Watch Michael Fassbender as Steve Jobs in New Trailer
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Aaron Sorkin has made quite the name for himself in recent years thanks to the success of The Social Network, Moneyball, and The Newsroom, and can be characterized by his punchy dialogue. Danny Boyle has been a bit more quiet recently, but is known for his stylistic aesthetic in films like Trainspotting, 28 Days Later, 127 Hours, and Slumdog Millionaire. The combination of both Sorkin and Boyle's styles comes together in the upcoming Steve Jobs, a biopic on the Apple magnate that focuses on three of his product launches, culminating with 1998's iMac release.
Michael Fassbender (Frank, X-Men: Days of Future Past) portrays Steve Jobs alongside a star-studded cast that includes Seth Rogen (The Interview) as Apple co-founder Steve Wozniak, Kate Winslet (Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind), and Jeff Daniels (The Martian, The Newsroom) as former Apple CEO John Sculley. While there are similarities to the Ashton Kutcher-led Jobs, the critical reception for that film has been terrible, with those portrayed in the film balking at their portrayals and the film's script.
However, with Boyle and Sorkin at the wheel, Steve Jobs looks to be a bigger, better beast than Jobs, and it has the talent and star power (sorry, Ashton) to be the de facto Steve Jobs biopic. Steve Jobs will be in theaters on October 9th.
Apple Music Will Pay Artists During Trial Periods Thanks to Taylor Swift
When Apple Music was unveiled earlier this month, many saw it as Spotify's starkest competition. After all, when a behemoth as large as Apple enters new territory, it will always be seen as one of the top dogs. However, the biggest complaint facing Apple Music's revelation was Apple's policy on not paying royalties to artists during trial periods. It's absurd to think a company as large as Apple would implement a terrible, anti-artist policy.
Yesterday, pop megastar Taylor Swift wrote an open letter to Apple detailing her reasoning behind not releasing her 1989 album on the service, stating:
I’m not sure you know that Apple Music will not be paying writers, producers, or artists for those three months. I find it to be shocking, disappointing, and completely unlike this historically progressive and generous company.
This is not about me [...] This is about the new artist or band that has just released their first single and will not be paid for its success. This is about the young songwriter who just got his or her first cut and thought that the royalties from that would get them out of debt. This is about the producer who works tirelessly to innovate and create, just like the innovators and creators at Apple are pioneering in their field…but will not get paid for a quarter of a year’s worth of plays on his or her songs [...]
But I say to Apple with all due respect, it’s not too late to change this policy and change the minds of those in the music industry who will be deeply and gravely affected by this. We don’t ask you for free iPhones. Please don’t ask us to provide you with our music for no compensation.
Thankfully, Apple listened. Eddy Cue, Apple's Senior Vice President of Internet Software and Services, responded to Swift's letter on Twitter by announcing the policy will be reversed, allowing all artists to be paid for their music:
#AppleMusic will pay artist for streaming, even during customer’s free trial period
— Eddy Cue (@cue) June 22, 2015
When an artist of Taylor Swift's magnitude comes out denouncing your service, you listen. Cynics might point at the potential loss of revenue from artists like Swift as their main reasoning for reversing their policy. However, no matter what Apple's intentions may be, the fact that all artists of varying sizes will be compensated for their music is a much larger win for everybody.
Thanks, Taylor Swift.
[via USA Today]
Apple Won't Pay Royalties During Apple Music Trial Periods
It's been a few days since Apple officially entered the streaming service game with their announcement of Apple Music. Personally, I felt the announcement (and the service) was underwhelming - why would you want to pay for a service for the same selections of songs you can currently get for free on Spotify? Hell, I don't even really stream music that often, only opting to do so when my RAM acts up and essentially makes iTunes worthless. Nevertheless, Apple is doing what they can to not only pull ahead of Spotify, but to also ensure the value of their service doesn't go undetected by the common listener.
But what about the artists? In leaked contract documents, it's revealed that Apple is only paying independent musicians 58% of their revenue streams, which is a considerably lower rate than Spotify's purported rate of 70% across the board. However, this percentage has been put into question. More damning than the revenue rate is a pseudo-dark period in which Apple will not pay artists any royalties during free periods.
Since Apple is offering a free three-month trial period when Apple Music officially launches on June 30th, any albums released between June 30 and September 30 will not generate any revenue for artists through Apple Music. This basically handicaps many artists and their release plans - do they delay their albums to maximize their profits across the board, or do they hope their popularity on Apple Music will translate into revenue from other avenues?
You can read the leaked contract documents below.
[via Digital Music News]
Apple Debuts New Streaming Service, Apple Music
It was just a year ago when we were all surprised and excited by Apple's purchase of Beats by Dre. As I speculated back then, the purchase wasn't exclusively for Beats by Dre's hardware, but the software within their streaming service, Beats Music. After a year of wondering, the curtain has finally been pulled back at this year's Worldwide Developer's Conference (WWDC) in San Francisco.
