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Apple acquires Dark Sky

blog.darksky.net

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Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#151

Post by cryptoz »

thatcat wrote: post #102
fooey wrote: post #61

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hyperlocal forecasting, who just ejected most of the world from their data collection pool.

IIRC they built the models with user data, but stopped collecting from phones because so many different sensors are used for rH and temp in phones plus being in pockets, battery temp, etc meant the data had too much variance. Even though I hate that they did this bc it's my favourite weather app, it actually would make sense to just use iphones if they were going to start collecting that data again since all the hard…

The barometer data that comes from phones (both Android and iOS) is extremely resilient and there is a lot of value to be derived from it. Ongoing research by Cliff Mass and team (at UW) shows that machine learning can help bias-correct and error-correct barometric pressure data on the fly with very good results. That data can also be assimilated into WRF to make forecasts with higher accuracy.

I work on a related app to do that barometer data on Android: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.allclearwe... (US only for now).

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#152

Post by abrowne »

dstaley wrote: post #78
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…

My primary use of the Dark Sky API is for minute-by-minute forecasts. I've yet to find another API that can answer the question "Do I have enough time to walk my dog before it starts raining?"

Same here, for the website. I actually find their forecasts beyond a few hours pretty bad¹, so I use weather.gov, but I haven't found anything as good at telling me whether it will rain in the next 20 minutes.

1: Both seemly wrong more often and more importantly unclear whether they mean a greater or lesser chance or amount of rain or snow, which makes a big difference when you are, say, biking to work.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#153

Post by m-p-3 »

> 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

Except those using Android.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#154

Post by TYPE_FASTER »

thisisbrians wrote: post #120
maliker wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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...

I'd be interested in working on this.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#155

Post by c54 »

Wow really disappointed to see this, yet another great service gobbled up by a massive corporation.

Yet another overly saccharine acquisition letter about there being no better place for the tool than in the hands of one of the big tech companies.

Sorry for all android users to see yet another great app hit the dust.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#156

Post by dashundchen »

untog wrote: post #4

Sigh. 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.

Semi-related but for transit apps, I much prefer the dedicated "Transit" app over any of the mapping services.

https://transitapp.com/

It has great visualizations of nearby lines and departures, gives bike/walk/taxi alternative times, allows you to select which transit systems, much more customizable in route planning, alerts on stops, schedule changes, when to leave, and it utilizes live data from other riders on where a bus or train is if you're willing to share your location during your ride.

Worked well in every North American city I've been in with a transit system.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#157

Post by jpjpmn »

chris_f wrote: post #128
skizm wrote: post #27

Good alternatives for both API and mobile Apps?

National Weather Service API. Drawback is it's only for the US though. https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api

There are a number of global weather data providers in the world - AerisWeather (quite functional, great mapping too), Accuweather (big network but expensive and little instruction), OWM (not very full featured, more for commodity weather), Climacell (robust network but not sure about their data collection practices.)

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#158

Post by m-p-3 »

TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #79
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…

https://mobile.weather.gov is a good one for mobile devices.

And the equivalent for Canadians

https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=ca.gc.ec.weath...

https://apps.apple.com/ca/app/id1334221563

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#159

Post by dhosek »

liyanage wrote: post #139
ryandvm wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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 a…

> I'm pretty sure that UX for all the NOAA/NWS web sites is horrible by design That's spot on, John Oliver did a whole episode about this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qMGn9T37eR8&feature=emb_titl...

Thanks, I was going to dig up the link until I saw your post.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#160

Post by m-p-3 »

geddy wrote: post #23

> 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…

At this point, APIs like these (weather, traffic, etc) should be standardized and nationalized.

Make it free to use for individuals, and with a reasonable cost for commercial use.

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