Ahead of the launch of Apple TV+ on November 1, Bloomberg Businessweek has explored Apple’s foray into original content in a feature titled “The One Where Apple Tried to Buy Its Way Into Hollywood.”
Many of the the reported details are already known, ranging from some Hollywood executives frowning upon Apple’s culture of secrecy to Apple spending over $250 million on the Apple TV+ series “The Morning Show,” including over $1 million per episode for stars Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon.
In its early discussions about scripted programming, Apple also reportedly considered a project involving actor Keanu Reeves, known for his roles in movies like “The Matrix,” “John Wick,” and “Speed.”
Apple TV+ is Apple’s upcoming subscription-based streaming video service, launching November 1 in over 100 countries. The service will be available on the Apple TV app on iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, Mac, and other platforms, including online at tv.apple.com, for $4.99 per month with a seven-day free trial.
Apple TV+ is led by former Sony Pictures Television executives Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg, who have reportedly been tasked with securing original content that is appropriate to be previewed in Apple’s retail stores around the world, although it seems there will be some exceptions to that rule.
Apple TV+ will debut with the aforementioned “The Morning Show,” which also stars Steve Carell, as well as the post-apocalyptic thriller “See” starring Jason Momoa, coming-of-age comedy series “Dickinson” starring Hailee Steinfeld, kids shows “Snoopy in Space” and “Helpsters,” and more.
Since September 10, customers who purchase any iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, iPod touch, or Mac can get one year of Apple TV+ for free.
Apple will shorten Japan Display’s payment periods in an effort to improve the panel supplier’s short-term financing situation, reports Reuters, citing a source familiar with the matter.
JDI CEO Minoru Kikuoka, who took on the role in September, told reporters on Wednesday that concerns about an immediate cash shortfall had been allayed but did not mention Apple by name.
Japan Display still owes Apple nearly $900 million for the $1.5 billion cost of building a smartphone screen plant four years ago and the U.S. tech giant is also allowing the supplier to slow the pace of those repayments.
The agreement to ease payment conditions, which also includes agreements from other business partners, would improve JDI’s short-term financing situation by as much as 40 billion yen ($370 million), said Kikuoka.
JDI recently lost out on Chinese funds from a key investment firm leading a proposed bailout deal, but Apple reportedly agreed to double its own investment to aid in the LCD panel maker’s restructuring.
JDI relies on Apple for more than half of its sales, and supplies the liquid crystal display panels for the iPhone 11, which has helped support its bottom line. However, its mainstay LCD business has been hit heavily by the growing adoption of OLED panel technology.
Apple Pay has overtaken the Starbucks mobile app to become the most popular mobile payment system in the United States, claims a new report out today.
According to eMarketer, Apple Pay became the market leader last year, when 27.7 million Americans used the app to make a purchase. Since then, however, Apple Pay has grown even faster than expected.
In 2019, Apple Pay will have 30.3 million users, or 47.3 percent of mobile payment users. That compares with Starbucks’ 25.2 million customers via its mobile app in the same year, representing 39.4 percent of mobile payment users.
“Apple Pay has benefited from the spread of new point-of-sale (POS) systems that work with the NFC signals Apple Pay runs on,” said eMarketer principal analyst Yory Wurmser. “The same trend should also help Google Pay and Samsung Pay, but they will continue to split the Android market.”
Citing data from Digital Trends, the analysis predicts Apple Pay will be available in 70 percent of U.S. retailers by the end of 2019. In contrast, the Starbucks app has commanded a 40 percent market share of mobile payments for the last few years, but growth potential is limited because it can only be used in Starbucks stores.
Total spending via contactless mobile payments will approach $100 billion this year in the U.S., according to eMarketer. On average, that is equivalent to a user spending $1,545 per year, up more than 24 percent over last year.
Nearly 64 million people (30 percent of all U.S. smartphone users) are expected to make use of mobile payments this year, a 9.1 percent increase over 2018. In terms of demographics, nearly 50 percent of all smartphone users are adults aged 25 to 34, so the growth of mobile payments is expected to be strongest in this age group, although digital wallet use is said to be growing across the board.
