Apple News App

Apple Launched Apple News+ during its March event, and to say that it has been underwhelming is beyond an understatement. Despite Apple’s promise of 100s of magazines for a low monthly price, rumors suggest that publishers aren’t happy and I’ve read reports that sign up growth has flatlined. I tried the service for a month, and I came away from it less than impressed. As Apple has continued to deploy its new services across 2019 (Apple Arcade and Apple TV+), I’ve been thinking a lot about News+, the path Apple should take going forward, and what impact it could make in journalism. What should Apple’s strategy be with Apple News+?
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Apple News+ launched back in March and faced some early struggles in terms of user experience as well as publisher relations. Now, some publishers are saying that the revenue they’re making through Apple News+ is rather underwhelming.

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As expected, digital magazine service Texture has shut down following the launch of Apple News+. Apple acquired Texture last year as it worked to create Apple News+, and now it is pushing Texture users towards its own subscription news service.

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A few weeks ago, we published an article where Tim Cook said that Apple had acquired 20–25 companies in the past six months. Cook mentioned that Apple generally is looking at smaller companies and eyeing “talent and intellectual property“. I have an idea on a company who would fit in very nicely at Apple given its current strategy. Apple should buy The Athletic.
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Apple today released a press statement featuring Apple News+ (Apple News Plus) following its initial debut in March with iOS 12.2. Whilst the company did not disclose any figures about number of users who have signed up to $9.99/month News+ subscription, Apple included endorsements from participating publishers and highlighted a UI change it made in iOS 12.3 to make following articles easier.

In the statement, Apple SVP Eddy Cue says Apple has hundreds of employees from editorial to engineering and design working on Apple News+, perhaps an indirect response to some of the early community feedback that criticized the News+ experience as confusing.

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With macOS Mojave last year, Apple brought its Apple News app to the Mac for the first time. Because of this change, Apple News URLs open directly in the Apple News app itself, bypassing Safari completely. A new third-party tool, however, gives you the option to have Apple News links open in Safari by default.

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Apple News+ officially launched one month ago today, which means those who subscribed to the free trial are about to get hit with their first monthly bill. If you’ve spent some time with the service and decided it’s not for you, here’s how to cancel Apple News+.

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Apple News+ hasn’t even been available for a month yet, and some publishers are already growing frustrated with it. A new report from Digiday details how some publishers are experiencing headaches with formatting, communicating with Apple, and more.

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Apple is facing a Dutch antitrust investigation into whether it favors its own apps over those of rival developers. It looks likely to have an initial focus on Apple Music and Apple News, but will probably extend to other app categories, and may also include Google’s Play store.

Spotify has already filed a complaint with the European Commission, alleging that Apple Music has an unfair advantage over Spotify, and today’s report references that and says that ‘apps for news media’ is another focus …

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Following the launch of Apple News+, Apple confirmed last month that it would shut down Texture at the end of May. Apple originally acquired Texture in March of 2018, using it as the basis for what would become Apple News+.

Now, a new report from the New York Post offers more information on the details of Apple’s Texture acquisition.

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The reception to Apple News+ has been mixed since its announcement last week. Today, a new report from The New York Times sheds more light on the consumer and publisher reaction to Apple’s new subscription news and magazine service.

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The prevailing view of Apple News+ among newspaper publishers has been that the deal doesn’t make sense for the big boys. It would cannibalise their own digital subscriptions, and also means that Apple owns the relationship with their readers.

The New York Times, for example, not only refused to sign up itself, but also went on record explaining why it believes other newspapers should follow its lead …

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Apple News+ was officially announced last week, integrating over 300 magazines and publishers into a single subscription service. Apple, however, was unable to ink deals with two other major newspapers. A new report from Vanity Fair explores Apple’s failed negotiations with The New York Times and The Washington Post.

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On Monday, I attended Apple’s very different kind of special event at Steve Jobs Theater at Apple Park. There was no new hardware to unveil — new iPads, iMacs, and AirPods came the week before — so four new services took the show: Apple News+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade, and Apple TV+…

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A developer who worked at Apple for seven years has accused the Cupertino company of violating its own App Store guidelines. Dave DeLong says that the Apple News+ sign-up screen is in clear violation of three requirements, with The Verge pointing to another major no-no …

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Update: It appears Apple has fixed the crashing problem with a server-side change.

The launch of Apple News+ is not going as smoothly as Apple had probably hoped. Many iPhone and iPad users are finding that the Apple News app is crashing repeatedly after updating to iOS 12.2.

According to sources, Apple is aware of the issue and is rapidly working on a fix. It’s not clear if the company will need to rush out a new iOS 12.2.1 software update or if the problem can be addressed server-side.

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I have to say yesterday’s Apple event was something of a snoozefest for me.

Now, I fully acknowledge that this is partly down to my particular tastes. I’m not a TV guy, for starters: I haven’t owned a television in 20 years, and while I do have a Netflix account, it’s borderline whether or not I actually use it enough to justify even the small cost. So it didn’t really matter what Apple announced there; it wasn’t going to interest me.

Same thing with gaming. I have X-Plane on my iPad, and use that briefly a few times a week, and three or four other games I play maybe a few times a year. I basically don’t have the gaming gene.

But while I could say to Apple ‘It’s not you, it’s me,’ the truth is, it is partly Apple too …

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Apple has released the public version of iOS 12.2, which includes the launch of the company’s brand new Apple News+ subscription service for magazines. The update, which is available for all eligible iPhone, iPads, and the iPod touch, includes a bevy of new changes, features and enhancements.

Needless to say, iOS 12.2 is a massive update, and likely the last big update before iOS 13 launches in beta later this year. Watch our hands-on video walkthrough and we step through all of the new changes and features in iOS 12.2.
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Apple News+ was officially announced earlier today, allowing users to pay $9.99 per month for access to 300 magazines and select newspapers. One of those newspapers is The Wall Street Journal, but there are a few details worth noting about its inclusion.

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