Apple event - As it happened: Steven Spielberg among celebrities launching TV streaming, new credit card and magazine subscription services
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple has launched a whole host of new services, intended to make more money from the people who have already bought its products.
In what was hailed as one of the most significant Apple events in years, the company did not reveal new products or software but instead a range of premium services. Together, they represent new ways to pay for news subscriptions, TV and games – as well as a new way to pay for anything, with a brand new titanium credit card.
The highlight of the new announcements was Apple TV+, a new streaming service built to compete with offerings like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. During the event, it invited many of the world's biggest stars and directors on stage to talk about the new shows, on which Apple is thought to have spent billions of dollars.
But it said it would bring a similar, paid-for and ad-free subscription service, for news and for games. All will allow people to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to that content.
Apple tried to link the various announcements together through references to its corporate principles: stressing a focus on privacy, quality, and the ways that the various products are built to work with the company's hardware and software.
But the different announcements were also linked together in the fact that few details were announced about any of them. Apple only revealed the cost and release date of one of the new products, and gave little information about how many of them will work.
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Apple Arcade is the big announcement, described in the build-up as "the Netflix of games".
All games are playable on mobile, tablet and desktop. They can also be played offline.
100 new and exclusive games will be coming to Apple Arcade, with more on their way.
No pricing for Apple Arcade yet, nor a release date. Tim Cook returns to the stage.
Here's here to talk about TV. He begins by telling us about the cultural importance of television.
"TV at its best enriches our lives," he says.
He invites Peter Stern vice president of services, to the stage, to tell us about an all-new Apple TV app.
"We designed a new TV experience where you can pay for only the channels you watch," he says.
"This is how TV should work, and now it does with Apple TV Channels."
It's kind of complicated how it works, but it basically bundles a load of satellite and cable networks, like ShowTime and HBO into a single app.
It uses machine learning to figure out which shows you might be interested in. There is a human curation element too.
"Expert editors are like the friend you have that always knows the best shows on TV," Stern says.
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