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Apple acquires Dark Sky

blog.darksky.net

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191–200 of 594 posts

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#191

Post by dguo »

"We’re thrilled to have the opportunity to reach far more people, with far more impact, than we ever could alone."

I generally don't mind "our incredible journey" posts that much, but I wonder how much mental gymnastics you need to justify that statement when you're shutting down platforms.

Congrats to the Dark Sky team though. I've enjoyed using it. Time to look for a replacement as I only use the Android app and website. At this point, I'm tempted to see what I can build for myself with government provided APIs: https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#192

Post by floatingatoll »

fooey wrote: post #55

I'm very disappointed to see Apple consume and extinguish a great service.

"Extinguish" assumes they have no intention to replace third-party data harvesters with their own service.

Apple currently redirects their platforms' weather data HTTP requests to third-party services like Weather.com, that are known for aggressively marketing and reselling user data as a primary revenue stream.

Seems more likely they see this as a way to improve weather data for their customers without seeing their customers' data abused for marketing and tracking.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#193

Post by adambyrtek »

kube-system wrote: post #112
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.

Well, it's not like they suddenly replaced the whole team overnight, but I guess I get your point. I don't claim it could change anything, but I still believe that it's important to (respectfully) let the team know how their paying ex-customers feel about their decisions.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#194

Post by Marsymars »

pergadad wrote: post #174
sauwan wrote: post #140

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Totally agree. I find I have to load it, close and reopen the app about 95% of the time. Hugely bummed these two apps are going into the wastebin. Certainly leaves a huge void for us Android users.

I've been using this one since underground stopped being useful. https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.samruston.... Sadly at some point they weren't able to pay for the dark sky API anymore and since then the quality of forecasts is a bit less convincing. I'm still rather shocked by the low reviews though, for me it works well and I love that you can add a dozen cities and see the forecast.

That app also changed ownership a couple years ago - it's still functional, but I don't think can be downloaded if you don't already have it.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#195

Post by rsync »

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…

"IBM bought the Weather Underground app and ruined it ..."

I never used the WU app, but I do use the WU website regularly and feel that it is very slow and spammy and bad UI, etc., etc.

The problem is, I cannot find anyone else to give me a 10 day forecast.

How can I tease out a 10-day forecast from weather.gov ?

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#196

Post by Marsymars »

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…

It's bonkers how bad all the weather apps are for Android.

I use Yr weather (from the Norwegian Broadcasting Institute and Meteorological Institute) which is... fine, but their source of data isn't great for my location.

Almost everything else I've tried is some combination of slow, poorly designed, or not-privacy-respecting, even if I'm willing to pay.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#197

Post by adambyrtek »

airstrike wrote: post #189
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

> since there is no other more generous explanation How about "Apple just bought a really talented team of developers and want them to work on the Next Big Thing at Apple rather than spend their time on a product that doesn't do anything for Apple's strategy?"

Sure, that's the classic "it's been a wonderful journey" scenario where the whole product is sunset, but shutting down just a single platform is not as obvious.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#198

Post by Infinitesimus »

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…

> But shutting down the API and Android apps feels like an egregious move by Apple.

Yes but that's inline with what you'd expect Apple to do though. They won't support any non-Apple ecosystem unless they have to - it's just their way of doing things

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#199

Post by Marsymars »

m-p-3 wrote: post #158
TheAdamAndChe wrote: post #79

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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

The Environment Canada forecasts are my preferred data source for weather, but the app desperately needs UI polish.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#200

Post by txcwpalpha »

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…

Dark Sky (formerly forecast.io)'s entire point was that they, unlike most weather apps, aren't just a prettified version of publicly available weather data. Dark Sky's selling point was that they also used crowdsourced data, including user reports of rain and IIRC data from app user's sensors in their phones, to predict "hyperlocal" weather.

I use Dark Sky and it is typically much much more accurate than other weather apps when it comes to heads up of inclement weather coming in the next ~hour, and I'm very sad to see Apple killing it.

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