Windows 11 users can now download preview versions of the Apple Music and Apple TV applications.
In late 2022, Microsoft committed to getting them into the Windows Store this year.
And a new Apple Devices app is a significant move toward phasing out iTunes for Windows.
“Sharper” is old slang for a con artist or swindler. And in the trailer Apple TV+ dropped Thursday for its first film of 2023, a “neo-noir thriller” that shares the slang term as a title, it’s not easy to tell the con artist from the conned.
But it looks like it’ll be fun guessing which rich Manhattan people will lose their shirts in the film, starring Julianne Moore and John Lithgow.
It comes out in theaters February 10 and streams February 17, Apple TV+ said.
BOSTON — Before he put pen to paper and gave us violent sagas of lowlife P.I.s and desperate criminals, Dennis Lehane used to deliver flowers to a hospital next door to the Liberty Hotel. Now the novelist, who acted as writer and showrunner for the brilliant Apple TV+ miniseries Black Bird, is sitting here in the Liberty, so named because of its former vocation: a prison.
It’s an appropriate setting. Black Bird tells the true story of Jimmy Keene, a prison informant who risked his life to nail a serial killer. (The series is based on Keene’s autobiographical novel, In With the Devil: A Fallen Hero, a Serial Killer, and a Dangerous Bargain for Redemption.)
Lehane and his chilling Black Bird star Paul Walter Hauser sat down with Cult of Mac and other journalists recently to discuss their critically acclaimed Apple TV+ show, which is racking up nominations as awards season gets underway. If Black Bird’s outstanding cast and crew receive the recognition they deserve, the show stands a good chance of picking up a handful of awards — and adding to the growing glow of prestige programming on Apple TV+. (Update: Hauser won the Golden Globe on Tuesday night for Best Performance by an Actor in a Supporting Role in a Limited Series, Anthology Series or Motion Picture Made for Television.)
In the group interview, Lehane and Hauser talked motivation, working conditions and seeing into the mind of a psychopath, among other things.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ comedy Mythic Quest hits the end of season three this week with a bittersweet and very funny episode. Ian must fix the rift between himself and Poppy. David must regroup from a loss, and Jo’s got just the ticket (though maybe so do Ian and Poppy). Plus, Dana, Brad and Jo need a new challenge.
I cannot stress how much I need this show’s creative team to crank out new seasons more quickly. I do not want to go another two years without checking back in with the Mystic Quest crew. A fine season comes to a very lovely ending.
☆☆☆☆☆
It’s finally go time on Echo 3, the Apple TV+ show about rescuing a CIA operative with a brother and a husband in the military. Prince and Bambi have cleared the runway for their secret invasion of the prison where sister/wife Amber is being held captive.
But big questions remain: Can they get in without getting killed? Is Amber actually there? Can they avoid a large-scale incursion with massive casualties? Can they flee the country to safety once they’re done? Is this at all a proportionate response?
Find out on this week’s installment of the most ideologically confused show on Apple TV+.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ thriller The Mosquito Coast kisses its second season — and a number of its characters — goodbye in this week’s show. The season two finale skids into a violent confrontation that leaves many dead, but answers a lot of important questions in the process.
The Fox family — Dina, Charlie, Margot and Allie — is still on the run. And they all know they want different things out of life. Can they work it out in time to escape the repercussions of the sundry terrorist events that have been escalating all season? This frankly shocking episode of The Mosquito Coast looks at all that and more.
Apple TV+ is set to premiere Shape Island, a stop-motion animation series for children and families that illustrates friendship can take many shapes.
The show debuts on Apple’s streaming service in mid-January.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+’s Mythic Quest finds the crew on the cusp of something great this week, but that’s usually when you fall on your face.
David, forced to work with a prima donna actor to develop the Mythic Quest movie, receives a confidence boost from Jo. Poppy and Dana set out to boost Poppy’s confidence before a big, expensive presentation. Ian feels lost now that he’s admitted he and Poppy aren’t working anymore. And Phil finally finds a way to feel important.
It’s another stellar outing with the amazing cast of this fantastic Apple TV+ comedy.
★★★★☆
Dina’s gone on this week’s episode of The Mosquito Coast, the Apple TV+ show about environmental terrorists on the run from Big Brother abroad. She decides to take a walk on the wild side in the company of rich and fatuous tourists and doesn’t exactly love what she sees.
Allie and Margot have to think on their feet if their schemes to buy the other freedom are going to work out. Charlie finally gets the kick out the door he needs — but at what cost? It’s a thought-provoking chapter of the saga of the Fox family.
★☆☆☆☆
Echo 3, writer Mark Boal’s fundamentalist patriotism slash fic about two men who will stop at nothing to rescue the woman they share, gears up for a very illegal raid on the prison holding her this week.
The two mercenaries tie up loose ends before their mission to save their wife/sister/CIA agent Amber Chesborough Haas. Plus, Amber and Prince’s parents kibbutz about the next best step to take for their kids. And an old foe is finally taken out of commission.
★★★★☆
Slow Horses‘ magnificent second season comes to its excellent, exciting conclusion this week on Apple TV+.
Louisa’s revenge is at hand. Jackson discovers why the Russians have it in for him. River, Roddy, Shirley and Kelly are headed for a showdown with Chernitsky. And Standish is close to the truth. A season of intrigue explodes into armed combat and tough talk as the spy thriller wraps up season two and prepares for its next outing — which can’t come soon enough.
Apple has a gift for those without an Apple TV+ subscription: the first seasons of five popular shows are now available for anyone to watch at no charge.
