Hints of Upcoming Apple News Magazine Subscription Service Spotted in macOS Mojave 10.14.4 Beta

[Freida]

You made my point for me. Netflix was nowhere near what it is now, back then. The hadn't made original content, everything was on a DVD, and then it grew after it had established a market. It was not amazing at launch.

Also — you keep conflating their hardware and their services when the rules don't really transfer across that line. Apple has been making laptops and desktops for decades, services don't follow the same pedigree. Apple had never made a watch before... I have the first one (series 0) it was great but not as good as it is now.

It just a ridiculous concept that the launch of something "needs" to be amazing when the first iPhone wasn't. The first iPod wasn't. Every single product they've made got better with time. I guess it's just the hyperbole people feel they need to inject into every comment — it's either hatred or adoration, the best or it sucks. Must be exhausting.

You are correct, Netflix wasn't like that at start.

But my point was about the fact that we already have such service from Amazon Prime videos, Netflix etc.
So, if you are bringing new product to the market then it should offer something better and be great otherwise whats the point.
If I use your analogy with the watch - when apple released watch you are right, it sucked and it still kinda does (I have S2) but its getting better each time. However, when Apple put them on the market they were far better than anything else. Same with original iPhone - it sucked so much but it was revolutionary than anything on the market.

So, that was my point - either Apple shows something amazing or its DOA. Apple as a brand is losing image and customer retention. The most innovative company wasn't Apple nor was even close. Apple became "safe choice" company for the past few years. So, my point here, they can't bank on the fact that they have loyal customer base because the fan base is not the same as it used to be.

Its not hyperbole, hatred or anything like that. Its disappointment that has been growing over the time and sadness at the same time. As an Apple fan I'm disappointed with Apple these days because the company that was once pushing the boundries etc. is not a little stagnant. The excitement before each event slowly started to diminish and these days I'm just not expecting much from Apple.

Just tell me honestly, when was it the last time (for you) that you watched an Apple event and then after said - this was great. Really good job, Apple - you've impressed me.

Last time I was impressed was with the trash can Mac Pro (not for the specs but for the amazing design which unfortunately later turned out to be flawed)

I certainly wasn't impressed with the Touch Bar Macbook Pro (even though I have it at home), or Mac Mini etc.

On software side its similar. Snow Leopard was great OS but again its kinda slow on that front now. iOS 12 focused on speed and bugs which is a good call IMO but the releases before that was kinda meh too.
iPad Pro is still crippled with the iOS, iMac is ancient, Aperture killed, Airports (best routers ever killed), Displays too (lets hope we get some nice this year) etc.

Competition is catching up and in some cases come up with amazing things but overall the problem is that competition doesn't deliver the whole package. Once they do then Apple might have a problem.

So, you may see the positive side of things and you may be happy about the current state but I'm not. Not for the reasons you have assumed though.

We can talk after the event and see how content you are but I'm not expecting much.

I'm sure we will get more emojis and watch bands though as that seems to be the theme these days.

 

[Rogifan]

No. They own texture, which will be integrated into apple news. And it's successful.

Newsstand was a failure.
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Oh boy. A news service curated by Timmy Kook.
I'm sure it won't be skewed to all heck.

All Apple wants is your money. They don’t care what you read.

 

[RickDEGH]

A coincidental resemblance? Apple: the safer news option?

 

[aviddk]

The daily signal is an extremely biased right wing site. The article doesn't have any facts at all. Just a whole lot of assumptions. If apple didn't approve the app i'm sure it's because it violated the app store guidelines.
Here's a media bias guide, it ranks vertically by news to opinion and then left to right based upon bias. https://www.adfontesmedia.com/

Of course, they have no biases. This is the rabbit hole we collectively have fallen into. Apple, unfortunately from a business perspective, is now in the quagmire and it will cost them financially. Look what has happened to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

 

[archer75]

Of course, they have no biases. This is the rabbit hole we collectively have fallen into. Apple, unfortunately from a business perspective, is now in the quagmire and it will cost them financially. Look what has happened to Dick’s Sporting Goods.

Correlation does not equal causation. Dick's is in the same boat as all B&M retailers who are collectively closing over 4000 stores this year alone. And that's just what's been announced thus far. My own industry, semiconductors, is dealing with slowing sales and reduced orders. We've already had layoffs. My wife works in the mortgage industry and is seeing the decline as well and they have had layoffs and have been required to take furlough days. It's coming folks. Buckle up.

 

[Colbach]

They hardly have a "monopoly" - they get 50% because companies are will to pay 50% to get the exposure. Any retail seller or news stand gets 50% mark up on publications. It's how the business works. Fair is what the business is willing to pay. Not something someone who knows nothing about the industry "thinks" it should be.

