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Apple acquires Dark Sky

blog.darksky.net

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Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#231

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

ryandvm wrote: post #98
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 a…

The stagnation of the public NOAA site is mostly AccuWeather's doing.

The local radar maps still use flash for loop animation so they're going to have to do something in the next year to keep that going.

https://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=DIX&product=NCR&over...

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#232

Post by reaperducer »

Infinitesimus wrote: post #198
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

Yes but that's inline with what you'd expect Apple to do though.

Is it? Did Shazam stop working on Android when Apple ate it?

Honest question, since I don't have an Android device.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#233

Post by kingbirdy »

minimalist wrote: post #218
sandyarmstrong wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Restating a comment from about a year ago[0]: If you are in the United States, nothing beats getting the forecast straight from the horses mouth (NWS that is). Some companies are notorious for producing 30+ day forecasts, which can't have any meaningful levels of skill. NOAA/NWS should just create their own mobile application. I use Wx[1], which parses NWS data directly and can be found on f-droid[2] and g---le play.…

Why do you feel the need to censor the words Google and React?

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#234

Post by dguo »

joeblau wrote: post #204
dguo wrote: post #191

"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 we…

If  shuts down the 1M+ (less than 5M) Google[1] accounts and then this weather app becomes the default system backing Siri, there will be a lot more users than the Google Play store users Dark Sky is losing. Right now, Apple's weather is backed by Yahoo! so my guess is that Yahoo! is going away and all 1 billion  devices will now be using Dark Sky. [1] - https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.darksky.da.…

That's fair. My counterpoint would be that Apple could have become a customer of the Dark Sky API, achieving essentially the same result without Dark Sky having to kill off platforms.

But sure, at that point, it probably makes sense for Apple to just buy the company to make sure that the data supply chain is within their control.

I am just a little bitter to lose the service personally.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#235

Post by xenocratus »

ngngngng wrote: post #51

What a shame. Dark Sky was the best option for me. I live in a small town that shares a zip code with a larger neighboring town. Most weather apps report the weather of the neighboring town, the big problem with that is that I live 2000 feet higher than the neighboring town, causing drastic weather differences. Dark sky was the best I had found, but not perfect, nearly once a week I would report the weather since Dar…

Same here, Android user who really loved both their app and website. Must be nice for them, getting burried in cash, though.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#238

Post by fenwick67 »

reaperducer wrote: post #232
Infinitesimus wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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

Yes but that's inline with what you'd expect Apple to do though. Is it? Did Shazam stop working on Android when Apple ate it? Honest question, since I don't have an Android device.

Shazam still works on Android. But Shazam usage data is valuable, arguably.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#239

Post by reaperducer »

minimalist wrote: post #218
sandyarmstrong wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Restating a comment from about a year ago[0]: If you are in the United States, nothing beats getting the forecast straight from the horses mouth (NWS that is). Some companies are notorious for producing 30+ day forecasts, which can't have any meaningful levels of skill. NOAA/NWS should just create their own mobile application. I use Wx[1], which parses NWS data directly and can be found on f-droid[2] and g---le play.…

"If you are in a densely-populated area of the United States..."

Your blanket statement doesn't always hold. This is more accurate.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#240

Post by polymath21 »

pietroppeter wrote: post #148

Sad news. Their API was very good. What will be a good alternative with global coverage and support for daily detail a few years in the past?

Very sad indeed. I haven't found anything comparable with global coverage or historical data support that's reasonably priced or has an easy to use self serve UI.
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