Media

The Hollywood Reporter:

The world’s biggest company is officially taking meetings as everyone from Jennifer Aniston to Steven Spielberg salivates over selling the first big show. One studio chief says, “Who wouldn’t want to be the ‘Mad Men’ or ‘House of Cards’ on Apple?”

And:

Though Apple isn’t looking to replicate the pace or scale of rival Netflix’s $6 billion annual spend, it is eager to be in the prestige content business in a significant way. Per multiple sources briefed on the company’s plans, its executives are looking for big, smart, splashy dramas, with at least one citing Game of Thrones, Breaking Bad and The Crown as models. And though there are still plenty of questions — first and foremost, how will an Apple show be distributed? — talent is lining up to provide options.

And:

At press time, the company had bids out on only a handful of projects, including an update of Steven Spielberg’s 1980s sci-fi, horror, fantasy anthology series, Amazing Stories, and a morning show drama starring Jennifer Aniston and Reese Witherspoon, according to several involved.

Apple is entering new territory here. The good news is, they’ve long proved they can take on something completely new, dig in, learn the critical lessons, then produce quality product. Given what we’ve seen so far, it’s certainly fair to be skeptical, but I like the moves Apple is making and look forward to watching them master this space.

[VIDEO] Surprised to see Craig Federighi fielding questions on Conan yesterday. As always, video embedded in the main Loop post.

CNBC:

Marvel and Star Wars titles will be streamed exclusively on the new Disney streaming platform when it launches in late 2019, according to Disney CEO Bob Iger.

“I have described a very rich, treasure trove of content for this app,” Iger said at the Bank of America Merrill Lynch 2017 Media, Communications & Entertainment Conference in Los Angeles on Thursday. “We’re going to launch big, and we’re going to launch hot.”

This is a chess move. More than anything else, it will impact Netflix, who have made waves with Marvel series such as Daredevil, Luke Cage, and Jessica Jones. Presumably, Netflix will lose the rights to carry these series once the Disney platform goes live in 2019.

It’d be interesting to see if Apple can make a deal with Disney to carry the Disney stream on Apple TV. After all, Apple has long had a historically close relationship with Disney, with Steve Jobs as the funder of Pixar and, before his death, as one of Disney’s largest shareholders.

[Side note: Even with the recent sale of half her Disney stock, Laurene Powell Jobs still owns a hefty chunk of the company.]

[VIDEO] The video is embedded in the main Loop post. Apple Park looks tantalizingly close to completion, more like a massive landscaping effort than a project built from scratch.

The Steve Jobs theater looks complete, at least from the outside. The best view is about 1:52 in.

Amazing progress.

[VIDEO] This is a fantastic real-world use case for ARKit. Kabaq is an app that restaurants can use to implement a menu that puts 3D images of food on a plate in front of a hungry customer.

Watch the video (embedded in the main Loop post). ARKit offers so much potential.

[VIDEO] Watch the video embedded in the tweet in the main Loop post. There’s something groundbreaking here, though I can’t quite put my finger on it. Perhaps it’s the idea of creating 3D models for use in augmented reality apps using augmented reality itself. Fascinating.

[VIDEO] Getting pretty close. Will the September event be held here? Video embedded in the main Loop post.

Bloomberg:

Movie studios are considering whether to ignore the objections of cinema chains and forge ahead with a plan to offer digital rentals of films mere weeks after they appear in theaters, according to people familiar with the matter.

Some of the biggest proponents, including Warner Bros. and Universal Pictures, are pressing on in talks with Apple Inc. and Comcast Corp. on ways to push ahead with the project even without theater chains, the people said.

And:

Deals with potential distributors such as Apple and Comcast could be reached as soon as early next year to sell digital downloads of major films as soon as two weeks after they debut in theaters, the people said.

This seems inevitable, part of the evolution of the content consumption model. Apple is easing into this business on several sides, tweaking their iTunes movie and TV streaming business, as they also build their own content creation business.

I see Apple as the irresistible force here, fueled by the deepest pockets in the biz.

[VIDEO] This is from a Ted Talk Susan Bennett gave last year. Watch the video embedded in the main Loop post. One particular nugget (about 1:17 in):

One of the original engineers was from Norway. His name was Dag Kittlaus. He was responsible for naming Siri. In Norwegian, the name Siri means “beautiful woman who guides you to victory”.

Fascinating to see Susan Bennett tell these origin stories. My sense, from the iOS 11 beta, it that Siri is moving toward a more generic, machine generated voice. Yet, in the latest commercials (with The Rock), Susan appears to do all the Siri voice work.

It’ll be interesting to see how all this will play out. Will Susan be “classic Siri”?

Wall Street Journal:

Apple Inc. (AAPL) has set a budget of roughly $1 billion to procure and produce original content over the next year, according to people familiar with the matter–a sign of how serious the iPhone maker is about making a splash in Hollywood.

Combined with the company’s marketing clout and global reach, that immediately makes Apple a considerable competitor in a crowded market where new media players and traditional media companies are vying to acquire original shows. The figure is about half what Time Warner Inc.’s HBO spent on content last year and on par with estimates of what Amazon.com spent in 2013, the year after it announced its move into original programming.

And:

Programming costs can range from more than $2 million an episode for a comedy to more than $5 million for a drama. An episode of some high-end shows such as “Game of Thrones” can cost more than $10 million to produce.

The back-to-back success of the original shows “House of Cards” and “Orange Is the New Black” is credited with building Netflix’s business. At the time they were released the company’s annual budget for original and acquired programming was about $2 billion; this year it is expected to spend more than $6 billion.

Personally, I would not judge Apple’s chances here based on shows like Planet of the Apps and Carpool Karaoke. That would be like judging a developer on the apps they write as they learn how to program.

Key to Apple’s success will be setting aside enough cash (which they appear more than willing to do) and ability to bring on board the right mix of people, people with experience and craft. With the hire of Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht, and the addition of Matt Cherniss to oversee development, Apple has the start of a significant original programming effort.

Deadline:

In one of their first major moves since joining Apple as heads of worldwide video programming, Zack Van Amburg and Jamie Erlicht have brought in Matt Cherniss to oversee development.

As a reminder, Van Amburg and Erlicht were hired away from Sony, where they shepherded hits like The Crown, Breaking Bad, and The Black List through production.

Cherniss, a respected veteran network development executive, had been in demand since he recently stepped down as president and general manager of WGN America and Tribune Studios.

Cherniss will be a lieutenant to Amburg and Erlicht. Apple is building a formidable team here. Now all they need is money.

[VIDEO] Augmented reality is slowly entering our reality. Genesis Motors (Hyundai’s luxury brand) has put their car manual into an AR app. The video (embedded in the main Loop post) is just a taste of what’s coming, a nibble of how useful AR can be.

Avery Magnotti:

If you haven’t already heard, Apple accidentally published a prerelease build of audioOS through their public update servers. Whether or not this leak was “intentional” is up for debate, but I personally believe it to be a mistake.

Regardless, Avery dug in and pulled out a series of HomePod alarm sounds. If you are interested in the process (requires some Terminal/basic Unix skills), read Avery’s blog post.

For your listening pleasure, a YouTube video of the sounds is embedded in the main Loop post.