Take all the reviews with a grain of salt. This is Apple TV+’s maiden voyage.
My two cents? Like all networks, there will be a range of quality in the collection of Apple TV+ shows. There are stinkers on Netflix. There will be stinkers here. But Apple is no doubt in this for the long haul. No matter how they do, they will profit from these early experiences.
Try the free trial, binge, see if anything clicks for you. That’s my plan.
For the record, I had no problem with the update, but I did speak to people who did brick their HomePods. Not fun.
I’m guessing this fix is high priority for Apple and that we’ll see a new update pretty quickly. Details in the linked post.
[VIDEO] There it is, at 35 seconds in (video embedded in main Loop post). The exploded view, showing all the pieces that come together to make the new noise cancelling, water splash resistant, AirPods Pro.
The first time I saw this image, I had a brief moment of hope that I’d be able to take these apart myself and swap the batteries. But I’m going to assume that all these pieces are glued tightly together, with the exception of the click-in-place rubber ear-tips.
As to splash-resistance, the AirPods Pro are rated at IPX4, which you can read all about here.
Fascinating interview. A slice of history, for sure, but my favorite bits of this read are when Steve explains concepts. He was so very good at translating the abstract into something you could wrap your head around.
Wonderful read.
[VIDEO] I love this ad. Beautifully filmed, with no mention of Apple or iPhone until the close.
The message is powerfully crafted and presented. Well done. Watch it. Embedded in main Loop post.
Mark Gurman, Bloomberg:
Apple Inc. is ramping up hiring for a team that is working on new smart-home software and devices in an effort to catch up in a field where Google and Amazon.com Inc. have dominated, according to people with knowledge of the matter.
Two elements at work here. First is HomeKit:
The overhaul is designed to spur more outside accessory and appliance makers to connect smart-home products such as lights and garage doors with the iPhone and Apple’s voice-activated digital assistant, Siri.
Not sure I’d use the phrase “falling behind” to describe HomeKit. Over the weekend, got a tour of some new home construction that was built from the ground up with HomeKit compatibility, including smart locks, smart music systems, and smart light switches throughout the house. The sense I get is that new construction offers HomeKit compatibility as a matter of course.
But where the phrase “falling behind” seems appropriate:
The team also is exploring the possibility of building new home devices beyond the HomePod speaker.
There’s the rub. Amazon and Alexa have a clear lead here, with huge inroads into your home. HomePod still feels like a one-off, not a seamless part of a house wide ecosystem. Feels like HomePod and HomeKit are crafted by two separate product teams, where all Alexa products feel much more cohesive, unified.
You know those videos that Apple posts showing “How to share your ETA in Maps”, or “How to use your iPad as a second display with Sidecar”?
Apple has a searchable YouTube channel with all of these videos. So if you come across one in, say, a Twitter ad, and want to share it, follow the headline link and track it down.
The channel goes back about a year.
David Shayer, TidBITS:
iOS 13 and macOS 10.15 Catalina have been unusually buggy releases for Apple. The betas started out buggy at WWDC in June, which is not unexpected, but even after Apple removed some features from the final releases in September, more problems have forced the company to publish quick updates. Why? Based on my 18 years of experience working as an Apple software engineer, I have a few ideas.
Who is David Shayer? From the bio:
David Shayer was an Apple software engineer for 18 years. He worked on the iPod, the Apple Watch, and Apple’s bug-tracking system Radar, among other projects.
My default when I hit posts like these is to take everything with a grain of salt, set skepticism on high. Read the pundit takes, read the bio (look for an axe to grind), and read the comments below the post.
This one passes the vast majority of those tests. This doesn’t feel like post-Apple spite, but rather a knowledgable take on problems, with thoughts on where things are going wrong.
Apple is a fast moving train, steadily producing and refining immensely complex products. Apple is dancing to the opposing forces of satisfying shareholder demands for ever-increasing growth, and user demands to stop and fix the bugs. Short of halting forward progress and retooling, there’s no easy answer here.
Bloomberg:
Van Amburg and Erlicht promised to make two seasons of Aniston and Witherspoon’s show without shooting a pilot episode first, and they offered more than $250 million, including more than $1 million per episode for each actress, according to people familiar with the terms. This was unprecedented. At the time, the biggest TV stars earned about $500,000 each per episode.
