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Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

blog.darksky.net

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Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#81

Post by kslambert »

Shank wrote: post #27
quickthrowman wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It definitely does not have the same functionality, you can only see the current temp/precip prob %/humidity/dewpoint/wind speed/etc, you can’t see the forecasted stats I listed in the iOS weather app, you can only get hour by hour temperature. I’m very disappointed that Dark Sky is going away. If Apple added in the ability to see forecasted hour by hour wind speed/humidity/dew point/etc, it’d be a decent replacement…

> I’m very disappointed that Dark Sky is going away. If Apple added in the ability to see forecasted hour by hour wind speed/humidity/dew point/etc, it’d be a decent replacement. In iOS 16 (and in macOS Ventura, which adds the Weather app), you can view hourly temperature, UV index, wind speed, precipitation, feels like, humidity, visibility, and pressure, on a graph. You can also tap and hold to view individual hour…

100% to this. Apple weather has a lot of the functionality but it’s not close when it comes to the experience. For wet climates like the PNW this is a hard change.

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#82

Post by lelandfe »

D_Joni wrote: post #69

It's funny how this is posted two days after I finished my Weather web app which uses Dark Sky's free API: https://weather-dj.netlify.app/ Let's hope that in the future Apple continues to deliver the same API structure as Dark Sky did, because it will be a big shame if they did some changes or limitations to it. Although I only use this app mostly for my personal use, the effort that I've put into this would be for n…

Sorry to say – the Dark Sky API will shut down end of March next year[0].

Apple recommends switching to WeatherKit's API. It is not free, requiring a paid Developer Program membership, which is $99/year.[1] That includes 500k API calls/mo.

On that linked WeatherKit page, they include a DarkSky migration guide. There are fields that are no longer being offered. (The fact that `temperatureHigh` doesn't have an analog makes me wonder if the table isn't telling the full story)

[0] https://darksky.net/dev

[1] https://developer.apple.com/weatherkit/get-started/

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#83

Post by TillE »

wpietri wrote: post #74
Gigachad wrote: post #55

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason seems pretty simple, because it was cheaper to buy it than to pay their own people to try and recreate it.

Funny, you just explained how easy it was. But now it's so hard that Apple engineers can't just rebuild the parts they need? I think the simpler explanation is one you'll find in many comments here: Dark Sky was unusually good, and Apple bought it to get all that goodness to themselves.

This is just asking why acquisitions happen. There are plenty of reasons, and they typically don't demonstrate monopolistic behavior, certainly not in any legal sense.

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#84

Post by festiveakp »

Drybones wrote: post #5

Upsetting about the app, but the new iOS weather app has the functionality essentially. The real gut wrencher is the darksky website going down. It’s how I check weather most of the time a no other browser weather site comes close to it in simplicity and features.

Usually I use the default Samsung weather app, but when I'm on my PC https://wttr.in/ is a fun one, and you can even get terminal-readable output by using something like cURL!

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#85

Post by shagie »

haunter wrote: post #78
raybb wrote: post #16

What weather app are people using on Android? I'm currently using Geometric Weather + MyRadar: https://f-droid.org/packages/wangdaye.com.geometricweather/ https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.acmeaom.an...

yr.no https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=no.nrk.yr&hl=e...

They've also got a rather nice API - https://api.met.no/weatherapi/documentation // https://api.met.no/weatherapi/locationforecast/2.0/

In particular, I like the detailed info on clouds:
The difference e between low, medium, and high clouds is useful for deciding "where may there be a good sunset?" Most other services just offer the general "cloudiness".

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#86

Post by atchoo »

freetime2 wrote: post #59
atchoo wrote: post #38

A platform buying up cross-platform apps and making them uni-platform really should be slam dunk anti-trust. It's obviously anti-consumer and concentration of market power.

On the other hand, since there are presumably more Apple Weather users than Dark Sky users, by moving the functionality of Dark Sky into the Apple Weather app, more people will benefit from the features than when Dark Sky was independent.

It was available on IOS. Why would non-users on IOS be an argument for the power of capital to diminish other platforms?