“Although a growing number of millennials feel secure using payment apps, virtually all still find credit and debit cards equally convenient,” said eMarketer forecasting analyst Vincent Yip. That bodes well for Apple Card, which launched earlier this year. Apple Pay is now in 47 markets and in the June quarter, started adding more new users than PayPal, with monthly transaction volume growing four times as fast.
Mozilla has launched Firefox 70 for macOS, which continues to enhance the browser’s privacy features as well as bringing significant improvements to performance and power efficiency.
Recent versions of Firefox have included several extensions to the Mozilla’s Enhanced Tracking Protection (ETP) system, and this release is no different. ETP now features social tracking protection, which blocks cross-site tracking cookies from sites like Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn.
Firefox 70 also introduces a Privacy Protections report, which offers a summary of the trackers Firefox has blocked. So if you think the blocking is too strict (if a website doesn’t work properly, for example) you can check the report and customize the protection accordingly.
In addition, there are improvements to Firefox Lockwise, the browser’s digital identity and password management tool. Lockwise now lets you create, update, and delete logins and passwords to sync across all your devices. Meanwhile, integrated breach alerts from Firefox Monitor notify you if saved logins and passwords have been compromised in online data breaches, and Monitor is also now capable of complex password generation.
Thanks to improvements to the browser’s core engine components, Firefox 70 users can also expect a significant reduction in power consumption (Mozilla quote improved power usage by three times or more for many use cases), along with faster page loads by as much as 22 percent, and reduced resource use for video by up to 37 percent.
Mozilla’s full changelog can be found here. If you’re already a Firefox user, you should receive an automatic upgrade after restarting the browser. For everyone else, Firefox 70 is available for macOS as a free download directly from the Mozilla website.
Selena Gomez today released a new song and video entitled “Lose You to Love Me,” and the entire video was shot in black and white using an iPhone 11 Pro.
Apple has released a one-minute clip of the video as part of its ongoing “Shot on iPhone” series, but the full video is available on Gomez’s YouTube channel.
As noted by Billboard, the video was shot by noted music video director Sophie Muller.
Apple has released quite a few different types of photos and videos in its “Shot on iPhone” series, including stills, sports-themed videos, and short films. More recently, Apple has expanded the campaign to include musicains and bands on tour and even ASMR videos.
Google last week announced its newest flagship smartphones, the Pixel 4 and the Pixel 4XL, both of which are meant to compete with the iPhone 11 and iPhone 11 Pro, Apple’s newest devices launched in September.
In our latest YouTube video, we went hands-on with a Pixel 4XL and an iPhone 11 Pro Max to compare the cameras in the two devices to see how they measure up against one another.
Both the Pixel 4XL and the iPhone 11 Pro have impressive cameras, and when it comes to standard shots taken with the rear-facing image, there’s little difference in quality. Both smartphones are producing some great images, though the iPhone 11 Pro Max tends to create images with a cooler tone while the Pixel 4XL has a warmer overall tone.
Each smartphone does well with highlights and shadows, but the Pixel 4XL has a feature for adjusting these settings in real time while they need to be post processed on the iPhone. The iPhone does have one edge – a third ultra wide-angle camera lens. The Pixel 4XL is limited to two cameras, a standard wide-angle and a telephoto lens, so it can’t quite match the capabilities of the iPhone 11 Pro Max.
Google pioneered Night Sight (the equivalent of the iPhone’s Night Mode) last year, and the feature continues to be impressive this year. Night Side and Night Mode are quite similar, and it’s tough to pick a clear winner for low-light photos. The iPhone 11 Pro Max tends to produce photos that look a bit more natural, while the Pixel 4XL offers up sharper, more vibrant night time images that sometimes have blown out highlights.
When comparing Portrait Mode, the Pixel 4XL seems to produce sharper images and it has superior edge detection in most cases. It’s imperfect and there are times that the iPhone wins out, but in most of our test images, the Pixel 4XL does a better job with Portrait Mode photos.
