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| 2007 |
| 29/4/2004 |
| A colourful window on the world |
| If you want to know what the weather’s doing, a quick glance out of the window will tell you. If you want to know what the weather’s going to be doing, you’ll need to work a little harder.
You could always check the newspaper, but newsprint is frozen in time, and the weather – as all of us find out to our cost sooner or later – is endlessly changeable. You could switch on the TV and wait for a weather update, or scroll through the Teletext pages, but at best you’ll get a regional prognosis. Then again you could log in to the internet for a weather forecast – assuming your kids aren’t monopolising the family PC, and the modem connects properly, and the server’s working okay …
Or you could simply relax in your armchair and glance over at the Oregon Scientific AWS888 METEO VISION Full Colour Weather Station (SRP £169.99) sitting on the sideboard. The true ‘photo quality’ image on the 3.8” LCD display screen is of a gaggle of colourful umbrellas…
So you know instantly that it’s going to rain soon. This is the way weather forecasting ought to be, you tell yourself – as easy as looking out of the window.
First choice for weather-watching
Oregon Scientific has built its formidable global reputation for style, quality and technological excellence on a wide range of exciting electronic consumer goods: digital cameras, radio-controlled clocks, organisers, fitness monitors and other clever creations are all as desirable as they are efficient, but it’s in the arena of barometric science that Oregon Scientific are truly pre-eminent: cutting edge technology, allied with a sophistication of design to please the eye of the most discerning aesthete, make Oregon Scientific’s cable-free electronic weather stations the must-have products for the would-be weather-watcher.
And they don’t come more cutting edge than Meteo Vision. This sleek, compact unit, finished in shimmering silver, is as elegant as it is simple to operate. Like all of Oregon Scientific’s weather stations, it utilises the most up-to-date barometric technology to analyse and predict weather trends.
Unlike conventional barometers, however, it communicates those trends via a series of superb photo-quality animated colour pictures on its built-in LCD display, each illustrating a different weather scenario: umbrellas for rain, an overcast street scene for cloud, a rural winter tableau for snow and so on. Should you prefer, the display can be set to show “classic” weather symbols – clouds, sunshine, rain – also animated. Both image modes are accompanied by relevant, high-quality sound-effects.
Of course, there’s more to climate forecasting than knowing whether it’s going to rain or shine, and the Meteo Vision reflects this. The unit’s functions include:
. Barometric pressure measurement with bar-chart display of past 24-hour history.
. Indoor and 5-channel outdoor temperature and humidity levels. (The Meteo Vision comes complete with one wireless remote sensor; further sensors can be added at a cost of £29.99 each).
. Temperature and humidity trend indicator.
. Maximum/minimum temperature and humidity memories.
More than just a weather station …
As well as being the market leaders in electronic weather stations, Oregon Scientific knows a thing or two about timekeeping: all of its brilliant radio-controlled clocks are regulated automatically by MSF radio signal broadcast from an official atomic clock in Rugby, thereby ensuring that they always tell the correct time. The Meteo Vision incorporates just such a chronometer, one that never gains, never loses, and never needs adjusting – not even when the clocks go forward and back. There’s also a calendar showing the day of the week, in five languages, two independent alarms with 2-minute crescendo and 8-minute snooze functions, and for good measure the Meteo Vision has a facility to display a second time-zone (+/- 23 hours). The clock can be switched from digital to analogue display too, for those who prefer the more traditional “look”.
With such a plethora of information inside its electronic brain, you might be tempted to think that the Meteo Vision is a shade complicated to use. Not a bit of it. All of the data described above is contained in a set of bold, clear, easy-to-read screens: scroll through them at the touch of a button to select the screen you want, or set the instrument to Auto-Rotation mode, in which case the weather forecast, clock and alarm, and temperature/humidity/pressure screens alternate on the display for total hands-free operation.
The METEO VISION AWS888 Full Colour Weather Station from Oregon Scientific: it’s a smart window on the world.
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