And:
At Apple’s first Hollywood premiere, in October, Van Amburg and Erlicht addressed the sense of whiplash head-on. “Zack and I knew how to create a premium, high-quality, great show,” Erlicht said. “What, in retrospect, we didn’t know how to do was create from scratch a premium service at Apple.”
Another behind the scenes take on Apple TV+. Snarky headline. Interesting read. Apple is eating an incredibly steep learning curve here. Launch is about a week away.
[VIDEO] Sure, this is great marketing, a win-win for Apple and Selena Gomez, but it also stands on its own. Yet another example of how far Apple’s iPhone camera efforts have come (video embedded in main Loop post).
Filming a movie, or a review, or an ad on an iPhone is no longer a compromise. It’s a cost effective solution.
Apple:
The camp offers a hands-on technology lab, one-on-one code-level guidance from Apple experts and engineers as well as mentorship, inspiration and insights from top Apple leaders. After the lab concludes, participants get ongoing support and become part of a growing community of exceptional alumni who can help create and build businesses.
This is a great program, planting seeds for the future. Interested in participating? The next camp runs from January 28 to February 5. Here’s a link to the application.
First things first, take a minute to read this Bloomberg article, titled Photoshop for iPad Nearing Launch With Some Key Features Missing.
In a nutshell, Mark Gurman and Nico Grant interview Adobe’s Chief Product Officer Scott Belsky, raising the issue that this coming Photoshop is not feature-complete when compared to desktop Photoshop.
Enter Gruber:
From what I gather, the mistake Adobe made was not precisely setting expectations for the initial release of Photoshop for iPad. When Adobe described it as “real” Photoshop, what a lot of people heard was “full” Photoshop, and that was never the plan. Some of this expectation-setting is attributable to Bloomberg, which described the project as “the full version of its Photoshop app” as far back as July last year.
Gruber points out that the iPad Photoshop is based on “the same code base that’s been running on the desktop for decades.” Glass half full, rather than glass half empty. After reading the DF article, I walked away thinking Adobe is all-in on bringing their tools to iPad, taking the time to rework the interface elements for touch screen, while maintaining a high degree of interoperability with the desktop.
That sense is only strengthened by this Bloomberg follow-up, Adobe Plans to Launch Illustrator App for iPad After Photoshop.
Tiny side note: Check the footnote at the top of the Daring Fireball article. It’s a callback to the lack of closure on Bloomberg’s “The Big Hack” piece from 2018. But check that footnote’s URL. Gruber has gotten me in the habit of being careful about changes to my own URLs, and the whimsy of sometimes hiding messages in them as well.
Had a bit of back and forth on Twitter this morning, with questions about Apple TV+. Here are a few findings…
If you sign up for Apple TV+, you are getting the family plan. There’s no separate pricing tier, as their is for Apple Music. $4.99 a month, up to 6 family members.
Though I’ve not read any specific guidance on this, I would make sure the person designated as the primary contact for your family is the person who signs up for Apple TV+. If someone else in the family buys a device and signs up for the free year of Apple TV+, it’s not clear if the free year applies to the primary account.
From Apple’s Apple TV+ free year promo terms and conditions:
Offer cannot be combined with other free trials or offers for Apple TV+.
I get that this is designed to prevent you from buying two Apple devices and getting two free years of Apple TV+. But what if you sign up for the free 7 day trial, then buy an Apple device? Does the free trial prevent you from getting the free year?
My guess on that latter is no, that the 7 day trial won’t void the free year, but it’d be good to get some clarification here.
Offer must be claimed in the Apple TV app within 3 months after first setting up your new device. To see the offer appear, you will need to sign in with your Apple ID on your new device. If you’ve purchased your new device before the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1, you will have 3 months starting November 1 to redeem.
Good to know. If you know the answer to the two questions raised above (if non-primary family member signs up for free year, does it apply to main account?, and does free trial prevent free year?) please touch base.
Taiwan News:
Apple Inc. CEO Tim Cook is the new chairman of the Advisory Board of the School of Economics and Management (SEM) of Tsinghua University in Beijing, China.
