[VIDEO] Follow the headline link to Apple’s YouTube channel. There you’ll find a host of videos relating to Monday’s event.
Two of them stand out to me: Previews for Apple Arcade and Apple TV+. Both give a taste of what’s coming, and if games or TV is your thing, both do their best to get the blood pumping, get the juices flowing. Both embedded in main Loop post.
Federico Viticci, MacStories:
After taking an initial look at Apple News+ with my US Apple ID and noticing the differences between Apple News Format-optimized magazines and standard “PDF-like” ones, I thought it’d be interesting and useful to compile the full list of all magazines currently available to Apple News+ subscribers in the US.
Below, you will find the complete list of all 251 magazines that are available for Apple News+ in the United States. The list was compiled by checking all the magazines featured in the ‘Browse the Catalog’ section of Apple News+ as well as individual categories. Apple advertises “300 publications” as being available in Apple News+.
If you are on the fence about Apple News+, this will help with the value equation. Add in 3 most recent days of Wall Street Journal articles, along with LA Times and all the digital publishers, plus the added value of family plan at no extra cost, see if that’s worth $9.99 a month.
This is a cool project. I wish they’d break it up across multiple pages to reduce the page load time/memory footprint. But I love the idea.
[VIDEO] I love these short videos. Well produced, very efficient storytelling. Perfect for Twitter, etc. All of them embedded in the main Loop post.
[VIDEO] Lots to absorb here, but my favorite bit comes at about 1:40 in, when Rene compares the screen size and aspect ratio of the iPhone XS and the iPad mini. The advantage of the iPad mini is significant, and Rene does a nice job showing why.
Video embedded in the main Loop post.
Variety:
Fox employees knew this day was coming. For over a year, the men and women who work at the Century City lot have talked of little else but severance packages and job searches. They knew that when Disney wrapped up its $71.3 billion acquisition of much of 21st Century Fox’s film and television assets, thousands of jobs would be eliminated.
But until recently, they just didn’t know the specifics. The ax officially fell yesterday.
Studio veterans such as domestic distribution chief Chris Aronson, president of product strategy and consumer business development Mike Dunn, worldwide theatrical marketing president Pam Levine, and chief content officer Tony Sella, who have decades of experience, were gone in short order, taking with them pieces of the institutional memory of a studio that has made everything from Shirley Temple musicals to “Avatar.”
Tough times for the people at Fox.
Sports Illustrated:
On the second floor of a Silicon Valley office complex, in a conference room crowded with a dozen workers and three times as many devices, Apple is watching sports for you.
They’ve been at it for almost a year now, keeping an eye on minor tennis tournaments, spring training baseball, college lacrosse, even curling. The team manages the sports subsection in Apple’s TV app and its Apple TV interface, highlighting what’s available around the clock.
And:
It’s been 18 years since Apple disrupted music by extracting the song from the album. Now, it’s joined other companies separating moments from their games. The goal is to offer the curated convenience of highlights without sacrificing the thrill of live. Don’t miss another moment, the pitch goes, but don’t wait for one either.
And:
Sports rights are deeply fragmented, with different owners split by platform and region. “You really can’t own all the rights, so therefore at some point you need to solve some other problems,” Cue said. “You can’t design for owning the rights because if that’s the only thing you’re doing you’re always going to be tiny.” And these days, Apple rarely does tiny.
And:
In a world of infinite supply, [Eddy] Cue wants to be the middleman, letting fans know what’s worth watching and offering one-click access to action rather than worsening the fragmentation. For Apple, there are financial benefits there. The company takes a cut of sports subscription services purchased on iOS and, on a high-level, can leverage its exclusive software into hardware profits.
This is a fantastic read and, seems to me, a giant hint at what’s coming in next week’s Apple event.
This is just so much fun to play with. Before you jump to the page, note that as soon as you tap/click it will instantly make noise, so throw on some headphones if you are not alone.
Tap and drag just about anywhere on the interface. Imagine that you are moving your tongue, mouth, and lips to make these same sounds.
Fun and interesting.
The list of projects is at the end of the article, which also includes these two nuggets:
People involved in the coming series also said that Apple executives had expressed squeamishness when it comes to the portrayal of technology in the shows — how exactly are you using that iPhone? Or that Mac laptop?
