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A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

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Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#61

Post by camel_gopher »

strict9 wrote: post #8

It was a masterpiece. Apple deleting Dark Sky something I will never forgive them for. Maybe not enough to make me switch phones, but enough to make me look elsewhere when needing peripheral items. The statement that Dark Sky features were incorporated into the native weather app was an insult. I know I sound dramatic talking about a weather app, but it was in a class of its own and nothing else is remotely comparabl…

It was good enough that I moved from android to iPhone when they killed the android version

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#62

Post by nixpulvis »

I'm not sure I completely see the authors point about "Preserving temperature magnitudes in ranges", could someone help me understand?

Specifically, I don't understand this: "all temperature ranges are rescaled to take up the same amount of space in the app.", since it seems like both the Dark Sky and Weather.app views use pills that don't cover the x axis, as expected.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#63

Post by screamingninja »

scarface74 wrote: post #32
strict9 wrote: post #8

It was a masterpiece. Apple deleting Dark Sky something I will never forgive them for. Maybe not enough to make me switch phones, but enough to make me look elsewhere when needing peripheral items. The statement that Dark Sky features were incorporated into the native weather app was an insult. I know I sound dramatic talking about a weather app, but it was in a class of its own and nothing else is remotely comparabl…

Apple also made the underlying API available for both iOS and Android. Someone is free to create a similar app.

> free to create a similar app

Only if you sign up for the Apple Developer Program, comply with all their rules and expectations, and not be surprised if they ban you from using it with no explanation whatsoever.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#64

Post by eli »

nonethewiser wrote: post #41
jwestbury wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I just piggyback on this to shit on the iOS Weather app for a moment? Whoever designed it doesn't understand the concept of daily max/min temperatures, and the daily low presented in the app is the lowest during that calendar day, rather than the forecast overnight low following the day. It drives me absolutely mad, because I can never reliably determine how cold it will get overnight without going into the hourl…

I’m confused why the daily minimum would include times outside the day. That doesn’t seem like a daily minimum by definition. The way Apple does it is exactly how I assumed it would work. Is the alternative you described standard?

It's very rare that I need to know about what the weather was like a few hours in the past.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#65

Post by drcongo »

Brilliant article, but I'm surprised notifications don't get a mention, this was the killer feature of Dark Sky for me - notifications warning me of imminent rain / storm / snow and notifications telling me when it's going to stop and for how long. Made living with a dog that hates rain much easier. None of this has been brought over to the stock weather app properly, that notifies me of maybe one in every hundred rainfalls which is completely useless.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#66

Post by mazork »

jameshart wrote: post #40

Dark Sky was okay. As detailed here, it does a great job of centering on the actual user needs of weather app users. Unfortunately, it also demonstrated that which users you focus on matters a lot. Dark Sky is great at answering the weather questions of people who live in places where rain showers are short lasting; where temperatures range from ‘cool’ to ‘hot’; and where storms are infrequent, special events. Basica…

I live in Montreal and I loved Dark Sky. So I'll disagree.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#68

Post by screamingninja »

moneywoes wrote: post #33
strict9 wrote: post #8

It was a masterpiece. Apple deleting Dark Sky something I will never forgive them for. Maybe not enough to make me switch phones, but enough to make me look elsewhere when needing peripheral items. The statement that Dark Sky features were incorporated into the native weather app was an insult. I know I sound dramatic talking about a weather app, but it was in a class of its own and nothing else is remotely comparabl…

Any good alternatives since?

https://www.windy.com/

Probably some of the best visualization techniques I have seen. Free features cover most use cases; premium gives you better resolution.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#69

Post by IBCNU »

Oh, great, yet another UI masterpiece swallowed by the insatiable maw of refinement culture at Apple. "Dark Sky" app was only a weather app, but it looked goth. It was our weather app, and it was beautiful in its simplicity. Now we're left with the soulless husk that is Apple Weather. But hey, why not? Let's strip away every last shred of uniqueness and character in the name of "refinement." Sigh. Guess I'll just go back to waiting for my bones to ache for my forecasts.

Re: A eulogy for Dark Sky, a data visualization masterpiece

#70

Post by dcre »

egypturnash wrote: post #9

I have moved from Dark Sky to Weather Strip: https://www.weatherstrip.app It does a really nice job of showing me most of what Dark Sky showed, in a similarly easy-to-glance-at format once I spent a little time learning to read its graphs. I think Carrot Weather has a lot of graphs directly ripped off from Dark Sky but the constant attempts to upsell me to a subscription plan while I was playing with it really turned…

Thank you, I love it. Weather Underground has something similar, but this has the potential to get a lot better.
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