For the front-facing camera, the Pixel 4XL has a new wide-angle lens that can capture more around you, plus it produces some super sharp photos, especially in Portrait Mode. There’s an option for a wider-angle field of view with the iPhone’s camera too, but the images from the Pixel 4XL appear to be just a bit better even though they have a warmer tone.
The Pixel 4XL has a Night Sight option for the front-facing camera, which gives it an edge over the front-facing camera of the iPhone 11 Pro Max as it can take better selfies in low lighting conditions.
When it comes to video, the iPhone 11 Pro Max wins. Google appears to have focused more on photo quality than video quality, and both the front and rear-facing cameras are a bit lacking. The Pixel 4XL supports 4K video but maxes out at 30 frames per second, while the iPhone 11 Pro Max supports 60 frames per second. Both have solid stabilization capabilities, but the iPhone 11 Pro has a preferable color profile and look compared to the Pixel 4XL.
All in all, both of these smartphones have high-quality cameras capable of producing some impressive images, which makes it difficult to choose a clear winner. Preference is generally going to come down to platform choice and small aesthetic differences between features like color profile.
Which smartphone’s camera do you prefer? iPhone 11 Pro Max or Pixel 4XL? Let us know in the comments.
Lee Pace and Jared Harris have scored lead roles in Apple’s upcoming “Foundation” series that’s based on the classic Isaac Asimov novel of the same name, reports The Hollywood Reporter.
Pace is known for his roles in “Pushing Daisies” and “Halt and Catch Fire,” along with his work in “The Hobbit” movies. Harris is known for “Chernobyl,” “Carnival Row,” “The Crown,” “The Expanse,” and “Mad Men,” among other TV shows and movies.
Image credit: Getty
Asimov’s “Foundation” series follows a psychohistory expert and mathematician Hari Seldon who is able to predict the future. Seldon creates a group called the Foundation to preserve humanity’s collective knowledge ahead of the impending fall of the Galactic Empire.
There are multiple novels in the “Foundation” series that span many years and cover the rise and fall of multiple empires. Harris will be playing Hari Seldon, the mathematical genius, while Pace will play Brother Day, the Emperor of the Galaxy.
Apple TV+ is set to launch on November 1, but as “Foundation” is still in the casting stages, it will be some time before it premieres. The service will launch with titles like “The Morning Show,” “See,” “For All Mankind,” and “Dickinson.”
Apple is charging $4.99 per month for Apple TV+, but customers who purchase an iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, or Mac can get a free year of service. Each $4.99 subscription fee allows up to six family members to watch.
LG is in talks with Apple to supply LCD displays for the successor to the iPhone SE, with the panels currently undergoing last-minute quality checks, according to industry sources cited by Korean website The Elec. The report claims the budget device is scheduled to be released in early 2020.
Apple sticking with an LCD for the device would be no surprise given cost considerations, with previous reports claiming the so-called “iPhone SE 2” will sport a 4.7-inch display like the iPhone 8. This has disappointed some fans of the original iPhone SE, which has a smaller 4-inch display ideal for one-handed usage.
There have been several reports about the iPhone SE 2 in recent weeks. The most detailed information has come from analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who expects the device to look similar to the iPhone 8, including thick bezels and a Touch ID home button, but with a faster A13 Bionic chip and 3GB of RAM.
Kuo also expects the device to come in Space Gray, Silver, and Red, with 64GB and 128GB storage options. Like the iPhone 11 lineup, the iPhone SE 2 is expected to ship without 3D Touch, which Apple has replaced with a software-based Haptic Touch solution. Kuo predicts pricing will start at $399 in the United States.
As we mentioned yesterday, iPhone SE 2 might not be the final name of the device, with iPhone 8s and iPhone 9 speculated as other possibilities. The device is expected to be released by the end of the first quarter of 2020.
Two deals have hit Apple’s latest line of iMacs, including both the 21.5-inch and 27-inch Retina iMac models from Early 2019. Both of these sales can be found on Amazon. Additionally, Apple’s iTunes Movies store now has a new selection of film sales, including a large collection of horror movies just in time for Halloween.
2019 iMac
You can get $149 off the 21.5-inch iMac (8GB RAM/1TB Fusion Drive), bringing the computer down to its lowest-ever price of $1,349.99. This is currently the best price for the iMac among the major Apple resellers.
Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
Amazon also has a 27-inch Retina iMac model, priced at $2,099.00 and totaling $200 off the regular price tag. Like the previous model, this is the lowest price we’ve tracked for this iMac.
Apple updated the iMac line in March 2019 with 8th and 9th-generation Intel processors, faster memory, and new Radeon Pro Vega graphics options. This results in noticeable performance improvements over the 2017 models, all in the same ultra-thin slim design the iMac line is known for.
Verizon Deal for Disney+
Verizon Wireless customers on unlimited data plans will be able to get an entire year of Disney+ at no cost, thanks to a new partnership between the two companies (via Variety). Starting November 12 – the day of the Disney+ launch – Verizon will begin offering 12 months of the streaming service to all new and existing 4G LTE and 5G unlimited wireless customers.
The same offer will be available for new Fios broadband and 5G home wireless internet customers. After the free year of Disney+ ends, Verizon customers will have to pay the regular $6.99/month price for the service, or cancel it.
Verizon customers will be able to activate the Disney+ deal on mobile or connected TV apps. You can sign up to be notified about the offer and when it goes live on Verizon’s website.
This year-long offer for Disney+ is similar to Apple TV+, which will be free for an entire year for anyone who buys an iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, or Mac. When it launches, Disney+ will host a wealth of content from Disney and its Marvel, Star Wars, Pixar, and National Geographic brands, including hundreds of hours of movies, TV shows, documentaries, specials, and more.
iTunes Movies
The iTunes Movies store has also been updated today with a fresh crop of new sales, including a massive new sale on horror movies, thrillers, and epics. These include new releases like Annabelle Comes Home, Crawl, and the 2019 reboots of Pet Sematary and Child’s Play. Outside of these genres, Apple is also discounting Spider-Man: Far From Home for the first time, now priced at $12.99, down from $19.99.
While users can already control Arlo Ultra cameras via the Arlo app, HomeKit compatibility enables iPhone, iPad, Mac, and Apple Watch users to control the cameras with Apple’s Home app and Siri voice commands. A free-of-charge automatic firmware update is now rolling out for both new and existing Ultra users.
With HomeKit, Arlo Ultra owners will now be able to receive notifications via the Home app when motion is detected. On the iPhone and iPad, users can also use Siri to quickly activate a HD livestream of the camera feed.
HomeKit also allows users to set up automations to control other HomeKit-enabled smart home devices. For example, users can set up an automation to trigger HomeKit-enabled lights to turn on at certain times when motion is detected by an Arlo Ultra camera for added comfort and security.
Arlo Ultra security cameras have a wire-free setup and feature 4K HDR video quality, color night vision, a 180-degree diagonal field-of-view, an integrated spotlight, and two-way audio with advanced noise cancelation.
Pricing starts at $399.99, including a one-year subscription to 30-day rolling storage of cloud recordings.
Netatmo Weather Station
Netatmo has announced that all of its Weather Stations manufactured since October 2016 are now compatible with HomeKit. Older models do not support HomeKit due to necessary hardware changes Netatmo had to make.
To check whether your Weather Station is compatible with HomeKit, open the Netatmo Weather app on an iPhone or iPad and navigate to Settings > Station Name > Indoor Module > Hardware Version within the app. Station V3 models now support HomeKit, while V1 and V2 models do not.
HomeKit support allows Weather Station owners to view the indoor and outdoor humidity and temperature, indoor CO2 level, and indoor air quality in Apple’s Home app. Noise, atmospheric pressure, wind, and rain data remains limited to the Netatmo Weather app for now due to HomeKit limitations.
Weather Station users can also ask Siri to read aloud the measurements. Example questions include “Hey Siri, what’s the temperature on the balcony?” or “Hey Siri, what’s the CO2 level in the living room?”
And with automations, users can trigger various actions, such as HomeKit-enabled lights turning on if indoor CO2 levels become too high. Apple’s Home app does not currently allow users to create automations related to temperature and humidity because those metrics are not recognized as triggers.
