Jon Prosser is the hot new Apple reporter on the scene. On Twitter and his Front Page Tech channel on YouTube, he delivers Apple scoops with a healthy side helping of humor. So, is Prosser the new Mark Gurman?
Read our take in this week’s issue of Cult of Mac Magazine. As always, the free iOS mag is filled with Apple news, reviews and how-tos.
Jason Sudeikis is reviving Ted Lasso for new Apple TV+ comedy that’ll debut August 14.
The show, called simply, Ted Lasso, centers on a small-time college football coach from Kansas hired to coach a professional soccer team in England, despite having utterly no experience with soccer.
This week on The CultCast: AirPods with new sensors could be on the horizon, and that would fit perfectly with Apple’s always-on approach to health. Find out why we can’t wait for in-ear health trackers. Or for Apple to revamp the musty Messages app for Mac.
Plus, we discuss the aftermath of last week’s controversial chat with hotshot Apple leaker, Jon Prosser. And finally, Cult of Mac TV reviewer Scout Tafoya tells us why you probably ought to queue up Defending Jacob (and why you might want to skip Central Park).
Our thanks to Squarespace for supporting this episode. Easily create a beautiful website all by yourself, at Squarespace.com/cultcast. Use offer code CultCast at checkout to get 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain.
Breakout Apple TV+ series Defending Jacob comes to a gutsy and strong conclusion by leaving its characters, and its audience, in the lurch. This is the smartest decision the show’s creators could have made.
The limited series’ ending, which premieres Friday, shifts everything we’ve seen so far into an entirely new light. It likely will haunt you for some time to come.
Spoiler alert: Details about “After,” the final episode of Defending Jacob, follow.
Despite an impressive pedigree and a marketable cast, new Apple TV+ show Central Park seems primed to annoy as many people as it will please.
You must put up with an awful lot of very trendy singing and songwriting, and an overly precious approach to character and plotting, to get to the meager delights within.
A federal judge has thrown out a copyright lawsuit against Apple and director M. Night Shyamalan claiming that Apple TV+ series Servant stole its core idea from a 2013 independent movie.
As with the spooky Servant, the movie The Truth About Emanuel is the story of a traumatized parent who hires a babysitter to look after a baby that (spoiler alert) turns out to actually be a doll.
Apple nipped a 8-episode biography of Hedy Lamarr away from Showtime. The drama will star Gal Gadot as the 20th-century actress who was also an inventor who helped lay the groundwork for some of today’s wireless technologies.
The show will appear on Apple TV+, the company’s streaming video service that’s taking on the likes of Netflix and Disney+.
Amazon is helping us all say entertained during COVID-19 lockdowns with generous savings on its own Fire TV devices. You can pick up a Fire TV Stick for as little as $29.99, and Fire Edition TV sets from just $139.99.
All Fire TV devices now support Apple TV+ — as well as a host of other streaming services, including Netflix and Disney+. These are limited-time savings, so enjoy them before they disappear.
Apple has seemingly beaten Netflix to fund Martin Scorsese’s next movie Killers of the Flower Moon, Deadline reported late Wednesday.
The forthcoming Apple Original movie will feature Scorsese regulars Leonardo DiCaprio and Robert De Niro in the lead roles.
The YouTube Kids app, a special child-friendly version of the YouTube app with additional parental controls, has landed on Apple TV.
The app was launched on iOS and Android in early 2015. However, while users could previously use AirPlay to stream content from their iPhone or iPad to Apple TV, this is the first time YouTube has created a native Apple TV app for the service.
Apple TV+ will be seriously upping its quotient of Fraggle Rock content, the Jim Henson kids’ puppet show which debuted in the 1980s.
Apple has acquired the streaming rights to all 96 episodes of the original show, which ran on HBO from 1983 through 1987, alongside specials. These will debut on Wednesday, May 27, and will be the first time that Apple TV+ has aired rerun content previously shown elsewhere.
Defending Jacob closes in on its shocking and horrible conclusion this week. It’s been clear for a while that things will never get straightened out fully for the Barber family after Jacob’s murder trial. Whether the teen lands in jail or not, things will end badly.
The Apple TV+ crime drama’s seventh episode, titled “Job,” proves this in spectacularly agonizing fashion.
