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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

#151

Post by snozolli »

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 like Weawow. It's proven accurate regarding weather trends, but it tends to be overly dramatic. I'm guessing this is related to living in a valley, as the weather to the north and south seems to match their forecast better.

It has the data that's indispensable to me: precipitation amount per hour. I don't care as much about how likely it is to rain, I care about whether I'm going to get sprinkled on or drenched.

The wind and weather map is pretty nice.

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

#152

Post by p_j_w »

jwcooper wrote: post #83
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…

To make matters worse, Apple killed off the web version too, and didn't replace it with anything. The Dark Sky website was brilliant as well. It loaded quickly, wasn't covered in ads, and the UX was comparable to their app. I haven't really found anything to replace it with yet. I've defaulted to weather.gov, but the UX isn't really there yet (it's great for storms, or when you need to drill down into good data thoug…

>Apple killed off the web version too

It boggles the mind, doesn't it? The equivalent of a bunch of food and housing was spent just so something useful could be taken out of half of the population's hands. Just think about that, overall social utility decreased and someone spent money to make it happen. Absolutely parasitic behavior.

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

#153

Post by schiffern »

nofinator wrote: post #131
moneywoes wrote: post #33

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

>$7 lifetime Premium Version

I presume you mean the $7 "For as long as the developer feels like it" Premium Version.

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

#154

Post by PaulDavisThe1st »

jnmandal wrote: post #139
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?

It's 95% them, 5% my choices of what to show. There's a customize button just above the right corner of the actual display. Click on that, and select what parameters you want to see from the 10 options. I chose to show: Cloud, Humidity, Chance of Precipitation, Pressure, Temperature, Wind Speed.

Hope that helps. Oh, this is also the "10 day forecast". I never use the daily or hourly views.

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

#155

Post by whyenot »

adql wrote: post #36
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 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. "I hate them so I will only give them a tiny bit less money" is why it will never change

Ok, let's play this game. I don't like what Apple did to Darksky, so I'll switch to Android. What do I do when Google inevitably does something similar, who do I switch to then?

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

#156

Post by jollyllama »

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…

wunderground 10 day is about as good as it gets

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

#157

Post by cubefox »

sweettea wrote: post #76
cubefox wrote: post #51

Related: Weather apps could in general be better, not just in terms of visualization. One thing which always annoys me is how they handle rain predictions. They give "probabilities" for rain. But what do those mean? The probability that it rains for at least one minute in the given time frame? And with at least x mm/inches of rain coming down? And isn't a low probability of short and weak rain totally different from…

Expected value is already what most forecasts show. Expected value conveys information poorly in some common cases, like thunderstorms in the summer. It is very different to hear there's a 20% chance of a thunderstorm, dropping an inch of rain, vs. a 100% chance of .2" rain - the former needs a backup plan to deal with rain, the latter needs to plan for rain. Hence I prefer the text forecasts from the NWS, which list…

Okay, in very high variance cases like thunderstorms the expected value might indeed not be enough, but there are usually additional storm warnings for that anyway. My claim is just that the expected amount of rainfall is much more interesting than the probability of rainfall. Yet the apps I know display probabilities prominently, not expected values.

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

#158

Post by jameshart »

cauthon wrote: post #123
tyrfing wrote: post #72

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Disagree. Dark Sky was fantastic in the PNW, where the main concerns are just how rainy it will be that day, and the approximate high temperatures coming up. Nothing accurately forecasts (here) whether it will be freezing or whether precipitation will be snow/slush/hail/rain, but other apps like Apple's are absolutely horrific at forecasting precipitation even a few hours out. Stuff like showing 30% chance of rain in…

> 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. Basically people whose interaction with the weather hinges on ‘do I need a jacket?’ > Disagree. Dark Sky was fantastic in the PNW I think you're actually in complete agreement with OP

Right? ‘It’s not only for Northern California! It works fine up as far as Seattle!’ is not exactly a refutation of my (slightly hyperbolically stated) thesis that Dark Sky’s human friendliness is not as global as people seem to think.

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

#159

Post by scarface74 »

chordalkeyboard wrote: post #127
scarface74 wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

> That must be why developing iOS Apps is so unpopular with developers… Apple products are popular among consumers and developers in spite of their many user-hostile decisions precisely because there are few alternatives, all of which have substantial disadvantages as well.

So if Apple products are “user hostile” then why are enough users happily spending twice as much on iPhones and more on Macs to make Apple the most valuable company in the world?

Maybe their decisions are only hostile to geeks who want to run Linux on the Apple Pencil.

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

#160

Post by BenFranklin100 »

Meh. Dark sky visualization design was nothing special. The pinnacle of beautiful, compact, data rich weather apps remains Weather Underground back in its day before it got bought up and shredded. Now there was an weather app that could show you a week’s worth of weather at a glance.
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