Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

Apple acquires Dark Sky

blog.darksky.net

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

531–540 of 594 posts

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#531

Post by srhngpr »

rckclmbr wrote: post #517
srhngpr wrote: post #417

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been using Overdrop [0] for a few months now. Has great widgets and can select from a few different sources for the weather data too. [0] https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=widget.dd.com....

it says "powered by dark sky", so since they are shutting down the api, wont this app likely stop working soon?

It has always provided the option to select between Dark Sky, Weather Bit or AccuWeather. So while Dark Sky may go away, at least there are two other options, and hopefully they'll add others in light of this news.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#532

Post by saagarjha »

oarsinsync wrote: post #523
scarface74 wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What’s the purpose of “owning messaging?” All of the popular messaging companies make money via advertising. Messaging needs a network effect. The other alternative besides advertising is charging customers. Can you point to one successful platform that has a network effect and charges customers?

Microsoft Windows is a successful platform that has a network effect and charges customers. Microsoft Office (or maybe just Excel?) may qualify too, if VBScript is sufficient to label it as a platform.

> Microsoft Windows is a successful platform that has a network effect and charges customers.

This isn’t really true anymore…

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#533

Post by globular-toast »

rurp wrote: post #377
ngngngng wrote: post #62

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is that all of Dark Sky's value proposition? They take a beastly API and repackage it into something pleasant?

You've basically described all commercial weather apps. Dark Sky (and some others) do incorporate other local sources of info, but free govt data covers much/most of what they use.

I thought weather underground was crowd sourced from user weather stations.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#534

Post by saagarjha »

echelon wrote: post #296
Infinitesimus wrote: post #198

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But shutting down the API and Android apps feels like an egregious move by Apple. Yes but that's inline with what you'd expect Apple to do though. They won't support any non-Apple ecosystem unless they have to - it's just their way of doing things

This is why we should be hostile to Swift being used outside of the Apple ecosystem. To all the folks trying to make Swift server development compelling: please stop. Use Golang or Rust instead. Apple is an antagonist of other platforms/ecosystems, and there's no reason to believe they won't use Swift to force developers to buy and run Macbooks. Edit: Would the multitude of downvoters provide a counter argument? Why…

> there's no reason to believe they won't use Swift to force developers to buy and run Macbooks

Other than the fact that there has been no signs of this in the past five years?

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#535

Post by saagarjha »

balladeer wrote: post #499
cageface wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Apple's walled garden is more and more a shiny cage. Vote with your dollars and support more open alternatives. I switched to a Note 10 recently after using iPhones for years and I'm really enjoying the overall experience and the flexibility to do many things with my hardware that Apple feels I shouldn't be allowed to do.

At this point the only two things that are stopping me from leaving Apple: - The hope that iPhone 9 will not be a gigantic phone and it might actually be around the size of SE. - There's nowhere to go to. Can't go back to generic Android. That's just a non-starter. There are no OEMs who supports a privacy focussed Android ROM and sends "timely" patches and OS upgrades (there are some niche ones but they will either n…

> The hope that iPhone 9 will not be a gigantic phone and it might actually be around the size of SE.

Rumors point to a big phone :(

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#536

Post by saagarjha »

Spooky23 wrote: post #369
untog wrote: post #4

Sigh. I mean, congratulations to the founders of Dark Sky. It’s a wonderful app and they deserve all the money they’ll get from this and they deserve a lot of credit for not selling user data when almost every other weather app does. But shutting down the API and Android apps feels like an egregious move by Apple. And I hope we actually see a good improvement to the Apple weather app as a result of this. I remember a…

Apple always is rough with acquisitions of consumer stuff. Workflow is a great example, many of the third party integrations and Apple Watch support went poof.

And Workflow is one the better acquisitions…

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#537

Post by quanticle »

foota wrote: post #473
vertis wrote: post #397

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There is a difference between being a monopoly and monopolist behaviour. One has successfully become the only one standing, one is seeking to shut out competition by one method or another. At least to my understanding.

This could in a sense be viewed as a form of bundling ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bundling_(antitrust_law) ) where the services being bundled are the OS and the weather app.

The problem is that bundling is only considered problematic if your product is in a monopoly position. Bundling Internet Explorer was problematic for Windows because Windows was considered to have a monopoly in the OS market.

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#538

Post by [deleted] »

CarlRJ wrote: post #438
kbutler wrote: post #401

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://bizfluent.com/about-6601606-monopoly-economics-.html A monopoly exists when there is a single seller of a commodity. Copyrights and patents are government-granted monopolies. A broader definition is that a monopolist is a provider that has pricing power - the ability to set prices. Apple has a monopoly on the channel to deliver iOS apps. Anyone seeking to deliver an iOS app must accept Apple's terms, includin…

> Apple has a monopoly on the channel to deliver iOS apps. That's only a monopoly in the same sense that McDonalds has a monopoly on Big Macs. It's within their own ecosystem. Customers can decide whether they want to buy into that ecosystem or choose an alternative (like Burger King, or Android).

[deleted]

Re: Apple acquires Dark Sky

#539

Post by Abishek_Muthian »

I used Dark Sky API for plotting weather (temperature) data against COVID-19 cases. Of the other weather API services, I found this to be most comprehensive for historical weather data; although I doubt whether there is any universal weather API which provides 'actual historical recorded weather data' instead of forecasted data.

I emailed Dark Sky's sales team several weeks back reg API usage and didn't receive any reply; I presumed it could be because of quarantine and didn't follow it up. But, now I feel it could be because of the uncertainty from their sale to Apple although the blog says that the API will function till the end of 2021.

[1]https://abishekmuthian.com/covid-19-temperature-correlation/

Post reply on HN