Dark Sky's iOS App and Website Will Shut Down At the End of 2022 (theverge.com) 45
Following Apple's acquisition of popular weather app Dark Sky in March 2020, Dark Sky's iOS app and website will be available until the end of 2022, co-founder Adam Grossman said in a Monday update to Dark Sky's blog. The Verge reports: The update about the 2022 shutdown hit the same day that Apple announced new weather features coming to iOS 15 as part of its WWDC keynote presentation. The stock Weather app is getting a new design, full-screen weather maps, next-hour precipitation notifications, and even new animated backgrounds. Dark Sky shut down the Android and Wear OS versions of its apps on August 1st, 2020. But the iOS app is still available for $3.99 on the App Store, if you're interested in buying it ahead of next year's shutdown. The Dark Sky API will also continue to work for existing customers until the end of 2022. Previously, the API was set to stop working at the end of this year; now, it will work for a little while longer.
Embrace, extend, extinguish (Score:3)
Oh wait, that's Micro$oft.
Re:Embrace, extend, extinguish (Score:4, Insightful)
Yeah, Apple’s not bothering with the “extend” part.
Re: Embrace, extend, extinguish (Score:2)
We are talking about a weather app right? Not a web browser or office suite.
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Because if you were older or knew your computer history at all, this was the sort of thing MS was accused of (and actually did) frequently.
It is ironic that Apple is doing it now, the student has become the master, and all that rot, yada yada.
So now you know.
Re:Off topic (Score:5, Insightful)
A) “Sherlocking” is an Apple thing that you seem to be unaware of. Back in the ‘90s (Mac OS 8 or 9 era) there was a popular search app for Mac called Watson. Apple got up on stage one day and announced a search app called Sherlock that was a blatant ripoff of Watson. Watson sales dried up overnight and I think the company went bust, which left a lot of people salty. Since then, whenever Apple rips off a third-party app’s functionality (pardon me: whenever they “innovate”), rendering it unnecessary, people say that the app got Sherlocked. As should be obvious, this is not a case of a company getting Sherlocked.
B) This isn’t a case of Embrace, Extend, Extinguish either, as should be obvious to anyone old enough to remember that era. Apple doesn’t really do EEE. I suspect it’s anathema to them, since it would require acting like someone else has something so great that you want to play nice with them. MS can put up a good front like that, but Apple institutionally cannot admit in public when others have better things.
Rather than being either of those, this is a standard buyout with a gradual sunsetting of the original product as its features are incorporated into their own system. Standard, boring, above board stuff.
buy ... extinguish (Score:2)
Indeed. This is Apple. They just buy and extinguish skipping the pesky middle steps.
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I'm just trying to figure out what functionality they expect to get from that expensive purchase.
The weather data all comes from a small number of sources, the metrological agencies. A number of apps have been providing hour-by-hour forecasts for years, and the Google one I usually look at seems pretty accurate. If you want more data there is Windy.
What are they hoping to get out of this? Seems like it's a solved problem with little scope for improvement, unless the Apple service was really bad before and t
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But what is special about Dark Sky? They must be using the same source data as everyone else, from various weather satellites and agencies that collect readings from calibrated stations.
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Interesting. I've never had issues with whatever data Google uses, it always seems to be pretty accurate.
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And what would be the purpose of such specificity? Are you continually looking at your phone every few minutes to gauge the weather? Do you have issues wth your eyes that you can't look out the window and see the weather?
If the weather report says there's a good chance of rain that day (50% or greater), is it that difficult to keep an umbrella with you?
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Hmm that's interesting... Not all that useful to me but I guess some people might need it.
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Not necessarily from the same data source. I remember reading a few years back that while most of the major weather apps take their data from larger cities there are smaller towns actually providing this data to them. So, which is easier for the app maker...Make sure 2-3 major cities' addresses are correct and working -or- Make sure 30 addresses, one for each county, is correct and functioning?