I said when it comes to the Appstore they have a monopoly. I mean they control the only Appstore for iOS, so they can force their 30% rule.
But when it comes to magazines, this is an other story. Your analogy for newsstands is great! Retail sellers have something like a monopoly because people are lazy and they don't want to buy their newspaper 2 blocks away. So if you are the only one in the streat who sells something, the people basically have to accept your profit margin. But when it comes to the internet the story is really different. That is why newsstands bookstores and electronic shops are dying. As a customer I can buy where I want. So there is no way for Apple to stop competition. They can charge their 30% on in app purchases, but their competitor can simple raise the in app price and charge their majority of customers via credit card.

 

[Glockworkorange]

Do people actually read "magazines" these days? I usually pick one up at the airport to read on a flight, but the idea of receiving, say, Sports Illustrated, in the mail? I thought magazines were deader than disco.

If there is a news component, I'm in, but if it's just magazines, nope.

 

[ErikGrim]

Didn't they already try and fail with Newsstand? I didn't see electronic, pdf based, magazines set the world on fire then. Why is it going to be a thing this time around?

 

[Glockworkorange]

So you've never bought a newspaper? Or you prefer to have ads on websites? Or, do you just prefer to steal others' work wholly?

I think anyone who cares about their news won't mind paying 10 bucks a month or so for the ability to read news without nasty, skeezy, ads. Even with a content/ad blocker, some of the ads sneak through. Anyone who regularly goes to CBS' sports site will know how pervasive ads can be, even with the best ad blockers.
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I kinda agree. This does seem a bit lame. Thanks to my library, I also have a feature to checkout magazines, Ebooks, Movies all from my devices right now.

I am sure they will laud it as extraordinary, "the kinda of feature that puts YOU in charge of your digital subscriptions all within the confines of your Mac iOS devices, it makes it so easy to broaden your horizon with more than 200 publishers...let's hear from ..."

That does sound like their marketing...

 

[coolfactor]

I just fear all these new services, Apple TV, News, will be US only.

I recently discovered that Siri can access news from various Canadian mainstream sources. That surprised me. Just ask her to read me the news and I can also specify which new source I want it from (CBC, Global, CTV). I get back a pre-recorded audio recording from that source. Works well.

 

[cmaier]

Apple has never been exciting when it comes to services.

iTunes music store more or less revolutionized how music is sold. App Store more or less revolutionized how software is sold.

Seems pretty exciting to me.

 

[ipedro]

I hope we get something out of the gate in the UK.

I think it's a safe bet that the US, UK, Australia and Canada will get Apple News given that they already have the News app and Texture, fulfilling the licensing requirements to launch the new service.

As for Apple TV, I believe that the launch will be worldwide for Apple content while access to third party content will be limited at first.

 

[randomplaydo]

I think this is going to work. They've done this exact same thing before. Music pirating was slowly killing the industry and they stepped in with a solution that brought it back. They made a ton of money on a lucrative as hell deal because the record companies had no other options. They stayed in business and apple made obscene money. Now they're going to do it again for the publishing industry. People are now used to free news and won't even click on stories to read them if there's a pay wall. Flat fee, read whatever you want - boom, publishing industry saved and Apple makes a ton of money again. I'm already ready to pay my $10-15 a month for this.

 

[Magic Toolbar Mike]

I swear, if this doesn't have dark mode...

 

[cmaier]

I swear, if this doesn't have dark mode...

The world will keep on going.

There was a time we ONLY had dark mode, and when we saw black text on white backgrounds it was the coolest thing ever.

 

[JRobinsonJr]

Why does it have to be amazing at launch? What a bizarre requirement. Why can't it be good to start and grow better with time?

Apple is the only company that if something isn't absolutely stellar right out of the gate they should close up shop and just give up... like every technology today that is seen as "best of breed" didn't grow into designation over time.

Agreed! How about we hope for "useful"?

 

[Romeo_Nightfall]

I hope Apple indtroduces a bundle subscription model. Managing individual subscriptions of Apple services seem unwieldy now because I now have to have an iCloud storage subscription, and apple music subscription, and separately manage the streaming service and News subscription if I want those too. Apple should just integrate all four into one subscription, honestly.

And call it apple prime, wait ... prime sounds familar
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Nothing can launch, brand new, and be better than something that's been around for over a decade and is well established. It takes time. I'm sure apple will have a solid start though.
Netflix is losing more content as the other companies pull their content back in order to launch their own streaming services. Which is why Netflix is focusing so heavily on their own original content. Soon that's all they'll have.

hope you are not typing on an iphone or better ipad ... guess they where only promises too, back then, haha

 

[ColdShadow]

Apple Music has shown us that they will pay one subscription to have access to all of it with content producers being paid per use.

