It’s a packed Friday for Apple TV+ with the debut of Sofia Coppola’s movie On The Rocks, plus a new episode of Tehran and Long Way Up. There’s also the new Bruce Springsteen documentary Letter to You, which was due to debut Friday, but wound up debuting Thursday after a tweet sent out by The Boss (and, no, we don’t mean Tim Cook).
Here’s what to expect from this week’s new arrivals.
Scarlett Johansson reportedly will take the lead in an Apple TV+ film. Bride will be about a creation designed to be the perfect wife. And what happens when she rejects the role.
Oscar-winner Sebastián Lelio will direct the film.
Apple now has its very own music channel, dubbed Apple Music TV, that streams music videos and more 24 hours a day. You can watch it on any Apple device (as long as you live in the U.S.) absolutely free.
Here’s how — and what you need to know.
In the words of Ron Burgundy, “That escalated quickly.” A day after short-form video streamer Quibi pivoted from a mobile-only approach to launch an Apple TV app, the beleaguered service announced it will shut down for good.
What lesson can we learn from Quibi’s glitzy, high-profile launch, only to crash and burn six months later? That the slow-but-steady, tortoise-like Apple TV+ strategy looks smarter than ever.
Season two of Apple TV+’s creepy M. Night Shyamalan series Servant will debut on January 15, the famed director tweeted Thursday.
The first season was among the initial wave of shows that debuted on Apple TV+ in November 2019. It seems likely that the second season would have been due to begin about now, but shooting was put on hold due to the coronavirus pandemic shutting down filming.
The Apple TV app is coming to PlayStation 4 and PlayStation 5, Sony revealed Thursday.
According to Sony, the Apple TV app will join Disney+, Netflix, Spotify, Twitch and YouTube as streaming services that will be available when the PS5 ships on November 12. (Amazon Prime Video, MyCanal, Hulu, Peacock, and others are also coming soon.)
Apple doesn’t reveal too many numbers about Apple TV+, which can make it difficult to gauge which shows are the streaming service’s biggest hits.
Most of the time, the best you can do is use anecdotal evidence, such as what people are talking about on Twitter, or extrapolate the number of Rotten Tomatoes reviews to get a sense of which shows are the getting the most attention.
However, Reelgood, which describes itself as the “most extensive movie and TV streaming search engine with more than 2 million monthly active users in the United States,” thinks it’s going a more accurate idea. It’s produced a chart showing date about Apple TV+’s top-performing TV shows for the past three months. Check it out.
Quibi, the mobile-first streaming video service that launched at the worst possible time, is shutting down, according to The Wall Street Journal. The report came Wednesday, just days after Quibi launched an Apple TV app so subscribers could enjoy its bite-size videos on the big screen.
Apple TV+ is carving out a niche of musical documentaries. It’s latest project is The Velvet Underground. This will be, of course, about the 1960s band that found little success in its day, but went on to be hugely influential.
Apple quietly (or as quietly as Apple can do anything, which means it’s widely reported) removed the Apple TV Remote app from the App Store.
The app allowed owners to control their Apple TV without having to use the controversial Siri Remote that comes with the set-top box. It let users navigate Apple TV with touch gestures, quickly enter text using the keyboard, ask Siri to find things to watch, and more.
Apple TV+ is the new home for all things Peanuts. That includes rights to stream the classic Christmas, Halloween and Thanksgiving specials starring Charlie Brown, Snoopy and the whole gang. In addition, new specials are in development just for this streaming service.
Many of the beloved classics will be available to all, not locked behind a paywall.
Just in time for election day, America’s real president makes a stump speech that’s part biography and part self-mythologizing letter to an equally mythic version of the state he calls home. Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You, like a lot of the Boss’ later albums, isn’t exactly groundbreaking or inventive. However, there’s a good reason his homespun coastal Americana never goes out of fashion. Nobody gets America like Springsteen.
Upcoming Apple TV+ documentary Bruce Springsteen’s Letter to You showcases the songs on his 20th album. While it won’t tell you anything you didn’t already suspect, you will find an incalculable kind of value in the songwriter’s company.
