Live data from Hacker News

Dark Sky iOS app will no longer work from Dec 31

blog.darksky.net

111–120 of 313 posts

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

#112
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.

Apple announced that it would support WeatherKit on Android based on the Dark Ski API.

https://www.androidpolice.com/dark-sky-api-android-weatherki...

Even if it didn’t, it’s not like little old Google doesn’t have the resources to give Android a similar capability.

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

#113
post #97
post #83

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Except for the sense where it's an anti-consumer concentration of market power. Something Apple is fond of. [1] Is this particular action currently illegal? Probably not, because in the US we're in an era of extreme friendliness toward companies from anti-trust regulators. But that doesn't mean no reasonable market regulator would ever frown on acquisitions like this. [1] E.g.: https://www.theverge.com/2022/9/8/23343…

So exactly what Anti trust regulations are they guilty of when they announced that they would support Android?

https://www.androidpolice.com/dark-sky-api-android-weatherki...

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

#115
post #73
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.

More than a decade ago, I blamed the victims. I still do, in a way. When you build on top of someone else's platform, you are engaged in digital sharecropping. The platform owner acts like they own your customers, and you are tilling the landlord's fields in exchange for 70% of what you can earn selling your app. You may think the landlord is taking an outrageous cut of "your" sales, but the landlord thinks they own…

Has anyone who is doing arm chair legal analysis on HN actually been following the entire thing where Apple announced support for Android for WeatherKit?

https://www.androidpolice.com/dark-sky-api-android-weatherki...

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

#116
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.

> You also haven't been able to signup for a Dev account since May of 2020.

Dark Sky has been exceedingly clear about this for a very long time.

I don't know how the parent commenter missed it, unless they started the side project several years ago and never went back to check the API docs.

But today's announcement has nothing to do with discontinuing the Dark Sky API. They gave ample warning about that as well as replacement guidelines long ago.

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

#118
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 m…

I use the Dark Sky API on a weather site that I have been running since 2014. Thinking of switching over to Openweathermap, but would welcome other suggestions if anyone is in the same situation.

https://openweathermap.org/api

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

#120
post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because even though it might dimish the experience for a relatively small number of Dark Sky users on other platforms, the move can still be a net gain for consumers as a whole due to the large number of iOS users who can now benefit from improvements to the default weather app. Dark Sky wasn't even available to purchase in my country previously. But now, thanks to this investment by Apple, I get access to a bunch of…

So you are saying that folding in a cross platform company into the platform is a platform advantage... but not a concentration of market power? Apple changed the price of Dark Sky on other platforms to infinity but on it's platform to zero.

I agree that it's a concentration of market power. I disagree that government intervention is necessary or beneficial here.
Post reply on HN