Apple TV - page 70

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.

Sofia Coppola is developing an adaptation of Edith Wharton’s The Custom of the Country for Apple TV+, according to a report Tuesday from Deadline.

Dads, a humorous documentary about modern fatherhood directed by Bryce Dallas Howard, daughter of Ron Howard, is headed for Apple TV+ next month.

Dads includes funny stories from Will Smith, Jimmy Fallon, Neil Patrick Harris and others.

Things start to get unbearably tense and inhumane as pressure builds on the Barber family in Defending Jacob’s fifth episode, “Visitors.” The show takes a number of risks that may pay rich dividends in future episodes — as long as the showrunners remember not to flinch.

New guest stars — including veteran actor J.K. Simmons — and old vendettas surface in Friday’s new episode. And the Barbers head toward what might turn out to be a moral dead end if they want to stop their son, Jacob, from going to prison. Can we say climax?

Apple TV+ won an accolade no one wants: it’s the streaming video service viewers are most likely to cancel once it stops being free.

Still, satisfaction with Apple’s offering is fairly high, according to survey results revealed on Friday. But people like almost all its competitors more.

The American crime drama and miniseries Defending Jacob is apparently a hit with Apple TV+ viewers, with reports Thursday that it now ranks among the two fastest-growing series premieres for the fledgling streaming network.

While it might be far down the pecking order of best selling streaming boxes, the Apple TV and Apple TV 4K got high marks in the first quarter of this year for best picture quality speed and shortest lag time in starting videos, according to data collected from billions of sensors embedded into video applications.

The results are a clear sign of how well streaming devices and services performed in a period where more people around the world were homebound due to the coronavirus pandemic and turned to watching television en masse.

A new Apple TV 4K, powered by the company’s A12X chip from 2018’s 11-inch iPad Pro, is primed to drop any day, claims tipster Jon Prosser.

“Apple got no chill right now,” Prosser tweeted Thursday. He adds that he has not yet heard a projected date of release.

Apple TV+ show For All Mankind is currently between seasons — with season one concluded, but season two stalled by the same production challenges facing everyone in Hollywood right now.

To make sure that the retro space drama stays in people’s minds, however, Apple Wednesday dropped a new video providing a narrated tour of one of the show’s locations. Check it out below.

After months of anticipation and weeks of social media teasing, the TiVo Stream 4K was released Wednesday, a streaming box that brings together on-demand and live streaming services into one device without having to switch from app to app to find and watch shows.

At an introductory price of $49.99 with no monthly subscription for TV scheduling data, the TiVo Stream 4K will take on the Apple TV 4K with a starting price of $179 and the top-selling Roku streaming device.

The disappointing news for Apple TV app users and Apple TV+ subscribers is that TiVo’s newest product currently will not support the app or integration of Apple’s programming as Apple does not have an Android app.

The American Film Institute announced Tuesday it has launched a dedicated AFI Movie Club collection of chosen films on the Apple TV app. 

The club is not a subscription service but simply recommendations of content that can be bought through iTunes for $14.99 or rented through Disney+, Hulu, or HBO for $3.99 each.

Apple TV+ executive producer and showrunner Kerry Ehrin inked a multiyear extension of her deal with Apple. Under the new pact, she will continue producing exclusive content, including The Morning Show, which should enter its second season soon.

In its fourth episode, stellar Apple TV+ show Defending Jacob shows every member of the Barber family starting to crack as young Jacob moves closer to his murder trial. As the characters head toward revelations and uncomfortable conclusions, they start to stall for time in irresponsible, sometimes dangerous ways.

As the situation unfolds, their relationships with each other start to fray.

Veteran Hollywood writer and producer Annie Weisman has signed a longterm creative deal with AppleTV+ to develop televisions projects exclusive to the service, according to a published report Friday

Even during quarantine, you’d really need to not value your time to look beyond the failures of imagination at the heart of Trying. The new Apple TV+ sitcom, created by Andy Wolton and starring Rafe Spall and Esther Smith as a couple who discover they can’t conceive, is sitcom 101.

There isn’t anything inherently wrong with the premise, but neither is there much to recommend it. Wolton and company seem content to do the bare minimum.

With coronavirus lockdown, new streaming TV content is more appreciated than ever. Fortunately, Apple TV+ has loaded up on new content for another packed week of new shows. Debuting Friday are all eight episodes of the first season of new comedy series Trying.

There’s also episode four of the excellent Chris Evans-starring drama series Defending Jacob. That should be enough to fill at least part of the weekend!