Apple Collects 15% of Revenue Generated From HBO NOW and Other Apple TV Apps
While the terms of the Apple-HBO partnership behind the launch of the HBO NOW streaming TV service on Apple TV last month have not been disclosed, Re/code reports that some Apple TV content providers, including Netflix, Hulu Plus and MLB.TV, provide Apple with 15% of revenue generated from monthly fees for subscribers that sign up through the set-top box.
Apple collects 30% of revenue generated from the sale of iPhone, iPad and iPod touch apps, including in-app purchases, so the commission for Apple TV apps is half the amount developers are forced to hand over through the App Store. While the difference does not make a difference for consumers, the lower cut could make Apple TV a more attractive platform for HBO and other cable channels.
“But it’s even more interesting to think about Apple’s tiers of fees as we enter a world where lots of people are going to be selling Web video subscription products via platforms like Apple’s. Whether Apple is charging 15 percent or 30 percent a month, it’s giving distributors a much better deal than the 50 percent that pay TV providers usually charge premium networks like HBO. That makes the platform even more enticing to cable channels that are thinking about stepping outside of the traditional pay TV bundle — and it puts more pressure on the cable guys to sweeten the deals they already offer.”
The report adds that HBO is in negotiations to reach HBO NOW distribution deals with its existing pay TV distributors, enabling them to sell the service to their existing subscribers as an add-on. HBO is said to already have a deal in place with Cablevision and is reportedly in talks with Cox and Verizon as well. HBO NOW is exclusive to the Apple TV among streaming boxes for three months, at which point it should expand to other devices and platforms.
Apple’s iOS 8.4 beta includes a brand-new music player
Think that iOS’ music player is overdue for a remake? You’re going to get your wish. Apple has released the first iOS 8.4 beta to developers, and its centerpiece is a shiny, new Music app. The refresh includes at least a few long-sought changes, including some borrowed from iTunes: There’s a mini player that sticks around while you’re browsing, global search and an “Up Next” song queue. You’ll also see a sleeker iTunes Radio interface that helps you discover new tracks. There’s no sign of the Beats-based music service rumored to come alongside 8.4, but that’s not supposed to show up until Apple’s developer conference at the earliest — if it exists, it’s probably going to stay under wraps for a little while.
[Image credit: 9to5Mac]
Filed under: Cellphones, Tablets, Mobile, Apple
Source: 9to5Mac
Apple Seeds First iOS 8.4 Beta to Developers
Apple today seeded the first beta of iOS 8.4 to registered developers for testing purposes, just five days after releasing iOS 8.3 to the public. The beta is available for download from the iOS Developer Center.
iOS 8.3 introduced several new features like diversified emoji, an updated emoji picker, new Siri abilities, and Wireless CarPlay support. It is not clear yet what updates iOS 8.4 will bring, but it has been rumored to be the update that will include Apple’s new music service.
IBM’s cognitive computer will help solve your health problems
Just because you can collect a lot of information about your health doesn’t mean that you can easily make sense of it. How do you connect the dots between, say, your smartwatch and your medical records? IBM thinks it has the answer: it’s launching Watson Health Cloud, a platform that uses the company’s cognitive computer system to help companies and doctors make decisions based on data that might otherwise prove daunting. They could recommend a change in your prescription, for example, or outline your surgery recovery plans.
Appropriately, IBM is teaming up with a handful of companies to both scoop up more data and provide those all-important answers. If you’re using iOS gear and the Apple Watch, the info you collect in HealthKit and ResearchKit can help Watson with decisions; Johnson & Johnson is helping with a coaching system for surgery, and Medtronic is working on extra-personalized diabetes treatment. Don’t be surprised if your physicians ask a machine for advice the next time you’re faced with a complicated health problem.
Source: IBM
Apple Responds to Concerns About Apple Watch Launch: Deliveries Could Arrive Sooner Than Estimated
Over the weekend, MacRumors reader Andrew Turko sent an email to Apple CEO Tim Cook sharing his thoughts on the launch of the Apple Watch and its limitation to online orders only, and he received a response from Apple’s executive team that sheds some light on Apple’s concern over its launch plans and the potential for Apple Watch devices to ship out ahead of their prospective shipping dates.
