Everything Apple Announced at Today's 'It's Show Time' Event in 6 Minutes

[ocnitsa]

Most of the stuff announced only tangentially relates to my use/interest. I think Apple seems to be doing it right, though. Family sharing and privacy are the two most important aspects of their design, imo. I think a card with no fees and guaranteed privacy is a huge thing for the masses.

 

[ipponrg]

I don't get the credit card excitement.

It seems to mainly attract people who don’t really know credit cards. To them, Apple invented the credit card.

The one nice part I admit was making it easier to use a unique CC number for purchases. Citicard I think had done this before with virtual credit card numbers, but it was a little painful to get refunds

 

[Since1987]

Everything Apple Announced at Today's 'It's Show Time' Event in 1 Second : No Computers!

 

[rmsanger]

Literally the only thing of interest to me was the credit card expense tagging and classification logic. Wells and BOFA do this for personal CCs but their logic is terrible and most things either get categorized incorrectly or go to other.

If apple were able to tag expenses consistently and correctly that would be very useful for longer-term budgeting and personal analysis.

Otherwise for me this event was a nothingburger! I do not want an apple card nor need a new card just the analytics that apple will be applying.

 

[Fidgetyrat]

It seems to mainly attract people who don’t really know credit cards. To them, Apple invented the credit card.

The one nice part I admit was making it easier to use a unique CC number for purchases. Citicard I think had done this before with virtual credit card numbers, but it was a little painful to get refunds

It has some merits. If my main credit card wasn't better for my circumstances I may consider getting the Apple card. As it stands I won't.

Pros:
1) Daily rewards right to apple cash is pretty cool.
2) "OK" points on purchases. The Amazon card with prime, for example, is better; 5% on amazon purchases vs 3% on apple. I think people buy WAY WAY more on amazon then they ever would at apple. How often do we really buy apple products especially when they are usually years outdated.
3) Apple pay generally is nice

Cons:
1) Goldman Sachs. Sounds like Apple couldn't find a bank willing to take a risk. We all know these guys will.
2) Apple Pay is still spotty at least in my area. It's getting better, but still hard to come by.
3) Weak rewards. Weaker rewards with the titanium card.
4) Automatic categorization.. We have a Super Walmart nearby where I buy groceries. How can it tell walmart clothes purchases from groceries? it cant.

 

[curtvaughan]

It really depends on the event. Not every event that Apple has is some sort of brand new revolutionary hardware launch that many seem to wait for. That's basically how it is these days, and how it's been before, and how it will be down the line.

If that's the case they should stop publicizing and producing these "events". If nothing of major import is in the works, don't pretend differently. I can't imagine what it costs to put on a 2-3 hour "non-event" event, but it appears to be time and money mostly wasted. It would be sufficient to put out a summarizing blurb like the one above without all the hoopla.

 

[Since1987]

Features aren’t innovation.

Neither is REMOVAL of all features, Ive's main focus since Jobs death.

 

[Dino F]

...this screen shot tells us all we need to know about the whole keynote:

...it was all full of muppets!!

 

[circatee]

To me, the no fees, and the chance to recoup actual hard currency. And, with said currency, you are not limited, per se', on how to use it. Versus the likes of receiving points and such...

What's impressive about the Apple Card?

 

[keifer.street]

From a TV perspective, this event was totally underwhelming and unimpressive. The promise was for Apple to revolutionize the TV industry like they did for music with iTunes in the early 2000’s. Ala carte channels of anything you’d want to watch.

What we got was an updated Apple TV app, (which don’t get me wrong is a nice update), and A FEW additional ala carte channels baked into the Apple TV app with some original shows sprinkled in for an extra fee.

This was a totally lackluster keynote for TV lovers. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to stick with DirectTV Now. As bad as it is, it’s still better than what Apple is offering in terms of channels. As is every other streaming TV service that exists (channel wise).

It seems nobody can unseat the big cable companies and likely never will, sadly. The promise of revolutionized TV died today despite years of anticipation that Apple could flex is negotiating muscle to do something magical.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

Oh boy, magazine subscriptions! For only $10 a month!

Oh, wait. I can already get those for free from my local public library. You probably can too. And no, I don't mean going to the library to read them, I mean digital access on my iPhone, iPad, or Macintosh. And I've had that for years.

 

[barkomatic]

Ugh, more subscriptions. In another decade you won't be able to buy a movie, song or book and the devices and software which house current purchases will be made obsolete.

 

[btrav13]

Why can’t we just stream everything in iTunes for one monthly price? Music, movies etc.

They already have the established library.

This was never what I wanted from Apple, ever.

