Apple event - As it happened: Steven Spielberg among celebrities launching TV streaming, new credit card and magazine subscription services
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Your support makes all the difference.Apple has launched a whole host of new services, intended to make more money from the people who have already bought its products.
In what was hailed as one of the most significant Apple events in years, the company did not reveal new products or software but instead a range of premium services. Together, they represent new ways to pay for news subscriptions, TV and games – as well as a new way to pay for anything, with a brand new titanium credit card.
The highlight of the new announcements was Apple TV+, a new streaming service built to compete with offerings like Netflix and Amazon Prime Video. During the event, it invited many of the world's biggest stars and directors on stage to talk about the new shows, on which Apple is thought to have spent billions of dollars.
But it said it would bring a similar, paid-for and ad-free subscription service, for news and for games. All will allow people to pay a monthly fee for unlimited access to that content.
Apple tried to link the various announcements together through references to its corporate principles: stressing a focus on privacy, quality, and the ways that the various products are built to work with the company's hardware and software.
But the different announcements were also linked together in the fact that few details were announced about any of them. Apple only revealed the cost and release date of one of the new products, and gave little information about how many of them will work.
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Jamie Erlicht and Zack Van Amburg take to the stage. These two are leading Apple's efforts into creating original content for Apple TV+.
The pair introduce a video explaining why Apple is doing this. And it's introduced by Steven Spielberg. J.J. Abrams and M. Night Shymalan also join the short feature, in a who's who of blockbuster directors.
It's his first time at Apple, he says, and he is given a very warm welcome from the audience.
Reese Witherspoon and Jennifer Aniston are now on the stage to talk about their new show: The Morning Show.
And we have an interloper! It's Steve Carell, who tells us he'll be playing a "bold and dynamic" character, who is also "extremely handsome".
That's an impressive roster of actors for Apple to snag. And that's just one of the new shows.
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