Since Apple is trying to grow service revenue, I wonder why they're not continuing to service API customers? It comes across as entirely anti-competitive.
Apple acquires Dark Sky
121–130 of 594 posts
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#122I wasn't familiar with this, but if it results in the iOS weather app having better forecasts, then great!
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#123Good for them but at the same time it is a shame for non Apple Users.
We use their embed widget quite heavily. Anyone know of any equivalents? I had a quick Google but can't find anything that looks totally equal in feature set.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#124Sigh. 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…
> I remember a few years ago Apple bought a fantastic public transit app (Embark?), shut it down and I still don’t think their Maps app comes close to the original transit app. When Edwin Howard Armstrong invented FM radio, he was working for RCA, which had everything invested in AM radio, an incompatible technology. RCA chose not to invest, and used their political clout to lobby the FCC to cripple FM radio, and the…
I don't know. How's Dark Sky competing with Apple? I don't think they derive much, if any, revenue from the Weather app. More likely they're paying for the data.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#125As 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 rewa…
It was only last year that Carrot lost access to the IBM Weather Underground API, and now they will have to replace Dark Sky too.
I'm guessing a brand new Catalyst Weather app is coming in iOS 14.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#126> 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…
I cannot begin to say how much IBM ruined Weather Underground. The app was _perfect_! I was thrilled to pay for it.
Now it's probably the worst app on my phone and I should just delete it. It takes forever to start, more than half the time it loads no data, and even if it is loaded the UI redesign has made the whole thing slow and useless.
Would love suggestions for another app on Android.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#127I'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. """
It appears they created a new version simply to better display this message, in lieu of using the weather alert interface.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#128Good alternatives for both API and mobile Apps?
National Weather Service API. Drawback is it's only for the US though.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#129Sigh. 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.
Reasonable considering the situation , sure. But the situation shouldn't be happening in the first place. I could understand closing off the API even. What I don't accept is shuttering the Android app.
I wish they would keep that alive in even a limited way and keep all the fanciness to Apple at the very least.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#130Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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
As someone that's tried using the weather.gov API, let me just say it's atrociously bad. I'm sure the data is accurate and all, but the API is actively hostile towards developers.
The API does not seem that bad at all. Maybe it's been improved?
https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api
You can turn lat/long into a grid point:
https://api.weather.gov/points/39.7456,-97.0892
Then a grid point into a forecast:
https://api.weather.gov/gridpoints/TOP/31,80/forecast
If you have your own GIS you can presumably store the grid points yourself.