And:
Cook’s role will be to promote development of the college and make it a world-class economic management school. His mandate will last from 2019 to 2022.
And:
The advisory board … comprises entrepreneurs, business school deans, scholars, leaders of the Chinese Communist Party (CCP), and financial departments.
The CCP is a key to this story. Why?
Apple was recently forced by the CCP to remove a crowdsourced map service from its App Store that allowed Hong Kong protesters to track police activity. Cook defended the removal in an email to employees and emphasized the app was removed for illegal use.
Peter Rubin, Wired:
After what felt like years of anticipation, Apple was about to take us behind the scenes of a show it was making for its still mysterious, still unnamed subscription streaming service. We were going to find out if Apple, maker of so many devices that have redefined the way we consume content, could finally make content—good content—of its own.
This is a great story. If you have any interest in Apple TV+ and how it came to be, follow the headline link and dig in. This story goes all the way back to Planet of the Apps, pulls no punches. How did Apple get from that inauspicious start to a series that has the potential to be one of the best shows in streaming?
[VIDEO] This (video embedded in main Loop post) is interesting, both because it runs dark mode alongside light mode on an iPhone XS Max with an OLED Display, but also because robotic arm (via MacRumors).
[VIDEO] This dropped last week, but I somehow missed it in all my posting windows, thought it was worth sharing. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.
Of all the new Apple TV+ shows, this one is the most puzzling to me, yet intriguing nonetheless. It’s easy to imagine the pitch meetings for all the other Apple TV+ shows I’ve encountered. This one is different.
It’s a show about a poet. A period piece. And it’s a comedy.
Here’s the premise from the Wikipedia page:
Dickinson takes place “during Emily Dickinson’s era with a modern sensibility and tone. It takes viewers into the world of Emily, audaciously exploring the constraints of society, gender, and family from the perspective of a budding writer who doesn’t fit in to her own time through her imaginative point of view. Dickinson is Emily’s coming-of-age story – one woman’s fight to get her voice heard.”
I am very much looking forward to watching this.
[VIDEO] You are not misreading that headline. The video (embedded in the main Loop post) is another in Niles Mitchell’s excellent “Will it Work” series, where he attaches random gear to his iPhone.
In this one, Niles uses his Apple Watch to try to burn a CD. Will it work?
Aimee Green, Oregon Live:
Police wanted to search the contents of an iPhone they found in Catrice Pittman’s purse, but she never confirmed whether it was hers and wasn’t offering up a passcode. Her defense attorney argued forcing her to do so would violate her rights against self-incrimination under the Fifth Amendment of the U.S. Constitution and Article 1 Section 12 of the Oregon Constitution.
But a Marion County judge sided with police and prosecutors by ordering Pittman to enter her passcode. On Wednesday, the Oregon Court of Appeals agreed with that ruling — in a first-of-its-kind opinion for an appeals court in this state.
This is a precedent that will resonate, make it more likely that courts will order defendants to unlock their phones.
Side note, I found this sequence very interesting:
Scott said the ruling won’t affect many Oregon defendants whose phones are seized by police because police already have technology that allows them to crack into most of those phones.
But:
The latest iPhones, more often than other phones, have proven difficult, Scott said.
“For people who want their information private, I would recommend getting an iPhone,” Scott said. “And Apple is not paying me to say that.”
Yet another reason to buy an iPhone.
Kif Leswing, CNBC:
Apple’s forthcoming streaming service could rack up over 100 million subscribers in a year, Barclays analysts estimated in a note on Thursday.
And from the Barclays note:
We model 222M hardware devices sold by Apple over the next 12 months.
We assume that about 50% of those buying a device in the first year will accept the service, yielding well over 100M subscribers a year from now. We exclude sales to China and our estimate of second and third devices at families.
We assume that the trial period will last for one year, at which point we expect subscribers to decline as users opt out, and are partially offset by new additions. Of course the rate of churn will depend meaningfully on how quickly Apple can ramp up its content library.
Compare that to Netflix’s estimated 60 million paying subscribers. Apple has a pretty effective way to ramp up a new service. And the free year of Apple TV+ when you buy a new device gives Apple a year to fill the pipeline, make the service more attractive.
