Apple March Event: What to expect, time and more

Apple has already had quite a busy month, but it's not over yet. Apple holds an event Monday, March 25, at the Steve Jobs Theater with the tagline "It & # 39; s show time." The event will focus on Apple's upcoming services, including Apple News Magazines, original content and streaming video, App Store gaming and much more.

9to5Mac will be present with immediate coverage of all Apple Park announcements. Before the event starts, it is our comprehensive preview of everything we expect to see from Apple's March 25th.

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Mars Apple Event

Apple invited the press to its March 25 event earlier this month, using the tagline "It's Vision Time" on the invitation. This is a clear hint of one of the biggest focuses of the event: Apple's new streaming video service. Apple even removed tires for most hardware expectations before the event this week.

The event is being held at Steve Jobs Theater and will kick at 10:00 PM or 1 PM ET. In particular, this will be the first non-iPhone event held at Apple's special venue. Reports have suggested that it will be quite star-studded, with celebrities such as Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon and J.J. Abrams all present. Read on for everything you can expect.

Apple Video Service

Headlining Apple's event will undoubtedly be its new streaming video initiatives. There are two different components to this effort. Let's break it down.

Original Content

The largest component of Apple's extended video plans is its precedence to original content. The company is said to spend up to $ 1 billion on original TV shows and movies, and some reports claim that Apple has spent well over its budget on original TV shows already. Monday's event should offer our first preview of this content.

Apple's worldwide video programming team is led by Jamie Ehrlicht and Zack Van Amburg, two veterans, Sony Television leaders who poached by Apple, to act as the company's tastemakers by picking which new TV shows like Buy. Apple also employed a number of other television industry veterans, including Carol Trussell of Gaumont Television, who came to Apple as the production head. Other hires include managers from WGN, Amazon Studios, Universal Television and more.

Apple has dozens of TV shows and movies in the works for its original content platform, although the service is not expected to start with a full directory when it's clear because of production plans.

One of the flagship television series will star Jennifer Aniston, Reese Witherspoon, and Steve Carell and be careful about the title "The Morning Show." The series, which is said to have almost completed the film first of at least two seasons, will focus on "the lives of the people that help America wake up in the morning." It is based on Brian Stelters book "Inside the Cutthroat World of Morning TV."

A report from The New York Times this week posted the five Apple TV programs that have already finished filming: "Are You Sleeping" with Octavia Spencer, the space drama "For All Mankind", a thriller from M Night Shyamalan, a comedy from the stars of "I t is always sunny in Philadelphia and a comedy called" Dickinson "based on the poet with the same name.

Another big name working with Apple is JJ Abrams, who produces a couple of TV shows for the firm, wants to star Jennifer Garner, while the other is a drama with Abrams and Sara Bareilles, Apple also works with Steven Spielberg on a new Sci-Fi series in Amazing Stories. The high-budget show will feature at least 10 episodes and act as a continuation of the anthology of the same name that ran on NBC in the 1980s.

Apple has also recently announced a multi-year content partnership with Oprah, Apple says this partnership will allow Oprah to "make original programs that embrace their incomparable ability to connect with audiences all over the world. "This is one of the only formal announcements about the new content service Apple has made so far, although specifications are still vague.

How will Apple price its original content? The jury is still on it, but CNBC has on several occasions reported that Apple will make at least some of its original TV shows and movies available free to owners of owners.

A report suggested that Apple will offer its first wave of original content free to device owners, with these deals being mainly TV PG characters. From there, Apple will eventually add a paid subscription account with additional free content targeting a wider market. We should finally know for sure on Monday.

When it comes to movies, Apple joins the A24 movie studio to produce original movies. The first collaboration between the two is a movie entitled "On the Rocks" with Bill Murray and Rashida Jones, with Sofia Coppola as director and producer. Details about Apple's movie efforts are more unclear than their television initiatives, though.

Apple is expected to only offer a preview of its original content plans Monday. The company is likely to show fans of march event shows, but the service itself is not expected to start later this summer or fall. Here's more of what to expect in the lineup:

Upgraded TV app

The second facet of Apple's streaming TV shows is an upgraded TV app version available on iPhone, iPad and Apple TV. In its current form, the TV app extracts content from external applications such as CBS, DirecTV Now, Hulu and more. The TV app doesn't really play content except for iTunes movies and TV shows, but instead aggregates video from the external applications and sends users back to those apps to play the content.

On Monday, the TV app is expected to get a major upgrade.

According to reports, Apple plans to integrate third-party subscriptions directly into the TV app. This means that users will be able to subscribe to services such as Starz, Showtime, CBS, Viacom, HBO and more directly through the TV app.

Apple is also said to offer discounts to users merging multiple services together. For example, users can subscribe to a "package" of Starz and Showtime through the TV app at a cheaper price than subscribing to each individual outside the app.

Furthermore, Apple will host and stream third-party content directly in its television program. This means that when you go to play content from a service like HBO, you can watch it directly in the TV app, rather than being kicked out to the HBO app itself. This is a major improvement in the user experience, and a major change from how Apple has handled third-party subscriptions by directing to the App Store or Web.

