Apple TV +

[Achtung Englander]

Fuck that shit

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-47697647

With Disney about to launch their own streaming service and the BBC/ITV going to launch BritBox - can this whole "streaming" thing fuck off now. I'm bored by it already. I ain't subing to another service what with Prime, Netflix, Sky and Spotify. All these huge cooporations are like vultures now, circling money and stripping us from content to the services we have already subed to by giving us more "choice". Fuck off and die. That includes Google Shitdia.

I don't care if Apple TV + make some amazing exclusive shows, there is so much content I can watch now already I have enough material to last me years. A $900B corporation is doing this because out of necessity because its phone & tablet business racked it a fewer billion dollars less than the multiple billions it expected to make. It is so sickening words cannot describe how abhorrent the world is turning into.

The film Rollerball got it right. Nation states will be replaced by the Corporate Wars. This greed for greed sake will destroy us all.

[Rossell]

I knew it was going to happen eventually. When I saw Steam start to get competitors I thought 'Ah, wait until people master streaming, there'll be services everywhere' and lo and behold.

As long as stuff still gets put onto dvd/br, just do the old skool thing and buy them.

[elgaucho]

You know how much EU regulators love corporate capitalism.

It's a long shot, but i don't see it being entirely impossible for the EU to state that distributors must have an open API to enable all shows to be available on all platforms. Firms can then monetise the use of their api's / shows / data streaming, but at least it goes back to putting the consumer first, picking their service provider, and a reasonable expectation that they don't need 75000 services to be able to survive.

Of course providers can still have exclusivity clauses etc.

What will actually happen if not is that they will slowly absorb each other until only two megacorps are in control and they have a basic monopoly on services, and can charge whatever the hell they want.

In 30 years consumers will spend 30-40% of their monthly income on subscription services, one way or another. At least if things continue the way they are.

[Drarok]

30-40%?!

No.

[Raid]

I don't even spend 40% of my income on my (half of the) mortgage. What the hell kind of change needs to happen for me to spend that amount on subscriptions? You realise that monthly subscriptions to houses tend to be referred to as rent, right?

[elgaucho]

Yeah you're right - I'm getting carried away... although i'll bet they try!

So what would do you think an average monthly subscription would look like for a household?

I know people who ten years ago were spending over £100 p/month on sky, and i thought that was insane.

You don't think a family might spend 100 on tv channels, 15 on audio streaming, 15 on EA, 15 on Google Stadia, 15 on PS Store. Add in internet access, mobile phones usage etc?

You're probably over £200 p/month already no? Average UK monthly income is £2,300 so you're at nearly 10%.

Add in your gym subscription, travel subscription, cinema subscription and whatever else they invent between now and then and that number will creep up.

So you may laugh at my ridiculous figure, but the number is still higher than many might be comfortable with.

[Stormbringer]

I spend a total of £16, I think -- Amazon and Netflix. I'm quite content with that. I don't even use them that much, but it's nice to have the option.

[Raid]

I suppose I'm thinking with a current-day mindset; 40% is such a massive proportion that for it to work there'd have to be subscriptions for things we'd currently think ridiculous. In 30 years presumably we'll have fully autonomous cars, and as they'd otherwise be sitting around doing nothing for substantial portions of the day, subscribing to a car service and simply summoning one when needed (as an alternative to owning one yourself) is likely going to be a working business model. Food subscription services already exist, so subscribing to your weekly shop might be an option.

[DjchunKfunK]

Rent is kind of a subscription so I already pay over 50% of my wage.

[elgaucho]

The point i was trying to make is that all business are looking at subscriptions as an example of stable, sustainable income. They've seen the big dogs at it, and everyone wants a slice of the pie.

So as Raid mildly acknowledged, we can expect many new services to pop, perhaps in unconventional areas - haircuts? food? cars (that is a good one!). Look at your broker - some of the ones today already have "subscriptions", or repeat income for non use. You may get trading credits, but having the account is costing you if you're passive.

[Achtung Englander]

I spend £2,400 per year on subscriptions but that includes SKY TV & Broadband and the AA membership as well :

Readly
Cinema Paradiso
Sky / Phone / Broadband
Netflix
Spotify
Private Eye
Zinio - History Magazine
The AA
Avira antivirus
2000 AD
EA Origin Access
Amazon Prime
Office 365
Dark Skies
TV Licence
Lookout (Android)

[Alan]

Thought we had an Apple based thread but oh well this will do.

Their event last night was another incremental watch upgrade. A very nice upgrade to the Air line that brings them in line with the Pro design, mag pencil, usb-c and all - I may bite, was thinking Pro11 but this is way cheaper. Then they announced Apple One which actually seems real good value.

£15 a month for Music, TV, Arcade and 50gb cloud
£20 for the same but 200gb cloud and Family sharing (5 other people)
£30 for the same plus 2tb cloud, News+ and Fitness+(constantly updating exercise vids which link in with apple music and whatever) and share with 5 "family" members.

So get 5 folk and its 6quid a month for the whole thing.



Dunno if there was anything after that, I fell asleep.

[Drarok]

Pretty tempted by the watch tbh. I've got a Series 3 at the minute and it's fine, but rather slow at performing Siri commands which is really irritating. Not sure I'm prepared to lay down so much cash though.

The subscription thing I'm definitely interested in. We already have the family Apple Music one which is about £15, and I pay for 200GB iCloud storage, so for an extra fiver a month I can get TV+ and Arcade, and drop the separate iCloud storage payment (a whopping £2.49). Seems pretty reasonable, especially from Apple!

[Alan]

Any idea how family cloud works? Is it just first come first served or is it split up equally between connected accounts? Or is it 200gb per member? Apple never make things clear.



Watch wise I have the 4 and the only thing that I would like to have is the always on display but even then I'm not that bothered because it always seems to turn the face on when I want it to as is. The one thing I want is 3rd party apps to support data. Spotify, tunein, overcast etc... I love just ditching my phone and only using my watch but all this syncing stuff before hand is very not James Bond. I dont even think the Apple Podcast app uses data.

[Drarok]

Family Sharing is first-come – the whole amount is shared between everyone.
---

Pretty sure Spotify were being dicks about supporting it, in order to try to force Apple to let them do payment bullshit, like what Epic are trying to do. There's no reason they couldn't support a watch-only mode, they just don't want to.

I thought Overcast had added / was adding a totally separate watch app version? Could be that he was waiting for iOS 14 / watchOS n for support, I suppose?