That extra year also gives Apple time to learn from early mistakes, become better at creating original content, better at negotiating with talent/studios, raise the bar for Apple TV+.
It’ll be interesting to see paid subscriber numbers for both Netflix and Apple TV+ one year after launch and again a year after that. I’m bullish on Apple TV+.
[VIDEO] Luna Display. A little red device that turned your iPad into a second display for your Mac. Until this happened.
Rather than gripe about their bad fortune, the company behind Luna Display pivoted neatly to some clever new functionality. As you can see in the video embedded in the main Loop post, you can now use Luna Display to turn a second Mac into an external display for your primary Mac.
Nicely done.
Aja Romano, Vox:
In an unprecedented move, Studio Ghibli, the home of such beloved animated classics as award-winning director Hayao Miyazaki’s Spirited Away, Howl’s Moving Castle, and My Neighbor Totoro has announced a deal with HBO Max to stream its film collection on the platform beginning in the spring of 2020.
The partnership marks the first time Ghibli films have ever been available to legally stream. The catalog includes over 20 films, ranging from the Oscar-winning Spirited Away to Miyazaki’s most recent film for the studio prior to his brief retirement, The Wind Rises, which will arrive in fall 2020.
If you’ve never seen a Studio Ghibli film, it might be because they are very rarely shown outside of theaters. To me, they are some of the best films ever made. Even the English language dubs are excellent.
Interesting that they landed at HBO Max. Not to be confused with HBO, HBO Go, or HBO Now. HBO Max is the new home of Friends and Big Bang Theory. Jarring to see these films packaged along with those two shows. One of these things is not like the others. But I digress.
One point that this does raise is the complete lack of 3rd party content coming to Apple TV+. Apple could easily have big on big tentpole shows like Friends, Seinfeld, Big Bang Theory, to instantly add heft to Apple TV+. But they’ve chosen not to take on those costs and go with a pure slate of self-created shows. Which means they’ll be able to cut any license deals they like, show their complete catalog in any country they choose.
If you’re not familiar, and you get the chance to see a Studio Ghibli movie, especially Spirited Away, do it.
If you do nothing else, check out the side-by-side spec chart on the first page of the review. Tons of detail, visually easy to process. Tip of a very large iceberg (don’t miss the popup menu at the top of the article, a table of contents, the article is 13 pages long).
If I had to pick a second page, it’d be the “Camera – Low light evaluation” page. Unsparingly critical where it needs to be, pointing out flaws, but not sparing the praise, either.
[VIDEO] Apple Arcade continues to kill it. The free trials are starting to end. Wondering how many of those early Apple Arcade adopters are going to stick with it. Not sure how we’ll know. The trailer is embedded in the main Loop post.
One of the biggest shows coming to Apple TV+ is The Morning Show, with Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell headlining a stellar cast.
But, turns out, the name The Morning Show was already a real life show in Australia, so Apple renamed the down under version of the show to Morning Wars (here’s the official Morning Wars trailer, with the new name spliced into place, but with The Morning Show plainly visible throughout).
Things get a little more complex when the real life Morning Show (check the logo as you watch) interviews the cast of the Apple TV+ Morning Show, but as Morning Wars.
Here’s the video (via Benjamin Mayo):
https://twitter.com/morningshowon7/status/1183877823297015809
Morning Show, as Morning Wars, inside Morning Show. Inception.
All good fun, looking forward to Apple TV+ going live.
Tim Hardwick, MacRumors:
After upgrading to macOS Catalina, you may be surprised to discover a shortcut on your Mac’s desktop to a Relocated Items folder that wasn’t there previously. The generation of this folder is actually normal behavior when upgrading an older version of macOS to Catalina, but we’re highlighting it in this article because a lot of users are confused about why the folder exists and what to do with its contents.
Happened to me. Made my way through a bumpy Catalina install, then encountered this brand new folder shortcut on my desktop.
One key takeaway:
The Relocated Items folder you see on the Desktop is just a shortcut that can be safely deleted. Doing so will not remove the folder or its contents from your hard disk. You can find the actual folder in /Users/Shared/Relocated Items.
But if you’ve done the Catalina install, worth spending a minute reading Tim’s explainer.