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#87

Post by gamblor956 »

londons_explore wrote: post #77

DarkSky has a very nice UI... but the actual weather data and predictions seem lackluster at best. If they were confident in their predictions, they'd compare against competitors - for example, "If you use our 3-hour weather prediction to decide the best time to go for a 20 minute jog each day, you'll stay dry 16% more of the time than using NOAA weather predictions".

Agreed, maybe it was great in some places but in SoCal it was always wrong.

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#88

Post by jrockway »

Drybones wrote: post #5

Upsetting about the app, but the new iOS weather app has the functionality essentially. The real gut wrencher is the darksky website going down. It’s how I check weather most of the time a no other browser weather site comes close to it in simplicity and features.

For weather stuff, there are a lot of good resources. For current conditions, I use my state's mesonet: https://www2.nysmesonet.org/ (Specifically, I bookmark a nearby location: http://www.nysmesonet.org/weather/local#network=nysm&stid=bk.... This page also pulls in official National Weather Service forecasts.)

For radar, I just use GR Level 3. I was tired of the slowness of the web. I add shapefiles for mPING, lightning, NWS watches, NWS convective outlooks / mesoscale discussions, etc. Great piece of software, and lots of shapefiles available on the Internet to extend it.

For forecasting, I use the College of DuPage forecast tools: https://weather.cod.edu/forecast/. There is a learning curve, but the "simulated reflectivity" is a prediction of where it's going to rain. It predicts what a radar mosaic would look like at the forecast time. I like HRRR for "today" and NAMNST for "tomorrow". GFS is also a classic for longer-term predictions, but I don't have a good enough memory to tell you how accurate it is. (HRRR is some good tech, though. Predicting the future is tough, HRRR does a pretty good job.) These models also have decent surface predictions; temperature, dewpoint, winds, etc. If you're willing to step through some pretty pictures in a very nice web interface, you can get some great ideas of what the weather is going to do. Well worth a visit.

On NAM and some other models, you can also long-press on a point to see a forecast sounding. This is probably in the realm of too much information for the average person interested in weather (and using models to make your own forecast probably is too), but hey, they have some neat software and you should play with it.

Finally, I like the SPC's site for situational awareness of thunderstorms in the summer: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/. Their forecast tools are also excellent: https://www.spc.noaa.gov/exper/. Specifically, the mesoanalysis graphics can be interesting for anticipating exceptional events.

Anyway, I used to be a heavy user of Weather Underground. They got bought, then their parent company got bought, and now they have no actual weather information and just clickbait videos. It's very sad, but you can cobble together some tools that are freely available on the Internet and be aware of the current and upcoming weather, without being served a single ad!

Otherwise, iOS has a thing you can turn on that notifies you when it thinks it's going to start raining.

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#89

Post by mahmoudhossam »

pronoiac wrote: post #14
jmann99999 wrote: post #4

I am a long-ago purchaser of Dark Sky. I find I never use it on my iPhone. Carrot Weather is always superior in both the forecast and Radar. Dark Sky's "it will rain in 5 minutes" was hit or miss. I live in the mountains, so perhaps, Dark Sky works well in a less difficult environment. That said, if it disappears tomorrow, I won't miss it.

I'm picking up Carrot Weather now. Its "Editors' Choice" description says it draws data from Dark Sky, though? Edit: disregard the source comment. It draws from multiple sources, like Foreca.

Carrot just pushed an update that switches the Dark Sky source to Apple weather.

Re: Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

#90

Post by ShakataGaNai »

D_Joni wrote: post #69

It's funny how this is posted two days after I finished my Weather web app which uses Dark Sky's free API: https://weather-dj.netlify.app/ Let's hope that in the future Apple continues to deliver the same API structure as Dark Sky did, because it will be a big shame if they did some changes or limitations to it. Although I only use this app mostly for my personal use, the effort that I've put into this would be for n…

Apple announced the purchase of DarkSky back in 2020. The API was originally scheduled to be killed off sometime at the end of 2021 but that got extended. You also haven't been able to signup for a Dev account since May of 2020. There has been a lot of news about this which was kinda hard to miss.

And no, Apple is not interested in sharing its API's with anyone.

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