I've worked in wireless since 2002. This was one of the worst years for iPhone sales ever. An article in the Wall Street Journal last year did a study and Americans are now holding onto their phones for an average of 2.9 years now. Being as the iPhone is their biggest source of revenue and it isn't growing, and services is becoming more and more of their revenue every quarter, I see this a good thing.

Now the announcement itself could have been better...no pricing on Arcade. No price on tv+. However, New+ I like. 4 of the magazines I currently subscriber to are in there and I gave up on the Wall Street Journal because I couldn't justify the price vs how much time I get to read it every day. Now I can have all of it in one place. And based on what I read, it'll recommend other things that I might never have looked at. News+ is good and I like the concept and I think it will work (especially if more and more publications come on board and the pricing remains somewhat consistent). I have no idea what they're doing with TV though. I was hoping to see a tiered system, but who knows.
[doublepost=1553605593][/doublepost]

From a TV perspective, this event was totally underwhelming and unimpressive. The promise was for Apple to revolutionize the TV industry like they did for music with iTunes in the early 2000’s. Ala carte channels of anything you’d want to watch.

What we got was an updated Apple TV app, (which don’t get me wrong is a nice update), and A FEW additional ala carte channels baked into the Apple TV app with some original shows sprinkled in for an extra fee.

This was a totally lackluster keynote for TV lovers. Oh well, I guess I’ll have to stick with DirectTV Now. As bad as it is, it’s still better than what Apple is offering in terms of channels. As is every other streaming TV service that exists (channel wise).

It seems nobody can unseat the big cable companies and likely never will, sadly. The promise of revolutionized TV died today despite years of anticipation that Apple could flex is negotiating muscle to do something magical.

Have you looked at YouTube TV? My girlfriend and I just moved to it a few months ago from regular cable and have never looked back.

 

[curtvaughan]

Today's event was Tim Cook’s big coming out as a service company party.

Yep - basically mimicking Microsoft, moving away from PC software/hardware in favor of subscription offerings.

The Reality Distortion Field was in full effect today. When I saw people stand up and applaud a credit card like it was an iPhone was just confusing. Apple have really jumped the shark. You could even hear in the presenters' voices that they didn't believe in this stuff...

Indeed - it is beyond reasoning how anything from Apple the last several years merits enthusiastic applause. Makes me wonder if they have some guy off camera holding up "clap/yell" prompting signs at strategic moments, like used to happen with TV variety shows of long ago. I think they should just make a ten minute clip summarizing stuff and play canned pre-recorded applause. It would actually be kind of funny if they played laugh tracks from old sitcoms.

 

[btrav13]

It has some merits. If my main credit card wasn't better for my circumstances I may consider getting the Apple card. As it stands I won't.

Pros:
1) Daily rewards right to apple cash is pretty cool.
2) "OK" points on purchases. The Amazon card with prime, for example, is better; 5% on amazon purchases vs 3% on apple. I think people buy WAY WAY more on amazon then they ever would at apple. How often do we really buy apple products especially when they are usually years outdated.
3) Apple pay generally is nice

Cons:
1) Goldman Sachs. Sounds like Apple couldn't find a bank willing to take a risk. We all know these guys will.
2) Apple Pay is still spotty at least in my area. It's getting better, but still hard to come by.
3) Weak rewards. Weaker rewards with the titanium card.
4) Automatic categorization.. We have a Super Walmart nearby where I buy groceries. How can it tell walmart clothes purchases from groceries? it cant.

GS is getting more into consume banking. They have a new consume focused line of products called "Marcus by Goldman". High yield savings, checking accounts and consumer loans. This is great for them with their push into the consumer banking category. They probably gave in to more of what Apple wanted than an established consumer bank would have.

 

[Chiefjop]

Oh boy, magazine subscriptions! For only $10 a month!

Oh, wait. I can already get those for free from my local public library. You probably can too. And no, I don't mean going to the library to read them, I mean digital access on my iPhone, iPad, or Macintosh. And I've had that for years.

Happy for you, so just don't buy the subscription. No reason to get upset.

 

[Piggie]

So, buying a $15,000 ish iMac will get you $450 discount using your Apple Card...... A bargain

As was said elsewhere, much of this seems an old persons thing.
Kids don't get news from newspapers and magazines.
A few old actors on stage?
Games that are Apple specific that are not across all platforms?
Credit card?

It's all ok, just a bit meh really. Certainly nothing to set the world on fire over.

 

[C DM]

If that's the case they should stop publicizing and producing these "events". If nothing of major import is in the works, don't pretend differently. I can't imagine what it costs to put on a 2-3 hour "non-event" event, but it appears to be time and money mostly wasted. It would be sufficient to put out a summarizing blurb like the one above without all the hoopla.

