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Apple acquires Dark Sky

blog.darksky.net

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Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#91

Post by cannam »

Markoff wrote: post #73

boo hoo, they won't let us use the least accurate source (outside US) anymore, I'm crying... >AccuWeather’s predictions were best for temperature averages and highs, probability of precipitation and wind speed. The Weather Channel and Weather Underground came top for low temperature predictions. Dark Sky came last in all these categories. https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/30/weather-f... do yourself a f…

This may be actually the first useful comment on this subject (including my own!) - I know Windy well enough to know that for all its quality it's not a direct replacement, but will be glad to have a look at the others. Thanks.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#93

Post by StavrosK »

mrrsm wrote: post #7

> 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.

It doesn't. I will found a company just to have it acquired, so my press release can be:

> We had to choose between making shitloads of money, enough to not care about anything ever again, or let you continue seeing slightly more accurate weather. Guess what we chose, sucker! Thanks for giving us money, see you never.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#94

Post by DiabloD3 »

As an Android user that uses Dark Sky: Fuck you.

Everyone else is congratulating the team on a job well done, I'm not. I rely on Dark Sky because there are no better services, and it is a service I pay for.

Now I'm going to have to switch to some second rate weather app that can't predict the weather worth a damn because it just regurgitates the NWS.

God fucking damnit.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#96

Post by starpilot »

c0nsumer wrote: post #5

This is really, really disappointing. I've been pretty critical of Dark Sky at times for being mediocre for more than maybe 12 hours out, but for very short term forecasts it worked great. I spent a fair amount of time outdoors and getting a 30 minute heads-up for "drizzle" versus "heavy rain" was excellent and really let me time how long to stay outside for. I'd really, really like a replacement on Android. While Wu…

https://spotwx.com/ is good for very technical forecasts. You can select the weather model, and it shows you the grid square corresponding to your queried location. windy.com is good for access to the European model, which used to do better in mountainous regions but now the GFS is quite good. It tends to be a "drier" model than GFS.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#97

Post by RosanaAnaDana »

maliker wrote: post #80
joncp wrote: post #63

Let's not forget that, at least in the US, weather data is publicly funded and excellent forecasts are available at a very granular level. For example, here's the weather at Apple Park: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-122.009263237... ... And here's the graph for up-to-the-minute detail: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=37.3367&lon=-1... It ain't pretty, but it works and you've already pai…

Ain't pretty matches my experience. My team pulls a lot of weather data for utility engineering work we do, and the NOAA APIs have proven very hard to navigate. Some data only available via FTP, lots of different weather station networks with different metrics (e.g. lots of variety in the cloud/irradiance data). Darksky provided a nice clean interface, but I guess we'll go back to cobbling things together directly fr…

Pretty much the same for me. What a disappointment.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#98

Post by ryandvm »

joncp wrote: post #63

Let's not forget that, at least in the US, weather data is publicly funded and excellent forecasts are available at a very granular level. For example, here's the weather at Apple Park: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lon=-122.009263237... ... And here's the graph for up-to-the-minute detail: https://forecast.weather.gov/MapClick.php?lat=37.3367&lon=-1... It ain't pretty, but it works and you've already pai…

> It ain't pretty, but it works and you've already paid for it.

I've been following the public weather data scene for a long time and I'm pretty sure that UX for all the NOAA/NWS web sites is horrible by design, so to speak.

After all, there are plenty of well designed .gov sites (e.g. https://recreation.gov/), but just try browsing around weather.gov for a few minutes. It's horrible. I mean, the data is top-notch and it technically works, but the experience is awful. Weather.gov has had the exact same site for at least a decade.

This is completely speculative, but I would not be surprised to find a link between campaign contributions from the likes of the The Weather Channel and the decision to completely underfund the web development teams at NWS. Nothing else explains why some of the United States most valuable public data is presented on a web site barely more functional than Craigslist.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#99

Post by acidburnNSA »

kyledrake wrote: post #33

> 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. IBM bought the Weather Underground app and ruined it, and now Dark Sky was bought by Apple and they're ruining that too. Now I will have zero good weather…

This was like the one Android app I paid for. Ugh. Also super annoyed.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#100

Post by ogre_codes »

As an Apple user, it's always a bit bittersweet seeing announcements like this. It often means we'll see some nice upgrades to Apple services, but I feel bad for the non-Apple consumers of this info. It's not just Android, but 3rd party iOS apps benefit from the Dark Sky API as well (I use Carrot Weather which uses it for some of their feeds).

Aside from that, it's good to see a great team get some well deserved rewards for their notoriously great product. I just wish there were a better way for great devs to get rewarded.

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