So, what's the best minute level forecast Android app?
Plus, the best API alternative?
Apple acquires Dark Sky
391–400 of 594 posts
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#392Is https://openweathermap.org/ useful as an alternative? I haven’t seen it mentioned in discussions about replacing Dark Sky, and I don’t know enough about the field to compare it.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#393Earlier 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
This really sucks, I work for a stormwater environmental company and we were looking at darksky to replace our existing provider; DarkSky is one of the best providers of weather data.IBM also bought weather underground, I am really what these big tech companies want with forecasting/weather companies. I just wish they kept the API running though.
Your location data.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#394Earlier quoted context omitted.
> Either they acquire a company for their tech, for their people who work there (talent), for their data or finally, just to be able to kill their company/product. To make the list more complete I've seen large tech companies acquire another tech company for their users and/or their brand. Think about Microsoft buying Github or Skype.
It certainly doesn't seem like either of those examples further your point. Both GitHub and Skype still exist as essentially the same core product they were at the time of acquisition, plus lots of new features which are clearly the results of substantial investment in the product by Microsoft.
GitHub was a complimentary product that fits into Microsoft’s strategy.
Skype was almost certainly some sort of scheme to kill Skype and bring lawful intercept to the platform. Skype at one point owned consumer voip globally.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#395Sigh. 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…
> they deserve a lot of credit for not selling user data
How can you say that on a day that they sold all the user data?
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#396Earlier quoted context omitted.
I used to think the same thing, but what about the situations where people don't sell out and just see their features copied by the corporate behemoth, wholesale? That scenario seems to play out often as well (g---le+ and diaspora always come to mind). I suppose if the goal is to just see some technology or technique or idea become more broadly adopted, this isn't a bad thing. But what about poor-implementations of a…
> g---le+ What is the purpose behind "censoring" Google's name here...?
It's an attempt to hide from the scripts that notify people or teams when some company is being mentioned. It's helpful in some environments.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#397Earlier quoted context omitted.
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 paych…
How is iOS in any way, shape or form a monopoly?
There is a difference between being a monopoly and monopolist behaviour. One has successfully become the only one standing, one is seeking to shut out competition by one method or another. At least to my understanding.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#398Earlier quoted context omitted.
Apple's walled garden is more and more a shiny cage. Vote with your dollars and support more open alternatives. I switched to a Note 10 recently after using iPhones for years and I'm really enjoying the overall experience and the flexibility to do many things with my hardware that Apple feels I shouldn't be allowed to do.
So you move from apples to googles? At least Apple pretends to care about privacy.
We talk about privacy as an absolute but privacy from whom? I'm mostly concerned about the government getting and abusing my data and if I use iCloud backups all my data is right there for them to take. With Google's activity controls I feel like I have more control over what they're storing.
That said I do wish there was a third option besides Apple and Google.
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#399Earlier quoted context omitted.
> 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…
> killing competition Apple believes it should make/provide the whole “widget”. If they think every phone should ship with a really good weather app, they’ll do one. If one comes on the market that they think is better, they’ll buy it and make it the new default. I mean they’re not in the weather app business. They aren’t competing against Dark Sky. What they’re competing against is Android, and if their phone comes…
I really wish we could make custom Apple Watch faces, for instance. At least open up the API for it for developers - for example - Apple does not provide an Apple Watch face with both an analog and digital representation, and I can’t make it, beyond an app, which I’d have to constantly reopen...just us me do the things, Apple!
Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky
#400Earlier quoted context omitted.
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?"
This is exactly what I found it didn't work for. I live in Seattle, and basically gave up on it (with today's news, I'll uninstall it from my Android phone). I could look out the window at steady rain, and Dark Sky would still be telling me it was going to be clear all day. Like that more often than not.
That's bizarre but actually can't be Dark Sky's fault.
Switch to radar view in the app and it will show you the exact geographical distribution of rain in your city right now. This comes from national weather data.
If that's inaccurate then something is wrong with the government data. Or maybe Seattle rain is somehow much patchier at a finer level than government data is able to resolve?
FWIW in New York City its assessment of the next five minutes has always been literally perfect. It might say it's going to go from hard rain to nothing in two minutes... and it does, right on time.
It gets increasingly noisy as you go to 15, 30, and 60 min out, though.