Apple acquires Dark Sky • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#111

Post by RosanaAnaDana » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:35 PM UTC

eli wrote: post #50

pyrophane wrote: post #28

I 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.

>Pre-installed and probably impossible to remove.

Thanks for nothing creators of Dark Sky.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#112

Post by kube-system » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

adambyrtek wrote: post #13

I'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

The Apple employee who opens your email will undoubtedly pat themselves on the back for a job well done.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#113

Post by wastedhours » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

pyrophane wrote: post #28

I 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.

It's already up on https://ourincrediblejourney.tumblr.com/

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#114

Post by scarface74 » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:36 PM UTC

vikramkr wrote: post #85

This seems like the type of acquisition that would go unnoticed by the authorities in terms of anti-monopoly regulations, but probably should be. This is a less expensive way of building a moat than trying to merge with samsung or the like, but bit by bit you can build a huge amount of lockin by taking complementors to your competitors off the market.

So what would be the difference if Apple just built all the features of Dark Sky into the default Weather app and crushed Dark Sky leaving them with no market?

And as far as they would still have Android, we all know that the Android market isn’t nearly as profitable for app developers as the iOS market. They wouldn’t have received any money. Why would you want the government to tell developers who you could sell your property to? How would that affect the entire startup ecosystem? Would investors only want to invest money on companies that could go public? Especially seeing that for example only two YC backed companies have ever gone public.

Also, if the government did stop Apple from acquiring Dark Sky, are they also going to stop Apple from hiring the developers, the developers let their app rot and Apple still has them to integrate the best features of Dark Sky into the Weather app?

I’m always amazed at how willing people on HN are to give up their freedom and independence to the government.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#115

Post by rabboRubble » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

The really crummy part about the abandonment of the Android user base is that Darksky-now-Apple's user base will lose the end-user weather reporting from the Android user segment. Dark Sky would sometimes report rain instead of snow, snow instead of rain, showers instead of downpours, etc. I could provide feedback that the report was wrong, and how it was wrong.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#116

Post by MrGilbert » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:38 PM UTC

I'm sure this move will break a lot of smart homes. The Dark Sky API was pretty popular among HomeAssistant users (myself included). So I'll have to figure out how to work with the data from DWD (German weather service). I'm pretty sure they won't get aquired by .

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#117

Post by big_chungus » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:39 PM UTC

toomuchtodo wrote: post #64

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…

More importantly, this should be protected and demanded to be expanded upon by citizens . No one can acquire and shut down the National Weather Service, nor any apps they develop with public money released to the public domain. Protect public goods.

Dark sky is not a public good, it's a for-profit business that puts a shiny interface on the same information available to everyone. It also added user reporting and analytics, so added material value. The app cost money. Why don't you lobby your congressman to have NOAA develop a better app instead? You can't make a privately-developed program a "public good"; citizens can't just "demand" that dark sky remains independent and expands because they didn't pay for it. Either lobby the government for a better app, wait for the private sector to develop a better app, or lobby the government to attach a license to the data prohibiting commercial use (though this would kill the other apps, too).

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#118

Post by [deleted] » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

rabboRubble wrote: post #115

The really crummy part about the abandonment of the Android user base is that Darksky-now-Apple's user base will lose the end-user weather reporting from the Android user segment. Dark Sky would sometimes report rain instead of snow, snow instead of rain, showers instead of downpours, etc. I could provide feedback that the report was wrong, and how it was wrong.

[deleted]

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#119

Post by RosanaAnaDana » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

KMuncie wrote: post #106

Just a dirty move to shove aside all of us paying Android users. Was going to look at going back to Apple for my next phone but this just brought my opinion of Apple business practices back down to the garbage heap. I am disappointed in the founders for letting that be a part of the acquisition.

Same. Shame on the founders. This project started as a kickstarter, and this is an utter kick in the teeth to a community that wants to support these kinds of projects.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#120

Post by thisisbrians » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 6:41 PM UTC

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…

Any clue how hard it would be to create an open-source alternative to the DarkSky API? My company needs one, too. Maybe we could band forces and organize an open-source alternative. I know it won't be as good, but I'm curious what other people in our position think...