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Dark Sky Review

Our Review by Kevin Stout on April 20th, 2012
Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar :: QUICK
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Dark Sky is a weather app that provides quick data on rain.

Developer: Jackadam
Price: $5.99
Version Reviewed: 1.0
Device Reviewed On: iPhone 4 and iPad (third-gen)

iPhone Integration Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar
User Interface Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar
Re-use / Replay Value Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar

Overall Rating: starstarstarstarhalfstar

While complicated weather apps that present all sorts of data are useful, I don’t want to spend more than a few seconds figuring out what the weather is going to be like before I go out. Most of the time, besides temperature, I just want to know if it’s going to rain. Dark Sky provides a quick at-a-glance view of whether or not it will rain within the next hour and how heavy that rain will be.

I’m not going to spend much time discussing the accuracy of this app. Weather isn’t always perfectly predictable. There are plenty of reviews on nearly every weather app complaining about its accuracy. This particular weather app gets its weather data from NOAA (National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration). If that service seems trustworthy enough (it has a .gov address), then the accuracy of this app is about as reliable as it can be for weather.

The app is universal, so it looks a bit different on the iPhone and iPad. On the iPhone, the app is displayed in one of three screens (and one of those three is rarely used). The minimalist design with only two screen views makes this app perfect for quick glances. The main screen displays whether it’s raining now or will in the next hour, the current location, and a graph of the “heaviness” of the rain over the next hour. The other screen is a radar that keeps the rainfall graph at the

bottom. Switching between the two screens is snappy, making this the perfect at-a-glance app for checking for rain.

While the app only consists of three screens on the iPhone, I was even more impressed by the interface on the iPad - which displayed everything on one screen. The area for precipitation now and in the next hour were at the bottom with the graph of the next hours rainfall directly above it. And most of the screen was taken up by the beautiful black and blue themed radar. Current and bookmarked locations were available at the top for quick switching.

This app is great. Were it free or $0.99, I couldn’t see anyone going without it. But at a $5.99 price tag, compared to all of the free and $1 weather apps, it’s going to be tough to justify spending $6 on a weather app. Since it’s universal, it feels a little more like spending $3 for each device. Buying Dark Sky will depend on whether or not a user believes it’s worth $6 for the beautiful interface, speed, and easy-of-use.

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iPhone Screenshots

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Dark Sky Weather screenshot 1 Dark Sky Weather screenshot 2 Dark Sky Weather screenshot 3 Dark Sky Weather screenshot 4 Dark Sky Weather screenshot 5

iPad Screenshots

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Dark Sky Weather screenshot 6 Dark Sky Weather screenshot 7 Dark Sky Weather screenshot 8 Dark Sky Weather screenshot 9
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