“If it ain’t broke don’t fix it” has long been the Sesame Workshop’s modus operandi, and the second season of Apple TV+ kids show Helpsters is living proof that the strategy works.
The educational show, created by Odd Squad and Adventure Time writer Timothy McKeon, with music by longtime collaborator Paul Buckley, is long on charm and star power and short on filler.
Season two of Helpsters, which arrived on Apple TV+ Friday, is likely exactly what your kids need while you finally get around to doing the laundry. And you’ll laugh, too, at the litany of guest stars and the occasional elegant joke.
Incoming! Fireball: Visitors From Darker Worlds is a documentary movie scheduled to debut on Apple TV+ in November. It’s from acclaimed directors Werner Herzog and Clive Oppenheimer.
A rumored Apple TV with more of a focus on gaming allegedly won’t be out before the end of 2020. It’ll be a significant upgrade, with new features beyond a performance bump.
But it’s probably not on the list of devices to expect at an anticipated Apple November product launch event.
Friday means, among other things, new shows on Apple TV+. This week, Apple debuted a new episode of both its hit spy drama Tehran and Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman-fronted travelogue Long Way Up. There’s also a new series of kids show Helpsters.
Here’s what to expect from this week’s new shows.
Customers who buy a new iPhone, iPad, iPod touch, Apple TV, or Mac receive three months of access to Apple Arcade, Apple’s subscription gaming service.
They can also receive 12 months of free Apple TV+ access — but there’s a catch.
One of the first Apple TV+ shows for a younger audience, Ghostwriter was both a reboot of a ’90s cult hit and a shoo-in to get renewed. With precious little to choose from, the streaming service’s execs had little choice but to put their muscle behind a show with cheap production costs and limitless potential for story ideas.
Like Apple TV+’s initial batch of Ghostwriter episodes, the second season is in no hurry to go anywhere or say much. However, it’s agreeable company — and its heart is in the right place.
Keira Knightley has pulled out of Apple TV+ adaptation The Essex Serpent. The Pirates of the Caribbean star was set to play the lead role in an adaptation of Sarah Perry’s 2016 novel of the same name. Shooting would have started in around six weeks.
However, as a result of “family reasons,” involving coronavirus lockdown and childcare, Knightley will no longer star in the series.
Apple’s upcoming HomePod mini smart speaker and sixth-gen Apple TV will both function as ultra wideband base stations, according to Apple tipster Jon Prosser.
This means they will be able to track your location as you move inside your house, if you are carrying another device boasting an Apple U1 chip (like an iPhone 11 or Apple Watch Series 6).
It’s Friday, which means new content on Apple TV+, ready and waiting for the weekend. This week, Apple dropped new episodes of Tehran, Long Way Up and The Oprah Conversation.
Here’s what to expect.
Apple added up to three months to the free Apple TV+ subscriptions it gave many of its customers in 2019. And it’s giving monthly rebates to some of those who paid for an annual subscription.
Apple did not give a reason for the extension. But it might give the service time to start the second seasons of its original slate of programs. These likely would be beginning already, but the COVID-19 pandemic shut down production for months.
Apple TV+ finally named a release date for its first animated feature film. Wolfwalkers will debut exclusively on Apple’s streaming video service December 11, 2020.
The film is from the studio that created Oscar-nominated The Secret of Kells. It’s set in medieval Ireland, and tells the story of two girls who transform into wolves.
A full-length trailer was released by Apple on Thursday.
The debut of season two of the Apple TV+ comedy series Dickinson has been scheduled for early January. But Apple is so pleased with this award-winning program based on the life of rebellious young poet Emily Dickinson it went ahead and committed to a third season on Thursday.
Showing its continuing closeness with the entertainment industry, Apple TV+ is joining a Hollywood industry group trying to crack down on piracy. Variety describes the move to sign up for the Alliance for Creativity and Entertainment (ACE) as a “strengthening” of the bond between Apple and other studios
Apple will be part of the group’s governing board. This also includes Amazon, Disney, NBCUniversal, Netflix, Paramount, Sony Pictures and Warner Bros. ACE was set up in 2017, marking a combining of forces between traditional studios and streaming giants.