We expect big name services like HBO, Starz and Showtime to join the new TV app, but what about the services that won't be included? At this time, we have seen reports that neither Netflix nor Hulu content will be available through the upgraded TV app at launch.

Netflix has said it prefers to offer content solely through its own applications, and therefore has no reason to integrate with the TV app. Meanwhile, Hulu has long been integrated with the basic version of the TV app, but reports suggest that it will not be available through the upgraded version of the app.

Apple News Magazines

On the cover, Apple's March 25 event will also be home to the announcement of a paid subscription component for Apple News. This will allow users to pay a monthly fee to unlock paid content from publishers who sign up for the service.

Apple's pitch to publishers is based on the size of the user base. By joining the Apple News subscription service, publishers come to a much larger audience because Apple News is pre-installed on all iPhone, iPad, and Mac.

What publishers have Apple signed on the service? In particular, the company has reported including an agreement with The Wall Street Journal. Another report suggested that Vox also signed in to the service. However, other major publishers, including The New York Times and the Washington Post, will not be available through the service.

One thing that is unclear is how Apple plans to distinguish between magazines and news content. Much of the Apple News subscription service is expected to be based on Texture, which Apple purchased last year. Texture is a subscription-based service that provides unlimited access to digital magazine content.

However, the Apple News service is expected to integrate both magazines and traditional news. Recent iOS grazing has offered a look at how magazines are integrated, but how everything is connected will be interesting to see on Monday.

For Price, Wall Street Journal has reported that Apple is targeting a $ 9.99 per month subscription for users. Apple will then cut 50 percent of that revenue, while the remaining 50 percent will be shared among publishers based on readership through Apple News.

Games Service

Apple also plans to launch a new game subscription service at the March event, which has been referred to as "Netflix for games". The existence of these services was first reported by Cheddar earlier this year, and a Bloomberg report recently hid more light on how it would work.

According to the reports, the gaming service will allow users to pay a monthly subscription to access a bundle of games that are generally paid for apps in the App Store. Therefore, games that rely on purchase in apps will not be included in this service.

At this point, it is unclear what titles will be included in this subscription package, but the reports suggest that Apple has been in discussions with partners and developers. It is also unknown how much users have to pay per month to access the gaming service.

For developer payouts, Apple's gaming service plans appear to be similar to News. Apple will report paying developers based on how much time users play each game in the bundle.

Bloomberg explains:

The company would collect these monthly fees and then divide the revenue between developers based on how much time users spend playing their games, one of the people said. Apple is likely to consider popular paid titles on the App Store and will exclude free download titles but generate revenue through app purchases.

Today's Bloomberg report does what Cave can wait until this summer to announce its game service at WWDC. Monday's event, however, seems like the perfect opportunity.

Apple Credit Card

Another new initiative from Apple that is perfect for an announcement in the March event is the branded credit card. Apple is said to be a partnership with Goldman Sachs on a credit card that integrates closely with the Wallet app on iOS.

According to a report by The Wall Street Journal, the Apple Credit Card can offer 2% cash back to users, as well as other benefits when purchasing Apple products. Air miles are currently not on the table, according to the report.

The Apple + Goldman Sachs card will apparently have a unique integration with the Wallet app on iOS, which has undergone remarkable design changes in iOS 12.2 beta. Such a feature would apparently take the popular ring design from Apple Watch and implement it in the Wallet app to help users manage balances and expenses.

Wall Street Journal said in February:

Engineers are working on new features for the Apple Wallet app that encourage users to pay off their credit card debt and manage their balances. Leaders have discussed loan visual signals from Apple's training tracking program, where "call" closes when users hit daily training goals, and sends users alerts about their expenses.

Other information, such as annual fee information, is unknown at this point.

Software updates

Expect Monday's event to coincide with the publication of iOS 12.2, watchOS 5.2, tvOS 12.2 and macOS 10.14. 0.4. Apple could release these updates Monday, or it could use Monday's event to announce release dates for them. Nevertheless, we should learn a lot more about the latest Apple software on Monday.

Both iOS 12.2 and MacOS 10.14.4 will likely include support for the enhanced Apple News subscription features. The upgraded TV app will also probably be included in tvOS 12.2 and iOS 12.2. Other improvements include Apple News in Canada, new Animoji, Wallet app enhancements, and more.

A headlining feature in iOS 12.2 is support for smart TVs as smart home accessories in the home program. Earlier this year, LG, Sony and Vizio HomeKit and AirPlay 2 announced support for selected TVs, and iOS 12.2 includes this functionality – as well as enhancements to the remote interface.

Apple March Event Wrap up

The focus on Apple's Mars event is evident in the Services segment, with a handful of hardware improvements that have been announced through press releases over the past week. Apple will obviously not have hardware to overshadow their new Apple TV and News services, even if the services are only preview and not released.

9to5Mac will be present at the Steve Jobs Theater on Monday, so be sure to keep up to date with coverage of everything Apple advertises. What are you most happy to see next week? Are you planning to enroll in the subscription services? Please let us know in the comments below!