This was why some of the weather apps for jailbroken phones were more accurate than the big boys. They were willing
Lots of people care (Score:5, Informative)
Lots of people care, the Dark Sky API powers many services useful to different kinds of people. For example, I have a reasonably popular iOS app called Xasteria [ecuadors.net], which amateur astronomers use to see forecasts of astronomical seeing & transparency so that they can plan observing sessions. The free version is made to use the 7Timer [7timer.info] API, which is about as good as you can get on such forecasts, however it is not optimised for short term predictions (takes up to 5-6 hours to do a full processing run), so is less reliable for the next say 3-6 hours compared to systems that combine the latest weather station/radar data with the forecast run, like Dark Sky does. Hence, there is a $0.99 version [apple.com] of the app (proceeds go to support the 7Timer servers I provide) that also includes the non-free Dark Sky API, exactly because it adds value.
Depending on where you are, it is possible Dark Sky is not the best at short-term - there are some other contenders, but it's still miles ahead of whatever Apple was using and for me it is a relief I won't have to replace it for an extra year, it was already quite an annoyance.
Re:Lots of people care (Score:4, Interesting)
There's actually hundreds of thousands of amateur astronomers, a big chunk of them using Dark Sky and other weather APIs. Source: My own apps which serve only iOS have tens of thousands of users.
Not sure how big a chunk of the population you'd want something to concern before it is stuff that matters? Unless it's only if you care about it?
Weathernews is the gold standard to match (Score:2)
Haven't used Dark Sky but Apple's iOS weather predictions were always wrong, and even now if you ask Siri "Is it raining outside?" or "Is it going to rain today?" it is invariably wrong. I use the Weathernews iOS app (Japanese) and it is amazing. They provide hourly predictions for the whole day, and even higher resolution for paid, plus lots of other weather "channels" in the app which are maps such as earthquake reports and map based predictions for pollen, weather related headaches, firefly season, cherr
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Proof of what you said happened to me just two days ago. It was a sunny 94 outside when everyone was shocked that it started to downpour! Several of us looked at our phones which gave no indication it was raining at all.
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Several of us looked at our phones which gave no indication it was raining at all.
Clearly you were holding it wrong.
Extend it a bit further and it will always reliably indicate whether it's raining. (Just be sure to wipe it off afterward.)
Sadly Weathernews seems quite bad (Score:1)
I use the Weathernews iOS app (Japanese) and it is amazing.
I just tried loading it, and maybe it's great in Japanese but for English, it's a worthless app. First of all, it errored out loading first thing. But after a restart of the app it loaded weather - all it has is a single screen with daily temperatures. No way to get any kind of hourly weather, no predictions, and the temperatures are locked in Celsius with no options to change (the app does not even have a Settings page).
I personally am looking a
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Thanks for the info. Sorry, I use it in Japanese, though it is one of the few from a Japanese company on the U.S. app store too. Agreed it is locked in Celsius so I sometimes ask Siri what the temp is and it tells me in Fahrenheit! Unfortunately it looks like they are not doing anything for other markets now. If they would offer it in English it would be great but I don't even know if they have weather data for outside Japan. They have been the #1 weather data service provider in Japan for decades. The home
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Yep I'll bet it's just a matter of data, I'll keep an eye on it and see if they expand to other markets at some point. I do travel to Japan sometimes so at least I can use it there! Glad you have such a awesome weather app, really good ones are are a bit hard to come by.
Re: Weathernews is the gold standard to match (Score:1)
glad i didnt spend money on it (Score:3)
Wait a minute. (Score:3)
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Bet that app works best on an iPhone that's Space Gray. :D
you can always bookmark this link (Score:3)
it is not and nicely laid out as weather apps but you already have a web browser installed, just use it and bookmark weather.gov and a little browser navigating will give you all the same info the best weather apps will give you
a couple more good links https://earth.nullschool.net/ [nullschool.net]
https://www.lightningmaps.org/ [lightningmaps.org]
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It's not the same. You can't just arbitrarily replace one with another without asking why people had a preference. The datasource and the presentation differ.
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Pretty sure that is exactly what FudRucker indicated... "it's not and nicely..."(sic) "with a little browser navigating..." "same info..." and then supplying additional resources, as well. So of course it's not the same... it's a simplified version with fewer one click customization. Plus the .gov site isn't going to include additional fear mongering about ticks in your gas pipes and sewage water in your electricity lines. But the price to pay for natively free of doom scrolling is a not-as-pretty site.
Dead to me (Score:1)
Dark Sky API powers many services (Score:1)
iPad OS (Score:1)
Still waiting for Apple Weather on my iPad.