And:
Executives at the company bristled when they discovered there would be scenes involving crucifixes in Mr. Shyamalan’s new thriller for the service, as The Wall Street Journal reported in September. But Apple ultimately allowed the crucifixes to remain, according to two people familiar with the series.
The list of shows detailed in the article:
Remember, this is a list of shows that are finished (or close to finished) filming. Still lots of work to do, but this is a substantive achievement.
Really looking forward to seeing this unfold.
[VIDEO] This is a great backgrounder on the whole Spotify vs Apple situation. The video is embedded in the main Loop post.
[VIDEO] Lewis Hilsenteger, of Unbox Therapy, holds a video of himself up to the Galaxy S10. The video unlocks the phone.
I immediate thought of this scenario:
I can think of many more, but what’s the point of face unlock if it is so easily defeated?
The video is embedded in the main Loop post. Jump to about 2 minutes in to see this for yourself. Oh Samsung.
Bloomberg:
Apple is forming a team of people with awards strategy experience. In January, it hired one such person from Walt Disney Co.’s television group. The iPhone maker is also seeking a high-level candidate to oversee the process, one of the people familiar with the situation said. The company could be in the running for Emmy awards as early as 2020, according to people familiar with the process.
And:
Awards strategists arrange screenings and other publicity events for Hollywood insiders and others who vote on which movies and TV shows win awards. These promoters must work within strict guidelines while ensuring voters see the movies and even spend time with the actors and filmmakers.
No surprise there. But interesting to see how all this works. I am very excited to see Apple’s video efforts take form.
[VIDEO] This is a charming ad. But it’s also a serious ad. Apple does a nice job of presenting the message with a spoonful of sugar.
From the writeup:
Your privacy matters. From encrypting your iMessage conversations, or not keeping a history of your routes in Maps, to limiting tracking across sites with Safari. iPhone is designed to protect your information.
I tweeted about Apple’s map route scrambling a few days ago.
The add is embedded in the main Loop post. For some odd reason, reminds me (just a tiny bit) of Apple’s “Unlock” Face ID ad, showing a student unlocking everything in her path.
Bloomberg:
Apple Inc., after teasing investors for months about its ambitions to become a services company, is getting ready to showcase plans for new video and news products. All it needs now is for Hollywood to sign up.
And:
But before the curtain goes up, Apple needs to complete deals. The company is racing to secure movies and TV shows to offer alongside its own original videos and is offering concessions to get deals done by a Friday deadline, according to people familiar with the matter. Pay-TV programmers such as HBO, Showtime and Starz have to decide whether Apple is an existential threat, as some now view Netflix, a potential partner or something in between.
When Apple did a similar dance to craft deals with record companies to build iTunes and then Apple Music, they were purely working through a distribution deal. They were not a threat (at least not an obvious one), but a partner. Apple had no ambitions to create music of their own.
The race to build partnerships now, to carry third party content on its rumored video service, has to deal with the fact that Apple has very public plans to build content of its own. Apple clearly wants a seat at the table, alongside existing partners such as Netflix, Hulu, and Amazon Video.
Of the group, Apple is the only one distributing the others. Less than two weeks ’til the beans get spilled.
[VIDEO] It takes a true master to pull out these subtle sounds. Do try this at home. To no one’s surprise, Jim is quite good at this. Video embedded in the main Loop post. Worth it.
[VIDEO] Bob Ross taught generations of people how to paint. Gently.
In the video embedded in the main Loop post, iJustine watches Bob Ross step through his technique, laying paint on canvas, and replicates every step on her iPad Pro using Procreate.
I love this approach, especially the way the video is partitioned to show Bob Ross at work, Justine’s work in progress, all while keeping the big picture in the main frame.
The tutorial starts about 53 seconds in.
[VIDEO] This is part of an ad campaign for Halo Top ice cream. The ads are uniformly bleak. But I kind of love them. Not sure why.
Here’s one (embedded in the main Loop post), follow the headline link for more.
[VIDEO] Great ad. Could work. Video embedded in main Loop post.
[VIDEO] This is a meme, based on this video. But there’s just something about this one. Makes me laugh. Video embedded in main Loop post.
