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Apple acquires Dark Sky

blog.darksky.net

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Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#331

Post by spsful »

kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #231
ryandvm wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It ain't pretty, but it works and you've already paid for it. I've been following the public weather data scene for a long time and I'm pretty sure that UX for all the NOAA/NWS web sites is horrible by design, so to speak. After all, there are plenty of well designed .gov sites (e.g. https://recreation.gov/ ), but just try browsing around weather.gov for a few minutes. It's horrible. I mean, the data is top-notch a…

The stagnation of the public NOAA site is mostly AccuWeather's doing. The local radar maps still use flash for loop animation so they're going to have to do something in the next year to keep that going. https://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=DIX&product=NCR&over...

What did AccuWeather do?

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#332

Post by Yhippa »

DiabloD3 wrote: post #94

As an Android user that uses Dark Sky: Fuck you. Everyone else is congratulating the team on a job well done, I'm not. I rely on Dark Sky because there are no better services, and it is a service I pay for. Now I'm going to have to switch to some second rate weather app that can't predict the weather worth a damn because it just regurgitates the NWS. God fucking damnit.

> Our goal has always been to provide the world with the best weather information possible, to help as many people as we can stay dry and safe, and to do so in a way that respects your privacy.

But hey, they are looking out for us!

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#333

Post by cpeterso »

sah2ed wrote: post #326
fenwick67 wrote: post #238

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Shazam still works on Android. But Shazam usage data is valuable, arguably.

Perhaps you are right that data on listens is valuable to Apple. Shazam on Android is a net producer of data, while Dark Sky on Android is a net consumer of data.

Where does Dark Sky get its weather data? Do they crowdsource any data from their apps? If so, then continuing to support Android devices could still provide value to Apple.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#334

Post by Yhippa »

shadowoflight wrote: post #312
adambyrtek wrote: post #197

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, that's the classic "it's been a wonderful journey" scenario where the whole product is sunset, but shutting down just a single platform is not as obvious.

One could easily argue that Apple is sunsetting the Android app for one of the same reasons we can't install MacOS on a non-Apple PC (without violating the EULA): Apple doesn't like supporting unpredictable platforms, and doesn't want to be in a situation where people blame them for other people's bugs and unexpected under-the-hood changes.

Apple supports apps on Windows and Android already.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#335

Post by logjammin »

kyledrake wrote: post #33

> Android and Wear OS App > The app will no longer be available for download. Service to existing users and subscribers will continue until July 1, 2020, at which point the app will be shut down. Subscribers who are still active at that time will receive a refund. IBM bought the Weather Underground app and ruined it, and now Dark Sky was bought by Apple and they're ruining that too. Now I will have zero good weather…

Just came here to say "fuck". I'm so let down. Can't have nice things, I guess.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#336

Post by stochtastic »

minimalist wrote: post #218
sandyarmstrong wrote: post #126

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I cannot begin to say how much IBM ruined Weather Underground. The app was _perfect_! I was thrilled to pay for it. Now it's probably the worst app on my phone and I should just delete it. It takes forever to start, more than half the time it loads no data, and even if it is loaded the UI redesign has made the whole thing slow and useless. Would love suggestions for another app on Android.

Restating a comment from about a year ago[0]: If you are in the United States, nothing beats getting the forecast straight from the horses mouth (NWS that is). Some companies are notorious for producing 30+ day forecasts, which can't have any meaningful levels of skill. NOAA/NWS should just create their own mobile application. I use Wx[1], which parses NWS data directly and can be found on f-droid[2] and g---le play.…

You might be interested to know that private sector weather forecasting firms have a long history of lobbying to prevent NOAA/NWS from building its own end user services and apps [0].

I agree that NWS [text] forecasts are usually the best, though it can be time consuming to digest them. Nate Silver's book [1] makes the interesting point that commercial forecasts almost always reduce the quality of the input data they're given from NOAA, but that part of this boils down to incentives: Nobody complains if you forecast a small chance of rain and it turns out to be sunny. The problem spot is in ruining someone's picnic. Hence, forecasts tend to bias heavily towards rain.

[0]: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/features/2018-06-14/trump-s-p...

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Signal_and_the_Noise

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#337

Post by LeoPanthera »

The death of the API is terrible news. Wunderground shut down their API last year when they were acquired by TWC/IBM. That means the only weather providers with an API left are Foreca, ClimaCell, AccuWeather, Aeris, and MeteoGroup.

...and none of these are even vaguely as accurate (in the USA) as Dark Sky or Wunderground. It's a real loss.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#338

Post by input_sh »

jacurtis wrote: post #329
kyledrake wrote: post #33

> Android and Wear OS App > The app will no longer be available for download. Service to existing users and subscribers will continue until July 1, 2020, at which point the app will be shut down. Subscribers who are still active at that time will receive a refund. IBM bought the Weather Underground app and ruined it, and now Dark Sky was bought by Apple and they're ruining that too. Now I will have zero good weather…

Try Carrot on iOS. It is really good. It is famous for its mini game and snarky robot comments that predict the weather. But the core weather is great and has the best interface.

Just two FYIs: it uses Dark Sky's API and it's also available on Android.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#339

Post by kevin_thibedeau »

spsful wrote: post #331
kevin_thibedeau wrote: post #231

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The stagnation of the public NOAA site is mostly AccuWeather's doing. The local radar maps still use flash for loop animation so they're going to have to do something in the next year to keep that going. https://radar.weather.gov/radar.php?rid=DIX&product=NCR&over...

What did AccuWeather do?

They lobbied to prevent open access to tax payer funded data. NOAA is intentionally underfunded to prevent them from making a modern site as a compromise.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#340

Post by duanem »

c0nsumer wrote: post #5

This is really, really disappointing. I've been pretty critical of Dark Sky at times for being mediocre for more than maybe 12 hours out, but for very short term forecasts it worked great. I spent a fair amount of time outdoors and getting a 30 minute heads-up for "drizzle" versus "heavy rain" was excellent and really let me time how long to stay outside for. I'd really, really like a replacement on Android. While Wu…

Rainviewer is working on a similar output as Dark Sky where they are a predicting the radar images forward up to 2 hours.

I don't think this feature is released yet but with this situation and support, they might work on it faster.

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