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Apple acquires Dark Sky

blog.darksky.net

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Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#451

Post by cageface »

scarface74 wrote: post #448
cageface wrote: post #376

Earlier 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 switched to an Android device that runs proprietary Google Play Services and proprietary Samsung bloatware....

Yes because it allows me to do the following things:

1. Sideload apps that my government has decided they don't like and want banned.

2. Use real firefox to support diversity on the web

3. Use open audio codecs like FLAC without tying myself in knots

It's not perfect but in the respects that really matter it's a lot more free.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#453

Post by notthemessiah »

scarface74 wrote: post #449
viklove wrote: post #430

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But closed off and only accessible if you buy Apple devices. So this is yet another example of a private corporation taking a useful, accessible resource that people rely on, and gating it behind their own services so they can extract rent. God I love capitalism!

Dark Skies was already a private company....

They at provided an API and web interface, one that you could use to get forecasts on any device, the data can be presented in any format. They're closing the website and the API, so you only will get the hyperlocal forecast from an Apple device, and only by Apple's UI choices. Closing off services behind a walled garden and charging an entrance fee is Apple's business model.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#454

Post by rabboRubble »

xd1936 wrote: post #166
rabboRubble wrote: post #115

The really crummy part about the abandonment of the Android user base is that Darksky-now-Apple's user base will lose the end-user weather reporting from the Android user segment. Dark Sky would sometimes report rain instead of snow, snow instead of rain, showers instead of downpours, etc. I could provide feedback that the report was wrong, and how it was wrong.

I did this too, but it always felt like shouting into the void. There was no indication that that feature did anything except placebo.

Optimistically, I hoped that the feedback helped improve the pinpoint weather forecasting. Worst case, it functioned as a snow excitment button that I could press.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#455

Post by scarface74 »

notthemessiah wrote: post #453
scarface74 wrote: post #449

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Dark Skies was already a private company....

They at provided an API and web interface, one that you could use to get forecasts on any device, the data can be presented in any format. They're closing the website and the API, so you only will get the hyperlocal forecast from an Apple device, and only by Apple's UI choices. Closing off services behind a walled garden and charging an entrance fee is Apple's business model.

So you don’t know about their podcast directory API that’s been open and free for over a decade?

Almost every podcast player for iOS and Android use it.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#456

Post by drusepth »

scarface74 wrote: post #444
vertis wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

What competition? Is it “monopolistic” every time that any company buys a smaller company instead of developing it in house?

I don't think anyone's raising any problems about Apple buying a small company instead of developing comparable functionality in-house.

People are raising concerns over Apple buying a small company and shutting down its offerings to any platform that isn't Apple's.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#457

Post by scarface74 »

cageface wrote: post #451
scarface74 wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So you switched to an Android device that runs proprietary Google Play Services and proprietary Samsung bloatware....

Yes because it allows me to do the following things: 1. Sideload apps that my government has decided they don't like and want banned. 2. Use real firefox to support diversity on the web 3. Use open audio codecs like FLAC without tying myself in knots It's not perfect but in the respects that really matter it's a lot more free.

At least for #3

https://vox.rocks/resources/ios-flac-player

And then there is that whole running an operating system written by a company whose whole m.o. is to invade your privacy.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#458

Post by scarface74 »

drusepth wrote: post #456
scarface74 wrote: post #444

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What competition? Is it “monopolistic” every time that any company buys a smaller company instead of developing it in house?

I don't think anyone's raising any problems about Apple buying a small company instead of developing comparable functionality in-house. People are raising concerns over Apple buying a small company and shutting down its offerings to any platform that isn't Apple's.

So Apple should be forced to develop for a competitors platform?

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#459

Post by rhizome »

clairity wrote: post #211
Someone wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

For those who wonder: it’s not a neologism. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Defenestrations_of_Prague : The Defenestrations of Prague (Czech: Pražská defenestrace, German: Prager Fenstersturz, Latin: Defenestratio Pragensis) were three incidents in the history of Bohemia in which multiple people were defenestrated (thrown out of a window). The origin of the word "defenestrate" ("out of the window") is believed to come…

yes, mine was more a temporary confusion between the common notion of the "de-" prefix in english (~"remove") vs. latin (~"out of").

Funnily enough, they're two different Latin word elements. Simplified, there's the "down" de-, as in "destroy," and the "undo" de-, like "defrost." The "undo" de- is also the "not" de- and the "away" de-, related to dis- ("disallow", "discard").

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#460

Post by Nullabillity »

CarlRJ wrote: post #438
kbutler wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://bizfluent.com/about-6601606-monopoly-economics-.html A monopoly exists when there is a single seller of a commodity. Copyrights and patents are government-granted monopolies. A broader definition is that a monopolist is a provider that has pricing power - the ability to set prices. Apple has a monopoly on the channel to deliver iOS apps. Anyone seeking to deliver an iOS app must accept Apple's terms, includin…

> Apple has a monopoly on the channel to deliver iOS apps. That's only a monopoly in the same sense that McDonalds has a monopoly on Big Macs. It's within their own ecosystem. Customers can decide whether they want to buy into that ecosystem or choose an alternative (like Burger King, or Android).

Utter nonsense.

Buying a burger is an independent transaction. Buying a Big Mac one day doesn't make you less likely to buy a Whopper the next.

Buying a phone is an investment that locks you into that ecosystem for ~2 years (until you buy a new one), and once that time comes, both ecosystems encourage you to stick with your existing choice via purchase transfers, exclusives, and (more) seamless data transfers.

Your comparison would only make sense in a world where McD and BK competed by lacing their burgers with different drugs to get you chemically addicted.

Fuck Apple, fuck Google, and fuck Tim Cook in particular. This is fucking depressing, and almost makes COVID seem appealing. At least it would take your mind off this bullshit for a while.

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