start menu items didn't get transformed to lower case. This is now an option.
• English Units - there's a new unit BLOCKED EXPRESSION, English units, which displays temperature in Celsius and distance in miles (Updated to show everything in metric, except distance in miles)
• Added the show in News+Sports to the settings section as well, just in case you regret your decision in the installer
• Added the option to use the weather.com icon set (by popular request)
  

weather.com API-related changes:

• Required Links - I've now included the required links for each location. You can find them in the bottom-left of the main page. Be aware that they point to websites that aren't designed for Media Center
• Data Age - the main page now displays the time the data was last updated, and the time it was last checked for updates. It cannot be checked more frequently than once each 25 minutes

UI

• Clickable Chevrons - the chevrons on the main page are now clickable for mouse users
• Sunrise/Set - in response to a number of requests, the sunrise and sunset times are now displayed
• Moon Phase - as above
• Editable location names - you can now edit the display name for locations. Go to the Edit Locations page in settings and click on the (I'm no graphic artist...) pencil button next to the location to bring up an editor.
• Zip Code Trimming - for those who add locations by zip code, the zip code is now automatically trimmed from the location name
• Fixed (hopefully) the slow exit times (Really really this time)

Installer

• Compatible with TV Pack 2008
• Elevation warning shield on the Install button (trivial, however now expected apparently)
  
• Start Menu / News Options - the installer now allows you to automatically add the program to the start menu if you like. You can also choose to not have it install under the News + Sports category. (News + Sports option fixed)
  
• Future Proofing - there was an issue in the installer that would prevent it from working with future versions of media center

Bug Fixes

• Local time updating - there was an issue whereby the local time would not always update correctly. This should be addressed.
• Extenders should now correctly use all the same settings as the server (with the exception of the overscan compensation and background animation settings which are display-specific)
• Several security permission issues addressed for extenders
• The need to click back twice on some configurations has been addressed

Screenshots:

The Main Page: Use the left and right arrows to move between locations:

The Settings: General Page - Choose your units of measure, start menu, and update preferences:

The Settings: Add Location Page - Add as many different locations as you like:

The Settings: Add Location Page - An on-screen keyboard is available:

The Settings: Add Location Page - The results of a search for 'ROME':

The Settings: Edit Locations Page - Change location order and delete locations:

The Settings: About Page:

With the Show on Start Menu option enabled (You need to do this on the Settings / General page within the application - until you do so, it will only be available from Online Media / Program Library):

Viewing weather for Tokyo with a video playing:

looks good.

Stef

I have to say this looks better than VistaExtended4Cast, well done!  I'll give it a go later.

[This post has become redundant now that I can include more that one download link per post]

Where is the 64bit link?

Thanks

Edit: I responded with this question couple of minutes after your post. Sorry.

 

 

Wow, fantastic job.  This is the best weather plugin available.  Graphics are fantastic and the build quality is amazing.  No hoops to go through to install, no 2 foot front-end to configure location.  Everything is right there in VMC.

Nice Job!

 

DMI:

I responded with this question couple of minutes after your post. Sorry.

No worries at all. I should have got on to it sooner.

hamiltonguy:

Wow, fantastic job....

 

Thanks very much!

Works great in 64bit.

Thanks.

 

I have been wanting a weather app and this is perfect.  Very clean interface, easy to use and to the point.  The wife loves it too!!!  Thanks soooo much!

I haven't even tried it, but it looks like a fantastic, easy to read interface.  It looks very well thought out.  Another great thrid-party add-on that should be in the hall of fame.  Thanks.  

Wow that looks amazing! I can't wait to get home and try it. Please use your clearly talented skills to develop more apps for the Media Centre! A cooking app for example, hint hint.

Keep up the great work!

Jon

Just installed the 64-bit version - it looks fantastic!

Very nice job on the smooth animations between the screens.  Just a couple of requests/suggestions:

If I add a location by zip code, I'd like a way to be able to hide the zip code from the location name (so it just shows the city).  It might be nice to just be able to edit the location name - I know there are some very small town areas that probably won't show up properly, so it would be nice to be able to add a nearby city and name it the small town that you are in - this would also let you hide the zip code simply by editing the location name.

Another request, and this may be outside the relm of what you want to do, but it might be neat to be able to select the days from the forcast and bring up more details about the selected day - perhaps have it swap with the "CURRRENTLY" info.

Hi James,

Looks interesting.  I like the 5 day summary in one page.  I will have to try it out when I get home today.  Just looking at the screen shots, I have a couple of questions. 

1. Does it work in 16x9 (widescreen layout)?  I guess I'll find out when I try it tonight.
2. Does it preload the weather information?  or does it get it every time you start the plugin.  How responsive it is?  I don't want to start the plugin and then have to said for it go out and gather the information.  That's why I ditched mceWeather.
3. It shows that you get the information from weather.com.  Are you getting it from an xml feed?  A few months back I got an email from weather.com regarding their new terms of service.  The new terms of service requires the program to display links to weather.com (which you do) and additional (4) links included in the xml feed.
4. How many location can I add?  I see you have 7 locations in the screenshot.  The new weather.com terms of service specifically mentions 3 locations maximum.
   

Looking forward to trying this out tonight.

Thanks,

-Josef

Simple. Elegant. Fluid. Works as advertised.

Great job, this is everything a plugin should be. I like the subtle animations, and the transparent overlay is awesome!

If your taking requests, the only one I would think would be great is a button to link to a weather map (either static or animated) for each location. Like a "page 2" of information, only viewed when desired.

Thanks!