Apple acquires Dark Sky • Hacker News Board

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#301

Post by teddyh » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

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.…

Wait, so HN normally filters the more odd Unicode characters, but does not filter codes from the Private Use Area?



Note: Since this is the Private Use area, the character you used does not display the same on every device. In my browswer, it displays as a box containing “F8FF”; if I copy it to a nearby terminal window, it shows up as “(t)”. According to the ConScript (unofficial) Unicode Registry for private use characters¹, the character you used is the “KLINGON MUMMIFICATION GLYPH”. I assume that you meant to display some sort of Apple logo? ‭

1. http://www.evertype.com/standards/csur/klingon.html

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#302

Post by thisisbrians » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

rodiger wrote: post #179

TYPE_FASTER wrote: post #154

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'd be interested in working on this.

Same!

Happy to get a group together and discuss! Please email me: `brian${'at'}bractlet${'dot'}com`

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#303

Post by Dahoon » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:01 PM UTC

_delirium wrote: post #237

Uh oh, DuckDuckGo has been using Dark Sky for its weather results for the past year [1]. Wonder what they're going to replace it with once the API shuts down? [1] https://spreadprivacy.com/duckduckgo-weather-results/

DuckDuckApple

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#304

Post by mrfusion » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

I found dark sky to be uncannily accurate in DC. Predicting rainstorms to the minute.

But in Florida it’s completely wrong about everything. Says clear sky’s when it’s overcast. No clue about rain.

Any ideas why that would be?

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#305

Post by slenk » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

kvakkefly wrote: post #248

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…

You can try Yr: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.nrk.yr&hl=e... It is an app made by the Norwegian Meteorological Institute afaik and works quite well all over the world. I'm curious on how well it works where you live! They have open API's as well: https://api.met.no

I am not seeing a live radar view

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#306

Post by Aldipower » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:02 PM UTC

Oh no! C'est une catastrophe! Dark Sky was the API with affordable and reliable _historical_ weather data, which my own app depends on. Looking for an alternative will be hard, because there is none.. Damn! :( Monopoly at it's best. Why the hell do they shutdown the API???

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#307

Post by 51Cards » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

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…

I didn't realize that IBM bought WU. Explains why I saw the quality tank... I wondered what was up. I ended up deleting it.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#308

Post by _hardwaregeek » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

Props to the author for explaining in the first line what the company does.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#309

Post by mrfusion » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:03 PM UTC

So why does Apple want this? What does it get them? Is it just an aquuihire? (Sp)

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#310

Post by JeremyNT » Tue, Mar 31, 2020, 9:06 PM UTC

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…

Sigh is right. I used and paid for dark sky on Android, and now it's dead.

This is one way Apple tries to lock people in, and it's really frustrating. This isn't an efficient market situation, this is a monopolist protecting their walled garden kingdom by slurping up the cross platform innovators. I'm terribly disappointed in the Dark Sky authors for doing this to long time loyal customers, no matter what their paychecks look like.