Apple Music?you must’ve been very late to the music streaming because Spotify and others shown that,Apple Music just copied their idea.

Also magazines and news are very different to music and movies,cause people have already been accessing them free online for over a decade and to force them reverse to old times so they can profit is not going to appeal to alot of people.

 

[Shanghaichica]

[QUOTE="ipedro, post: 27174842, member: 43854Apple Music has shown us that they will pay one subscription to have access to all of it with content producers being paid per use.

Apple Music?you must’ve been very late to the music streaming game because Spotify and others shown that,Apple Music just copied their idea.

Also magazines and news are very different to music and movies,cause people have already been accessing them free online for over a decade and to force them reverse to old times so they can profit is not going to appeal to alot of people.[/QUOTE]
If they make it compelling then maybe people will bite. A reasonably priced subscription with access to both newspapers and magazines I would be interested in. Often many of the stories that pop up in my Apple Music feed that I want to read are from the Times or the guardian news paper and you can only read a certain number of articles before they restrict access without a subscription.

I find the Apple news app to be very well curated.

 

[WatchFromAfar]

Do people actually read "magazines" these days? I usually pick one up at the airport to read on a flight, but the idea of receiving, say, Sports Illustrated, in the mail? I thought magazines were deader than disco.

If there is a news component, I'm in, but if it's just magazines, nope.

Why can't you see "I usually pick one up at the airport to read on a flight" is a viable business model?

 

[Mr. Dee]

iTunes music store more or less revolutionized how music is sold. App Store more or less revolutionized how software is sold.

Seems pretty exciting to me.

iTools
Mobile Me
iCloud

When I look at how others have surpassed Apple in key markets: cloud storage (Dropbox - Steve Jobs even wanted to buy them, Google Drive, OneDrive) all are superior to iCloud Drive whose only incentive is to charger you for more storage and keep you trapped.

Streaming - Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime

More flexible

Google Photos - since I switched, I just ignore the iCloud storage errors.

Outlook.com and Gmail

Way better than iCloud Mail

Office online and Google Docs

Way better than iWork Online

So, Apple might have introduced a really good music store, but they haven’t done much to innovate in the online services space since. There is so much catching up to do.

 

[MandiMac]

I'd love to see an Apple Service subscription. 29,99 per month for the whole family.
Music, News, TV and 1 TB of iCloud Drive. Why not?

 

[Glockworkorange]

Why can't you see "I usually pick one up at the airport to read on a flight" is a viable business model?

Serious question? Really? I only do that because I don't use airplane Wi-Fi and maybe fly three times a year, so if that is the consumer magazines are catering to, I don't think it's viable, no. Especially because much of the information becomes dated quickly.
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iTools
Mobile Me
iCloud

When I look at how others have surpassed Apple in key markets: cloud storage (Dropbox - Steve Jobs even wanted to buy them, Google Drive, OneDrive) all are superior to iCloud Drive whose only incentive is to charger you for more storage and keep you trapped.

Streaming - Spotify, Netflix, Amazon Prime

More flexible

Google Photos - since I switched, I just ignore the iCloud storage errors.

Outlook.com and Gmail

Way better than iCloud Mail

Office online and Google Docs

Way better than iWork Online

So, Apple might have introduced a really good music store, but they haven’t done much to innovate in the online services space since. There is so much catching up to do.

I think that's a fair breakdown.

 

[KPandian1]

Serious question? Really? I only do that because I don't use airplane Wi-Fi and maybe fly three times a year, so if that is the consumer magazines are catering to, I don't think it's viable, no. Especially because much of the information becomes dated quickly.

What do you do at the end of the third flight, i.e., how do you get back home? Serious question.

 

[Colbach]

I think this is going to work. They've done this exact same thing before. Music pirating was slowly killing the industry and they stepped in with a solution that brought it back. They made a ton of money on a lucrative as hell deal because the record companies had no other options. They stayed in business and apple made obscene money. Now they're going to do it again for the publishing industry. People are now used to free news and won't even click on stories to read them if there's a pay wall. Flat fee, read whatever you want - boom, publishing industry saved and Apple makes a ton of money again. I'm already ready to pay my $10-15 a month for this.

iTunes only was so successful because of the iPod and there was no alternative. What does they would have done when another competitor would step in and charged only half the price. Would you rather pay 6,99 to Google or 9,99€ to Apple? I know Apple has a big platform, but just as Google does. There are a lot of people that are used to use Google News. I would like to have some kind of premium subscription.