FYI Apple buys dark sky

Posted on
Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:08 pm
norcoscia offline
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FYI Apple buys dark sky

Not sure if this will impact the plug in?
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Norm

Posted on
Tue Mar 31, 2020 12:26 pm
Korey offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

norcoscia wrote:
Not sure if this will impact the plug in?


looks like probably after 2021 :(

The Dark Sky app will remain a $3.99 offering on the App Store for iPhones and iPads, but will no longer be sold for Android devices. Most of its website’s functionality will stop on July 1. Its application-programming-interface tools for other apps and websites will run through the end of 2021, Dark Sky said.

--
Korey

Posted on
Tue Mar 31, 2020 2:12 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Thanks for the heads up. Yes, this will affect the plugin as Korey suggests. Looks like the API will shut down next year and, more urgently, no new API signups will be allowed. Therefore, it is likely that no new users will be able to adopt the Fantastic Weather plugin going forward.

In the short run, I don't plan to change anything for existing users of the plugin and will commit to continue to address bugs to the extent that I can. It's not likely that I'll be adding any new features as that's throwing good money after bad.

All existing users of the plugin can continue to use it as before, but should start to think about finding a new solution. I will do some research to see what other options are available, but I suspect that we're probably going to have to rely on our respective national weather services. It isn't likely that I'd be able to write a universal weather plugin that would work with them all, but it might be an opportunity to see how the GhostXML plugin could be used as a bridge.

Sigh.

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Posted on
Wed Apr 01, 2020 2:07 am
howartp offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

The world is determined to cripple your weather plugins isn’t it! :-(


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Posted on
Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:09 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Amen brother. Testify.

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Posted on
Wed Apr 01, 2020 8:44 am
RogueProeliator offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

The world is determined to cripple your weather plugins isn’t it! :-(

Might be time for the community to subscribe to an API License key for Dave to develop an official plugin... I've seen some for $20 or $25/month, but unsure of the quality. So of those @sshats want like $150/mo minimum.

Posted on
Wed Apr 01, 2020 4:11 pm
durosity offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

RogueProeliator wrote:
The world is determined to cripple your weather plugins isn’t it! :-(

Might be time for the community to subscribe to an API License key for Dave to develop an official plugin... I've seen some for $20 or $25/month, but unsure of the quality. So of those @sshats want like $150/mo minimum.


An official plugin for what? (Sorry I feel like I’ve missed something here)


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Computer says no.

Posted on
Wed Apr 01, 2020 5:58 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

RogueProeliator wrote:
The world is determined to cripple your weather plugins isn’t it! :-(

Might be time for the community to subscribe to an API License key for Dave to develop an official plugin... I've seen some for $20 or $25/month, but unsure of the quality. So of those @sshats want like $150/mo minimum.

While i really appreciate the sentiment, I'm not sure what that would be. Weather Underground is a cluster--hugely expensive. Dark Sky won't have an API. I'm going to take a look at Open Weather, but it's a somewhat limited API until you get to a pretty costly tier. If anyone knows of a better global data source, please let me know.

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Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 2:07 am
McJohn offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky


Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 4:39 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Thanks John - it will be interesting to see if and how Apple makes the data available to developers going forward.

I took a quick look at the Accuweather API and it has some real limitations. The free API is limited to 50 calls per day and the service doesn't make severe weather alerts available until the $250 per month tier (plus there is a heavy price for API calls over a set limit).

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Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:01 am
howartp offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

I think Jay and Matt should supply us all with Windows.

No, not Microsoft ones, I mean ones made of glass so we can see what the weather is outside.


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Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 8:12 am
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

If you think about it, the weather is fairly moot anyway. It's not like we can go outside. :D

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Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 3:32 pm
mclass offline
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FYI Apple buys dark sky

Some options I have been investigating include:

YR Norway - https://hjelp.yr.no/hc/en-us/articles/3 ... ce-from-Yr

UK Met Office “Weather Observation Website (WOW) - https://wow.metoffice.gov.uk/

Both offer a wide geographical range of observations, and WOW appears to be similar to Wunderground in that it allows personal weather stations to be registered.

mclass


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Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 5:45 pm
DaveL17 offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

I've looked into six services and the best of the six (in terms of transitioning from Dark Sky) are below. Unfortunately, none seem to readily lend themselves to plugin support.

Open Weather - Free (60 calls per minute) -- cheapest plan after that is US$40 per month. If you exceed the 60 call per minute limit, it appears they will suspend the account and require a paid subscription. Open Weather is probably the best of the three, but the plan doesn't seem to leave room for any hiccups. One bad minute and the user would be on the hook for US$500 per year in order to reactivate their API.

Accuweather - Free (50 calls per day), US$250+ per month to get severe weather alerts.

Weatherbit - Only free for 30 days. After that, the minimum plan is US$35 per month.

I'm open to other API ideas, but to make adapting the plugin worthwhile, I think it needs to be a global service.

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Posted on
Thu Apr 02, 2020 7:20 pm
mclass offline
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Re: FYI Apple buys dark sky

Hi,

Whilst neither of my nominees in my previous post are US based, they claim to provide global data and api’s.

In addition they are/appear to be government run/supported in stable jurisdictions, so maybe more stable in the long term?

I’ve been using YR for forecasts/data in Australia and find find them reliable and comparable to other services.


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