Many people have been concerned with the long wait times for the Apple Watch, which saw shipping estimates slip for many models less than an hour after it became available for pre-order. All models sold out in less than six hours, and orders placed today won’t ship for months. There are a lot of buyers who are facing delivery times than span into June, July, and August, but Apple believes that some of these orders could ship out earlier than their estimated shipping dates.
The Apple executive team member that spoke to Andrew referenced long wait times for earlier devices like the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus, noting that shipping estimates were often much longer than actual wait times and suggesting that the same thing might happen with the Apple Watch.
[Apple] said that June preorders will most likely ship sooner than June. Of course he didn’t make any promises, but that’s the reason Apple is announcing such an extended ship date after all – to avoid disappointment through false guarantees.
Andrew’s email focused on Apple’s decision to advertise April 24th as the Apple Watch launch day despite the fact that it won’t be purchasable in store on that date, a point that stood out to both Apple’s executive team and Tim Cook, who personally read the email.
“I think it’d be silly not to believe that there will be queues lined up around the globe on launch day if the “online exclusive” information regarding the (false) advertisement of a launch day isn’t spread soon and fast.”
The email echoed some of the problems Apple executives are debating, and Andrew was told the discussion over in-store stock on launch day and the advertisement of the 4/24 launch date for the Apple Watch are being considered by Apple with “great concern.” Apple said it doesn’t want people lining up at stores if there’s no stock available to purchase.
Due to supply constraints and the desire to provide the best purchasing experience for customers, Apple has so far decided that all Apple Watch orders must be placed online. There will be no walk-in Apple Watch purchases available on April 24, unless the company’s plans change. Andrew was told Apple’s plans are not final, but it is unclear if Apple would be able to sell Apple Watch units in-store on launch day given the significant supply issues.
The executive Andrew spoke with said Apple “cares deeply” about the launch experience and hopes to improve the way people wait in line through the new Apple Watch reservation system. Online-only reservations are new territory for Apple in the United States, so it’s not out of the realm of possibility that the company could revert back to traditional sales methods if its Apple Watch sales experiment does not work out.
Andrew’s full email can be read on the MacRumors forums, as can more detail on the response that he received from Apple.
OS X 10.10.3 Now Supports Dell’s Dual-Cable 5K Monitor on Retina iMac and Mac Pro
With the release of OS X 10.10.3 last Wednesday, Apple has expanded support for high-resolution 4K and even 5K external displays (via 9to5Mac). Most notably, OS X 10.10.3 enables the Retina 5K iMac and 2013 Mac Pro to drive Dell’s UP2715K 27-inch 5K display released late last year. The display requires more bandwidth than is currently supported over a current single DisplayPort/Thunderbolt cable, so it uses a dual-cable solution taking up two ports on the user’s machine.
This bandwidth issue for the current DisplayPort standard has been seen as a major roadblock keeping Apple from releasing a standalone 5K Thunderbolt Display. With the Retina iMac, Apple has been able to build custom internal components to drive the massive display, but for external displays, a dual-cable solution such as that used by Dell has been considered by many to be “un-Apple like.”
As a result, Apple has been widely expected to wait until the release of Intel’s Skylake platform with DisplayPort 1.3 support later this year before releasing an external 5K Thunderbolt Display that will function over a single cable. Whether the inclusion of support for Dell’s dual-cable solution in OS X 10.10.3 is a sign Apple may be willing to adopt that arrangement for its own display and perhaps release it earlier is, however, unclear.
Beyond 5K displays, OS X 10.10.3 has also expanded support for 4K displays to include “most single-stream 4K (3840×2160) displays” at 60 Hz, expanding beyond the previous support of only Multi-Stream Transport displays introduced in late updates to Mavericks. The new 4K display support will function with most of the Mac line, from the 27-inch iMac to the brand-new Retina MacBook. However, only the Mac Pro and iMac will support full 4096×2160 resolution at 60Hz.
