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Air quality reporting on iOS

intergalactic.systems

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Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#92

I've never ever seen air quality in iOS. Probably not available where I live. You guys at least, well, have it.

You might have to dig for it - I didn’t know this feature was available before this post. You need to click on the map button then toggle the air quality layer. Seems to cover most of the US, Canada, Mexico. Western Europe is largely present but is missing a handful of countries (Belgium, Luxembourg, Ireland, Switzerland, Austria, Liechtenstein, Portugal, and Iceland). Also covers most of Japan and South Korea and sm…

Well I live in Turkey so it doesn't seem covered.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#93
As a point of clarification, Apple's AQ data is due to their licensing agreement with BreezoMeter (Israel). http://Breezometer.com As a data broker, they acquire/license the data from a variety of sources and the sell the compiled data to licensees with customer-specific data unit (eg. USA = AQI (EPA std).

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#94

The problem here is twofold. First, many countries have their own laws and policies regarding air quality exposure. Often times these regulations use metrics about time-average exposure (e.g. the annual average 8-hr maximum ozone concentration) and can't trivially be converted between agencies. It causes very negative user experiences when your air quality summary disagrees with what a regulatory agency is putting ou…

> many countries have their own laws and policies regarding air quality exposure. Often times these regulations use metrics about time-average exposure (e.g. the annual average 8-hr maximum ozone concentration) and can't trivially be converted between agencies. It causes very negative user experiences when your air quality summary disagrees with what a regulatory agency is putting out to the public due to a measureme…

Likely incompatible measurements combined with regulatory laws regarding reporting.

Remember when Donald Trump drew on a NOAA map and multiple outlets reported that was essentially a felony?

Imagine doing that all over the world. You're gonna find a couple jurisdictions not taking kindly. Remember, this is Apple, any negative pushback is a PR problem disguised as UI to it's walled garden.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#95
post #33
post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think the problem is that the colors have different meaning. The values in the screenshot for Amsterdam using the NL scale translates to 'insufficient' and while the DE scale translates to 'good' for the same city at the same time. At the very least, it means that a user cannot use these scales for inference without knowing/understanding the technology behind them. This is probably not the intention behind showing…

The colors are usually defined by the same bodies that define the scales. The German LQI has associated colors, I know for sure the American does too, and I’ll bet the Dutch in the screenshots also comes directly from the definition of the scale. And iOS defaulting to _local_ standards is a good thing! It means people get the same information they would from watching TV or reading newspaper, which is much more useful…

The point though is they can't actually compare it to their neighbors. There's no objective standard, just local baselines and hazard lines decided by political will and history.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#96

I should be able to translate what my local government/news says about air quality, just like any other portion of the weather forecast (C, F, etc). Information based on user locality seems like an excellent design.

> what my local government/news says about air quality That's assuming the local government is giving the truth regarding air quality and that their "official scale" is made to reflect reality and not obscure some measurements.

Or that it's legal to translate national information.

Remember when trump defaced a NOAA weather map? Everyone knew he broke a law.

Now imagine advertising a local quality data set and giving it your own advisory information.

Great: open source

Not a chance: Apple

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#97
post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The colors are usually defined by the same bodies that define the scales. The German LQI has associated colors, I know for sure the American does too, and I’ll bet the Dutch in the screenshots also comes directly from the definition of the scale. And iOS defaulting to _local_ standards is a good thing! It means people get the same information they would from watching TV or reading newspaper, which is much more useful…

The point though is they can't actually compare it to their neighbors. There's no objective standard, just local baselines and hazard lines decided by political will and history.

And that’s the correct tradeoff.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#98
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point though is they can't actually compare it to their neighbors. There's no objective standard, just local baselines and hazard lines decided by political will and history.

And that’s the correct tradeoff.

For Apple, yes. For people who want more valid info for health reasons, no.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#99
post #97

Earlier quoted context omitted.

And that’s the correct tradeoff.

For Apple, yes. For people who want more valid info for health reasons, no.

No, that is the correct tradeoff for the _vast_ majority of the users.

The built-in weather services in the OS should cater to the majority of the use cases, not a tiny and narrow minority.

And I hope we can agree that „people who distrust their own and neighboring countries pollution scales and need to compare them frequently” is not a wide-spread and mainstream position.

Re: Air quality reporting on iOS

#100
post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Same for me in US English. For example, right now it’s “18 - Good”. It was “469 - Hazardous” just three weeks ago though.

Happen to have any large fires nearby?

Yep, the Ontario Canada wildfires destroyed air quality for the NE part of the US.
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