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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

#131

Post by nofinator »

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?

I've been using Today Weather on Android ever since Dark Sky was killed off there. It looks nice, lots of different data sources, and the $7 lifetime Premium Version is a good price.

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

#132

Post by 2OEH8eoCRo0 »

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…

I use the National Weather Service and added a shortcut to my home screen.

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

#133

Post by PenguinCoder »

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?

My goTos are NOAA.gov and pirateweather.net

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

#134

Post by cglong »

tshaddox wrote: post #117
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…

It's interesting you say that, because I have been under the impression that weather apps always show daily low temperatures based on the calendar day (midnight-to-midnight). I've always thought they could be improved by showing the overnight low, which you're saying is the case for some weather apps. Which ones are those? It's also worth noting that the midnight-to-midnight scheme is a lot more well-defined than the…

Google's weather feature on Android does this :) They don't call it "high" and "low", instead calling it "day" and "night".

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

#135

Post by Lammy »

bmitc wrote: post #17
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…

And it wasn't just how it looked either. Dark Sky was a weather app that was actually accurate for what you wanted it for. It really frustrates me that Apple completely killed off the product. I don't know what their problem is, but it seems to me that it would have been no problem to allow the app to continue to exist as a standalone one while supposedly "integrating" it into whatever Apple's weather app is.

> I don't know what their problem is

Here are 195 reasons why Apple bought Dark Sky: https://i.imgur.com/5dkofIG.jpg

Have you noticed how many moves they've made to make it easy to give up your location privacy to Apple? Emergency SOS is the latest one, complete with lots of submarine news articles about how OMG It Saved My Life!! This paper has many many more examples: https://www.scss.tcd.ie/doug.leith/apple_google.pdf

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

#136

Post by dotancohen »

scarface74 wrote: post #89
screamingninja wrote: post #63

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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.

Yes because out of the millions of app submissions that happen every year, you are likely to “be banned” for some arbitrary reason that is not spelled out. That must be why developing iOS Apps is so unpopular with developers…

For one thing, from what I understand (I don't develop mobile apps, and I don't own an Apple phone) Apple forbids applications that provide features already built into the phone. That's why even Firefox on iOS is just a skin over Safari.

So if Apple Weather (or whatever they call the in-house weather app) comes with the phone, then your "same thing but different" app will not be made available in the Apple app store.

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

#137

Post by 0xfaded »

athenot wrote: post #31
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…

They did the same for the weather on the Apple Watch. It used to show the next minimum temperature but sometime last year it changed to minimum within calendar day , which is just about useless.

To be fair it's only useless 50% of the time

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

#138

Post by alecfreudenberg »

screamingninja wrote: post #78
alecfreudenberg wrote: post #67

Shout out to FlowX on Android. ( https://flowx.io/ ) The best weather app I've ever used. Much thanks to the founder Duane & his partner for the ongoing development

Not to be sceptical, but here's my initial impression. Try the "privacy" link at the bottom of their homepage. https://flowx.io/privacy/ > Page not found (404) > Request Method: GET > Request URL: http://flowx.io/privacy/ > Raised by: wagtail.core.views.serve > You're seeing this error because you have DEBUG = True in your Django settings file. Change that to False, and Django will display a standard 404 page. They t…

Good eye! I added this to their bugs forum.

I believe they are still a team of one, and have focused on app progress and efficiency at the expense of bugs & loose ends that would typically be handled in a larger organization with dedicated teams for that sort of thing. I bet they would

Personally I find it charming. That is until I run into a security issue.

I can't speak for Flowx though.

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

#139

Post by jnmandal »

PaulDavisThe1st wrote: post #95

I'm not a phone user, so the presentation of weather for me always tends to look fairly different than anything you'd "typically" see on a phone. That said, I have a hard time imagining how I could improve on the data density, clarity and depth of this 10 day forecast, customized by me, from wunderground.com https://imgur.com/5PIiB1h.png You can see clearly: * 24hr temperature cycles * cloud cover vs. sun * wind spee…

Do you mind sharing how you set that forecast UI up?

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

#140

Post by duanem »

screamingninja wrote: post #78
alecfreudenberg wrote: post #67

Shout out to FlowX on Android. ( https://flowx.io/ ) The best weather app I've ever used. Much thanks to the founder Duane & his partner for the ongoing development

Not to be sceptical, but here's my initial impression. Try the "privacy" link at the bottom of their homepage. https://flowx.io/privacy/ > Page not found (404) > Request Method: GET > Request URL: http://flowx.io/privacy/ > Raised by: wagtail.core.views.serve > You're seeing this error because you have DEBUG = True in your Django settings file. Change that to False, and Django will display a standard 404 page. They t…

Flowx dev here. I'm not sure if the 404 page or the Debug = True is the concern?? but there are two privacy pages in the help section: https://flowx.io/help/privacy/ https://flowx.io/help/privacy-policy/

I'm not a fan of website - they have become complex. I'm currently looking into static pages as a replacement.

That said, Flowx has many moving parts: app development, data servers, data processing, support, forum, website, and others. My main focus is app development and probably the least focus is the website.

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