With OS X Yosemite v10.10.3, most single-stream 4K (3840×2160) displays are supported at 60Hz operation on the following Mac computers:
– MacBook Pro (Retina, 13-inch, Early 2015)
– MacBook Pro (Retina, 15-inch, Mid 2014)
– Mac Pro (Late 2013)
– iMac (27-inch, Late 2013 and later)
– Mac mini (Late 2014)
– MacBook Air (Early 2015)
– MacBook (Retina, 12-inch, Early 2015)
As for the new 12-inch MacBook, the laptop will be able to support displays and rates of 3840×2160 at a 30 Hz refresh rate and 4096×2160 at a 24 Hz refresh rate. MacBook users wanting to use such a display will, of course, need to use Apple’s USB-C Digital AV Multiport Adapter to do so.
Apple Sued Over Copycat Artist Work in ‘Start Something New’ Campaign
Pop artist Romero Britto today filed a lawsuit against Apple over its “Start Something New” campaign, for using Craig & Karl artwork that allegedly mimics the design style that Britto is famous for. The lawsuit, levied at both Craig & Karl and Apple, accuses the two artists of violating the Britto trade dress and targets Apple because Britto became aware of the copycat art through Apple’s recent promotion.
Apple uses a Craig & Karl image featuring a patchwork hand on a bright yellow background on one of the iPads in the graphics used to promote the “Start Something New” campaign, and there’s a profile of Craig & Karl on the company’s website describing how the image was made on an iPad Air 2 using iOS apps.
Apple also featured the Craig & Karl image heavily in retail stores, leading people to contact Britto with the false impression that he had created the artwork, where he discovered that the two had been making art similar to his own for years.
As with any Apple campaign, the Start Something New Campaign had massive exposure and breathless press coverage, and many of the media profiles prominently featured the Infringing Apple Image. Plaintiff was inundated with reports of the Start Something New campaign and the Infringing Apple Image. These reports ranged from, for example, incorrect congratulations on Mr. Britto’s new deal with Apple, to consternation from business partners in potentially collaborative or competing product categories, to inquiries from collectors wanting to know if the image they saw in the Apple store or on the Apple website was by Romero Britto.
Britto’s work is fairly well-known and on display in dozens of locations around the world. He’s also worked with multiple different brands on major advertising campaigns, with all of his work featuring bright colors, strong lines, and simple designs.
According to the lawsuit, Britto’s specific Trade Dress is “strong, fanciful, non-functional, and inherently distinctive,” composed of vibrant color combinations, the juxtaposition of different patterns, bold black outlines, and “uplifting, bright and happy visual themes.” A quick visual comparison of Britto’s work next to Craig & Karl’s does indeed reveal similarities between the two.
https://www.scribd.com/embeds/261742894/content?start_page=1&view_mode=scroll&access_key=key-fwv3N2s413q6ZKAkb39d&show_recommendations=false
Britto contacted Apple and asked the company to cease using the Craig & Karl images, but he did not receive a response, leading him to file a lawsuit. Britto is asking for damages and attorneys’ fees, along with an injunction that would require Apple to stop using the artwork and Craig & Karl to stop producing artwork that mimics his style.
New Theme Store Coming Soon to SwiftKey Keyboard for iOS [iOS Blog]
It appears that the popular SwiftKey keyboard for iOS will soon be gaining a Theme Store, MacRumors has learned. SwiftKey already has three themes available in app for free, but the new Theme Store seems to add 11 additional themes that can be purchased at prices between $0.99 and $1.99.
Lower priced $0.99 themes change the color of the keyboard, and some of the available options include “Coal,” “Iceberg,” and “Juice,” three minimal themes that turn the keyboard black, white, or orange.
There’s also a dynamic “Shooting Stars” theme that uses Parallax to cause the stars in the background to shift when the iPhone is moved, giving it a distinctive 3D feel. “Shooting Stars” is priced at $1.99, and in addition to the parallax effect, users will also see an occasional shooting star soar across the keyboard.
These new themes will undoubtedly be a welcome addition to SwiftKey users who have wanted to change the look of their keyboards to better suit their personal styles or visual preferences, and it’s likely SwiftKey will continually add new themes to the Theme Store following its release.