Friday means new content on Apple TV+ — and this week that takes the form of the penultimate episode of Defending Jacob and a new quarantine episode of comedy Mythic Quest.
The preview for the Defending Jacob episode reads: “As the trial begins, Jacob’s fate hangs in the balance.” Meanwhile, the special quarantine edition episode of Raven’s Quest is described like this: “As the MQ staff works from home, Poppy struggles with solitude, while Brad and David start a charitable competition.”
Apple just revealed the debut date for Little Voice, a collaboration between Sara Bareilles, J.J. Abrams, and others. The show about “a uniquely talented performer struggling to fulfill her dreams,” hits Apple TV+ on Friday, July 10.
Apple is reportedly buying exclusive rights to podcasts that could someday become movies or shows on Apple TV+.
Turning podcasts into television programs is becoming increasingly common. A popular podcast starring Will Ferrell and Paul Rudd is being made into into a Apple TV+ show, for example.
Hot off the heels of Netflix and ESPN’s smash hit The Last Dance documentary, Apple TV+ has announced a new sports documentary series of its own. Called Greatness Code, the series will, according to Apple, spotlight “untold stories from the greatest athletes in the world.”
The first slate of elite athletes is set to include an all-star cast of NBA star LeBron James, Super Bowl Champion Tom Brady, Olympic gold medalist soccer star Alex Morgan, Olympic runner Usain Bolt, Olympian swimmer Katie Ledecky, and champion surfer Kelly Slater. Each will get their own episode.
The cast and crew of Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet created a special quarantine episode of the Apple TV+ comedy. The actors had to film themselves, and collaborated via AirPods.
Rob McElhenney who co-created and stars in the show, along with co-creator Megan Ganz, gave an interview about the convoluted process to Hollywood Reporter.
Apple TV+ reportedly secured the rights to upcoming World War II film Greyhound, written by and starring Tom Hanks. The film was originally scheduled to debut in theaters, but the COVID-19 pandemic caused a shift in strategy.
The deal, which will see the movie premiere on Apple TV+ at an undisclosed date, shows just how serious Cupertino is about its streaming service.
After hitting 10 million monthly subscribers, Apple TV+ might add older TV shows and movies to boost its numbers, Bloomberg reported Tuesday.
Apple actually passed the milestone in February, between three and four months after the service’s early November launch, the publication said. However, while those numbers might seem impressive, they are still paltry compared to Disney+’s reported 50 million subscribers. Disney’s streaming service added 10 million within its first day.
Apple TV+ has inked a deal for an as-yet-untitled four-part docuseries from the directors of the HBO series McMillion$.
Deadline reported Monday that the series will be produced by Brian Lazarte and James Lee Hernandez.
HBO discontinued support for its HBO Now app on second- and third-generation Apple TV models. The app allows HBO subscribers to access on-demand content from the cable channel’s library of original movies and shows.
The discontinuation means the HBO Now app will no longer be updated on these older devices. It will be removed entirely — so that it’s not possible to access the content anymore from those Apple TV models.
The characters of Mythic Quest: Raven’s Banquet are quarantined at home like the rest of us, and it’s not going well. Their dysfunctional video chats are the subject of a special episode of this Apple TV+ show.
It’ll hit Apple’s streaming video service a week from today. But you can watch the trailer now:
Apple TV+ crime drama Defending Jacob nears its climax in Episode 6. The writers crank up the tension and the danger in ways that finally take the series out of the ordinary and into the more obviously fictional and generic.
Thankfully, director Morten Tyldum knows how to handle a flagrant crime show incident without it seeming more overblown than the series can handle. (Spoiler alert: Some key plot details will follow.)
Episode six of Defending Jacob debuted on Apple TV+ Friday, providing fans with another episode of the compelling crime drama to enjoy as the week comes to a close.
Titled “Wishful Thinking,” Apple’s preview for the episode reads as follows: “Andy and Klein explore two last-ditch efforts to prove Jacob’s innocence.”
Ridley Scott directed the famous “1984” Mac ad plus many movies, and a new deal might lead to him creating shows for Apple TV+. His production company reportedly signed a first-look deal with the iPhone maker. This means Apple gets the right of first refusal for all projects the prolific director dreams up.