April fools?
Apple acquires Dark Sky
41–50 of 594 posts
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#42> Our API service for existing customers is not changing today, but we will no longer accept new signups. The API will continue to function through the end of 2021. And yet another functional API shut down and privatized. This is the way of the web now, a few companies owning the data, and nothing cool left to mess around with. I can't be the only one who has noticed this trend happening for years. You used to be abl…
> a few companies owning the data The data are public [1]. Dark Sky et al process and repackage those data, along with their own analytics and UI. [1] https://www.ncdc.noaa.gov/cdo-web/webservices/v2
Dark Sky claimed to do significant weather data collection themselves, via barometers in phones. I don't know if that data was ever used or available in their API, but definitely, the data Dark Sky had was all not public data.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#43Noooo, the Android app and website are going away?
I've been using them the last several years and loved the simplicity and balance of detail.
That's awful.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#44Sigh. I mean, congratulations to the founders of Dark Sky. It’s a wonderful app and they deserve all the money they’ll get from this and they deserve a lot of credit for not selling user data when almost every other weather app does. But shutting down the API and Android apps feels like an egregious move by Apple. And I hope we actually see a good improvement to the Apple weather app as a result of this. I remember a…
A two year wind down time seems more than reasonable for an API though.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#45> "Android and Wear OS App"
> "The app will no longer be available for download. Service to existing users and subscribers will continue until July 1, 2020, at which point the app will be shut down. Subscribers who are still active at that time will receive a refund."
That's unfortunate. I have been using it for years. Any recommended alternatives?
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#46On the one hand, I'm very happy that Dark Sky functionality will presumably become integrated with iOS's weather app. I love Dark Sky and have always found it weird I have to use 2 different weather apps. (And I'm happy for the founders for their $$$.)
On the other hand, I feel for Android/web users. Totally sucks to lose it.
Perhaps it will push Google to build similar functionality into the stock Android weather app though? That's how competition is supposed to work, after all.
The Dark Sky algorithm was always a super clever idea, but I'm not aware of them having patented anything. So I don't see any barrier.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#47Well this really sucks because I depend on that API. I am not happy about this one bit.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#48> Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy. I don't understand how being acquired by Apple helps further that goal. Removing support for non-Apple devices seems to drastically lower the number of people who you are helping. I am interested in seeing what happens to this…
> I don't understand how being acquired by Apple helps further that goal. Removing support for non-Apple devices seems to drastically lower the number of people who you are helping. I would imagine that DarkSky will become the basis for the default weather apps in iOS and macOS, and the number of people who use those defaults is drastically higher than the number of people who use DarkSky iOS/Android as a third-party…
See, hurting existing users is fine! They're only a small part of the addressable market!
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#49I'm sending an email to tell them how disappointed I feel as a long-time subscriber about them maliciously (since there is no other more generous explanation) shutting down the service for Android users: https://darksky.net/contact
Also, the message in the app seems misleading:
"""
Effective: 7:00 PM CDT, March 30
Expires: 7:00 PM CDT, June 30
To continue using the app and receiving weather notifications, please update to the latest version. You can read more on our blog.
"""
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#50I get that these dumb acquisition blog-posts are practically lifted from a template and hardly mean anything, but please don't tell me that your goal is to "to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe" in practically the same breath that you announce you are killing the app on the world's most popular mobile platform.
But presumably will instead be pre-installed on the second most popular mobile platform.