Eddy Cue, Apple’s SVP of Services, is reportedly looking to restructure the company’s offerings to make a more significant push in streaming and advertising.
Apple’s services business has been growing rapidly over the last few years. It currently boasts more than 825 million paid subscribers.
Apple revealed who will call the games, and what production enhancements to expect, for its upcoming sports show, Friday Night Baseball. The new broadcast hits the field with a doubleheader Friday on Apple TV+.
Apple News’ local coverage feature this week expanded its reach to Canada. Users in Montreal and Toronto can now enjoy local news from a number of different sources, including CTV News and Toronto Star.
Local coverage was first added to Apple News in July 2020, but growth has been slow since then. Although it has made its way to additional U.S. cities since it debuted, this is the first time the feature has landed in another country.
A three-month free trial of Apple News+ is now available to those who sign up through Cyber Monday. The promotion is much more generous than the one-month trial typically offered by Apple, but it’s only available to new users.
Once the trial has ended, subscriptions auto-renew at $9.99 per month.
Apple News will now offer its “local news experience” in three additional U.S. cities: Charlotte, N.C., Miami and Washington, D.C. The service’s editors curate local news, selecting coverage of topics important to communities, Apple said.
Apple will ask iPhone and iPad users for their permission to show personalized ads within its own apps in iOS and iPadOS 15.
A new popup appears when opening the App Store for the first time after installing one of Apple’s latest betas. It says personalized ads “help you discover apps, products and services that are relevant to you.”
A new Apple News Partner Program allows subscription news publications to provide their content to the Apple News app while paying a lower than usual share of the revenue coming from customers. Companies that choose to participate will have to give Apple 15% of subscription fees in the first year — half the usual amount.
This move is apparently in response to complaints from big publications about Apple’s cut.
Apple will highlight the contributions of women to society in many ways during Women’s History Month, including suggesting relevant outstanding books, podcasts and apps. It also plans virtual Today at Apple sessions led by female creators.
Plus, there’ll be an International Women’s Day Apple Watch Activity Challenge for March 8, and there’ll be other ways of observing this day.
With a new president installed, this has been a big week for the United States — and, to paraphrase Billy Madison, news app are reaping all the benefits.
According to a new report by top app analytics platform Sensor Tower, news apps in the App Store received a nice Inauguration Day bump. Three of the big winners were CNN‘s news app, aggregator News Break, and Newsmax. They respectively jumped 530, 13, and 43 spots in the App Store rankings.
Barack Obama, the last Democratic POTUS, was reportedly a big Apple fan. And his successor, President-elect Joe Biden, is supposedly an Apple guy as well — more specifically Apple News.
Evan Osnos, CNN’s newest contributor and author of Joe Biden: The Life, The Run, and What Matters Now, says Biden “relies on Apple News to help him get headlines from … reputable media sources.”
