Introducing Acme Weather

From Introducing Acme Weather:

Fifteen years ago, we started work on the Dark Sky weather app. Over the years it went through numerous iterations — including more than one major redesign — as we worked our way through the process of learning what makes a great weather app. Eventually, in time, it was acquired by Apple, where the forecast and some core features were incorporated into Apple Weather. We enjoyed our time at Apple. So why did we leave to start another weather company? It’s simple: when looking at the landscape of the countless weather apps out there, many of them lovely, we found ourselves feeling unsatisfied. The more we spoke to friends and family, the more we heard that many of them did too. And, of course, we missed those days as a small scrappy shop. So let’s try this again…
Acme Weather App

This is a really great looking app from the developers of Dark Sky before they were acquired by Apple. It’s super glancebale, has great typography, and nearly perfect information density.

I’ll likely give it a shot to see if it can dethrone Carrot Weather, the gold standard in my opinion.

The only downside I see thus far is the icon. As long as there’s a decent home screen widget it’s not a dealbreaker, though.

Dot: The Menu Bar Calendar That’s Become My Main Calendar

From John Vorhees at MacStories:

So if you use a calendar app that doesn’t have a great menu bar app or live in your menu bar calendar more than your main calendar app like I do, give Dot a try. There’s a 14-day free trial, and at the moment, the app is just $9.99 during its launch window when you use the code LAUNCH, with an eventual planned price of $14.99.

I’ve used Dato for a while and am generally happy with it, but I really like the little UX wins Dot offers along with the insane amount of customization. I love apps like Fantastical but can’t see myself subscribing to a calendar app given my needs. Paying one-time for this type of thing is more my speed.

Twitter and 3rd Party Apps

From Mitchell Clark, the Verge:

Elon Musk just decided to throw all of that away. Twitter has abruptly cut itself off from that stream of ideas — the stream that produced its apps, some of its most popular features, and much of its core identity. Even if he backtracks, why would developers spend their best ideas on a company that’s burned them so badly?

Twitter was always unique in that they are one of the only social media platforms to allow 3rd-party clients to essentially re-create the entire platform’s experience. Looking back at how much those early apps made the experience what it is today is really worth celebrating, even if we knew it wouldn’t last forever. Given the fact that they never were able to push ads into those timelines, it’s no wonder that eventually they would shut Twitterrific, Tweetbot and others down.

Using Day One to Scratch my Timehop Itch

Over the past few years I’ve tried to curtail my use of social media. I’ve unfollowed a ton of accounts on Instagram and Twitter, deleted my Facebook account, and mostly lurk in general. I’ve also deleted all of my old posts – I know that stuff is still searchable for Twitter if you are so […]

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Which Apple apps or services are truly great?

I was recently reading this article about how Apple’s services are often creaky, slow and feel half assed and it got me thinking: for any given app or service, what is the best in breed for that area? I’ll skip some smaller utilities and such, and focus more on the core apps and services. Apple […]

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iPadOS 15: Hands-on with Apple’s Weather app for iPad

From Zac Hall, 9to5Mac:

Some of Apple’s Weather app for iPad is particularly not very Apple-y, but this is definitely Apple’s Weather app for iPad. It launches every time you tap the Weather widget, and that’s just how widgets work. It also mentions data vendors and controlling your data. Apple is all about empowering you to own your data and preventing companies from profiting from your information.

It’s hilarious to me that Apple still doesn’t have a weather app for the iPad, but instead just sends you to a website. And a shitty one like Weather.com at that. Took me a few sentences to see what Zac was getting at, but definitely worth the read.