From Apple’s press release:
iPhone photographers around the world shared their best photos for the Shot on iPhone Challenge, capturing remarkable moments with the world’s most popular camera. The 10 selected winners will be featured on billboards in select cities, in Apple retail stores and online. The winning shots came from a range of models, from iPhone XS Max to iPhone 7, showcasing the quality of cameras across the line.
The top 10 winners came from countries including Singapore, Germany, Belarus, Israel and the US, highlighting the global community of iPhone photographers that participated. These photos capture colorful city scenery, curious animals, creative reflections, the beauty of the ordinary and more.
Our international panel of judges — Pete Souza, Austin Mann, Annet de Graaf, Luísa Dörr, Chen Man, Phil Schiller, Kaiann Drance, Brooks Kraft, Sebastien Marineau-Mes, Jon McCormack and Arem Duplessis — gave some insight on why they loved these shots.
There are some pretty phenomenal shots here. Amazing to me that these were taken by ordinary folks, and also how sophisticated our pocket cameras have become.
[VIDEO] First we had this one, in which a mother exclaimed, “Did you bokeh my child?”
Now we’ve got Alejandro (see the ad embedded in the main Loop post). The power of bokeh.
[VIDEO] There are lots of iOS and macOS tricks videos. This one rises to the top of my Mac list. All of them worth knowing, all worth passing along. Video embedded in the main Loop post.
[VIDEO] Have never seen this before. Wonderful bit of film history.
I love seeing this intimate collaboration unfold. Gorgeous. Embedded in main Loop post.
[VIDEO] Funny as hell. The further in you go, the better it gets. Video embedded in main Loop post.
[Via Marcus Mendes]
[VIDEO] Creative Review (via 9to5Mac):
The short film, titled Flight, will debut during this year’s Brit Awards, showcasing the Apple Watch Series 4’s cellular capabilities, which allow users to “stay connected in different environments”.
The film follows championship-winning air dancer and skydiver Inka Tiitto, a 29-year-old Finnish-American athlete known to American audiences for her involvement in Season 12 of America’s Got Talent. Here, Tiitto plays an athleisure-clad runner powering through bucolic woods and mountainsides before being flung into the sun-lit skies above.
And:
Using a wind tunnel to create a sequence that might be termed ‘aerodynamic ballet’, Glazer audaciously captures the athlete as she takes a second to acclimatise herself to her new surroundings before swooping in curlicues through the clouds, with Glazer’s camera equally mobile as it soars around her.
This is an awesome effect. Check it out for yourself, embedded in the main Loop post.
[VIDEO] For some reason, this video (embedded in main Loop post) surfaced on Reddit. Maybe someone reminiscing about Macworld Expo?
No matter, this was fun. See if you recognize the voice.
[VIDEO] One of the many Apple stories getting traction over the past few days is an analyst note from Goldman Sachs, which mentions Google’s contribution to Apple’s services revenue numbers, as well as the idea of an Apple Prime bundle.
On Google, they paid Apple $9.6 billion for traffic acquisition costs (TAC), essentially paying for the privilege of being the default search engine on your iPhone.
On Apple Prime, the idea there is that Apple would create an Amazon Prime-like bundle to help bring more subscriber dollars to Apple, instead of Netflix, etc. This would obviously come into play when Apple rolls out their video offering later this year.
The stories out there (including this one), are takes on the Goldman Sachs analyst report. If you’ve got five minutes, watch the video embedded in the main Loop post and get this straight from the horse’s mouth.
[VIDEO] This is a terrific video (embedded in the main Loop post). With the title word in all caps, I have to say, that EVERYTHING seems reasonable.
This is a great video to share with anyone new to iPad. There’s a lot here, all very understandable. [H/T Matt Birchler]
[VIDEO] Apple shared these three Memoji videos (embedded in the main Loop post) as a lead up to the Grammy Awards, starring Florida Georgia Line, Khalid, and Ariana Grande.
[VIDEO] Some references to keep in mind:
Schoenberg refers to the influential composer Arnold Schoenberg, who many credit with the birth of atonal, or 12 tone music. A big influence on Frank Zappa.
Alban Berg was another influential atonal composer.
John Cage, an American composer, best known for his composition 4′33″, which I might title, musicians in a room, not playing, with 4’33” of background noise.
I absolutely love this song, and offer a shout out to my brother, Stu, who taught me all about such things.
With all this in mind, head over to the main Loop post and give a listen.