Spend your Christmas vacation time enjoying some Ted Lasso or Prehistoric Planet, or any of the many other free episodes. These can all be enjoyed without an Apple device.
★★★★☆
This week’s episode of Apple TV+ thriller The Mosquito Coast finds every member of the Fox family on some sort of clandestine outing. On the run in South America after blowing up a lab and stealing security software, they’re all looking for a way out of their little corner of paradise.
Allie and Charlie scope out a new place to flee after they betray their hosts. Margot makes a shocking discovery in Richard’s cabinet. And Dina enjoys a day in the life of an ordinary girl.
★☆☆☆☆
Apple TV+ thriller Echo 3, about the kidnapping of a CIA plant and the truly bizarre array of personalities that accumulate in its aftermath, takes a trip to torture town this week.
Brothers-in-law Bambi and Prince get a visit from a familiar face, a journalist realizes she’s in over her head, and DJ Momo gets the business end of a car battery. As usual, this is the weirdest show on Apple TV+ — filled with casual sadism and murder — and things just keep getting more bizarre.
★★★★☆
The second season of Apple TV+ spy drama Slow Horses is through warming up and starting to boil over. This week’s excellent installment has Lamb revisiting the past, Catherine playing a very important game of chess, River up a creek, Louisa and Marcus in the dark, and Roddy and Shirley on the run. Plus, the Tropper family is in trouble.
The whole episode, entitled “Boardroom Politics,” is about mounting tension and slow (but not too slow) reveals, as everyone races to either create or prevent a catastrophe.
★★★★★
There’s a rat at the office on this week’s episode of Mythic Quest — and for once it’s not one of the employees. David sees a rodent and makes it Jo and Brad’s problem, which they immediately take too seriously.
Meanwhile, Poppy and Ian are having spatial issues, but those are a mask for something larger eating away at their partnership. And, as usual, Dana is caught in the middle.
A typically funny episode of the Apple TV+ workplace comedy, entitled “To Catch a Mouse,” becomes shockingly tense in its final minutes.
★★★★★
The Boy, The Mole, The Fox and The Horse, a half-hour animated short based on the book by Charlie Mackesy, is a heartfelt and splendidly drawn detour into melancholy holiday cheer.
Beautifully drawn, sensitively acted by an all-star voice cast, and written to carefully corral the emotions of viewers young and old, this one is quite the Christmas miracle. Premiering December 25 on Apple TV+, it’s one of the best animated films the streaming service has yet produced.
Apple’s year-long effort to broadcast pro football games on Sunday nights has come to an end. The Mac-maker was reportedly in negotiations for the rights to NFL Sunday Ticket, but was outbid by Google’s YouTube TV instead.
Apple TV+ will continue to boast high-profile sports, but its roster won’t include NFL games.
Android users could soon find it easier to watch Apple TV+ shows and films. A reliable tipster says an Android version of the Apple TV application is in development.
It would be a win-win for both Android and Apple.
Apple’s efforts to broadcast pro football games on Sunday nights reportedly have come to an end. The Mac-maker has pulled out of negotiations with the NFL.
Apple TV+ will continue to boast high-profile sports. But apparently its roster won’t include the NFL Sunday Ticket.
This week on Cult of Mac’s podcast: If the EU does indeed force Apple to open up the iPhone to allow alternative app stores, is that a bad thing? Some people think sideloading apps will be fantastic.
Also on The CultCast:
Listen to this week’s episode of The CultCast in the Podcasts app or your favorite podcast app. (Be sure to subscribe and leave us a review if you like it!) Or watch the video live stream, embedded below.
★★★★☆
Apple TV+ spy thriller Slow Horses nears its bogey this week, in an excellent episode full of richly drawn character detail from the show’s charismatic cast.
Lamb is on the hunt for more evidence, Louisa’s giving in to her grief over Min, River’s getting lost down a rabbit hole of suspicions, Catherine relives a bad moment from her past, and the Russians are cleaning house.
The episode, entitled “Cicada,” stands as a fine and compelling exercise in tension and unspoken personal development.
★★☆☆☆
Acapulco, the bilingual Apple TV+ comedy about the staff at a high-end Mexican resort, reaches the end of its wildly uneven second season this week. Maximo and Hugo make it to the former’s childhood home. Nora and Esteban are getting married. Julia and Maximo need to make a choice about the future. Memo gets what he wants in life. And Diane gets her resort back in order.
Indeed, everyone gets exactly what they want. What a very, very pat ending for a show that promised to tackle more real-life issues.
★★☆☆☆
Echo 3‘s gung-ho warriors spring back into action after weeks of repose and dissolution. Prince decides he’s had enough of a glimpse into a life without his kidnapped wife, Amber, and he’s ready to become part of the rescue operation again. But he’s going to need to get back into her brother Bambi’s good graces if he wants to make any semblance of a clean getaway.
Their next best hope is a DJ with bad security and bad habits — but getting him is going to be a chore and a half. It’s another baffling episode of the really odd Apple TV+ action thriller.
★★★☆☆
Apple TV+’s Mosquito Coast, about a family uneasily fleeing terrorism charges by hiding in the jungle, is all about betrayal this week. Dina comes clean with Allie — and he almost ruins their relationship in return. Margot starts trying to get her family back to the states, but she’s going to need Richard to do it.
Meanwhile, Allie and William are back on a job. And every minute Charlie spends in the jungle makes him like the idea of returning to America a little less. It’s going to be a long Good Friday.