Simply known as Apple Music, Apple's streaming service is scheduled for a June 30th release on Apple devices in more than 100 countries with an Android release scheduled sometime in the fall. Price plans for the service come in $9.99/month and $14.99/month for six-person family plan. A three-month subscription is also offered for free for new subscribers. While Apple Music boasts more than 30 million songs on the service, much of this library can be found on Spotify on other services.
Apple is banking on exclusive releases (similar to Tidal's offerings) to justify the price tag. Other features Apple Music has over Spotify is full functionality with Siri, "Connect," a social network aspect of the service that allows artists to directly release songs and interact with fans, and Beats 1, a 24/7 radio station broadcast from London, New York, and Los Angeles that will be curated by various artists.
It'll be hard to justify a subscription price when Spotify has a free version. Or, you know, we can go back to the days of actually playing music from our iTunes libraries. Nevertheless, shots have been fired as Apple does everything in their power to monopolize every nook and cranny of the entertainment industry. Are you on board with Apple Music, or will your blood forever bleed Spotify green?
Apple Officially Announces Apple Watch
Apple confirmed rumors today by officially announcing the existence of the Apple Watch. Much like similar wearable tech gadgets like Samsung's Galaxy Gear, the Apple Watch must be synced to an iPhone to work. As just announced, it'll be compatible with the new iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus, but also with the last generation of iPhones (iPhone 5, iPhone 5S, iPhone 5C). The Apple Watch will start at $349 and will be available in early 2015.
As stated, the Apple Watch will work as a complementary device to users' iPhones. The Apple Watch has a built-in gyroscope to help with GPS and movement detection, a heart rate sensor for fitness fans, and a new "Taptic Engine" that will allow the watch face to read gestures, allow movement through screens and menus, and more (such as drawing quick doodles to send to friends).
The watch itself comes in two different sizes, three different finishes, and six different straps to further customize the device for users (some of which can be seen in the gallery below). Honestly, I see no point in wearable tech that are required to sync to phones; why not just pull your phone out of your pocket? Granted, using your watch to do things is pretty cool and secret agent-like, but really... is it worth the extra $350 on top of the $200+ you're spending on a new iPhone 6? We'll be hearing more about the Apple Watch from now until the device's release in early 2015.
[Images via Mashable]
iPhone 6, iPhone 6 Plus Ship on September 19
During Apple's keynote speech today, they officially announced the upcoming iPhone 6 and iPhone 6 Plus as the successors to last year's iPhone 5S and iPhone 5C. With a proper numerical upgrade, the iPhone 6 and 6 Plus are Apple's best iPhones to date. The biggest change to the iPhones are the sizes. Whereas the iPhone 5S had a 4" screen, the iPhone 6 features a 4.7" screen, with the iPhone 6 Plus going even bigger with a full 5.5" screen. The new iPhones are also thinner than ever, going from the 5s's 7.6mm to the iPhone 6's 6.9mm and iPhone 6 Plus's 7.1mm. The new iPhones also feature stronger cameras with 8 megapixels, 2.2 apertures, and new sensors that allow better focusing.
The iPhone 6 starts at $199 for 16GB, $299 for 64GB, and $399 for 128GB with a two-year contract; the iPhone 6 Plus starts at $299 for 32GB, $399 for 64GB, and $499 for 128GB with a two-year contract. We'll be back for more from Apple's speech today, including their official reveal of the Apple Watch.
[Images via Mashable]
Aperture Replacement APP OS X Photos Will Offer Many Features
Last week, Apple made an announcement that they would no longer be developing the popular photo management software Aperture and have instead decided to discontinue it. The reason being was that the company wanted to focus its time and energy developing the new Photos App. Since the Photos App is still in the works, there has not been a lot of information released to the public but it is known that the app will offer "professional grade features such as image search, editing, effects, and most notably, third party extensibility."
With some of these features, it will be interesting to see what the final product will look like and if it will become a full fledged replacement for Aperture or possibly something more. What will prove to be interesting is the third party extensibility feature and what it means for the users as far as editing capabilities go, but I guess will have to wait and see what unfolds for Apple's new Photos app.
[via Mac Rumors]
Apple Hires Nokia’s Head of Lumia Photography
Apple has been the talk of the town recently because of their rumored acquisition of Beats, and it looks like people will continue to talk with this recent news. As of June 1st, Ari Partinen, lead Nokia PureView engineer, will be leaving Nokia and starting a new position at Apple. The PureView technology has given smartphones like the Lumia 1020 and Nokia PureView 808 outstanding photo taking abilities and carry some of the best photo sensors on smartphones. This looks like a great move for Apple, and it might be a sign that the company will be stepping up its mobile photography game for the next iPhone release. There's no telling what will become of Nokia as far as their phone division is concerned, with Microsoft completing its acquisition, and now one its lead guy has jumped ship. I'm sure we can expect some new things coming from Apple that should excite mobile photographers.
[Via PetaPixel]