If you’ve been thinking that you could use a suite of new entertainment, news and gaming options in your life – you are in luck! Yesterday, Apple unveiled all of that and more at its special event, “It’s show time.”
Here is a summary of the new and soon-to-come offerings:
Apple News + is a subscription magazine and newspaper service. It includes over 300 magazines across all sorts of topics, as well as content from premium digital subscription outlets such as The Wall Street Journal, the Los Angeles Times and other news sources. On-device intelligence makes recommendations, and no advertisers will track user reading choices. This is available now with iOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14.4 updates. Family sharing is included for the monthly investment of $9.99/month. Plus, the first month is free.
Apple Pay will be available for transit. This is rolling out now in Portland and will come online in Chicago and New York City later this year.
Apple Card is a service you can sign up for via iPhone to use worldwide in places that accept Apple Pay. This card has various capabilities, such as the ability to track your spending trends and organize purchases. Plus, users get cash back every day: 2% in daily cash for most purchases and 3% cash back from Apple purchases.
Apple Arcade is coming this fall. It will offer 100 new and exclusive games users can play on mobile, desktop and in their living rooms. You can also seamlessly move between iPhone, iPad, Mac and TV. Everything is also playable offline. The service has no ads and requires no additional purchase. Pricing will be announced.
Apple TV channels will be an ad-free service providing a one-stop shop for streaming services, sports, news, network TV, HBO, Showtime and more — all in Apple TV. This service will launch in May.
Apple TV+ is a new partnership with many storyteller artists, including extremely high-profile personalities, such as Oprah Winfrey, Steven Spielberg and others. Users will access high-quality documentaries, original programs, children’s programming and much more. This will be ad-free, on-demand and usable both on- and offline. There will also be new movies and shows not available elsewhere. This service will be starting this fall.
More details can be found on the Apple website or you can watch the seven-minute summary from The Verge.