The new SwiftKey Theme Store appears to be rolling out to SwiftKey‘s beta testing group, but it will likely be coming to all users as an app update in the near future. Beta testers can access the new themes through the SwiftKey container app in the “Themes” section.
Swiftkey can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
New Theme Store Coming Soon to SwiftKey Keyboard for iOS [iOS Blog]
It appears that the popular SwiftKey keyboard for iOS will soon be gaining a Theme Store, MacRumors has learned. SwiftKey already has three themes available in app for free, but the new Theme Store seems to add 11 additional themes that can be purchased at prices between $0.99 and $1.99.
Lower priced $0.99 themes change the color of the keyboard, and some of the available options include “Coal,” “Iceberg,” and “Juice,” three minimal themes that turn the keyboard black, white, or orange.
There’s also a dynamic “Shooting Stars” theme that uses Parallax to cause the stars in the background to shift when the iPhone is moved, giving it a distinctive 3D feel. “Shooting Stars” is priced at $1.99, and in addition to the parallax effect, users will also see an occasional shooting star soar across the keyboard.
These new themes will undoubtedly be a welcome addition to SwiftKey users who have wanted to change the look of their keyboards to better suit their personal styles or visual preferences, and it’s likely SwiftKey will continually add new themes to the Theme Store following its release.
The new SwiftKey Theme Store appears to be rolling out to SwiftKey‘s beta testing group, but it will likely be coming to all users as an app update in the near future. Beta testers can access the new themes through the SwiftKey container app in the “Themes” section.
Swiftkey can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
Mid-Range 1.2 GHz Retina MacBook CPU Shows Nice Speed Boost Over Low-End Model
Ahead of last Friday’s launch of the new Retina MacBook, we saw several early benchmarks for the entry-level notebook running a 1.1 GHz Intel Core M processor, putting CPU performance for the new machine roughly on par with the 2011 MacBook Air according to Geekbench.
With the machines now available for purchase, we’re starting to see Geekbench results for the mid-range 1.2 GHz processor, revealing a significant performance boost over the low-end chip for multi-core benchmarks, but less so for single-core testing.
It will take a little while for Geekbench results to firm up as the machines work through their early housekeeping tasks, but the best results we’re seeing so far for the 1.2 GHz model are approaching 2600 on 64-bit single-core tests and over 5300 on multi-core tests. That performance compares to roughly 2400/4450 for the 1.1 GHz model, meaning that the mid-range model seems to be showing performance improvements at least in line with the 9 percent increase in CPU frequency. Multi-core performance in particular seems to be seeing a nice bump with the faster chip.
These scores for the 1.2 GHz Retina MacBook are roughly in the same range as the low-end models of the previous-generation Early 2014 MacBook Air, despite the much lower power consumption that has enabled Apple to build an ultra-thin fanless design.
In addition to the 1.1 GHz and 1.2 GHz chip options, Apple is also offering a 1.3 GHz processor as a build-to-order option. We have, however, yet to see any Geekbench results for these chips, and shipping estimates for machines with these chips were at 3-4 weeks when Apple began taking orders on Friday, suggesting it may yet be some time before we see data on their performance.
Apple is taking advantage of Intel’s latest “Core M” Broadwell chips for the new Retina MacBook. The chips offer extremely low power usage, but Apple is slightly overclocking these chips for higher performance. The low-end MacBook uses a 5Y31 chip that runs by default at 900 MHz but which supports overclocking to 1.1 GHz at the cost of bumping power consumption from 4.5 watts to 6 watts, and Apple has elected to use the faster speeds to improve performance.
The mid-range MacBook uses the 5Y51 chip, which defaults to 1.1 GHz but which Apple has bumped by 100 MHz to run at 1.2 GHz. The high-end custom MacBook takes advantage of the 5Y71 chip that is designed to run at 1.2 GHz, and Apple has similarly bumped this one by 100 MHz to run at 1.3 GHz.
The Retina MacBook is in very short supply following its launch last Friday, with all stock and custom configurations currently listed as shipping in 4-6 weeks from Apple’s online store. The company’s retail stores also have yet to begin stocking the new machines, although some (mainly in the United States) do have models on display for customers to test out.
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