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Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

blog.darksky.net

1–10 of 55 posts

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#2
The (2020) is a bit misleading. The latest update is actually current, and discusses deprecation of the app and service for iOS.

I am looking forward to the new WeatherKit API, but, like many of yesterday’s announcements, we’ll need to learn more. I’ve become quite cautious, when it comes to “exciting new APIs,” from Apple.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#3
How they can be “integrated”, I don’t know, as Dark Sky and Apple weather give totally different forecasts for where I live, both usually inaccurate. If it’s the same data, it’s being processed differently - but the forecasts are so different, I don’t see how it can be.

Maybe they just mean in the US, and international customers will have to make do with an approximation?

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#4
It's interesting that they'll continue to offer API with the new WeatherKit API.

I have an impression that Dark Sky API was very popular with developers and have been wondering what stood out for them among many other weather APIs on the market.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#5

How they can be “integrated”, I don’t know, as Dark Sky and Apple weather give totally different forecasts for where I live, both usually inaccurate. If it’s the same data, it’s being processed differently - but the forecasts are so different, I don’t see how it can be. Maybe they just mean in the US, and international customers will have to make do with an approximation?

The app update will likely be included with iOS 16.

I doubt that. They've probably been working on international support. DarkSky's original API primarily used NOAA data, which would explain why it's not as accurate outside of the U.S. if it still uses that

This old blog post from one of the creators discusses it: https://jackadam.github.io/2011/how-dark-sky-works/

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#7
Dark Sky has been incredibly accurate for me in the UK (I've tested this daily as I need minute-level accuracy for weather daily over a large area).

I really hope they integrate it into default weather well, in a way that it remains unchanged to current forecasts from Dark Sky.

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#8
I rely on a awesome android app[0] for my photography, it's just a big table of data like Low, Med, High cloud cover, which you can use to predict sunsets/rises. It uses the Dark Sky api. Will android apps be allowed continued access to this API? If not, I'm screwed. Unless anyone knows another source for this type of detailed weather data?

[0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.firstlight...

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#9
It looks like just they extended the dates at which they are shutting things down. This is great news for me because I use their API for a small app and have been putting off updating it to something new, so now I have quite a bit more time.

A developer has started an impressive and ambitious project called Pirate Weather, which I planning on using moving forward, for those looking for "drop-in" alternatives: https://pirateweather.net/

Re: Dark Sky Has a New Home (2020)

#10
post #7

Dark Sky has been incredibly accurate for me in the UK (I've tested this daily as I need minute-level accuracy for weather daily over a large area). I really hope they integrate it into default weather well, in a way that it remains unchanged to current forecasts from Dark Sky.

They already have integrated it in a pretty reasonable way. The only thing that's missing is some of the alternative views for the hourly forecast, it's possibly a feature that wasn't as widely used (or as accurate as temp/conditions/precipitation) but as someone who burns easily, I do miss having e.g. hourly UVI forecasts.
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