Geared Up: Apple TV+, Apple Card, Apple Arcade and the Rest of Apple’s New Services

Apple unveiled a host of new services at their March 25th event this week (be sure to check out my full wrap-up video of the Apple event!), and we take a look at each one in this episode of Geared Up!

• Apple TV+ is the company's new original TV and movie subscription service.
• Apple Card is a credit card from Apple that aims to change the way consumers use and view credit cards and their financial data.
• Apple News+ is a new subscription news service that gives you unlimited access to over 300 magazines and newspapers for a flat monthly fee.
• Apple Arcade is a subscription gaming service with 100 exclusive games for iPhone, iPad, Apple TV, and Mac.

Listen to the episode in the player below or subscribe to Geared Up in your favorite podcast app to listen on the go:

• Apple Podcasts
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• Google Podcasts

Listen to this episode of the Geared Up podcast for analysis of the latest from Apple and its new services.

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Apple News+: Unlimited access to magazines and newspapers

During today's It's Show Time Apple Event, the company unveiled Apple News+, an all-you-can-eat subscription news service that gives you unlimited access to newspapers and magazines. Apple News+ is found within the Apple News app itself, which ships on all iOS and macOS devices. Some of the notable inclusions in Apple News+ are the LA Times, Wall Street Journal, Wired magazine, Bazaar, InStyle, Sports Illustrated, and more. In all, there are over 300 magazines that will be available with a single subscription. 

As Apple noted on stage, none of the publications get your personal information. Privacy is paramount, and even Apple doesn't know which magazines or articles you choose to read.

Apple News+ will cost $9.99 per month, and in a great move, it is available for families for no extra charge which means that same $10 allows you and up to 5 other family members to access the service. You can access Apple News+ starting today, and the first month is free.

What do you think? Will you be giving Apple News+ a shot?

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Apple App Store passes one billion downloads

If you had any doubt of the success of Apple‘s App Store, the fact that one billion apps have been downloaded in nine months should be enough to change your opinion. At 1:52 pm today, the App Store officially sold its 1,000,000,000th app for the iPhone and iPod touch platforms. As exciting as that is, we have the iPhone 3.0 SDK currently in beta, which will allow apps with new capabilities that aren’t yet available. Exciting times.

Read More | Apple

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Steve Jobs takes six month leave of absence from Apple to address health issues

The saga of health of Steve Jobs and the rumors surrounding his condition are back, as the Apple CEO had just announced that he will be taking a six-month leave of absence from his post at the helm of Apple. COO Tim Cook will handle day-to-day operations at the company while Jobs is gone. All this, after Steve handed the MacWorld keynote slot to Phil Schiller, and even went on to post that his health was under control. In a note to Apple, Steve Jobs made it known that he had just learned that his health issues are a little more “complex” than first diagnosed.

You can find that letter below - we just hope that Steve gets back to good health quickly, and actually does return to his usual role as Apple CEO. However, something tells us that he may not be back. Of course, we hope we are wrong.

Team,

I am sure all of you saw my letter last week sharing something very personal with the Apple community. Unfortunately, the curiosity over my personal health continues to be a distraction not only for me and my family, but everyone else at Apple as well. In addition, during the past week I have learned that my
health-related issues are more complex than I originally thought.

In order to take myself out of the limelight and focus on my health, and to allow everyone at Apple to focus on delivering extraordinary products, I have decided to take a medical leave of absence until the end of June.

I have asked Tim Cook to be responsible for Apple’s day to day operations, and I know he and the rest of the executive management team will do a great job. As CEO, I plan to remain involved in major strategic decisions while I am out. Our board of directors fully supports this plan.

I look forward to seeing all of you this summer.

Steve

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