Live data from Hacker News

Privacy respecting weather app for Android

f-droid.org

81–90 of 99 posts

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#81

I have used the app. Its Ok but of limited use - and has no widget. At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Why? Because they had a widget that did the trick. I could see forecast by the hour on the widget, including % rain by the hour and wind. A user needs to be able to plan his day (or week) out with a mere glance. If I have…

The app has a widget.

Yup, had to go check as well after installing and it does indeed. With four different options even!

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#82

Is any substantial store of endorsements / comments for f-droid apps to be found? I guess the absence of a "like" or review function in the f-droid app is a deliberate choice, but I'd love to see user feedback at a central, or at least easily discoverable, place. This has been discussed [1],[2], and looks like it won't happen "officially", but a third-party site utilising the API and possibly organised like nexusmods…

There's g-droid that has a like functionality: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.gdroid.gdroid/

Though it could use more users and reviewers.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#83

I have used the app. Its Ok but of limited use - and has no widget. At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Why? Because they had a widget that did the trick. I could see forecast by the hour on the widget, including % rain by the hour and wind. A user needs to be able to plan his day (or week) out with a mere glance. If I have…

I used to use Dark Sky, which was perfect! It had an auto updating widget with a precipitation graph for the week. Then Apple bought it and shut the API down for non-iOS devices, so I found myself in a similar predicament. Like you, I was tempted to install some 1Weather-like garbage, but I ended up switching to Forecastie. The widget is barebones and it requires 3 taps to get to the precipitation graph, but those are just my own little pet issues. As far as things that actually matter to most people -- it's ad-free, open source, nice and snappy. If you don't like the OP app, I can recommend this one. https://f-droid.org/en/packages/cz.martykan.forecastie/

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#84
post #4

The developers [0] of this app have a whole series of different Privacy Friendly Apps, if you search for "org.secuso" on f-droid you can see them all. [0] https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/index.php

That's pretty awesome. The page with an overview of all their apps is right here: https://secuso.aifb.kit.edu/english/105.php

Hmm, it never occurred to me that reckoning was the same word as Rechnung (German) and räkning (Swedish) but that's kind of obvious now that they say it. Is that a common way to refer to counting and arithmetic in English somewhere?

One thing I see missing though is a mood tracker.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#85

Are there no open-source weather apps on Play Store? For US weather at least we have https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api , so it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do. Is there something about the Play Store eco-system that makes such a thing not viable or trustworthy? Seems like all you'd need is a minimalist web page doing a single http request to the api

I suspect the main issue is getting discovered. Without filters like "no ads" or "no in-app purchases" in Play Store, it's hard to see how Google would ever organically bubble results for such an app to the top (since Google Ads is by far the most popular and there are definitely financial incentives to promote those apps over more privacy-conscious ones).

I prefer to use apps from F-Droid, but when that fails, I use a third-party search for the Play Store that has both of those filters - https://playsearch.kaki87.net/

Your broader point is right though. It doesn't benefit the app devs since 99.99% of users just use the first-party search.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#87

Are there no open-source weather apps on Play Store? For US weather at least we have https://www.weather.gov/documentation/services-web-api , so it doesn't seem like it would be that hard to do. Is there something about the Play Store eco-system that makes such a thing not viable or trustworthy? Seems like all you'd need is a minimalist web page doing a single http request to the api

Someone else mentioned that this app is also on the google play store.

https://play.google.com/store/apps/dev?id=479730765079191737...

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#88
I use Geometric Weather. It's also on F-Droid, has widgets, material design, and a GPL3 license. You can choose the source for your weather, and it has just about any feature you'd ever need (wind speed, barometric pressure, weekly, daily, and hourly forecasts). It's very pretty, too.

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#89

Is any substantial store of endorsements / comments for f-droid apps to be found? I guess the absence of a "like" or review function in the f-droid app is a deliberate choice, but I'd love to see user feedback at a central, or at least easily discoverable, place. This has been discussed [1],[2], and looks like it won't happen "officially", but a third-party site utilising the API and possibly organised like nexusmods…

There's g-droid that has a like functionality: https://f-droid.org/en/packages/org.gdroid.gdroid/ Though it could use more users and reviewers.

Thanks, I'll certainly give that a try!

Re: Privacy respecting weather app for Android

#90

I have used the app. Its Ok but of limited use - and has no widget. At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Why? Because they had a widget that did the trick. I could see forecast by the hour on the widget, including % rain by the hour and wind. A user needs to be able to plan his day (or week) out with a mere glance. If I have…

> At some point I had to use a china-based app (that i would normally not touch with a 10 foot pole) despite privacy considerations Scary stuff. The fact that a well-informed user would compromise privacy consideration to save a tap or two when checking the weather is why we're all probably doomed. Even the slightest inconvenience seems to outweigh any long term privacy implications.

I have migrated off all of gsuite and will still refuse to turn on location. I don't even use Gmaps even though Osmnd is mostly useless.

Yet at some point I had a china weather app on my phone and i was quite happy w it. Since replies mentioned a widget is now available, will try it out.

:(

Post reply on HN