This Hollywood Reporter take on Apple TV+ is entertaining, messy, and an excellent read. Though I take every word with a grain of salt, the overall writeup rings true for me.
A few tidbits:
The tech giant outbid Netflix for a soapy morning-show drama that would mark Jennifer Aniston’s return to television. Based loosely on the Brian Stelter book Top of the Morning, the series was to be the flagship for an ambitious new streaming service.
But by that fall, producers were starting to panic. They had only just received the first script from writer and first-time showrunner Jay Carson. Meanwhile, the morning TV landscape was being upended by NBC’s ouster of Matt Lauer over sexual misconduct allegations, and it was becoming clear that the #MeToo movement would need to factor into the plot. Apple, producer Media Res, Aniston and co-star/producer Reese Witherspoon began to ponder making a showrunner change as the early script, sources say, didn’t match the standards of those involved. The group then began to look for a more experienced showrunner — and, in success, a writer who could pen a woman’s experience.
And:
Drive down Washington Boulevard through Culver City and it becomes clear Apple is taking its entertainment pursuit seriously. Construction is underway on a sleek, glass-enclosed office building that will house Erlicht and Van Amburg’s Worldwide Video team, which will make up a significant portion of the 1,000 or so workers Apple expects to employ in the neighborhood by 2021.
And:
While showrunner departures are common — especially with straight-to-series orders increasingly frequent at streamers and upstart outlets — some within the creative community attribute Apple’s early hurdles to its lack of Hollywood savvy. “It’s an interesting place because there’s no history or precedent,” notes one lit agent. “They have no systems in place. Two guys who ran a studio are now effectively running a network. They’ve built a collection of executives who individually are great but are working together for the first time.” Adds one top producer who has worked with the company: “The biggest problem is Apple’s insistence that the industry adapt to them and not the other way around.”
Kitsis doesn’t agree. “While they’re a new network, they’re really not,” he says. “Meaning, from top to bottom, everyone we dealt with was a pro with tons of studio and/or network experience. Some of whom we had actually worked with back in our ABC days, so there was an immediate comfort level for us.”
Lots, lots more. If you’re interested in the “how the sausage is made” side of Apple TV+, this is a great read.
Roku press release:
For the first time ever, Roku users can add the Apple TV app via the Roku Channel Store to discover and watch movies, TV shows and more, including accessing their iTunes video library and subscribing to Apple TV channels directly on Roku devices. Starting November 1, Apple TV+, Apple’s home for all-original shows and movies from the world’s greatest storytellers, will be available on the Apple TV app on the Roku platform.
Even with the absence of a back catalog, Apple TV+ is playing the long game. Lots of press and chess moves, all backed by a long term war chest to take on Disney+, Netflix, HBO, and others.
We are just about two weeks away from the official rollout of Apple TV+. From the linked Apple press release:
Beginning November 1, the first three episodes of “For All Mankind” will be available to watch on Apple TV+. New episodes will continue to roll out weekly, every Friday.
And from this Deadline article:
Ahead of For All Mankind’s series debut on Nov. 1 and premiere event tonight, the space race alt-history drama from Ron Moore has been renewed for a second season, which quietly started production within the past week or so.
And:
It is part of a strategy by Apple to get second seasons of most of its scripted series going ahead of lunch, which helps amortize costs and keep the Apple TV+ pipeline of original content going, avoiding lengthy hiatuses. Beyond The Morning Show, which had been picked up with a two-season order, Apple had not confirmed any renewals. Along with For All Mankind, also reportedly renewed or in the process of being renewed for a second season are such upcoming Apple series as the Jason Momoa starrer See; Emily Dickinson comedy Dickinson, starring Hailee Steinfeld, which Apple brass have been very high on; anthology immigrant comedy Little America; and the Hilde Lysiak young detective drama Home Before Dark.
Apple has a pipeline to fill, a back catalog to create.
Sam Henri Gold finds the neatest Apple nuggets. This one is an unreleased commercial for the iPhone 4s, and for Siri, Apple Maps, and iOS along the way.
https://twitter.com/samhenrigold/status/1183827595491790849
I love this spot. Wonder why it never aired.