This was an event, just not one that some cared about, while it was one that others cared about. It was fairly well known what this event was going to be about.

 

[Piggie]

I genuinely think they did not announce pricing as it would all have sounded too much in one go.

News 9.99
games 9.99 (who knows)
Apple TV 9.99 ++ (who knows)

Better to let pricing slowly emerge over the year than to shock people into what it would cost to have it all in one Apple event.

 

[C DM]

Everything Apple Announced at Today's 'It's Show Time' Event in 1 Second : No Computers!

An event that wasn't about computers didn't have something about them? Surprising!

 

[curtvaughan]

Yeah it’s almost like no two humans are alike and they have a new person running the company now. Funny how that works, isn’t it?

...still haven’t gotten over the death of the last guy, I see...

Yeah, I remember thinking just that when Jobs came back and replaced Amelio ... well, maybe not.

 

[circatee]

For years now, most companies have been offering subscription services. They have quickly learned that a one off fee is no longer viable. I mean, look at Microsoft; only a matter of time before they start charging us a subscription for Windows. Office 365 is already a subscription, with Office applications. Look at Adobe; same thing, now subscription.

So, no surprise that Apple is following suit. After all, apps are doing it, too. A few offer a lifetime price for an app, others are monthly or yearly. Buy Me a Pie, is an example.

Like someone else stated, only a matter of time, to go to the cinema will require a subscription!

 

[ipponrg]

It has some merits. If my main credit card wasn't better for my circumstances I may consider getting the Apple card. As it stands I won't.

Pros:
1) Daily rewards right to apple cash is pretty cool.
2) "OK" points on purchases. The Amazon card with prime, for example, is better; 5% on amazon purchases vs 3% on apple. I think people buy WAY WAY more on amazon then they ever would at apple. How often do we really buy apple products especially when they are usually years outdated.
3) Apple pay generally is nice

Cons:
1) Goldman Sachs. Sounds like Apple couldn't find a bank willing to take a risk. We all know these guys will.
2) Apple Pay is still spotty at least in my area. It's getting better, but still hard to come by.
3) Weak rewards. Weaker rewards with the titanium card.
4) Automatic categorization.. We have a Super Walmart nearby where I buy groceries. How can it tell walmart clothes purchases from groceries? it cant.

The points on purchase is pretty much standard. I have Apple Pay as well but I only use it at certain vendors. I suppose if I were a more regimented Apple Pay user, then having Apple cash would help.

The benefits of the card itself seems worse than most other cards. I’m running thru my head how my “flow” would be like with this card, and I can’t really see any significant advantages

Personally, I only know one person in my circle that uses it, and they work for Apple. It’s funny because they usually have their spouse Venmo me for payments.

Also you don’t need an Amazon credit card for 5%. You can get the same with an Amazon store card. I notice Amazon doesn’t like to tout the store card as much

 

[2013.1]

If Apple would include all movies and TV shows from it’s iTunes store into it’s streaming service that would be interesting. Otherwise not.
[doublepost=1553606639][/doublepost]I hate subscriptions. I almost never use them enough and they end up costing me more than single purchases.

 

[Victor Mortimer]

My feeling is that Apple is trying to juggle too many balls at the same time.
I always think of Steve when he returned to Apple, simplified the hardware line and focused on software big time. While I get we live in different times, I wish Apple could focus on what matters most and stop trying to jump all over the place.

So, here's the thing about that:

Apple isn't a small company any more. And where in the late '90s people actually thought Apple might go under, it's nowhere near that now.

Apple should be able to manage multiple product lines at the same time. Apple should be able to add useless and pointless crud like these announcements without people wondering if they've taken on too much.

But here we are. And the iMac got a new processor last week, about 6-8 months late. It took four years to update the Mac mini. There is still no new Mac Pro, you can go buy a brand new 5 year old 'trash can' Mac Pro today, and it was a cruddy design when in was introduced in 2013, the 2012 'cheesegrater' is still a better computer today, drop in PCIe SSDs, a new video card, and upgraded Xeons and you've got a machine that stomps all over the 'trash can'.

And Apple can't figure out that people want headphone jacks in their phones. Apple can't figure out that soldering SSDs to logic boards is even stupider than soldering RAM. Apple's idea of innovation today is frequently to break stuff people actually use, and in some cases really, really need, like the server app removing all server functionality.

Apple is big enough that none of this should be an issue now. But here we are, and Apple is a massively financially successful company that seems to have the hardware and software development capability of a startup in a garage. They can do better, they just won't.