05
May
The Epic vs. Apple trial may have started over a disagreement about Apple’s revenue share and how it was impacting Fortnite, but the early days of the trial have already made it clear that these proceedings are going to bring a lot of strange facts about both companies to the surface. As Epic and Apple release everything from email chains to internal reports, gamers everywhere are being treated to a rare look at the inner workings of two companies that tend to keep things pretty close to the chest. In fact, it seems that both sides may have revealed more…
02
Mar
Black Hole: The Edge of All We Know is the space-time bending documentary you need to watch on Apple TV. “Supermassive black holes lurk at the center of myriad galaxies like spiders at the center of their web. Yet these cosmic behemoths are invisible to our Earthly instruments — we ‘see’ them only via the effect they have on their surroundings. But in 2019, a group of more than 200 astronomers from all over the world managed the inconceivable: They captured the first image of a black hole, rendering the invisible visible.” Read more at Inverse. WandaVision, at its core,…
27
Oct
Long before “fake news” was a rhetorical cudgel for the President to beat his perceived media enemies with, it was a term of endearment for a new breed of satirical news program. As first popularized by Comedy Central’s The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, news/comedy hybrids first had their moment in the early 2000s and then just never really went away. Now, after a lengthy hiatus, one of the genre’s godfathers is finally coming back to television. Today Apple TV+ announced that it has inked a multi-year partnership with Jon Stewart to produce content, including a current affairs series a…
14
Sep
Wherever Star Wars actor Ewan McGregor goes, a certain bearded Jedi follows. In 2019, when McGregor and his travel writer friend Charley Boorman arrived in a small South American town (McGregor thinks it was in Peru) amid a long motorcycle journey, so too did a legion of fans excited to meet Obi-Wan Kenobi. “We were in a small town and there are these long winding steps all the way up to this famous lighthouse,” McGregor says. “We were going up and someone asked for an autograph. I was happy to do that. Then the same thing happened on another flight…
21
Aug
In a world beset by dozens of streaming options, what are some of the less popular and essential streaming services to do? Well bundle, of course! Earlier this week, in “wait, did we accidentally invent cable again?” news, Apple announced a new partnership with ViacomCBS to provide Apple TV+ subscribers with a new bundling option. As of August 17, 2020, Apple TV+ users are now able to purchase additional access to CBS All Access and Showtime for $9.99 a month after a seven day free trial. Content from all three services will be available to watch online and offline without…
18
Aug
Fortnite developer Epic Games has filed an injunction against Apple in the hopes of preventing Apple from revoking Epic’s iOS development tools and potentially preventing the Unreal Engine from running on iOS devices. “Not content simply to remove Fortnite from the App Store, Apple is attacking Epic’s entire business in unrelated areas,” reads part of the legal filing from Epic. “If the Unreal Engine can no longer support Apple platforms, the software developers that use it will be forced to use alternatives. The damage to Epic’s ongoing business and to its reputation and trust with its customers will be unquantifiable…
17
Aug
A patent filed by Apple suggests that the company may be working on a new cloud gaming service. The patent, which was spotted by Patently Apple, was seemingly filed in February but was only recently published in Europe. It’s titled “Enabling Interactive Service for Cloud Rendering Gaming in 5G Systems” and it largely focuses on the technology of how cloud gaming would work over a mobile connection. “The controls and button-presses from the user’s computing device are transmitted to the server, where they are recorded, and the server then sends back the game’s response to the input controls,” reads part…
15
Aug
Fortnite has been removed from the Apple App Store and Google Play Store. Apple and Google’s decisions to remove the gaming app from their digital storefronts seemed to come out of nowhere but this situation has actually been brewing behind the scenes for quite some time. That would actually explain how Fortnite developer Epic Games could respond so quickly to Apple’s action, posting a video short titled “Nineteen Eighty Fortnite” which takes some…less than subtle jabs at the tech giant. Yet, once you get past some of the video’s obvious visual gags, you’ll find that this short actually features quite…
14
Aug
Apple has removed Fortnite from the App Store following Epic Games’ decision to allow mobile players to purchase in-game currency directly from the developer. “Today, Epic Games took the unfortunate step of violating the App Store guidelines that are applied equally to every developer and designed to keep the store safe for our users,” says Apple in a statement to The Verge. “As a result, their Fortnite app has been removed from the store. Epic enabled a feature in its app which was not reviewed or approved by Apple, and they did so with the express intent of violating the…
12
Aug
Harriet the Spy is once again set to gather friendship-damaging intelligence, this time in the animated arena, thanks to Apple TV+’s green light for a new series. Apple TV+ has announced its pickup for a Harriet the Spy animated series, which will directly adapt the iconic 1964 children’s novel of the same name written and illustrated by Louise Fitzhugh. The series, hailing from The Jim Henson Company and Rehab Entertainment, will have Beanie Feldstein (Booksmart) voice the titular role of young Harriet M. Welsch, joined by Jane Lynch (Glee) as non-nonsense nanny Ole Golly. Notably, it will take shape creatively…
07
Jul
Apple has signed an overall deal with The Maurice Sendak Foundation. Its streaming service, Apple TV+, is looking to extend its range of child-friendly entertainment, and the author’s work will be the focus of new shows and specials in the future, Deadline confirms. Apple TV+ is already working with Sesame Workshop, Peanuts and The Jim Henson Company, but now Sendak’s popular books will also be explored for adaptation. His many works include In the Night Kitchen, Kenny’s Window, Very Far Away, The Sign on Rosie’s Door, The Nutshell Library and the seminal children’s classic Where the Wild Things Are. Sendak’s…
28
May
The long-gestating Hedy Lamarr television series, which Gal Gadot has been attached to as both producer and star, just got its straight-to-series order from Apple TV+. The new streaming service announced the order Thursday, revealing the series will be an eight episode limited series with Gadot as Lamarr, the Austrian-born movie star who during the height of World War II was described as the “most beautiful woman in the world,” all the while she was ignored for her brilliance when she created the technology that led to GPS during the war. Apple gave the order to the series, which at…
19
May
In the latest example of the coronavirus pandemic wreaking havoc on the movie industry, the once Father’s Day bound theatrical release of Greyhound, a movie that stars Tom Hanks and is set in World War II, is now finding safe harbor for wide release on Apple TV+. Considering that Hanks and WWII go together like, well, Father’s Day and ties, this development is both another harbinger of the changing times as well as a major step-up in commitments for feature films by Apple. Indeed, as broken by Deadline, Greyhound will premiere simultaneously in 100 countries on Apple’s new streaming service,…
