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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

#191
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…

I tend to use probability more for decision making - usually trying to determine whether I need to bring an umbrella or rain gear with me on a given day. If the probability is low I can usually just look out the window and time my trips outside when it’s not raining and probably get by without rain gear. Whereas a high probability means I’m probably going to need to go out in the rain at some point, and need to pack appropriately.

I also do a lot of cycling, and total duration spent in the rain tends to matter more to me than the amount of rainfall. I don’t mind riding through a quick downpour or two on a ride if I can dry out in between, but spending several hours in constant rain can be miserable (and hypothermia becomes a concern) - even if it’s light rain.

Of course expected amount definitely has uses, too. For example if there is rain forecast for tonight, and I’m trying to determine the probability that a field will be usable for practice in the morning.

Anyway I would say that both probability and expected amount are important, and any competent weather app should offer both. The Apple Weather app only shows hourly forecasts for expected amount, and that alone would be enough to be a dealbreaker for me.

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

#192
post #135
post #17

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

they've made to make it easy to give up your location privacy to Apple? Emergency SOS is the latest one

I look forward to your blog post where you detail your phone call to emergency services:

911: 911, what's your emergency?

You: I fell down the stairs and broke my leg. It's gushing blood everywhere!

911: What is your location?

You: Oh, no you don't! I'm not giving my location to anyone! You're just gonna have to GUESS where I am!

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

#193
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…

I still haven't forgiven Apple for killing off Aperture.

To date nothing has come close to Aperture's seamless blending of image organizing, editing, and metadata enrichment. I'm not holding my breath that an app that feels like DarkSky will ever come along.

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

#194

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies solve their own problems. Outlook is one of the classic examples of that - it was an app that was a cultural snapshot of Microsoft. In the case of Apple, Cupertino is a pretty boring weather locale. Sometimes you need to zipper your coat and once in awhile it rains.

In the case of Apple, Cupertino is a pretty boring weather locale. Sometimes you need to zipper your coat and once in awhile it rains. Which also explains why iPhone headphone wires get brittle in moderately cold weather, and iPhones go into thermal shutdown mode at temperatures that are common in places like Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and the non-Bay Area parts of California.

So true…

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

#195
Similarly, IBM bought Weather Underground, deprecated both Storm and Wunderstation apps with excellent visualizations, and then never bothered to release anything that was worth using.

I keep Storm on an iPhone and look at it every so often, even though it no longer retrieves weather data.

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

#196
post #69

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…

Can you please not fulminate on HN? You may not owe big-corporate app-suppressers better, but you owe this community better if you're participating in it—we're trying for something else here.

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

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

#197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Companies solve their own problems. Outlook is one of the classic examples of that - it was an app that was a cultural snapshot of Microsoft. In the case of Apple, Cupertino is a pretty boring weather locale. Sometimes you need to zipper your coat and once in awhile it rains.

In the case of Apple, Cupertino is a pretty boring weather locale. Sometimes you need to zipper your coat and once in awhile it rains. Which also explains why iPhone headphone wires get brittle in moderately cold weather, and iPhones go into thermal shutdown mode at temperatures that are common in places like Arizona, New Mexico, Nevada, and the non-Bay Area parts of California.

Another example: Corporate HQs have world class internet access. No latency high bandwidth connections. If folks building lazy loading web interfaces had to use their stuff in rural North Dakota, much less outside the US, they'd be shocked at how terribly it performs and user-hostile it feels.

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

#199
post #135

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> 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…

they've made to make it easy to give up your location privacy to Apple? Emergency SOS is the latest one I look forward to your blog post where you detail your phone call to emergency services: 911: 911, what's your emergency? You: I fell down the stairs and broke my leg. It's gushing blood everywhere! 911: What is your location? You: Oh, no you don't! I'm not giving my location to anyone! You're just gonna have to GU…

I like how you have to make up a hypothetical story about me because you can't say I'm wrong about Apple's pattern of data collection :)

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

#200

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The app also tells you that. For example at the top of the app now I see a message “Rainy conditions expected around 3pm”

As the author points out, text like that is inferior to embedding information in the graphic. The reason is that with text, I have to just "hope" that they've handled all the cases that I care about, and at the fidelity that is relevant to me. With a graphic, this information is always available, and combining multiple elements tells me more information than a single text snippet can. For example: "Oh, it's only goin…

> As the author points out, text like that is inferior to embedding information in the graphic.

Apple Weather presents this information in graphical form as well. When I open the app, not only is what I need to know — "Rainy conditions expected around 7pm" — front and center, but just below that I can scroll through hours with rain percentages, and with another tap I can get as much detail as I could want.

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